EPILOGUE
CASSANDRA
One month later . . .
“Well, there’s one advantage to living with Mom and Dad,” I said as we walked down the sidewalk toward Genevieve and Isaiah’s house. “Short commute to the Saturday barbeque.”
Leo nodded. “This is true.”
But our living arrangement was about to change.
Next week, we were going home.
The construction project would be done in a week, with new windows and siding. Since the garage had been completely destroyed, we’d decided to rebuild it twice as big and attached to the house so that we could each park inside.
Leo had asked me if I wanted to move and I’d told him no. If I could get through being kidnapped from my parents’ driveway, I’d work through the explosion. I’d keep talking it through, like I had the abduction. With Leo. With Scarlett. Even with my parents. Each time, it was easier to process.
I didn’t want that bastard to win and chase me out of our home.
I loved our house. There were more happy memories there than sad. It was ours, the place where we’d fallen in love. The place where we’d brought Seraphina home from the hospital. And one day, maybe we’d do the same for a sibling or two.
“Goo ahh eee,” Seraphina babbled, grabbing at Leo’s face.
He tickled her side, earning the smile that conjured my own. Then he smooched her cheek and shifted her to his other arm. She’d left a drool spot on his white T-shirt and the wet spot allowed the orange, red and black of the phoenix tattoo on his shoulder to show through.
At five months old, she was gnawing on everything as her first tooth attempted to work free.
The slobber was nearly impossible to contain.
The cute pink dress I’d put her in this morning was in the hamper and now she was wearing a marigold romper adorned with ruffles.
I had another change of clothes in the diaper bag.
“Now that the house is almost done, we should host the next barbeque,” I said.
“Uh, yeah. Sure, babe.” He shifted Seraphina again. And even though he smiled at her, his shoulders were bunched tight. He dragged in a long breath, held it, then blew it out, like he was forcing himself to relax.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Course.”
“Leo.”
He looked at me and there it was. Nerves. “I’m good.”
“Do you not want to go today?” I slowed, pointing back to Mom and Dad’s. “We can stay home.”
He shook his head, took my hand and clasped it tight. “I’m good.”
“Okay.” I didn’t believe him, but maybe after we got to Genevieve and Isaiah’s, he’d chill.
In the past month, we hadn’t had a group gathering. The men had been scared to have us all in one place. But we couldn’t live in fear forever.
Doug Hamilton was no longer a threat. Just this week he’d been convicted of attempted murder. Maybe the dumbass shouldn’t have charged the makings of his bomb to his personal credit card. Or maybe he should have used a car not registered under his wife’s name when he’d tried to run me off the road.
Either those mistakes had been made from sheer stupidity, or he’d been so arrogant that he hadn’t fathomed being caught. He’d really thought it would be easy to kill Leo and make it look like an accident.
Whatever his motives, I was giving Doug less and less headspace as the days went on.
We weren’t sure exactly how he’d been connected to the Warriors. No matter how deep Emmett dug, there was no electronic link between Doug and Tucker Talbot. From the outside, it appeared as if he had been estranged from his father, not even taking the Talbot last name.
The mystery would likely remain that way. Though he had pleaded guilty, Doug hadn’t confessed how or why he’d come after Leo.
Though we all knew it was because Tucker had ordered it.
Luke had requested the visitation records for Tucker, and he’d had no visitors besides his lawyers. But Luke was a good cop and when that hadn’t panned out, he’d called the FBI and requested the records for every Warrior serving sentences at the Montana State Prison.
According to the records, a Henry Williams had visited two of the senior members of the Arrowhead Warriors a year ago. Agent Brown had confirmed that, based on security footage from the penitentiary, Henry Williams was in fact Doug Hamilton.
Maybe Doug had been Tucker’s last shot. Maybe not.
Leo and I were both doing our best to live life to the fullest each and every day while maintaining caution.
He went to work at the garage. Some days, Seraphina and I went with him. Others, we stayed home or spent the day at Scarlett and Luke’s. I squeezed writing into little moments and otherwise my days revolved around a growing baby girl who was changing too quickly.
Seraphina’s hair, a lighter shade of red than mine, was growing in small wisps that curled at the ends.
Her eyes were slowly shifting toward what I hoped would be Leo’s pale green.
One day, when she was a grown woman, I’d tell her how she’d forged my path.
Because of her, I’d found the place where I’d always been meant to be.
At Leo’s side.
I gripped his hand tighter as we reached Genevieve and Isaiah’s place. “This will be fun.”
He nodded and forced a smile.
“We’ll be fine.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, raising a hand to ring the doorbell.
Isaiah opened it with Amelia on his arm. “Hey. Come on in.”
I smiled, but when I went to step inside, Leo cut in front of me, going first.
Ohh-kay.
“How are you guys?” I asked Isaiah, tickling Amelia’s arm.
“Good.” He led the way to the living room. “You?”
“We’re good. Leo’s a little edgy about this.”
Isaiah dropped his chin, hiding a grin that was more suspicious than happy. For a man who didn’t smile often, it was a lot like he was in on a secret.
“Is something—”
The sliding door to the patio opened, and Scarlett slipped past the curtains, her cheeks flushed. “You’re here!”
Presley was right behind her, making sure that as she came inside, the curtains stayed fixed over the door’s glass. She gave Leo a single nod as she came over and took Seraphina from his arms.
Then everyone disappeared. Scarlett, Isaiah and Presley scurried away to the backyard with my daughter, leaving Leo and me standing in the quiet house.
“Okay, what’s going on?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, then he took my hand and led me toward the door, pulling the curtain away.
I gasped.
“What—” The words died on my tongue.
An altar stood in the yard, its circular wooden frame decorated with pale pink and ivory flowers. Greenery crept through the buds, contrasting with the sheer white curtain that had been hung behind the structure.
Rows of galvanized buckets, each filled with the same flowers as the altar, created an aisle on the lawn. Between the buckets, rose petals adorned the path. And a crowd had gathered, all eyes fixed on me.
Mom leaned into Dad’s side, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
“They left to run errands.” I blinked, sure that this was a dream. Beside Mom stood Pastor Parsons from my church. “What is this?”
“Marry me,” Leo said. “Today.”
“Today?” I gaped, unable to take my eyes away from the yard.
They’d planned this. They’d all planned this. The decorations had Scarlett’s name written all over them.
“Today.” Leo took my face in his hands, turning me from the glass. “I don’t want to wait for you to be my wife.”
Tears flooded my eyes. That’s why he’d been nervous on the walk over. He’d planned our wedding.
I glanced down at my outfit of shorts and a plain black tank top. This was not the outfit I wanted to get married in. “My clothes . . .”
“Scarlett picked out a dress. If you hate it or want to wait, we can wait.”
“No.” I shook my head, the word rushing out so fast it surprised me. “Today.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Leo smashed his lips on mine, banding his arms around me as his tongue dove into my mouth. And I clung to him, kissing him with everything that I had.
When he pulled away, the smile on his face was blinding. He threw his head back and laughed, the excitement radiating off his body palpable. “I was sure you’d say no. But you always surprise me.”
He turned to the glass and whipped the door open, then whooped at our friends. “Let’s do this!”
A chorus of cheers carried over the air as everyone sprang into action.
Scarlett, Bryce and Genevieve raced for the door, all of them rattling off details as they took me to a bedroom where a beautiful ivory dress was laid across the bed.
“Oh.” My hand came to my heart.
“Like it?” Scarlett asked.
I could only manage a nod, then stripped out of my shorts and tank top. They’d thought of everything. Jewelry. Undergarments. Shoes. The gown itself was a dream.
The torso was simple, with thin straps and a slight V at my breasts. The back laced up so it fit perfectly. But the skirt made the dress magic. I swished it, letting the ethereal fabric brush the tops of my bare toes.
“What about my hair and makeup?”
“Your mom brought some makeup if you want to freshen up, but you look beautiful,” Genevieve said. “And with the way Leo toys with your hair, I think you should leave it down.”
“Okay.” A laugh bubbled free. “He did all of this. How?”
“The club might be gone, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a Tin King,” Bryce said. “We’re there for each other. Leo wanted to surprise you today. We all made sure it could happen.”
A Tin King.
One year ago, that would have terrified me. Now, I couldn’t imagine my life in any other place or with any other people.
The club wasn’t gone. It just looked different now.
I walked down the aisle to Leo, who’d changed into a white button-down shirt and dark jeans. We exchanged vows. He kissed me—his wife—as our friends applauded.
It was twilight by the time the excitement settled down and the caterer had cleaned up what was left from the food.
“I’ve got a present for you, Mrs. Winter,” Leo said, stroking my arm.
I was sitting on his lap in the chairs Isaiah and Dash had hauled out after the wedding. “More?”
He grinned and gave Emmett a nod.
“Where’s he going?” I asked as Emmett jogged around the yard toward the front of the house.
Leo stood, taking me with him and setting me on my feet. Then he took my hand and we all meandered to the front yard, following the path where Emmett had disappeared.
The rumble of an engine caught my ear. “I’m not getting on a bike with this dress.”
“It’s not a bike.” Leo dropped a kiss to my neck as our group congregated on the sidewalk.
The cement was warm on my bare feet. Down the road, lights glowed in the windows at Mom and Dad’s, where they’d taken Seraphina after she’d fallen asleep.
A flash of color caught my eye from Luke and Scarlett’s driveway. A shining, flaming-orange car rolled down the street, the fading rays from the sun catching the flecks of gold on its hood.
Emmett sat behind the wheel.
“He got a new car?”
Leo shook his head. “No. You did.”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“She’s yours.”
“No. It’s too much.” Not with what we were paying for the house and garage, plus the repairs on his truck. I wasn’t exactly bringing in a lot of money to contribute to household income at the moment. My student loans needed to be repaid.
“No arguments.” Leo brought my knuckles to his lips. “I want you to have a car that’s for fun. One that you feel safe inside. We restored it at the garage. And you can sit behind the wheel and know that from the moment I saw her, I knew she was yours.”
“Leo, I’m . . .”
“I love you, Cassandra.”
I met those beautiful green eyes and fell a little more in love. Every day with him was like swimming deeper into an ocean of stars, its tides pulling me under to the rhythm of my heart. “I love you too.”
He gave me a chaste kiss as Emmett stopped on the street. Then Leo tugged me toward the driver’s side, opening the door and helping me in.
It smelled of leather and paint and Leo.
“Where are we heading, babe?” he asked, settling into the passenger side.
I glanced at the backseat. “Somewhere secluded.”
He grinned.
And with a Just Married sign in the back window and soup cans tied to the bumper, we set out into our forever.
NOVA
“I told you it wouldn’t work.”
Across from me, Tucker Talbot bristled. He didn’t like that I was right. He didn’t like failure. But he shouldn’t have trusted something like this to Doug, a man who lacked both the brains and the motivation to see it through.
Tucker’s dark hair had more gray streaks in it these days. These past months in prison had aged him. His goatee was as white as the hair at his temples. Others might see a man beaten but if they met his dark eyes, they’d see the warrior.
“Are you ready to do this my way?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Fine.” I stood, shoving away from the metal table in the dull, windowless room. A guard watched us from a single window in the steel door.
“Wait.” Tucker clenched his jaw and nodded for me to sit.
I resumed my seat, leaning close.
“What’s your plan?” he asked.
My gaze flicked to the camera mounted in the corner. It was illegal for them to record this conversation, but I wasn’t taking a chance. “You’ll have to trust me.”
Tucker met my gaze, studying my face. We didn’t need to voice our desires because they were one and the same.
To ruin the Tin Kings.
To get our revenge for the lives they’d stolen.
My brother’s.
My father’s.
Tucker gave me a nearly invisible nod. “Be careful.”
“I will.” I stood again, collecting my briefcase and signaling for the guard to unlock the door.
“Nova,” Tucker said, his voice barely audible. “I love you.”
Words—fuel—for what I was about to do.
“I love you too, Dad.”