Epilogue
LEGS
I knew something was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what. So when Midas told me there was a patching-in party today, I figured that’s what all the secrecy was about.
I put on one of the new dresses Midas had a prospect pick up. I feel pretty, despite my ever-growing belly, which seems to pop more and more each day.
I glance at my cell phone before giving in. I grab it and send Kruger a message, asking for an update. Much to her brother’s annoyance, the man has barely left Del’s side since she came out of surgery. She has yet to wake up, though, so I’ve been checking in with Kruger daily, hoping for good news.
When he replies with no change, I sigh and toss the phone on the bed. It’s early days, but if anyone deserves a miracle, it’s Del. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay her for what she did for me.
I add the finishing touches to my outfit—simple silver jewelry and a pair of low kitten heels—before heading downstairs to find my man.
I bump into Powers, who steadies me before I go ass over the teakettle. “Shit, sorry, Legs. I don’t suppose you’ve seen Lil anywhere, have you?”
“No. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her since the night Del got hurt. I’m worried she’s struggling. Del might not have had anything to do with what happened, but it was still her husband that hurt Lil.”
“I know. The whole thing is a mess. Can you tell her I’m looking for her if you see her?”
I eye him curiously. Prospects don’t get to sleep with the club girls. That’s a perk only fully patched brothers can enjoy, but there is something in his eyes that’s more than friendly interest.
Oh well, not my circus, not my monkey. “Sure, I’ll let her know.”
“Midas is over by the bar if you’re looking for him.”
“Thanks.” I smile as I head that way, getting a wolf whistle or two as I pass. Half of it is just to wind Midas up. He snarls at the crowd before snatching me up and planting one on me.
“You’re such a caveman.”
“You love it really,” he teases, making me sigh because I really do.
“Seriously? Holy fuck, congratulations.”
We both turn at the sound of Havoc’s voice. He’s talking on his cell phone, the biggest grin on his face. When he finishes his call, he puts his fingers between his lips and whistles loud enough to make my ears bleed.
“Listen up. That was Blade. He and Inigo won’t make it today because the twins decided to today was the day.”
It’s silent for a minute as the news sinks in, and then the whole place erupts in cheers.
“Alright, settle down so I can tell you the rest. I don’t know their names yet because I forgot to ask.” I boo at him, making him roll his eyes. “However, I can tell you both babies were over six pounds…and drum roll, please…Raven Souls now welcomes two more legacies to the fold.
“Wait, she had two boys? Man, she’s gonna have her hands full.” Neveah laughs happily. I’m more concerned about the six-pound thing. That’s twelve pounds in total she managed to squeeze out. I’m not sure my vagina could recover from that.
“While we’re in the mood to celebrate, I can now share why we’re here. Powers, Ambros, Hoops, and Dice, get your asses over here.”
The older prospects line up in front of Havoc, and the two newbies, Pig and Con who started a couple of weeks ago look on with interest.
“We lucked out with you four. Each of you has proven time and time again that you’re willing to go above and beyond. We’re proud to welcome you to the brotherhood and proud to have you watching our backs. Prospects, remove those cuts.”
I stand back and sniff, feeling proud of how far they’ve all come. I watch with a smile as Mac, Toot, Circus, and Capone step up with their new cuts, marking them as full brothers.
Cheers go up, followed by toasts before the room quiets down. I expect the crowd to thin a little until I turn and look at Midas and find him down on one knee.
I gasp as he takes my hand in his. “I had a fancy speech all prepared, and then you came downstairs looking like that, and it all went out the window. I honestly can’t remember a single word of it.”
“Your blood rushed to the wrong brain,” Toot hollers before I hear the sound of someone smacking him.
“What I know is, I love you. I’m never happier than when I’m beside you. I want to fuck you, fight with you, grow old with you because you’re it for me, Legs. Say you’ll be mine so I can be it for you, too.”
There’s only one thing I can say to that.
“No.”
Silence blankets the room before I burst out laughing. “Of course, it’s a yes, dummy.”
“I’m so spanking you for that later,” he growls before kissing me hard.
I feel someone place something on my shoulders and pull back. I get emotional when I realize it’s a cut. “You want me to be your old lady?”
“What do you think, dummy?”
I throw myself at him, and like usual, he catches me, swinging me around as people laugh and congratulate us.
“Wait, you forgot my ring.”
“About that…” he hesitates as he hands me a ring box. I flip it open, confused. There is no ring inside—only a locket.
A very familiar locket. I reach for it with shaky hands and flip it over, sobbing loudly when I see the inscription on the back. “My mom’s locket. How?”
“I have connections. I asked around and did some digging. Thankfully, someone remembered it. I didn’t want to get you a ring until after the pregnancy. I know you hate how swollen your fingers get, so I thought until then, this could be our engagement locket. What do you think?”
“It’s perfect,” I whisper, slipping it over my head.
“There’s more.”
“How can there be more? You’ve already given me everything I could have wished for.”
“Come on, I’ll show you.”
“Can I grab something real quick first?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll be right back.”
I go upstairs and grab my bunny off the bed before heading back down to Midas.
He frowns when he sees it in my hands, but he doesn’t ask any questions as we get in his truck and drive away from the compound.
I rub my fingers over my new cut, surprised by how a single piece of clothing makes me feel so safe and secure.
I’m so lost in my thoughts that I don’t realize the truck has stopped until Midas climbs out and walks around to help me. I look around at where we are and frown. We are on a quiet cul-de-sac with four houses, and the one we are parking outside of is at the far end.
“Whose house is this?”
He takes my hand and leads me up the path that’s bordered with pretty pink flowers. I look up and gasp when I see white shutters covering the windows like the house I loved when I was a kid.
“It’s ours.”
He leads me inside as I struggle to find the right words. “You bought a house?”
“I bought us a house. I need you and our daughter to make it a home.”
He guides me around the downstairs, and I fall in love with it instantly. It’s huge, light, and airy, and I can picture it filled with the scent of baking cookies and little girl laughter.
He takes me upstairs and shows me our bedroom first, along with the opulent bathroom, which includes a huge ornate bath I’ll be spending as much time in as humanly possible.
And then he leads me to the room next door.
“Oh my god, it’s beautiful.” And it is. The walls are a soft pink, lined with white shelves that have prints of teddy bears and dolls.
A changing table sits against the far wall, while a built-in oak crib sits along the wall opposite it.
A rocking chair is by the window, with a snuggly throw draped over its back.
“It’s perfect, Midas.”
“You think you could be happy here?”
“I think we’d be happy if we lived in a barn as long as we had each other, but yes. I love it here.”
“Good, because we’re officially moving in today. I gave Delphi the deed to Au and the apartment above it. I owe her for what Kiki did.”
I reach up on tiptoe and kiss him. “You’re a good man, Midas.”
“I’m not, but I can be a good man for you.”
I pull back and take a deep, steadying breath. “What will you do without Au?”
“You were right when you said I hated it. I need something new to sink my teeth into. I think I’ve found something that looks promising, but I want to talk to Powers first and see if he wants in on it with me.”
“You don’t want to jinx it, do you?”
He grins and shakes his head, so I let it go. He’ll tell me when he’s ready.
“I need to tell you something. Shit, this is hard.”
“You can tell me anything, Legs. Here, let’s go sit down.” He walks us to the bedroom and sits beside me on the end of the bed. “What’s wrong? You’ve gone pale.”
“I’m scared. I don’t know how you’re going to react.”
“I’m not the same man I was before, Legs. Please believe me.”
I take a deep breath and sigh before opening the zipper on my bunny and pulling out the folded piece of paper inside. “I want you to know who the father is.”
“What?”
“I always knew who it was. It could only have been one person. I got a sample of their hair and saliva and sent it off for testing, and it came back as a 99% match.”
“Do they know?”
I shake my head, feeling a tear run down my face.
“I won’t let anyone take her from you,” he vows.
“I know.” I hand him the slip of paper. “But it’s time her father knew about her.”
He flips it open and reads it over before freezing when he gets to the name. He looks at me and swallows hard, his eyes flooding with tears. “You’re sure?”
“It could only have been you.”
“She’s really mine?”
“She’s really yours.”
He grabs me and kisses me hard, pouring all his love into me before pulling back. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“At first, you wouldn’t have believed me. Then I remembered what you said about taking the baby, and I was terrified you would. Especially as you’d already shown me how much you didn’t want me in your life anymore.”
He groans like he’s in pain. “God, I fucked up so bad.”
“But you fixed it so good. And I’ll never question if you’re only with me now because of our baby. You loved her before you even knew she was yours.”
I wipe away a stray tear from his face as he frowns.
“Those fuckers. They knew, didn’t they? G and Havoc. That’s why they didn’t push the brothers to come forward for testing.”
“They knew. I wasn’t having sex with anyone else. Only you. They knew we were it for each other, even if we hadn’t quite figured it out ourselves.”
He stares down at the DNA results. “They said I’d never have kids.”
“G did some checking and found your old medical records. It doesn’t say anywhere in your file that you wouldn’t be able to have kids, just that you might find it difficult.”
“That’s not what they said, though—”
“Was it the doctor who told you or your foster family?”
He thinks back and curses. “My foster father. He lived to torture me. He fucking laughed when he told me.”
“He lied.”
He looks at me before a wide smile spreads across his face. “He lied.”
I smile back. “Yeah.”
“You’ll give me a dozen babies?”
“As many as you want,” I whisper as he kisses me again before bending down and kissing my bump.
“Daddy can’t wait to meet you, sweet pea.”
I run my fingers through his hair as his cell phone rings. He pulls it out and answers it. “I was just showing Legs the house.”
“I hate to break up the happy moment, but we’ve got a problem.” Havoc sighs, making me brace. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Lil. She’s gone.”
“What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“I mean, she’s gone. She left a note and took off.”
“She wouldn’t just do that.”
“Well, she did, and didn’t do it for shits and giggles. Did Kiki mention Lil at all?”
I look at Legs, knowing she can hear him, and see her shaking her head. “No, Legs says no too.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
I lean forward. “What are you getting at? “
“Some of this shit didn’t fit, like things happening to Lil at the shelter and the notes. I think that was all for Lil. To scare her.”
“You don’t think Kiki was stalking her?”
“No. I think things didn’t fit because there’s two stalkers, Kiki and the one fixated on Lil. I just spoke to Tina, and she said she and Kiki knew about the Bronco following Lil because they heard a couple of brothers talking about it.”
“So Kiki drove herself into a ditch and gave us a description of the truck following Lil to make it seem like the same guy.”
“And it worked.”
“She had access to Tina so stealing her shit from the hotel would have been easy but why steal Legs underwear and send the dead flowers to the clubhouse with Lil’s name on?”
“She used Lil’s name for the same reason she used the same truck description––to keep us all looking one way.”
“Fuck. Kiki wasn’t stalking Legs, she was stalking me. I took Legs flowers, so she sent back the remains. I took a pair of her panties; Kiki took them all out of spite.”
“That doesn’t explain the wall of photo’s though.” Havoc sighs, not liking having these lose ends anymore than I do.
“You really think there’s still someone out there after Lil?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Which brings us back to who the fuck is this guy?”
“I have no idea. But we’d better find out because I think Lil’s been on his radar much longer than we realized.”
“The hospital,” Legs murmurs. “Start at the hospital. Something went down that made her drop out from nursing school right as she was about to graduate.”
“I’ll get G on it.” Havoc replies having heard her.
“We’ll find her, Havoc.”
“I don’t doubt that. The question is, will we find her before this asshole does?”