Epilogue
Coal
One Month Later
I stared at the picture that someone captured on our wedding day.
She finally had her proof that I was in fact a human and not a robot.
The photographer I didn’t know that we apparently had and on such short notice, had captured the moment when I saw Adeline in her wedding dress for the first time.
And my little minx just had to get an eight by ten printed out on canvas and hung it in the hallway so she could see it every morning, and every night.
We also prepared for the arrival of our little girl. Yes, we found out last week that we were expecting a little girl. I also made a mental note to stock up on more guns.
Because if she looked anything like her mother, I was going to need them.
Leaving the picture, I headed into the nursery to start building the crib we bought yesterday. Along with anything my woman’s eyes landed on that she wanted our little girl to have.
Because what my woman wanted, she got.
And this also sparked a conversation that we should have had years ago.
But that was just me and Adeline.
And… I finally shared what I did that brought money in.
Adeline had gone to her phone after I told her and pulled up those texts.
Coal - Getting justice.
I was a contract killer up until the first morning when she woke up beside me in my bed at the clubhouse.
And because Charlie was a smart motherfucker and invested my money for me, I never had to work a day in my life.
And neither did Adeline.
She was so joyful that she got to be a stay-at-home mom, that right in the middle of our garage after I had told her, and after I had put my weapons in a safe, she dropped to her knees and showed me her appreciation.
Ten minutes later because my woman had an amazing mouth and I was a sucker for her, I helped her up and then proceeded to eat her out on our kitchen table.
***
I was walking beside Adeline through the early onset of snow, and laughing my ass off as she acted like a child. Sticking that delectable tongue out and trying to catch snowflakes, when I looked at the closed gate at the clubhouse.
It was to see the prospect, kneeling on the ground in front of a little girl.
A little girl in a pink flowered dress.
Everyone was behind us because we all planned to go out to eat.
It was then that the prospect took the little girl”s hand in his and led her over to where we were all standing.
And the last words I ever thought were going to fall from the prospect’s mouth came out, “Says she’s looking for Irish.”
But that wasn’t the only thing that was happening that day.
Because not even two minutes later something else happened.
I couldn’t fucking believe it.
Could never fucking believe it.
The man that was getting off his bike… it better be high time to rip that Nomad patch from his kutte.
And now that I had Adeline in my life.
My light.
It was okay for me to admit this.
I fucking missed the hell out of Creature.
However, that wasn’t what had my full attention.
No, it was the whiteness in Adeline’s face when she grabbed her stomach.
It was time.
Adeline
“Umm, your husband knows there’s a bathroom in here, right?” The nurse asked as I started to feel another contraction.
“He’s fine. He just needed five minutes. He’ll be back.”
“I swear, men. It’s the women that experience childbirth. Not them. Like we can get up and move around when we have a seven-pound ball being shoved out of our vaginas.”
I bit my tongue, wanting to tell her to send me another nurse.
I wouldn’t stand for anyone to say one thing bad about Coal.
But then I was in the throes of another contraction, which took my breath away, but only for a few moments.
I didn’t hear the door open.
I tilted my head and looked at the woman, “Are you married?”
She nodded.
“Would you trust him with your life?”
She nodded.
“Would your man kill for you?”
She hesitated, unsure, but nodded.
“Would your man torture someone but flaying the skin off their bones? And he would do that simply because someone scared you?”
Her face went pale.
I smiled, “Yeah. My man would do all of that. And he has done all of that. So, if he needs five minutes while I’m in labor because he’s seconds from killing everyone in this hospital because I’m in pain and he can’t do anything about it… then he’s allowed all the time he needs.”
The nurse didn’t say anything, not when Coal appeared at my side, wrapped his hand around my throat, his fingers placed just so, so he could feel my pulse, and then he whispered, “I can’t take you out in public.”
I snorted. “She had no right to judge you. At fucking all.”
He tightened his fingers for the briefest second, “I know. It’s one of the many reasons why I love you.”
I treasured those words that he spoke.
Of course, I could feel his love for me.
I felt it with every breath he took.
But when he gave me the words, it completed my world.
And my world became even more complete when I finally pushed our little girl out of me.
I will never forget the vision of Coal holding our little Leticia Gayle Adams close to his chest while he sang to her.
Five Years Later
Adeline
Of course, we would hear this kind of conversation while we were out for dinner for our fifth anniversary.
“Telling you right now girl, just like this Octopus on my forearm, I don’t intend to be that for you,”
“Then what do you intend to be for me?”
“A Hugopus.”
I watched the confusion morph over the girl’s face.
Then I looked back at the man and saw he looked sad, “You don’t get it?”
“I…” she didn’t say anything more.
I looked at the man, titled my head, the thoughts running through my mind, I turned my head slowly and locked eyes with Coal.
Then slowly, I asked, “How the hell do you hug a pussy?”
At my words, Coal smirked, “Must mean you cover the pussy with your whole mouth.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be any fun,” I muttered as I took a bite of my broccoli.
He lifted one shaped dark brow at me and asked, “How so? You love it when I…”
He trailed off as I started speaking, “Yep. You did that, you wouldn”t be able to flick my clit the way you do and cause back-to-back orgasms.”
“Well, shit. Fuck that.” and with that, we continued eating like nothing happened.
Coal
Our precious four-year-old little Lettie asked, “Dad?”
I looked at her from my phone, “Yeah, baby?”
She lifted a tiny brow and asked, “Is Mom a badass?”
Oh hell, Adeline was going to kill me, and needing to make sure I curbed her words, I asked, “Do you want your Momma to wash your mouth out with soap? You know better than to use that kind of language.”
She scrunched up her brow then, “Dad, you told me to sound out my words, and that’s what”s written on this case.”
I looked up to see what she was holding and when my eyes landed on that particular disc I smiled, and then had to apologize to my baby, “Yeah baby, your mommy is a badass. And you are right. I did tell you to sound out your words. I’m very proud of you.”
I sat my phone down on the coffee table and then took the disc from her, popped it into the DVD player, picked my girl up, and settled her on my knee in the recliner.
And then I tilted my head as I watched my little girl’s face as she watched her momma go all out on the woman.
Lettie gasped, “Why did she do it?”
I waited until Lettie was looking up at me, her mother’s eyes reflected back and whispered, “Because someone hurt me. And according to your Mama, no one hurts me.”
“I want to be just like her. But I’m going to start listening to Mama more. I had no clue she could do all of that.” I smiled down at her.
I tapped the top of her nose, “Your mommy would never hurt you, princess.”
Adeline
With my arms wrapped around Coal, on the back of his bike, we both watched the young man kick ass out on the soccer field.
He would never know what my man had done for him.
But I would.
I so would.
Only… when the young man happened to look up, he stared straight at us, and I knew… I knew it then. He knew who the man at my front was.
The young man offered Coal a two-finger salute and then we both watched as he smiled wide, and then headed off to chase the soccer ball.
And if anyone ever tried to harm this amazing man of mine, then you can bet your ass, I will be as Dark As Coal.
Only worse.
The End.