Until Her - Ami Van Page 0,1
Another quick message to his other brother, Chase, to see if he needs anything at the club, and one last message to Mason to make sure the drop went as planned tonight.
By the time he slides into the back seat of the Escalade, Chase has informed him that he’s already on his way home and Mason texted to let him know the drop has been completed.
All is as well as it should be in their Kingdom.
He exhales loudly and leans back against the seat, letting the knots of tension relax a bit for the quiet ride home.
“Shouldn’t you be in a better mood?” Sully jokes from the driver’s seat as he meticulously maneuvers through their route home.
Sullivan Landish at age forty-five is only three years older than he and Derrick. Sully has been with their family for almost two decades. Since the beginning. He’s a trusted and even considered a friend and so sometimes, he speaks his mind freely.
“It’s getting boring,” he confesses to Sully.
“Boring because things have finally calmed down or boring because you’re looking for more nowadays?” Sully asks.
He sees Sully’s eyes flicker to the rearview mirror at him and then back onto the road.
“We needed things to calm down around here. This is the roughest we’ve been through,” he answers.
He ignores the other part of the question altogether. He didn’t want to be reminded of all their losses in the past few years either. Too many good and loyal soldiers have been buried and they nearly lost both of their future Kings. The children, Jazzy and Rian.
It has been a rough two-years since Stella’s arrival into their lives. Not saying it’s her fault. He knows all too well that this life has its ups and downs. The timing could have been better and maybe one event didn’t have to snowball into another as it had.
He remains quiet until Sully pulls up to the front of the mansion.
He steps out of the SUV, not waiting for the driver to open his door for him. What did it matter at this time of night anyway?
“Good night, Sully.”
“Night, Boss.”
He makes a quick beeline up the grand staircase to his wing of the mansion to check on Rian. Jazzy would be asleep and he didn’t want to wake her. He halts at the doorway of the nursery, surprised to see both Chase and Rory passing their nephew between them.
“What’s going on?” he asks his younger brothers when he disposes of his suit jacket and steps inside.
“He’s got a fever. Probably teething,” Chase answers.
“Don’t tell Stella or Derrick,” he warns his siblings. No doubt they all already know that Stella would demand to come home right away. “We can handle this.”
“I already gave him Tylenol,” Rory informs him.
“I got you,” he softly speaks to Rian as Rory hands him over.
Rian instantly settles down, probably because baby boy thinks he is his father. He and Derrick are twins after all and they look nearly identical again nowadays.
“Too bad Pam isn’t here either. She’s better at this,” Chase grunts. When it comes to kids, whether Chase admits it or not, there’s always a soft spot there. Like butter.
Pam, Jazzy’s nanny since birth, now has the role of a part-time nanny to Rian too except she’s on vacation with Brooks at the moment, alongside Derrick and Stella. This is Pam’s first vacation in almost ten years and she deserved it. Especially since she’d been shot saving his daughter’s life.
Along with the two couples, Elias and his now-wife, Andrea, were also given the gift of an all-expense paid honeymoon in Barbados. Elias, being Chase’s second-in-command, rarely gets time off.
Chase runs a tight ship. He runs a successful nightclub and his younger brother also keeps very active in the family business. Not to mention, Chase’s extracurricular activities.
Besides, the more security for Derrick and his wife, the better.
“We can handle it,” he tells Chase. “I’ll have Willa stay the night with him. She has no problem waking me up if he needs me.”
This is what his life has become? Staying up all night with a teething baby then waking up early the next morning to have a full breakfast ready for his daughter. It’s worked for him for the past ten years. He’s grateful especially in this line of business. But Sully was right. It’s getting mundane because he’s looking for more nowadays.
He just isn’t sure what more is.
“Dad?” “Dad! Are you even paying attention?” Jazzy snarks at him.
“Yeah, baby. Sorry.”
“Can I stay at home with Rian? I