Devil Mine: A Dark Cartel Romance (London Underworld Book 1)

“Mummy,” Theo whines, reaching for me. 

Cassie swoops him into her arms before I can turn from the mirror.

“Mummy can’t hold you right now, baby, she’s getting ready. Why don’t we play with Lola and Rafe?”

Theo pouts. “I’m not a baby. I’m five years old.” He holds up all five fingers to prove what a big age that is. “Rafael’s the baby and he doesn’t do anything. He’s boring.”

Cassie laughs and sets him back down.

“What about going to find your cousins, love?” Nera asks, sweeping into the room. “They’re with your Uncle Tristan.”

“They’re also babies. I’m a big boy compared to them.”

I turn from the mirror with a smile. “Yes, you are. You’re my big boy,” I say, bending to kiss his cheek.

Theo’s chest puffs out proudly in response, looking every inch like his father when he’s that pleased with himself.

Valentina and Dagny walk in with their husbands and Theo’s eyes light up.

“Nina!” he exclaims.

Valentina crouches and opens her arms wide. “My little man!”

He runs and throws himself into her waiting arms.

“Traitor,” Dagny mutters under her breath. Her husband wraps an arm around her shoulders and chuckles. “He’s not supposed to have favorites.”

“Your little man?” Valentina’s husband questions.

She stands and turns to face him with my son held in her arms. “You are not acting territorial over what our five year old nephew calls me.”

“Maybe I am,” he purrs, cupping her cheek. “Maybe we need to go back to our room so I can put a boy inside you.”

The door opens once more and Cassie’s husband stalks into the room, walking past the bantering couple as his gaze finds hers.

“If anyone’s putting a baby in their wife, it’s me. Thanks to your husband,” he says with a finger in my direction. “I haven’t seen her in almost five days.”

He sweeps a delighted Cassie into a hug and twirls her twice before pressing his mouth against hers in a hungry kiss.

A warmth slithers into my heart seeing all of my best friends gather around me.

“What are they doing?” Theo asks inquisitively, pointing at them with a grossed out expression on his face.

“Let’s not teach my son how babies are made just yet,” I answer. Cassie and her husband break apart with some difficulty, both of them panting heavily.

“Should I leave the room then?” Nera asks playfully. She’s heavily pregnant with her third child after giving birth to twins two years ago.Property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

“If you and Thiago keep going at this rate, you’ll be having that talk sooner than you think,” Dagny supplies helpfully.

I can’t help but laugh.

After I was shot and Cassie saved my life, my recovery and subsequent pregnancy were both thankfully very smooth. There were no complications or adverse effects from what happened to me, and Theo came into the world eight months later, weighing almost nine and a half pounds and looking exactly like his father, minus the tattoos.

I’ll never forget the look on Thiago’s face when he was handed the baby. The fierce protectiveness that’d etched itself across every single one of his features as he’d looked down at his son in awe. I knew two things in that moment; one, that he would protect him with his life and two, that I should expect to be pregnant again very soon. The way his eyes had lifted to mine, dilated and heavy, had told me he wanted to put an army inside me.

Lola followed two years after him and Rafael another year and a half after her. Balancing a career, a healthy marriage, and three children hasn’t been easy, but I’ve had help.

After she got married, Valentina left her official duties within the cartel and I hired her at the Noble Group. As my assistance at first since she didn’t have any formal training, but she’s smart and savvy and within two years she was running all of ops for me. She’s now the Chief Operations Officer and a big part of the reason why the company is thriving and doing better than ever.

Cassie helped me through the months of my recovery, also keeping a watchful eye over my pregnancy. I’d like to say that we grew close, but there was no growth needed. It was automatic. One day she wasn’t a part of my life, the next I couldn’t remember what it was even like without her in it. She’s been the kind of loyal best friend every girl hopes for.

I was right about Nera – she was ‘the one’ and my brother was in love. She’s a badass through and through, a recent two-time Olympic fencing champion, a fashion icon, a mother, and now a close friend. They got married and moved back to London so she and her friends have become a part of my close group. 

And Dagny. Well, Dagny remains unchanged, even in the face of overnight fame. She’s now the hottest designer in the UK with about a two year waitlist for any of her designs. Except for me of course, I’m always the first to try on and model her new pieces.

She’s happily married now, if you can believe it. She’d told me once that, unlike me, she’d never let herself marry an Underworld man.

Let’s just say, she didn’t resist for long.

And I’ll never let her forget it.

Aside from Tristan and my husband, there’s only one other person missing for our party to be complete.

The door opens and she walks in like I conjured her, a blooming smile taking over her entire face.

“There you are,” I say. “We almost got started without you. Not that I have any idea what we’re doing tonight.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Adriana answers with a breathless laugh. “I know I’m late.”

“Will someone tell me what we’re doing now?” I ask. “Where is my husband?”

“I’m right here, amor,” he calls from behind me, walking in with Tristan by his side from the doors that open on the beachfront view of our villa. Lola is asleep on his hip, her head on his shoulders, a pacifier stuck between her lips. Rafael is also sleeping, buried snuggly in the carrier held in Thiago’s other hand. 

A pang of lust shoots into my belly watching him carry our children so effortlessly. These days, there isn’t much Thiago can do that doesn’t send my girl parts into an absolute tizzy. I’m still blaming the post-birth hormones, although I’m sure those are long gone by now but I’ll get Cassie to back me up from a medical standpoint. Perks of having a doctor as your best friend.

Lola moans but doesn’t wake as Thiago hands her to Dagny.

“My girl,” she coos lovingly.

He hands Rafael’s carrier to Cassie’s husband who takes him happily.

“There’s my godson,” he says.

“Alright, you guys can go get settled,” Thiago tells our friends.

“Yay!” Dagny whisper-yells so as to not wake my daughter. “See you out there.”

“Out where?” I ask as she walks by me. She simply winks. All of our friends file through the doors and disappear outside, leaving Thiago and I alone. 

His gaze is heated and possessive on me. Clearly he likes the pale pink dress Cassie instructed me to wear tonight.

“Is it finally time for you to tell me why you flew us and all of our closest friends out here?” I ask.

We’re in Colombia, in Playa Blanca on the Barú peninsula. We’ve been here as a family for the past week and yesterday our friends started appearing, couple by couple, taking me by surprise. When I looked over at him, Thiago had a cocky smirk on his face as he took in my overjoyed reaction, and I knew that he’d organized all of this.

No matter how much I begged and tried to blackmail the girls, they wouldn’t tell me what was going on.

Thiago’s always been very romantic, he’s shown that time and time again over the seven years we’ve been together, but whatever this is, it’s next level, even for him.

He closes the distance between us and grabs my hands softly in his. “I was going to do this years ago, but I was busy after everything that happened with Marco…”

The fallout from Marco’s attempted mutiny was significant. I barely saw Thiago in the months after I came home from the hospital. He tried to be there as much as possible during my recovery and early pregnancy, but I understood that he had a cancer to root out and a cartel to get back under control.

He and the few men he trusted waged a civil war from the inside out. They found all of those who’d been involved in the betrayal and hadn’t been unmasked yet, and they made examples of them. They tortured them, then killed their families. I couldn’t find it in me to have any compassion after all the hurt they’d caused. And now that I was pregnant, my priority was keeping my family safe.

To ensure that any organizations that thought they could prey on the cartel’s seeming moment of weakness, and to make sure that the remaining cartel members understood what would happen to traitors, Thiago sent them all a message.

Marco’s body was found hanging from Tower Bridge. His hands nailed to the railing, his feet dangling beneath him, his cock shorn off his body. ‘Traitor’ was carved into his naked chest.

The problems had been mostly under control since then, although we’d hit a few necessary speed bumps along the way.

“… and then I kept getting you pregnant,” Thiago finishes with a smug smirk.

I laugh. “You could at least pretend to sound sorry about that.”

“I’m not,” he answers with a smile.

I peck him on the lips. “Me neither.”

There’s something about watching this man do the dad walk out of the hospital, carrying our newborn in a carrier at his side, that makes me want to get immediately knocked back up just so I can watch him do it all over again.

Thiago intertwines his fingers with mine and pulls me after him as he heads for the double doors that lead out onto the beach.

“Have you ever regretted marrying me?” he asks softly.

I frown, shaking my head emphatically. “No. Why would you ask that?”

“How about our wedding? Have you ever regretted that?”

I smile as I think back to the shotgun wedding in the back of the Rolls. To the terrified priest who’d run out of there at the first opportunity. To the way Thiago had ripped that first orgasm out of me, then brutally fucked my mouth.

“It was unconventional for sure,” I say with a conspiratorial grin. “But also no.”

“Me neither.” He stops in the doorway. The linen curtains billow in the wind, obscuring the view through the doors. “I needed to make you mine that very moment. Needed, not wanted. I could have been declared mentally insane for how mad with need I was for you after finally catching you.” He brushes his fingers tenderly across my cheek. “But I’ve always thought that you deserved better than what I gave you.”

Thiago catches the curtain, finally revealing what awaits us on the other side.

Two rows of white chairs on the beach, every seat occupied by our smiling best friends and children who turn towards the doors to stare at us. The chairs face an altar decorated by hundreds of blood red roses. Behind it, the waves lap at the sandy beach. Beneath it, Dagny stands beaming, holding a paper in her hands.

“Get your ass down that aisle, Tessie,” she calls excitedly, hand cupped around her mouth. “I got certified for this!”

My hand flies to my mouth in shock. I turn towards Thiago with tears in my eyes.

“What is this?”

“We’re getting married again.” He clasps my hand in his and walks us out of the villa and down the stairs, starting down the aisle. Valentina hands me a bouquet as I walk past her. “I won’t have you walking down this aisle alone or being given away to me or whatever the fuck other traditions there are for unmarried women. We’ve been married for more than six years. That’s how long you’ve been mine, not today’s date. This is about giving you the wedding you’ve always deserved, with your friends and your family.” I spot my mum sitting next to Tristan. “And now our children.”

We make it to the altar and I stare up at it in wonder, the beauty of the location and details rendering me speechless. I don’t know how they all kept this a secret from me, but I’m moved to tears.

“When we’re done here, we’re going to have a wedding dinner on the beach and we’re going to dance under the stars, just the way you love. And then we’re going to be the last to leave so you can finally cross that off your bucket list.” He smiles adoringly down at me. “I hope this wedding will be as perfect as you might have once dreamed it would be.”

“It’s already better,” I say, emotion choking me.

Dagny leans towards me. “Talk about full circle, me standing here. Can you believe it?”

Thiago rolls his eyes. “She didn’t give me a choice.”

She shrugs. “He shot me.”

Behind me, I hear her husband growl angrily. He doesn’t like to be reminded of what Thiago did.

“And are we even now?” Thiago asks.

She takes one look at the beaming smile on my face and turns towards my husband with a smile. “I think we finally are.”

She looks down at her notes, then back at us.

“Are you guys ready?”

“I am,” I say, eyes shining as I look up at my husband.

“I have been for six years,” he answers.

“Alrighty, let’s get this wedding on the road.” She clears her throat and starts reading the traditional wedding rites. Thiago speaks his vows and I improvise mine on the spot. It’s the easiest thing in the world to vow to love him for the rest of my life.

Finally, Dagny asks, “Do you, Thiago da Silva, take this woman, Tess da Silva, to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” he purrs.

“And do you, Tess da Silva, take this man, Thiago da Silva, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do,” I answer. “I have.”

He makes a soft sound of satisfaction and squeezes my hand. Then he slips a new ring on my fourth finger, a diamond even larger than the first one.

“You may kiss the bride. Again!” Dagny exclaims.

Thiago tips me backwards, holding my leg up to his waist and balancing my back on his forearm.

“I love you,” he whispers, a smile tugging at his lips.

“I love you too.”

“It’ll be much harder to divorce me now that I’ve married you twice,” he jokes, lips hovering millimeters from mine.

My gaze drops to his mouth. “Do I get to whip your ass for saying that word out loud?”

His eyes twinkle with love. “Ask me nicely and I’ll let you do anything you want.”

I hear Theo yell, “Go, Daddy!” in the background before Thiago’s mouth finds mine in a searing kiss. Cinnamon explodes on my tongue.

And life is just perfect.