He shook his head, stepping away with the phone. Lincoln pulled me tight, holding me in his arms as Wilder made the call.
“Mackenzie, honey—”
“Don’t ever talk to her again,” Lincoln growled, pointing a finger at my dad. “Not ever.”
His hand tightened on my waist, and I felt Wilder move in behind me.
“Sheriff Watkins and his boys are on the way.” He nuzzled my neck. “You okay?”
“I am now,” I said quietly, feeling the two of them wrapped around me so warm and tight.
We could hear sirens, and when the Sheriff and his officers pulled up, Wilder and Lincoln took me away. Lincoln helped me into the car as Wilder shook hands with the Sheriff and promised to make some statements later. And then we drove home.
Home. Because that’s what it was. A house is just a house, but it’s love and family that make it a home.
And that’s exactly what we had. Love, a home, and two daddies as the only family I needed.
Epilogue
Mackenzie
Six months later
“Ugh, that class. I swear, Professor Jameson gets off on punishment.”
I grinned, looking away to hide the blush from my face.
Well he wouldn’t be the only one…
Cora sighed, thankfully missing the heat on my face as she shook her head. “For real though, if he wasn’t so fuckinggorgeous, I’d have dropped that class like a brick by now.”
I snickered. “Well, that and it’s part of your major and youhaveto take it.”
She groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
We both laughed as we headed across the quad, backpacks slung over shoulders and hot to-go cups of coffee in our hands. Cora and I had become fast friends after being paired for a first week assignment in the aforementioned Professor Jameson’s class. She, like me, didn’t live on campus, but where she lived in the apartment above her grandmother’s garage, I lived with mytwoboyfriends in an insanely expensive castle-like mansion on an estate’s worth of land.
…I hadn’texactlygiven her all those details yet. As far as Cora knew, I lived with my boyfriend a little drive away from campus. She knew he was older, but she didn’t know he wasthatmuch older. And she certainly didn’t know there were two of them. I was trying to build up to that though.
This was college life for me. Yeah, it was alittledifferent than most freshman college kids, I’ll admit that. No dorms. No lame keg parties at frat houses. No sweating it out at some part time barista job to pay for books. Trust me, having been on the other side of the tracks, I waswellaware of how good I had it. And it wasn’t that I had no social life or anything — it’s not like Lincoln and Wilder “kept me” at the house away from all people. Though, if they had their way, I’m sure they’d want to personally vet any guy who so much as looked my way. But they knew there wasnothingto worry about. I didn’t have eyes for anyone but them, and Ineverwould.
…Hell, who the heck couldpossiblyeven compete with them?
I studied my ass off, but when I wasn’t, I was living adreamwith the two of them. After the whole thing with Wilder’s sister and my dad, we’d all gotten even closer. So close in fact, that it was decided that Lincoln would move into Wilder’s place permanently. He put a hold on the construction over at his place, and instead, they ended up breaking ground to basically double the size of Wilders. It was an insane move, seeing as the house was basically already a freaking castle, but I think Lincoln put it best, even if he was joking.
“You, we can share. But I want my own bedroom from time to time, and I’m sure as fuck not sharing a bathroom with that guy.”
Fair enough.
Instead, they were turning whatwasgoing to be Lincoln’s place into a headquarters for their new business. No, no more soldiering for my two Marines. And besides, they already had all the money they need. No, the new venture was going to be coordinating with Veterans Affairs across the country to get vets with addiction problems stemming from PTSD the help, guidance, and support they needed.
I guess seeing how far from the drugs had taken his sister had sparked something in Wilder. And the two of them knew enough vets who were struggling that it just made sense.
As for Stephanie and my dad? Well, theydidgo back to the jails they’d broken out of. Okay, “broken out of” makes them sound a lot smarter than they actually are. What’d actually happened was that a maintenance worker left a door ajar at the minimum security holding jail where my dad had been kept, and he’d literally just walked out the door. He’d gone across the street and basically done just that to the women’s jail there where Stephanie was being held, and the two of them had gone on the run.
…Not exactly criminal masterminds.
But yeah, they went back to jail, and they’ll be there a little while. None of us pressed charges, even though we could have added kidnapping and extortion to their crimes. At the end of the day, they might have been shitty people, but addiction is a rough collar. They’ll serve their time for the pharmacy hold-up, and then they can go do whatever they want. But Lincoln, Wilder, and I will havenothingto do with them. Actually, there’s a lifetime restraining order for both of them by us, so, I doubt we’ll be seeing them again.