The Devil is in the Details (Book 3)

Secrets

-Dominic-

"Ah, it's good to be home!"

I expressed as we walked through the doors to my house, the place I once hated but now found comfort in. 

"It is," Blake agrees as he sets his bags down on the ground. This business trip, as short as it was, was one of the busiest we had gone on in a while. We had opened up 3 of our bars in London and in between visiting them all, managing, financing, commuting and all-out partying, we had been left exhausted. 

Amelia walks in behind us with a grin on her face which contagiously makes me smile back at her. 

I love her and I don't know who I would pray to, myself, God, but I prayed every time I saw her that she would be safe and grow strong. So far, my prayers had been answered. Quicker than I realised, she went from being unable to crawl to walking into high school with martial art medals in her possession. She's respected, she's loved and she's happy. I think that's all I could ever want for her. It's all I would have ever wanted as a child, but this story wasn't about me anymore. 

"How was everyone in London?" She had asked, referring to the London division of what was once, 'the skulls and bones' who we stayed with during our trip there. 

Blake went around and hugged Amelia and as they swayed side to side he answered, "They were great, seeing them after so long made me realize how much I had missed them." 

"I miss them too," she replied holding gently at her fathers embrace. 

The London division, despite almost all of us being in our early forties, were as sharp as ever. They had formed their own agency and were working in trading which was a switch from what they used to do but they were always good with dealing with countries and groups, now they just did it officially. 

"You'll get to see them again soon, I promise," I say, walking up to her and putting a kiss on her forehead. 

Blake nodded as he let go of her, "Yeah our annual gathering is coming up soon," There was a tired excitement in his voice which made me put a gentle hand to his cheek. He relaxed to my touch and held the hand a bit closer to himself. Our love was still as strong as the day we confessed.  

Amelia was about to walk up to her room when Blake gave me a signal through his eyes, looking up at her and back at me which reminded me, "Amelia," I called which made her turn back to me, waiting for what I was going to say. 

"Instead of going to school tomorrow, do you want to stay at home? We can spend some time together, properly," I suggested, a bit nervously. I was never good at affection. Being a mother, in the beginning, was difficult and even now people would criticise how I raised her. I could never soften my tone, I could never understand the illogicality that comes with children and I still don't. Perhaps this is why Blake made me ask, because he knows how difficult it was and yet knew that I wanted to be better. 

The way her expression lightened relaxed me. "I'd love that!" She came back and gave me one last hug, "Thank you!" Before pulling away and going to bed. 

A sigh of relief left my lips after she was gone. 

"See, it wasn't so hard," Blake says, coming up next to me and putting an arm around my shoulders. Together we started walking towards our bedroom. "Now, let's treat that bruise of yours." 

I smirk back at him at the mention of it. I was quite proud of this one. A drunk man was a part of the fighters at one of my bars and despite it, he was doing pretty well. However, even after I declared one of his matches as done, him being the one who won, he wouldn't stop beating his opponent who had already blacked out.