They were all set to come to my place because Elena had invited all the women to the surprise shower. Cierra Mancini was in the field and would be coming later than the others.

On the way here in differing stages, they got the call that Catalina had been taken and rescued and that Kat had gone into labor.

Mancini who wasn’t supposed to be here for another day at least had flown out after talking to Jared who’d told him that we had the asshole in our warehouse.

“I knew that you would kill him and I couldn’t let that happen. The cops would’ve had no choice but to look at you and I can imagine in that position you wouldn’t have been thinking straight. We thought it best that one of us take it from there.”

“We? Who is we?” I looked around at all the men gathered in my backyard.

“All of us!” Logan answered for all of them, which is pretty much what I suspected.

Mancini had made the decision to take point on this one and the others rallied around my family and I while he did his thing. No one told me shit, including Jared.

Now Mancini was standing in my backyard smoking a cigar like he hadn’t just fed a motherfucker to sharks.

“What about the other one?”

“Creed?” Law turned to our mutual friend with a grin.

“Don’t worry about him, he ain’t coming back.”

“Do you need cleanup or you took care of it?” Mancini asked. And people think I’m the one who’s fucked in the head.

“Dude, this is not my first time at the Rodeo. I have the best cover. I’m here for my wife to attend a baby shower. How could I possibly have time to get involved in this shit?” Murdering fuck!

“Seriously though Lyon, all we’re interested in is the fact that none of this can come back to you, you and your boys are accounted for.” Well there is that.

Conversation soon turned to my triplets and all the

pregnancies and what we as men were going to be busy doing in the next few months.

It was obvious the women planned to be there for each other during the time leading up to labor dates so we got out our phones and tried coordinating that shit.

Funniest shit I’ve ever seen. Grown men trying to calculate early labor versus full term pregnancies. I can’t even with this shit. I was still trying to figure out what the fuck Creed had done with the other asshole.

“I took him out to pasture.”

“The fuck that mean?”

“Do you know what lives in the woods and forest around this area?”

“Mountain lions, coyotes….Damn, did you hang around long enough to make sure?”

“Don’t ask me fuck stupid questions Colt. I didn’t spend all these years in the service for nothing.”

I guess that was my cue to stop asking questions. For the next half an hour I learned that these boys had everything covered and their reason for keeping me out of the loop was so that I knew nothing and couldn’t be implicated.

It was a good fucking plan all around. What I wasn’t expecting was Todd showing up at my door later that evening. Caitiebear had told him what happened with her little sister and this kid showed up at my door.

He was making it harder and harder to hate his ass. “Good evening Mr. Lyon, how are you?” He had flowers and teddy bears and a whole host of other shit in his hands.

Mengele saw him and came running. He hugged her and they had a conversation right there in my doorway that convinced me it wasn’t their first. Fucking kid was entrenched in my family.

He spent more than enough time with my wife who was all smiles and giggles, the fuck! Caitiebear had a permanent smile on her face and the women in my house had lost their fucking minds.

The guys were all with me on this one. The kid had to go! Of course Kat overheard me plotting to end his ass and copped an attitude. I need her shit.

“Colton, leave that child alone. He rushed here from hundreds of miles away to be with our family at such a time, the least you can do is be nice.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Why don’t she take her post pregnancy ass back inside with the other women and take her nose outta my shit?

Of course that wasn’t gonna happen and it wasn’t long before she got the other females riled up with their shit. It’s always a pleasure to watch these boys handle their shit, and the fact that they were all on my side just made shit sweeter.

The kid didn’t seem to know that his life was in danger because he was walking around my house like king fucking shit.

“Hank, how hungry were those sharks?”

“Colt my man I feel your pain and as much as I’m on your side the kid’s got to do something to deserve my brand of punishment.”

“I don’t give a fuck how innocent he is. He keep sniffing around my kid he’s gonna become a statistic.” That just started off a whole new slew of comments. All of which pretty much sided with me.

To add insult to injury, the women all fawned over him, he was the fucking star of the show. I’ma gut his ass and leave him for the birds. I totally lost my shit when it came time to decide where his ass was gonna sleep.

His seventeen year old ass had planned to stay in a hotel his parents had paid for but my nosy ass wife and mother decided that wasn’t gonna work for them.

“If by some miracle he ends up sleeping under my roof he won’t make it ‘til morning.” I whispered that shit to Kat while she was sitting at the table eating some green shit the women had concocted.

Elena’s enabling ass decided to take him to her house; traitorous fuck! The pothead didn’t give a fuck. Now that the crisis was over he was back to hitting the pipe like his life depended on it.

The only support I had were the guys, who were out numbered and out talked by the hen pack. “Dude, these women are vicious as fuck.” Tyler sat beside me as we took in the room and its

occupants.

Dinner was over and everyone was winding down. My wife and kids were safe and healthy, our friends had staged an impromptu party to replace the baby shower and you wouldn’t believe some dark shit had gone down in the last few days.

I never had a free moment even with all these extra hands around because like all my kids, my triplets only wanted daddy.

People say they’re too young to know but I know this shit and when my little girls look up at me and yawn with their little hands waving in the air, I know they know me. Either by scent, heartbeat, voice.

I don’t know how the fuck they do it, but every last one of my kids do that shit. Cayleigh, Cayla, and Cady, were no different. Daddy’s little angels; or the next generation of hell-raisers.

Yes all my daughters have names that begin with C like me, and their mother can bitch all she wants and get the ovary brigade on her side, I give a fuck. They’re mine.

I sent Elena home when she started dragging ass and once everyone was out of my house and I’d done my walkthrough I headed for bed. My ass was beyond tired. This one was wide a fucking wake.

“Why are you up?”

“I’m not sleepy.” I guess she didn’t think I was supposed to be either since she had my side of the bed covered with her baby loot.

“Where you plan on putting all that shit? I thought you were gonna use Mengele’s baby shit?” Fucking kids have more clothes than me and they aren’t even a week old.

“We have more than enough space since you expanded the nursery. I still think you’re going too far with the other additions. By the time they’re ready to be in their own room, Caitlin and the twins are going to be away at college…”

I headed for the shower without answering her ass. She’s always in an all fired hurry to get rid of my kid. That’s why she’d stayed her ass up, just to annoy me.

“Caitie’s bedroom is going to stay hers until she’s fifty.” I poked my head back out the door to deliver that parting shot before slamming the shit again.

Her ornery ass was still awake when I came out half an hour later. “I’m tired Kat, you and your kids kept my ass running for twenty-four hours straight. I suggest you put that shit away and take your ass to sleep.”

I took the shit off the bed and put it on a chair before turning out the light. She grumbled at my ass all the way. “I wasn’t done Colton Lyon.” Her huffy ass!

“Listen superwoman, I know it’s gonna take about another six months before you come back down to earth but some of us don’t have an overdose of estrogen running through their shit. Go to sleep.”

I carefully pulled her onto my chest and held her hoping that would be enough but nope, she wanted to talk. “Aren’t our girls the most adorable?” I rolled my eyes and held her closer.

“Yes they are.” And so were the other six. They’re all adorable before they learn to talk and move on their own. Fuck if I’ma say that shit out loud.

“Thanks for getting their bracelets so fast.” She wrapped her arm tighter around me and sniffed my shirt. If she only knew.

“No problem, it’s a tradition.” She hadn’t asked about Catalina’s abduction since we left the hospital. Not once I assured her that our daughter hadn’t been in the asshole’s presence long enough for him to harm her.

The fact that Mengele was up to her shit as soon as she got home went a long way to reassuring everyone that she wasn’t overly affected by the ordeal.

“But Colton, how come they all look like you?” Here we go. “The fuck you want them to look like, the neighbor?” Women! That shit cracked her up but I was dead ass serious.

“Seriously baby, how are you?” It felt good to have my woman in my arms again. I ran my hand down her back to her ass knowing I wasn’t gonna get any, but just loving the feel of her fat ass under my hand.

“Don’t start nothing you can’t finish Colton Lyon.” I kissed her hair and squeezed her. “I love you Katarina.” She lifted her head for a kiss. “Love you too!”

She was out seconds later while I stayed awake thinking about my life. Nine fucking kids. My ass was done at Cody or so I thought, but now I was starting all over again with three daughters no less. Four boys and five girls. Fucking Kat always have to one-up my ass.