13. Jeremiah

JEREMIAH

Once again, we found ourselves sitting in the large playroom that had been set up for the babies. The room was massive, though right now, it wasn"t overly full of children"s things. I could imagine that, in time, it would be filled to the brim with toys, especially as the family grew and we all fought for the position of greatest uncle.

The only one in the family who wasn"t in attendance was Orsino. According to Andro, he was taking care of something to do with one of our casinos. I didn"t ask for details because I had enough family business drama to tide me over until after graduation.

Andro and Louie sat on the couch while their mates sat on the floor with their babies. The two little ones played side by side, grabbing each other's toys and squawking with their adorable noises. Theo was walking now, though he still seemed to prefer to crawl. Matias was doing some sort of bum shuffle where he dragged himself along with his arms and his butt scooched around on the floor.

It was hilarious. In the time that I had been home, I'd already taken over twenty videos. I couldn't get enough of them.

"You used to do that," Andro said, pointing at little Matias.

"I did?"

He chuckled as he thought back on the memory. "We might have a video on one of those old camcorder things they had to use back in the day before cell phones. Dad would get so mad at us. We would put candy on the floor, and you would shuffle toward it, and we would just keep moving it farther away." Andro smiled fondly with an expression I rarely saw these days.

I rolled my eyes. "Such kind brothers you were."

"We were playing with you. And eventually, you did get to have the candy. All the candy." He blew out his cheeks to hint at my roly-poly stage. Whatever, I was a cute baby.

Louie perked up. "Remember when Jeremiah was sick for some sort of summer party we were having? We had all been looking forward to it for weeks because they had events for kids. Then Jeremiah got the flu, and we couldn"t go."

"I do remember that." The core memory was slowly unlocking in my mind. "You guys sat outside my door since Dad didn"t want you in there with me so you wouldn"t get sick, but none of you attended the party."

Louie smiled. "Oh, we attended the party long enough to steal the pi?ata, and when your stomach was feeling better, we tore it open and ate everything inside."

My eyes widened. "Yeah, yeah. I remember that! Dad was so mad. We hid that thing in my room for weeks before the housekeeper found it."

"I don"t think he was mad… I think he was kind of proud of us." Andro laughed and looked fondly at his little boy. "We snuck into a party being attended by some of the greatest names in crime and thievery and managed to steal a pi?ata—a very expensive, very large pinata—and get it back up into your room without anyone seeing or suspecting us. They didn"t find it until weeks later."

"You guys were kinda badass." I didn't say it often, but I did have really great brothers. I wouldn't want anyone else in my corner when push came to shove. Except now, I needed Felik in my corner as well. Based on the fact that he was there with us, in my brothers' sacred space, a future with all of us united as one family, was looking good.

Louie glanced down at his own son playing, and a look of horror came over his face. "Do you think these ones will get into as much trouble as we did?"

I laughed loudly. "Definitely."

Connor and Joey just smiled, but it quickly turned into horror as they realized what they were in for. The pranks, the shenanigans, the absolute insanity that came along with being a child in the Ferrini home.

"Oh, I"m sure they will. They"ll keep us on our toes. This is why I think we should shield them from the family business until they"re at least thirty-five." Andro chuckled and put a hand on Joey's shoulder in a loving gesture.

Joey leaned into the touch so that Andro's hand was caressing his cheek. Then Joey's eyes fluttered closed.

My heart melted. To see my brother so utterly in love and being loved in return gave me hope. I too could have that. With Felik.

"You may have a point, Brother." Louie blew out a slow breath. "I already feel too old for this shit."

I sank back into Felik's embrace, and he put a hand over my stomach. There wasn"t a child there that we knew of yet, but it was possible, and we both knew that we wanted one in the future. With a contented sigh, I imagined the look on my face was probably similar to Joey's.

Love. Joy. Hope.

"The two of you really ought to get married," Andro said.

Joey swatted his leg. "No shop talk in the baby room."

"Is that a real rule?" I asked.

"Yes," both omega dads said quickly.

"If we let them, those two would talk shop all the time. And when you have Trev around," Joey indicated to the guard at the door, "or any of the others, it gets downright depressing. Throw your father into the mix and the great-uncles—we can"t get away from it. So this room is a safe room."

"Safe room?" Andro said, looking at the walls. "That"s not a bad idea." He snapped his fingers. "Trev, make a note that we should look into making this a safe room. Something where we could hit a button and everything is secure. Like with bulletproof shields on the windows, bars on the doors, locks, that sort of thing."

"Sure thing." Trev pulled out his phone and started writing things down. "I"ll get in contact with Sylvan. He"s good with that stuff."

"Perfect."

"What did I just say?" Joey said. "No shop talk."

"That"s family safety talk, sweetheart."

Joey rolled his eyes. Little Theo toddled over to Trev. When the guard tried to sidestep away, the little one grabbed his pant legs and tugged.

"Uppy," he said.

Joey winced. "Yeah, "Dada" and "uppy" are his go-to words."

Trev looked around the room like he was lost.

"Well, pick him up, Trev." Joey chuckled. "You heard Andro, no shop talk. That means you"re off-duty."

"I"m never off-duty." Trev leaned over and picked up the baby. Oddly enough, the tough alpha looked pretty cute holding a child in his arms.

Later that night, my brothers didn't protest when Felik returned to my suite with me. Nor did they post a guard. At least, not one that I could see. It was possible they had eyes on all exits so they would know if Felik tried to leave the house, but they apparently trusted that he wouldn't harm me.

Felik held me in his arms, my back to his chest as we lay together naked in my bed.

"Tell me about growing up with your family." I dragged my fingertips up his arm, over his round muscles.

Families were a subject neither of us had spoken much about since we began dating, but we could talk freely now.

Felik let out a long sigh. "Probably not unlike how you grew up, except my brothers–mostly Vince–didn't like me. Cord was all right, now that I think of it. But I was always the outsider. I lived in a separate wing of the house, I was sent to separate schools. The only thing we learned together was how to fight."

"Like what?"

"Boxing, mixed martial arts, stuff like that. We spent so many hours at the range learning to shoot. Vince liked that the most."

"What about you? What did you like the most?" I couldn't imagine Felik enjoying the violence like his brother.

"Surprisingly enough, I enjoyed learning hand-to-hand combat. Knife fighting. There was a business associate of my father who taught us how to use blades. Vince didn't like it because he said he'd never let an enemy get that close. I loved it because I knew just how close my true enemies were."

I turned in his arms to face him. "Not now they aren't."

He grinned. "No, now they're not."

"Even though there are many more activities I prefer over fighting, I did enjoy–and excel at–Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Maybe I could show you some moves." I ground my hips into his. "It's where I learned to be so flexible."

Felik groaned. "Omega, the ways in which you tempt me…"