Page 73 of Diary from an Inked Throne

His brothers and father all groaned. Lynx, Luca, and I just waited.

King, clearly enjoying the suspense, drew out the moment for long seconds before he eventually indicated between the four of us. “I want the details on what’s going on with all of you. I mean, we were at the naming ceremony. And we’ve picked up some things here and there at the shop—”

Roarke snorted on a laugh. “What my twin here is so elegantly trying to say is, are the four of you a couple now, or what?”

Dax raised an eyebrow, but I did notice he had to take a sip of his drink to cover his surprise. He managed to get out, “Well, couple means two, little brother. So we are definitely not that.”

King leaned in. “How does it work though? Are you with all of them, Nyah? Are you three together too?” He gestured between Dax, Lynx, and Luca.

Roarke leaned back and crossed one leg over the other. “I just want to know whose name you put as your emergency contact if you’re in a foursome. Like, there’s only space on those forms for one name… How do you choose?”

Stewart shook his head. “First dinner after your mother dies and we’re talking about foursomes over the casserole.” He smiled at me. “This is what happens when you have three boys though. Be grateful you only have James. Make sure he gets a little sister next, yes?”

My bottom lip wobbled a bit at the casual mention of my son’s name, but it was happy tears that pricked the backs of my eyes.

Happy because Stewart bringing up his grandson’s name so easily, and speaking of a future he was a part of, made me really just want to hug the man.

I didn’t even mind the overly personal questions from Dax’s brothers.

Because all of this felt like what family was supposed to be. I’d never had any of it before, and Luca and Lynx also seemed flummoxed.

But Dax, King, and Roarke were all so comfortable in each other’s presence that it was impossible not to feel the connection between them.

Dax waved his brothers questions off. “We’re not answering any of that. Mind your own business or go find your own foursome to work it out with.”

King considered that for a moment, then he grinned. “Mine would definitely be made up of three women though.” He looked over at Lynx and Luca. “You guys are cute and whatever. But I like the pu—”

Dax casually squirted a stream of water in his face.

I laughed at King spluttering and claiming the tea towel that had been tossed at Dax earlier. King wiped the water off his face and complained about it being up his nose, but he stopped talking about his personal sexual preferences that nobody had asked for.

Stewart called us all to come grab bowls of the casserole he’d made, and he set a big basket of crusty bread in the middle. We sat back down with our dinner, and all the guys went quiet while they wolfed down fast mouthfuls of the delicious food.

Virginia should have been here. It made me so angry she wasn’t.

I didn’t have her. I didn’t have my son. And while I couldn’t do anything about either of those things, I could find out who had started all of this. Lynx was right when he’d said this had all started with Virginia’s murder.

The fact the police had never solved it needed to be rectified.

“Stewart, the day she died…was there anything wrong with Virginia’s car?”

He chewed on his food as he thought. He swallowed. “Not that I know of. Why?”

Luca took over. “We watched some of the security footage from that day. We could see her leave my dad’s place and get on the bus.”

His dad did a double take. “The bus? Why on earth would she be getting on the bus?”

Lynx broke a piece of bread in half and dipped it into the rich casserole liquid. “That’s why we’re wondering about her car. Maybe it wouldn’t start?”

“No. It was fine. Someone delivered it back to me the day after her body was found.” Stewart looked at Luca. “One of your father’s men, I believe. He handed me the keys and said he was so sorry, and that he would miss Virginia.”

“Probably Bruno.” Luca’s shoulders dropped as he breathed out. “You can’t think of any reason she would have gotten on a bus going into town?”

Dax’s dad shook his head slowly. “The only place she ever took the bus was into the city. She hated driving in the traffic or really driving anywhere she wasn’t familiar with. That story Dax told about that trip we took to Virginia reminded me of that. I drove the entire time because she wouldn’t. She wasn’t delicate over much, but she was a bit of a passenger princess.”

I was grateful to know any little detail of Dax’s mom. “You made her feel safe.”

He smiled at that. “I hope so. In more ways than just driving her around.”