TenYears Later
“I said no, Lily!” Ruin said.
Callie smiled as she heardtheir eldest daughter scream. Lily had started to become a handful. Lily wanted to learn how to fight, how to shoot, how to do everything her father did.
Ruin just wanted his little girl to stay a little girl.At ten years old, Lily constantly talked about wanting to know her own path.
“I think Daddy is going to cave soon, don’t you?” she asked, doing her baby voice for their six-month-old son.
“Go to your room!” Ruin said.
She heard Lily’s door slam a few moments later.
Callie didn’t need to turn to the door to know that Ruin had come to the nursery. She felt him as he came close, putting his hand on her hip. After ten years of marriage, not once had her feelings waned when it came to him. He still made her heart race.
“How are you?” Callie asked.
“Lilywill be running out here soon, telling me how sorry she is, and that she loves me, and that she thanks me.”
Callie turned to her husband and he smiled. “Ah, ourlittle angel has you wrapped around her finger.”
Ruin tutted. “No, not at all. It was you asking me if I wanted our daughter to be able to take care of herself or to get hurt. Not that it matters. No guy is coming near my girls.”
Ten years of marriage, six children. Four girls, two boys. After Lily, they had Charles, Talia, Ashley, Maisy, and then little Paul. For Callie, it had been ten amazing years. Ruin hadn’t wanted her to get pregnant again after the birth of Lily, but he also didn’t like to use condoms, and, well, abstaining from each other was never going to work. So, six children it was. He gripped her hip.
“You’re agood dad, Ruin.” She found herself telling him that often. He always doubted his ability.
He’d admitted to her more than once that he was scared, that he worried about screwing up their kids. It wasn’t possible. Ruin was amazing with kids. He was a great husband and father. Callie knew if her parents were alive, they would adore him.
He squeezed her hip.
Paul gave a gurgling sound and Ruin picked him up and held him close. She knew he was theBogeyman and that he worked close with Giordano. He had also promised her his world would never touch her or their children. Ruin had kept that promise. She trusted him and had forgiven him.
“Daddy!” Lily’s squeal of excitement came seconds later. She opened the nursery room door, chargedforward, and threw her arms around his waist. He held onto Paul tightly.
“Dad, seriously?” Charles asked. Their eldest son looked miserable because Lily had changed into the clothes Ruin had gotten for her to train.
“Son, you’re going to help me train not just Lily, but all of your sisters to take care of themselves, got it?”
Another grumble, but an agreement.Callie laughed.
“And tonight, I will make sure you make it up to me,” Ruin said, whispering in her ear.
“I can’t wait.”
The End