They Endure: A Stone Hearts Novel Read online

  They Endure

  A Stone Hearts Novel

  C.C. Rock

  C.C. Rock

  Copyright © 2022 C.C. Rock

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Cover illustrator: Daantje van de Vijver

  Instagram: daantjesart_

  Etsy: DaantjeArt

  To the bland piece of toast who made fun of me in high school for dying my hair a lot—Lou, me, and our individuality give you our stiffest double finger salute!

  More importantly, to the kids of alcoholic parents or caregivers. There are no words, shit is fucking rough. Just know that you are enough, that you are not their failings or the cause of them, and that you are never alone.

  Trigger warning

  This is a dark romance. There are fictitious descriptions of sex, sexual assault, alcoholism, abuse, and graphic violence.

  Prologue

  Louise Geralt had never experienced a baby coming into the world in her twenty years of life—a result of your immediate family only consisting of your alcoholic mother, a dad who died before you could hold your head up on your own, and an older brother you never met—which was why she was at Luxton General at three in the morning. The baby who decided to make their grand entrance in the middle of the night was also her best friend’s kid. Needless to say, Lou got her ass out of bed and rallied when she got the call from Vasily Stone—Lou’s true family—that her water had broken.

  Witnessing the miracle of birth once would be quite enough for Lou. It was not the beautiful event that people yammered on about—but war. Bloody, screaming, vagina-torturing, hand snapping war.

  “YOU DID THIS TO ME!” Vasily Stone, formerly Vasily Alexandrio and then Reese, her best friend, screamed at the top of her lungs at her husband after a particularly vicious contraction and her first push. Her green-grey eyes glared murder at him. She was sweaty and red-faced, her dark hair tied on top of her head in a haphazard bun, her belly swollen, legs spread wide and braced in stirrups.

  In Lou’s opinion, living a nightmare.

  Rennick Stone, the HBIC of one of the two crime families who owned Luxton, winked at his wife “I did, Lass, and I’m already looking forward to doing it again.” He kissed his wife's hand that was currently trying to break his.

  The mass murderer extraordinaire turned out to be an adoring husband who was obsessed with Lou’s best friend in every way. He better be, considering that it all began with him kidnapping Vasily and taking the liberty of having them married. Lou was glad he did though, she liked the guy. Thanks to him, Vas was happy on a delusional level just like she so deserved to be. The girl was a good egg and an ever better friend. Lou was one lucky bitch.

  Which was why she was grinning and bearing it as Vas was damn near succeeding in crumbling the bones in her hand into dust. “You’re a barbarian, Stone,” Lou said in support, gritting her teeth at the pain.

  “My gorgeous wife prefers the word caveman,” tall, dark, handsome, and dangerous amended with another kiss to Vas’s knuckles.

  Bleh, romance. Lou preferred an orgasm and a ‘see you around.’

  Vasily made to reply, but screamed as another contraction gripped her and the doctor and crowd of nurses were instructing her through it. Basically, she had to push a football out of her vagina. It made Lou feel nauseous.

  “You’re doing so good, babes,” Lou encouraged as Ren adorably kissed Vas on the temple and started saying something to her in whatever panty-dropping language he used. Scottish Gaelic, she was pretty sure.

  “Crowning on the second push—this baby really wants out,” the doctor guffawed when the contraction valleyed. “Just one more big push and you’ll be meeting your little one, Mrs. Stone.”

  With that one more push, Lou would be a fucking auntie to a niece or nephew. She would soon find out as the Stones wanted it to be a surprise.

  “You're nearly there, Lass,” Ren encouraged. “You’re so beautiful.”

  Vas shook her head. “I can’t do it. I can’t,” she cried, tears pouring down her face as she looked desperately at her husband. It made Lou wish she could push the damn thing out for her. Didn’t they have giant tweezers or some shit to pull the baby out? A plunger? Turkey baster?

  “Just one more, one big one,” the Stone patriarch crooned. “And then we get to meet our baby. You’re amazing. I love you.” He kissed her on the lips this time.

  Again, bleh, romance.

  Vas was seized by what would hopefully be the final contraction. Keeping her lips on her husband’s, squeezing Lou’s hand so hard that Lou was a bit worried of it being ripped off entirely, her girl pushed.

  “Keep going!” Lou urged after the doctor said this was it and Vas shrieked so loudly that the whole hospital practically trembled. “They’re almost out!” she told her, peeking over her knee so she could see a bloody little head but not her besties’ poor lady bits. “Come on, Vas, push! You can do better than that!” These were the same words of encouragement that Lou screamed when watching a sporting event and Vas knew it. But they were just what she needed to piss her off and give her that extra oomph to finish this thing.

  “FUCK YOU, LOU!” her best friend shrilled at her, but then she went boneless and a whoosh of relief expelled from her.

  Lou grinned. Mission accomplished.

  And then the most wonderful noise that Lou had ever heard—her own orgasmic screams aside—rang beautiful and true in the tense silence; a new set of lungs wailing loud enough to wake the other side of the world. Lungs that belonged to the most precious bundle in all the land.

  Vas sobbed when the doctor put the baby on her chest, kissing their little head as the nurses cleaned them off and the doctor delivered the afterbirth. Lou cried right along with her—a rare occurrence.

  After cutting the umbilical cord, Ren grinned at Lou, the perfect image of a proud father, then stared down at both mother and baby transfixed in awe. “A little girl,” the leader of the most notorious crime syndicate choked, tears cascading down his face. He kissed Vas and then their baby girl, doing so over and over again

  “A little girl,” Vas half laughed, half cried.

  “Amira,” Ren told his wife.

  Goddamn it, Lou was near sobbing now. She had the fortune of growing up with Vas’s mom, Amira Alexandrio, as a second mother. More like her first one since Lou’s own had been lost in the bottom of any liquor bottle she could get her hands on for as long as she could remember. When Vas’s mom died, a part of Lou did right along with her. A part of her died at Orlando being the one to snuff out her precious life—though he was scary as hell and a very bad man, he’d always been kind to Lou and seemed to love his family.

  “Are you sure?” Vas was sobbing too.

  “I’ve never been more sure about anything.” Ren looked to Lou. “How about Amira Louise Stone?”

  Vas shared a conspiratorial smirk with her husband then looked at Lou too, huge green-grey eyes nothing but a waterworks show.

  The air whooshed out of Lou. Amira Louise. Her best friend and her husband wanted to name their little girl after her. Had planned to, if their little exchange was any indication. “Goddamn you both, I hate leaking!”

  An hour later, baby and mommy cleaned up and looking perfect, Lou still couldn’t quite believe it. Her best friend birthed a fucking baby. She was a mother, Lou a
n Auntie! She looked to the badass woman in question. She was watching as Miss Amira Louise Stone cuddled up to her DILF of a father. The contrast between his golden skin and tatted chest and the pink newborn wrapped in a white blanket was stark but oddly perfect. They were doing the skin-to-skin thing. Lou held her already and she couldn’t wait to do it again.

  Lou felt a little bad for the perfect eight-pound wonder. Her crime boss daddy that was staring down at her in stupefied wonder was going to take the eyes of any boy who so much as looked at her. Poor thing wouldn’t be dating until she was thirty. Well that’s what Auntie Lou was for; to help her sneak around to see boys and/or girls, buy her booze, and bail her ass out of jail.

  Vas was crying again. Sensing her tears, Ren looked up at her. “We did this.”

  She laughed. “Yes, we did.”

  Lou groaned. “Fucking hell, you two are killing me.”

  “Such language in front of a newborn,” an all too familiar voice chastised as its owner strode into the room like he was the goddamn queen of England.

  Sebastian fucking Corinado.

  Lou had the pleasure of not seeing his stupid pretty boy face for eight months now, not since he cock blocked her and Thato Carver; the head of the second crime family of Luxton.

  After their fight and fuck and Lou spending half the night removing all surveillance he had put on her without permission, Bash decided to join Ren’s hulk of a man, Gerry, and the tactical team that was sent to Russia to take out anyone who bore the name Sokolov. Or so Lou heard.

  Apparently the deed had been finished the day before and the bastard was able to make it home for the birth. She was glad for the former. She wished she could have eviscerated the family herself for torturing Vas. Caleb Stutner too, the stalking piece of shit. But all were dead now and the Stones could live their happily ever after.

  Not bothering to so much as scowl at the hot as fuck man that moved past her, Lou smiled at Gerry when he came in next. He was holding a gigantic teddy bear almost the size of him and a bundle of pink balloons. He and fuck face had been hanging in the waiting room in lieu of watching Vas push a human out of her.

  Looking thoroughly amused at her lack of acknowledgement, Bash went to Vas and kissed her on the cheek. “Congratulations, Vas.”

  Vas. He was using the nickname to piss Lou off and it was working. She glowered at his back as Vas started to cry again.

  Lou met Pretty Boy when she stormed into Stone Industries with a rocket launcher and two Uzis. This was after she found out about Vas’s kidnapping and went into the lion’s den to save her—saving she obviously hadn’t needed since Lou knew from the moment that Rennick Stone looked at her best friend that day in his fancy lobby that he was head over heels and would never hurt her. Sebastian Corinado was among Ren’s twenty goons aiming assault rifles at Lou while they waited for Vas and Ren to come down. She was instantly attracted to Stone's second in command and proceeded with calling him a pussy—her version of flirting.

  When shit started to go sideways with the hit placed on Vas, Ren put Pretty Boy on Lou’s ass for security as well as a small detail for when he was otherwise occupied. A late night at work and a whole bunch of booze later, the two lovebirds’ best friends did the deed. Fantastically. The one time turned into a whole bunch and continued for a few weeks.

  Then Lou had her usual ‘panic and pump the breaks’ moment when things were going too good for too long. So she decided to have a threesome with Thato Carver and some girl whose name she didn’t know and tell Bash about it as well as her very long roster of other playmates. He didn’t react badly—just said that he was under the impression that they were monogamous then left.

  Silly of Lou to think that was it, given who his best friend was. Not only did the son of a bitch show up at her place a few days later when Thato had come over for a solo sexcapade and was balls deep in her, but pulled a Rennick Stone and said that she belonged to him. The fight, fuck, kicking him out, and scouring of security technology followed thereafter. And now here they were eight months later.

  “God, I broke her,” Bash said in greeting to Ren as the latter stood up to give him a one armed hug, careful not to jostle the baby. To Lou’s surprise, Bash held out his arms to take Amira and started cooing at her as he held her close like he’d done it a thousand times before. Had he been around babies a lot? Did he have a big family? They never got around to talking about that stuff when they’d been banging. Catching herself wondering about the personal things, Lou shuddered. Nope, nope, absolutely nope.

  The baby snuggled right into Bash and Lou couldn’t blame her. The man was sexy as hell and she knew from personal experience that he was also warm and not the worst to be cuddled against. He wore a charcoal-grey t-shirt today, showing off his many tattoos on his perfect milk chocolate skin, and dark jeans with black boots. His black hair was kept close to his head as usual, and eyes the color of foggy pond water had their usual twinkle of mischief.

  Setting his bundle of balloons aside, Gerry patted Vas on the hand—his version of a hug—and bid the new parents congratulations. The big bald man peeked over Bash’s shoulder at the newest Stone princess and was a goner. The man would flay anyone who so much as blinked at her the wrong way.

  “Now that you’re both here,” Vas cleared her throat, looking between Lou and Pretty Boy. “There’s something that Ren and I wanted to talk to you about.”

  Christ, this was so not the time to talk about her and dickwad not killing each other. Oh god. Was this an intervention? Lou crossed her arms, jutting her hip out like her Columbian heritage called for.

  Ren gave her an amused look like he knew exactly what she’d been thinking—Vas had mentioned his eerie way of being able to read people's minds. But he said, “we want you to be Amira’s godparents.”

  Lou looked to Ren, to the baby, then to Vasily. “You want me to be her godmother?” she asked quietly. Her goddamn lip was wobbling. If she cried one more time, she’d scream.

  Vas rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you idiot. Who else would we pick?”

  Lou was hugging her before she realized she’d even moved, then threw her arms around Ren who laughed happily. He was a hard, ruthless, deadly man—it was nice to see the softness that Vas and now their baby girl brought out.

  “What do you say?” Ren asked her with a final squeeze, then moved back to look at her and his second in command. “You cool with raising our kid if something happens to us?”

  Bash beat her to her ‘fuck yes’. “I say yes, but with no promises not to fuck up.” He glanced down at Amira with the same awed expression that Ren had. “I can’t believe you had a kid.”

  Was that longing that Lou heard? Bleck. She loved babies, but having them was something else entirely. Just another reason why getting rid of his ass was a good thing—he obviously wanted kids and she didn’t. Hell, she didn’t even want monogamy.

  “I’ll make sure neither of them fuck up.” Gerry said, wiggling one meaty finger at Amira.

  Vas laughed and Lou stared daggers at Bash who was giving her his best shit-eating grin.

  “I missed it!” Finley Stone, Ren’s younger sister, exclaimed as she sprinted into the room. She was so out of breath that Lou was pretty sure she ran the entire way from Luxton U to the hospital—a twenty block trip. Moving right to Bash, Finley commandeered the baby. “I can’t believe I missed it!” Smiling down at Amira with the joy that everyone in that room was feeling, she glanced over at Vas. “Couldn’t have waited until my test was over to push this beautiful girl out? What’s her name?”

  Vas started crying again, to which Ren moved to her bedside to kiss her and told his sister their gorgeous girl's name.

  Vas started crying harder when yet another person sauntered into the room. “I hear there’s a baby to see,” Sharon Jin, the woman who was as equally present in Lou and Vas’s lives as Amira Alexandrio, said. She was definitely somewhere near eighty now and was starting to look it, but the woman could kick all of their fucking asses
.

  The day was now officially perfect.

  The tiny Korean woman stood next to Finley and played with the baby's little finger. “What’s her name?”

  Vas swallowed. “Amira. Amira Louise Stone.”

  Lou was feeling the same need to swallow, especially when Sharon’s dark eyes closed and she said, “she would be so proud.”

  1

  It felt like the next few months went by in a matter of days. Time would do that to you when all you did was work and help your best friend with your perfect niece. Lou didn’t mind her very active social and dating life coming to a halt—more her sex life than dating if she was being honest. How could you when there was your goddaughter to be obsessed with? If Lou wasn’t doing her mechanic gig fixing cars at Sal’s Auto Body, she was knee deep in diapers, bottles, assisting Vas with getting the milk—aka liquid gold—from her tits, or taking baby Amira so Vas and Ren could get some rest.

  Being that neither had their mothers to help out, Lou decided to commandeer one of their many guestrooms at their farmhouse mansion and snatch the honor for herself. Ren’s younger sister, Finley, helped when she could, but was also in nursing school. She was nearly done and already taking shifts at Luxton General.

  Sharon had stayed and helped out the first week but then had to go back to Korea. And then there was Sebastian Corinado—who Lou had done a hell of a job avoiding for four months now—and the Stone army of goons.

  When Ren had been running his empire from home full-time to be with Vas and the baby, his big men tried to help whenever they came by. But as predicted, Vas told them to scram and said that they had enough on their plates with tending to all of the Stone businesses, both legal and illegal. Even though Pretty Boy had the biggest brunt of all of the responsibility as Ren’s second, Vas let him help out a lot. Lou supposed this was because he was godfather to Amira and that the fucker had grown on her. It burned her ass regardless. Traitor.