EPILOGUE

M ATTEO

“I almost got winged by friendly fire,” Zach said as he slid around the corner and crouched down beside me.

“Friendly? There’s no such thing as friendly around here, dumbass. This is war!” Luca growled before he peeked around the edge of the wall and shot off two quick rounds. “What the fuck is wrong with these people? They’ve got children fighting with them!”

“They do?” I asked before I lifted my weapon and shot a round, hitting a man directly in the chest just as his own round thudded against the wood next to my ear. I must have been in Texas too long because my voice had a suspicious Texas twang to it when I yelled, “Ha! Take that, fucker!”

“I’ll get you next time, asshole,” Dylan said as he walked off the field with his arms held high.

“What sort of people have this kind of set-up in their backyard?” Zach gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

“You’re missing the big picture, Zach. We need to hire all of them. Our men have got nothing on these crazy guys.”

“The women too! I always wondered what made Bella so fucking insane, and now I know it was her environment. These people aren’t even her family!” Zach pointed out.

“Oh, they’re her family just as much as the calmer ones you met when you came to the house,” I assured them.

“Who does shit like this as part of wedding festivities? Did you hear them talking about what they’ve got planned for tomorrow?”

“No, what?” Luca asked as he checked his ammo and winced. “I’ve only got about ten left. How are you guys?”

“I’m almost out,” I said nervously.

“They’re taking us to someone else’s house to ride dirt bikes,” Zach said angrily. “I know they’re not too happy about you stealing their little princess away, man, but I didn’t realize that meant they’d be trying to fucking kill us while we were here.”

“Don’t shoot me,” a little girl’s sweet voice said right before she leaned around the corner. She was covered from head to toe in protective gear and sporting a bright pink tutu. I didn’t take long to think about it because I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was terrified. “Can I sit with you?”

“Of course, honey,” I said as I hurriedly scooted over to give her some space. She didn’t take it, though. Instead, she walked past us out into the open. “Hey! Get down before someone accidently shoots you.”

Without a word, the little girl spun around and aimed her miniature paintball gun at me and let off a shot. She hit me square in the chest, and before I could even react to the pain or the splatter of paint that went up beneath my helmet, she shot Luca and then Zach the same way.

All three of us were stunned, not just by the fact that we’d been shot by a sweet little princess wearing a tutu but because her maniacal laughter was downright terrifying.

“Suckers!” she yelled before she lifted her rifle and shot someone coming up on our left. She sprinted off and then fell into a slide worthy of any major league baseball professional, all the while shooting as she avoided the paintballs hitting the dirt around her.

“What the fuck just happened?” Luca asked.

“We just got creamed by a goddamn fairy princess,” Zach shouted.

I could hear laughter all around us and sighed when I realized that even though the three of us came from a life where getting shot at was a hazard of the position, we had been bested by a tiny girl who was more feral than a honey badger with a thorn in its paw.

“I can’t believe I signed up for this shit,” I muttered as I pushed up off the ground to stand up, making sure to hold my gun aimed at the sky to let the other players know I was out of the game. I watched Luca and then Zach stand up in the same position before I asked, “What the fuck have I done?”

“I can’t take you seriously when you’re covered in hot pink paint,” Luca grumbled as he walked past me. “Obviously, my daughter’s education is sorely lacking. I think we need to invest in a paintball operation at home so we can get them started in training.”

“Yeah. Then the next time we go . . . Fuck! ” Zach yelled as his body jerked from another hit.

Zach’s mom’s maniacal laughter came from somewhere to our left, and I couldn’t help but join her.

“Holy shit, Matteo. What have you gotten us into?” Luca asked.

“I didn’t know that they’d all become such good friends when I invited everyone for the wedding!” I shouted as I walked toward the clubhouse where we could go to rest and restock our ammunition. “That’s it! I’m never coming back to Texas.”

“Don’t say that, sweetheart,” a familiar voice said as I walked through the door with my brother and Zach following closely behind. “We love having you here, but sometimes, things get a little out of hand. You know how they are.”

“They’re all crazy!” I said as I pulled off my helmet.

“Lyric is a sweet girl, she’s just . . . a Forrester,” the beautiful blue-eyed woman said before she reached out and brushed my hair out of my eyes. She rested her hand on my cheek for a second as she smiled up at me and said, “Now, go get you some more paintballs and a bottle of water then come back, and I’ll help you form a plan of attack.”

“You’d do that for us?” Luca asked.

Martha winked at my brother before she smiled and said, “Honey, some people just need killin’, even if it’s only with paintballs.”

THE END

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