“Guess what?” Bella exclaimed as she dashed through the door ahead of Heather. They were the last ones to arrive, having waited an extra day for practical reasons.

Lacey threw her arms wide for a hug as Bella raced around the kitchen and said hi to everyone. Heather joined them, and right away, Meghan noticed something different.

Matty reacted to her exuberance and asked what they were guessing.

“We’re having a baby,” she squealed.

You could have heard a pin drop after the words left her mouth. Everyone in the vicinity of the unexpected announcement looked at Heather for confirmation. She blushed and nodded.

“It’s true,” she told the group of dumbstruck women. “Wanna see the stick?” she asked with a hearty laugh.

It took a few seconds of stunned silence, but then the place exploded with screaming squeals of joyful laughter.

The explosion of sheer joy was the perfect antidote to the glum vibe of moments ago.

Meghan couldn’t contain her excitement. Lacey and Tori lost their shit. Stephanie and Kelly were running around screaming, and Bella? Bella was at the center of it all.

“Daddy says I haveta take care of Mommy while he’s away.”

The child was incandescent with happiness.

The phone in Meghan’s bra vibrated. She took it out and checked for a message. It was Finn. She put a call through to his phone and walked out of the room for quiet. When he answered, she asked, “What’s up, Doofus?”

“Are you sitting or standing?”

“Actually”—she chuckled—“I’m walking. There’s a bit of excitement here right now, and things got loud.”

“Oh, yeah?” he replied. “Good excitement, I hope.”

“The best,” she assured him. “Heather and Brody are pregnant.”

“Oh my god,” he squawked. “Did you just find out?”

“Bella came through the door and made the announcement at the top of her lungs. First, Domineau and Rafe, and now Heather and Brody. Gosh,” she murmured. “So much happiness. It’s hard to take in.”

“How would you feel about a bit more? Happiness.”

She chortled. “The more, the merrier.”

“Good.” He laughed. “Because I have an announcement.”

Hearing the word announcement got her head spinning. “I’m listening.”

“I’ve asked the beautiful Remington Bisset to join the family.”

She frowned. “What family?”

“Our family, Meggie.”

“You mean the O’Briens?”

All he did was laugh.

She came back with a clarifying question. “Are you saying that you two are engaged? Like, for real?”

“Ring and everything,” her little brother proudly exclaimed.

“Can I tell everybody?”

“Sure.” He chuckled. “We’re not the big announcement couple, so you go ahead and do the honors.”

Barking, “Put Remy on speaker,” she wasted no time and put two fingers in her mouth to make a shrill whistle. “Hey, everyone! Guess what?”

A small crowd gathered at the edge of the living room and looked at her with expectant expressions. She held up her phone so her brother and Remy could get the full effect of the excitement she knew was going to erupt at the news.

“Finn and Remy got engaged!”

Shrieks of happiness and loud congratulations were yelled at the phone. Bella stomped up to Meghan and demanded to speak with Finn. She took the phone off speaker and handed it to her.

“Finn?” Bella quietly said. “Is it true? Did you give Remy the ring?”

Meghan gasped. Bella knew about a ring? What the hell?

After that, the child didn’t say much. She appeared to be listening to whatever Finn was saying. “I love you too,” she murmured. Handing the phone back, Bella looked at Meghan with tears in her eyes. “I wish Daddy was here.”

“I know, honey, but don’t worry. We’ll have plenty of happy news to tell him when he comes home.”

Bella hugged her tight. “Will you help me take care of my mommy?”

“Of course, Bella Mia. We’re family and taking care of each other is what we do.” She held out her hand for Bella to take. “Shall we celebrate with Shirley Temples for everyone? I have a new jar of cherries.”

Matty magically appeared at Bella’s side. He nudged her, and said, “Our plan is working.”

“What plan is this?” Meghan asked.

Matty, of course, offered up quite a story. “My dad said Kiki was waiting for Bella’s mom to have a baby, and then maybe after we’d be next. I want another brother. But a sister would be cool too.” He shrugged. “I don’t care.”

“So we made a plan. With Molly too. She wants Rina and her daddy to have a baby too.”

Meghan blinked a few times and sputtered a bit. These kids! What in the world was she supposed to say?

Carmen slung her arm around Meghan’s shoulders. “I predict another baby explosion in the new year.”

The weeks sped by in a nonstop flurry of activity. Every day, a detailed schedule laid out activities for the kids, dinner plans, and more. Their brilliant plan to stay busy was working despite the news blackout and worry.

A week after her attack, Domineau was released from the hospital. She looked like hell but was up and moving around. Matty clung to her like chocolate on a dipped pretzel. They were working on a project together that Meghan overheard them discussing. Apparently, he was making a video slideshow for Bella and Molly as a Christmas present. Domineau took a crash course online for moviemaking, and together, they plotted and worked.

Sawyer made a brief appearance after the guys had been gone ten days. He showed up at the door of her cubbyhole office and knocked. She was happy to see him and listened intently to what news he had.

The border crossing went off without incident. From Nogales, the team headed south. After arriving in El Salvador, they picked up supplies and kept moving with the group now divided into two teams. He had no updates to offer about the Timber Wolves. They were operating in silent running. Alex’s team was stalled in Panama while they waited for a tracking update. He said the operation was on schedule, and that he’d let her know more if he heard something else.

Right before Thanksgiving, Jennifer Clarke flew to Phoenix with Heather and Bella joining her for a few days of wedding planning and dress shopping.

Life went on.

Thanksgiving was hard on everyone, but Meghan went out of her way to make the day special and festive. Thank god for Finn and his magic kitchen. He not only supplied the group with meals and treats, but he also took it upon himself to shoo Carmen out of the kitchen and force her to relax on feast day. With Jace’s help and a half-joking assist from Sophie and Remy, they pulled off a magnificent turkey dinner.

Angie wasn’t having the best time, courtesy of her obstetrician’s stern demand that she remain on partial bed rest. Luckily, Wendy and Ash were more than delighted to keep her distracted and comfortable.

Every Sunday and most Wednesdays, they ambled down the backroad as a group and went to the chapel. Everyone took turns reading aloud—something uplifting and meaningful even if it was a Sesame Street story. And every night, her mom or dad called to check on Meghan and the twins.

With turkey day receding in the rearview, she turned her attention to December.

One day, while she moved around Alex’s study, touching his things and feeling his energy, she stumbled upon a remarkable surprise. Poking into his stuff, she opened a cabinet and found a bunch of wrapped Christmas presents. Seeing them made her emotional. One box, with a tag for Aiden, was still unwrapped, so she did the unthinkable and peeked inside. Seeing a pair of miniature drumsticks took her by surprise. What astounded her even more was when she inspected the adorable sticks and found them etched with a name, just like Daddy’s. Only instead of saying Thunder Foot or sometimes the ballsy Thunder Cock, the sticks for their son were marked Thumper. She sat in Alex’s chair, clutched the sticks to her breast, and cried silent tears.

It was December second, and most of the women sat huddled in the living room after all the kids were down for the night when a piece of breaking news on a twenty-four-hour news channel stopped them dead in the water. An official statement from the State Department announcing the death of the ambassador at the center of all their troubles by apparent suicide shocked everyone into silence.

What did this news mean? Did it signal an end to the horrible situation plaguing their lives?

Angie broke down right after that. She was getting awfully close to her due date, and Parker’s absence was stressing her out. Meghan could feel everyone’s patience running out.

Not long after—a day or two at most—her phone rang at midnight. It was Alex announcing they’d be home sometime the next day. They couldn’t talk long due to shitty reception, but it was enough that she heard her husband’s voice. She had a lot to tell him, but all of that could wait until he was home and she was certain he was okay.

At breakfast, a long discussion considered how best to proceed if the men were coming home. Basically, a group insurrection broke out that Cristián reluctantly allowed. Within a couple of hours, things were packed, and one by one, each family left for home.

Nervous, excited, and worried at the same time, Meghan waited with the babies as she explained that Daddy was on his way home. When Alex came through the front door and she saw for herself that he was in one piece, she didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened and threw herself joyfully into his homecoming.

They kissed and hugged. He cried over Aiden and Stevie. She assured him that everyone in Bendover was fine.

He gave her an abbreviated rundown of the operation. They stormed the citadel, as he so snidely put it, after gaining the assistance of pretty much everyone they met along the way. The ambassador was universally loathed, and since there really was no honor among thieves, several shitkickers from a couple of powerful cartels gleefully aided the Wolfpack in their mission.

Had they destroyed the evil man’s filthy empire? Completely. According to Alex, they went with a scorched earth plan that the ambassador saw coming. When he was cornered, and Sawyer started whispering stuff to the press, the guy took the coward’s way out by putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. In the end, Brody was off the hook where that was concerned.

The Wolfpack survived with minor injuries. Everyone needed a real bed and copious amounts of uninterrupted sleep. There was some minor blowback from the State Department, but with nothing to go on and every cartel in Colombia publicly taking credit for destroying a corrupt politician who deserved being put down, there wasn’t much anyone could do.

She asked a half a dozen times in just as many ways if it was over and if the family was safe. He didn’t mince words. They did what they set out to do. They burned his entire operation to the ground and made sure all his filthy secrets and decades-long corruption were brought to life in the press. There was gunfire, explosions, ambushes, and heart-pounding drama—all things they were familiar with. Parker and Cruz found the ambassador’s lifeless body. Her husband might have insinuated that urination was part of this scene, but she knew better than to ask if he was serious.

The next forty-eight hours zoomed by in a surreal fog. Nobody talked. Everyone stayed at home and kept to themselves. Finally, a few days before Angie’s official due date, they hosted a family cookout and bid a tearful farewell to Roman, Kelly, and Matty. They’d be back in a few short weeks for Brody and Heather’s wedding, but that didn’t stop their leaving from being emotional.

On the fifteenth, they all held their breath and waited for Angie to announce she was in labor, but Baby Sullivan wasn’t interested in following a schedule.

People calmed down, and things returned to normal. After downgrading the heavy security presence, they were able to go about their business without worrying about bodyguards.

Any day now, a new life would join the party, and on New Year’s Day, Brody and Heather would join their lives and formalize the family they’d always been.

Family Justice prevailed, and life went on.