Epilogue

Epilogue

KAI

Five Years Later

Today was Charlie's sixth birthday, and we were headed to Jax and Arlo's house to celebrate. Well, as soon as we finished up with today's bad guys, that is.

Thankfully, they were based in south LA, so close to Jax and Charlie that I could almost taste Arlo's homemade guac.

"So, what did you get Charlie for his birthday?" Zach asked, leveling his gun at the nearest bad guy—some wannabe drug lord called Laz—and gesturing for the idiot to drop his AK47.

I chuckled, shaking my head. Another drug-dealing asshole—Pax—was on his knees in front of me with a broken nose, whimpering.

"You hurt me," Pax cried. "I need a hospital! "

"Did you take the thirty-seven kids you hurt to hospital?" I accidentally-on-purpose shoved the bad guy with my foot until he sprawled on the floor. Then I turned my attention back to my beloved.

"I decided to be a co-giver on what you bought him," I lied, not mentioning the big deposit into the college fund I'd set up for him. After all, going after bad guys paid Zach and me very well, and what else was I going to spend it on?

"I got him superhero action figures," Zach said, gesturing again for Laz to drop his weapon.

"Ah, something to inspire his inner hero," I said and waited to see if I was needed in the Zach/Laz standoff.

Zach raised an eyebrow at Laz, who took one glance at his five comrades-in-arms, all incapacitated in various ways, and then decided it might be wise to lay his weapon on the ground. Zach cursed when Laz gave up so quickly. Hell, at least I'd gotten to parkour over crates to take my last one down.

"We could have gotten him a phone," I said. "So he can stay in touch with his favorite uncles."

I kneeled on Pax, zip-tying his hands, maybe a little tighter than they needed to be, but then I'd spent the last four weeks staring at intel, and this was nothing compared to what he'd done to his victims.

"A phone at six? Are you serious?" Zach sounded shocked .

I grinned as I watched him zip-tie Laz. "Hey, it's never too early to teach him about responsibility."

He rolled his eyes but couldn't suppress the smile tugging at his lips. "Are you done?"

I did a sweep of the locale, six down, all zip-tied, two unconscious, one crying, the rest resigned. This had been a favor to Yuri, who'd joined Shadow Team not long after Kozlov's case, just one of many top spec operatives Ethan had pulled in to join us at Swim Central. Yuri had infiltrated and taken down a small gang with Eastern European connections a year ago. Still, when Laz and Pax, cousins to the original bad guys, had started up all over again, and with Yuri off-site, we'd gotten called in to clear up. Yuri was in Scotland doing god knows what for Shadow Team. Well, apart from sending our encrypted chat group daily photos of highland cows, he was doing a lot of that.

"Clear," I informed Ethan, who then called the information in to the local police department along with an encrypted email linking to a ton of evidence. We waited long enough to see the LAPD arrive before melting into the shadows and heading to where today's action was really at.

As we pulled up to Jax and Arlo's house, the sounds of laughter and music spilled out into the night air. Charlie's birthday party was in full swing: twenty school friends, a bouncy house, food, presents, various extended family members, and us .

"This is the most dangerous mission we've ever been on," I deadpanned as I reached for the gifts in the back seat.

"I've got your six," Zach murmured, and we took the time to enjoy one final kiss before descending into madness. "Ready?"

"Yeah." We headed around the side, through the security gate that we'd insisted Jax and Arlo install, walking under the cameras that fed back to Swim Central—just in case—and then I saw them: Jax and Arlo by the table and Charlie, who ran our way as soon as he saw us. Zach caught him and swung him up.

"Daddy Two!" he exclaimed. "Didja get me superheroes?"

He hugged me as well—Uncle Kai was fun—and when he ripped the paper from a huge box filled with action figures, he squealed in delight. Jax and Arlo strolled over, hugs all around, and Charlie filled his arms with figures.

"Daddy! Papa! Look what Daddy Two and Uncle Kai gave me!"

We were a weird, blended family. It worked, and at the core of it, Jax loved Arlo, we all loved Charlie, I loved Zach, he loved me, and we all loved each other.

But as well as that, I had Zach in my world.

No.

Zach made sense of my world .

"Love you forever, Frogman," I murmured when we headed to the kitchen for drinks.

He stopped me, collected a sweet kiss, and cradled my face.

"Love you forever, Assassin."

THE END