ELLIOT
By the time we had taken a few days of downtime, Simon and Finn had located and acquired the asshole that had been hired to kill Scarlet.
It was pretty early in the morning when Tristan got the call and came to get me. Scarlet was still snoring next to Sebastian in his room, so we decided to let them both sleep.
“I honestly just kind of want to let Seb take over on this one,” Tristan said as we sat outside on the balcony, drinking our coffee and watching the sun rise.
“Without any guidelines?” I asked, my eyebrow raised.
“I think Scarlet will rein him in enough that it wouldn’t be a problem. She wants this fucker to pay, but she also just wants this to all be over with. That girl is itching to get out of the country for a bit.”
“That’s what happens when you grow up in a family like hers. My dad never took us anywhere either. He was always too busy with the business to give a fuck about taking a break and letting his family have some fun.” I pushed the nasty memories threatening to surface back down and finished my coffee.
It was still chilly in the mornings. Summer hadn’t quite made its arrival yet, but there was nothing better than watching the sun rise over the city. We would need to start rebuilding soon, making sure we had new safe houses ready and in place. I also wanted to buy a new country house that Scarlet loved.
I wanted us and our possible future kids to have a real home to grow up in, where they had plenty of space outside to run and play and plenty of space inside to have their alone time when they needed it.
I wouldn’t be my father. I wouldn’t force our kids to be a part of anything they didn’t want to be a part of. They could grow up to be teachers or doctors or just fuck off and use our money to travel if they wanted. I didn’t care. I just wanted happy and healthy kids that weren’t afraid of their parents.
“Sometimes I wonder what this looks like in ten, twenty years’ time,” I thought out loud.
“You mean us and her and all the babies that Seb is determined to have running around?” he asked, laughing softly into his coffee cup.
“I’d like to get us a new country home before she starts popping them out,” I said, reiterating my thoughts to him. “I’d just like us to have a safe space for them. Where they have plenty of space, and it feels like home.”
“Scarlet would love that. You should tell her that, and then you two can go look at places together.” He leaned his head back and sighed. “I just hope we can protect them without smothering them.”
“Oh, with Sebastian, I’m sure they’re going to be smothered,” I said, laughing. “The moment that woman is pregnant, he is going to wait on her hand and foot. And once it’s out?” I whistled. “He is going to dote on that kid like he was born to do it.”
“Maybe he was,” Tristan said, laughing with me.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this about Seb,” I continued, shocked that the next words out of my mouth were “But I think he’s going to be the best father out of all three of us.”
“You’ll all be amazing fathers,” Scarlet said, sneaking up on us as she made her way over to us, choosing to sit in my lap this time. She was still wrapped up in a blanket, and her warmth seeped into me.
“Good morning, princess,” Tristan said, smiling over at her as I kissed her cheek.
“What are you both doing up so early? Business talks?” she asked.
“I actually got a call from Simon about an hour ago. He’s got the guy your dad hired at the warehouse downtown. He’s holding him for us until we decide where we want him.” Tristan sipped on his coffee while trying to not make it too obvious that he was trying to feel out her reaction to the news.
“Honestly,” she said with a sigh, “I just want it over with. Do I want him to have a painful death? Yes. But do I want this shit to be drawn out? No. I want to go down there, torture him a bit until he’s begging for forgiveness, and then end it.”
“We thought we would leave it up to you and Seb. We’ll go with you both, obviously, but this is your circus. And this is Seb’s wheelhouse,” I told her as she leaned further into me, resting her tired head on my shoulder.
“Fine by me,” she said after a yawn. “I left him sleeping in there, and we had a late night, so maybe we let him sleep a little bit before waking him up. A sleepy Seb is a grumpy Seb.”
I laughed and kissed the top of her head, holding her tightly to my body as we all three fell into a comfortable silence, watching the sun make its way up through the buildings.
It was a strange feeling, knowing that this person cuddled up in my arms was someone that had come into my life such a short time ago, and yet I felt like I could tell her so much more than I had already. I could trust her with all of my nasty secrets, and I could trust her to still love me after I had.
And she could trust me. She could tell me all of the things she was feeling, all of the things she wanted to do, and all of the things she may be afraid of. Everything would be safe with me. I would keep her safe, and I would keep our future children safe.
“I was just telling Tristan,” I said, bringing us all out of our thoughts, “that I would like to go shopping for a new country home. Something big with a lot of land. That way, when you decide you’re ready to give Seb all the kids he wants, we have a safe place to raise them. A home.”
She looked up at me with those bright blue eyes of hers, rimmed with the longest black eyelashes, and smiled. I could see tears threatening to fall as she let those words sink in.
“I would love that,” she said, her voice a bit raw with emotion. “But I’m not just going to become a baby factory.” She laughed and laid her head back on my shoulder. “I would love to have a kid with each of you, maybe?” she asked like she was unsure that’s something we would want. “But I don’t think I just want to start being barefoot and pregnant for the rest of my life,” she said, laughing again and wiping a few stray tears from her cheeks.
“Can’t have that,” Tristan said, smiling over at her. “We still need you to help us with the business and keep the boys in line when we aren’t around. You’re just as much a part of this business as you are this family.”
“Well,” I said, rubbing her legs under the blanket. “You might want to start getting packed up. Because after we off this fucker, we’re taking the world’s longest vacation, and I want to see you in every single bikini you own.”
“I don’t think I really own any…” she said, her voice trailing off as she thought about it. “I really don’t think I do. We live in England, and I’ve never had the opportunity to travel anywhere.”
“We’ll rectify that,” Tristan said, digging his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll make sure you have plenty of options here for when we get back.”
She climbed off my lap and went over to kiss Tristan.
“I love you,” she said, planting a hard kiss on his mouth. She turned to me next, doing the same thing. “And I love you. But it is early as fuck. And I need some coffee if I’m to function like a normal human being today.”
She jogged off inside to get herself some coffee, and Tristan and I looked at each other. That one look conveyed a lot, but I could see in his eyes that he was thinking the same thing as me.
That we were the luckiest bastards on the planet to have won her.