Sinful Like Us (Like Us 5)

Maximoff is also more relaxed than usual.

He knows.

While Akara passes stapled papers to each bodyguard, I whisper to Jane, “You going to tell me?”

“And spoil the ending?” She brightens. “Never.”

Akara stops at me and hands me a thick, stapled stack. “It’s you and me.” Banks will tell anyone that his best friend is Akara, but he’ll also say that he knows he’s not Akara’s best friend.

Because I’m Akara’s ride-or-die.

I have trouble calling Akara anything other than my closest friend. Truth is, I don’t like assuming anyone wants me to be their best friend.

But I feel like he’s mine. I’d do anything for him.

I take the papers and instantly see the typed title.

Kitsuwon Securities Inc.

This is a contract. He’s building his own private security firm.

“Yours is different,” Akara explains. “You’d be a rank above the other men, but below me.”

I flip the page. “As it should be.”

He smiles, but his lips downturn fast. And before anyone can edge in another word, he addresses all of us. “This isn’t a life jacket. It could be a sinking ship. Kitsuwon Securities will be completely separate from Price’s Triple Shield, and all the resources that we’ve built are gone. Security’s housing belongs to them. The whole temp roster we’ve grown—I don’t have. Which means we need to train new temps. You won’t have seasoned guards when you need a day off. The rumor about us being fake bodyguards and in relationships with our clients—it will definitely ramp up. Your pay will be cut, substantially, and I can’t tell you where you’ll be living yet.” He expels a tense breath. “You’ll have to bear with all the kinks of being a part of a new company.”

I’m good to go.

Oscar looks around. “Who has a pen?”

We’re all smiling.

Happiness doesn’t encapsulate what hits the air. It’s elation. Rapture.

Akara tries to restrain his smile. “Come on, guys. Think about this.”

“What’s there to think about?” Farrow asks, chewing gum casually.

“Yeah, boss. We heard all we needed to.” Donnelly slips a pen out from behind his ear.

Jane hands me a ballpoint pen and turns, so I can splay the papers against her back for a hard surface. And I sign my name on the dotted line.

I pass my brother the pen.

We’ve all joined Kitsuwon Securities in a matter of minutes.

No one hesitates.

Akara nods to us, overwhelmed. He turns his head. “Alright.” He takes a deeper breath, collecting his emotion. “You want to hear about what happens with your clients now?”

“Lay it on us, Kitsuwon,” Oscar says.

“Clients can now choose which private security to hire. Either mine or Triple Shield. But if the client is a minor, their parents will need to hire my firm.”

I process this. “What happens to Xander? He’s the only minor with an Omega bodyguard.”

Maximoff says, “I’ve already spoken to my parents, and they asked Xander which private security he’d rather use. He said Akara’s team.”

Banks bounces his head. “Right on.”

Quinn frowns. “What happens if more than seven clients request this firm? There are only seven of us.”

“That’s not an issue yet,” Akara says. “Most of the family that are protected by Alpha and Epsilon are happy with their bodyguards, and they’ll stay with them.”

“Which clients want to hire the new company?” Oscar asks.

Akara looks to Jane.

She perks up. “Moffy and I are objectively positive that Charlie, Sullivan, and Luna will opt in, besides us of course.”

Donnelly frowns. “Not Beckett?”

Jane shakes her head. “I’m unsure. Charlie thinks he’s content with O’Malley at the moment.”

“He could come around, Donnelly,” Akara says, “but until then, I have new details to assign.” He massages his palm. “So here’s the deal, since all you dumb-fucks decided to join a sinking ship, there are no Omega bodyguards over at Triple Shield. SFO is here.” He points at the floor.

My lips rise.

The men are grinning. So is Jane next to me.

“Tony can’t be a lead if there’s no Force to lead.”

Oscar claps loudly, and the other two Yale boys join in the applause.

Banks messes my hair next to me, and I say, more to him, “Christmas came late, gents.”

He cracks a smile. “I’ll take that gift.”

“Tony can rat out the twin switch to the Alpha lead all he wants,” Akara says, “but Price can’t fire Thatcher and Banks if you two don’t work for him.”

I almost laugh, in shock. This was Akara’s plan to pull me out of the twelve-foot ditch. And it worked.

More applause fills the room.

“I don’t know where Price will put Tony,” Akara continues, “but I can tell you all, here, that you’re staying with your current clients. Except for you.”

He’s looking at me.

“You have Jane.”

“I, what?” I stare hard, unblinking, not registering the fact that I could be on her detail again. I’ve punished myself for so long for screwing the team—it just didn’t feel like a position I should be given.

But I want it.

I want her.

With every fiber of my being.

Jane’s hands fly to her mouth, wide-eyed and stunned. She didn’t know. Our eyes fasten together while Akara repeats, “You’re Jane’s bodyguard.”

It slams into me.

I can protect my wife.

That’s what she’ll be. My wife.

My hand slides along her cheek, her tears falling, and our foreheads drift closer. Men chat softly behind us, giving me and her a moment, and their voices fade to the background.

“Thatcher.” She inhales like we’re on an ascent.

My chest caves and expands. “Jane.”

“You’re my bodyguard.” She speaks our blissful reality into the world.

I hold her close, emotion barreling into my body. Surging and stinging my eyes, and very deeply, I say, “You’re going to be my wife. I promise you that.”

She cries into a tearful smile, and her lips find my ear—her cheek brushing against my hard jaw—and tenderly, Jane whispers, “I love you, I love you, I love you, and let me tell you how terribly and tremendously I do.”

I listen to Jane ramble quickly and slowly about her love for me, right against my ear—and I could shut my eyes and breath in. Like it’s my first breath on this earth.

I stand strong, my pulse soothed, and my hand lost in her frizzed hair. I can live inside hell, but

for the first time, I’ve finally reached heaven—and I’m happy and I’m staying. I’m staying. To build a life and future and family. Right here, with Jane Eleanor Cobalt.

For forever.

49

JANE COBALT

Rather quickly, I snip off tags hooked to store-bought cat toys: new vibrant colored mice, a few feathery stuffed balls, and a cupcake and unicorn stuffed catnip set, thanks to the Meadows family.

And I steal a glance at the sexiest, sternest, and most iron-willed man my eyes have ever loved. Thatcher slices open packaging to a new litter box, our seven cats prancing curiously around him and me.

He’s careful with the knife as they nudge closer.

I smile, but then I remember where we are. Only two days have passed since the fire, and we’re all still picking up the pieces.

I turn more towards him. “Are you sure you’re okay to stay here until we all decide on a new place?” I add in haste, “And I know I’ve asked you a dozen times already, and this will be the last—I just need to be certain.”

“Yeah.” Thatcher rips open the cardboard box. “I’m good here.”

I eye him, more intrigued. He’s not even surveying his surroundings—which are very pastel blue. And frilly, and I suppose not entirely different to my room in the townhouse.

Except for the sheer opulence.

A diamond chandelier hangs over a four-poster princess-like bed. Set in the very center, the bed presides over a rosé-hued vanity, a hand-crafted wardrobe from Florence, shelves of jeweled Parisian trinkets—and not to forget the boas and outlandish costumes strewn over a dressing curtain, which costs more than his salary.

I am obnoxiously wealthy.

I have been this entire time. But now, he’s immersed in this luxury while he’s staying in my teenage bedroom with me. Right where I grew up.

The Cobalt Estate is our temporary home for the time being.

Neither of us envisioned living with my parents and my youngest brother and sister—but Thatcher agreed it’s safer to “post-up” in the gated neighborhood until we find a permanent place.

He glances back at me in my silence. “You’re okay with this arrangement?”

“It’s strange being here with you, but maybe that’s because you’re my future and this room is entirely nostalgic. And our present is finding its footing.”