60. Epilogue—Harper
SIXTY
EPILOGUE—HARPER
"I know you’re all wondering why you’ve been called here today."
Nash and Rowan blinked at each other, but Angel sat beside me, all smiles, his hand in mine like he did any time he got the chance. He might not be the same old Angel I remembered, but I was seeing more and more glimpses of the caring, sensitive man he used to be every day we spent together.
"Well," Lilly St. Clair continued, "we’re here to welcome a new member to the Guild."
The guys looked around like they half expected a new crew to waltz out of the wings and announce themselves, but I just smiled as I stood and shook Angel’s hand free, moving slowly up to the woman who helped me find myself and my strength when I was at my weakest. The woman who taught me to take matters into my own hands.
My new employer.
If my new crew would have me, that is.
"Everyone welcome Harper Daniels, the newest member of the Skeleton Crew."
It must not have registered in their minds yet, because none of my men said a word to me as they stared on in shock. Rowan seemed to balk at the idea when Lilly held out the hot blade for me to mark myself with—the emblem of the guild in raised metal on the knife forever burned into the skin of my shoulder, a reminder of the exclusive group I would now forever owe my loyalty to.
I held out the blade, eyes meeting Nash’s with a wicked glint. "Would you like to do the honors, Nashville?"
The poor man looked ready to come in his pants at the opportunity. "Fuck yes, I would." He stood and rushed to my side, his fingers practically twitching as he gripped the hilt of the knife I offered him. "Where do you want it?"
"Right above your favorite freckle on my shoulder."
His grin turned wicked. "Oh, you picked a good spot. I’ll get to look at it every time I bend you over the?—"
"Nashville!" I scolded, turning a bright shade of red as Angel’s head fell into his hands as he laughed silently, Rowan shaking his head with a sigh. I turned to Lilly, the warmth of a blush creeping up my throat, and she smiled knowingly. "Sorry."
"You’re young and in love. Enjoy it. Don’t apologize." She beamed at me as Nash slipped the edge of my tank top over my shoulder and pressed the blade without warning to my tender skin, the sizzling sound and smell of burning flesh imprinting in my mind as I gritted my teeth against the pain.
I didn’t want to show how much it fucking hurt. The only one here who wouldn’t overreact would have been Nash. And that was just because he liked pain. So I held my breath, counted to ten, and let it out, breathing through the sting as Nash took the cream Lilly offered and slathered a generous helping of it over the burn. I wanted a lasting reminder, not an infection.
The boys introduced me to the rest of the Guild, some of whom were familiar to me already. Jackal and his Neon Dogs grinned like devils and high-fived me as I pretended the burn didn’t bother me, moving through the crowd with ease. Before long, Surgeon’s face popped up among the crowd, and I smiled as he leaned down to whisper in my ear about proper care for the wound and to let him know if I needed anything for the pain. Even Lilly’s ex-husband Keehn was present, though not in uniform, obviously. He lurked in the shadows at the corner of the patio, arms crossed, and his eyes tracked Lilly as she mingled.
Talk about a man in love.
I wasn’t sure what was going on with those two, but clearly, their divorce wasn’t the end of it. Maybe there would be more love in the air soon, with Lilly lifting the "no outsiders" rule to allow the crews to find new members, or people to love them and all their twisted, strange, vigilante ways .
I found Angel and the others and pulled them off to the side lawn as the drinking began, eager to give them a gift of my own, now that things were stable again.
"Here, sit, sit," I demanded, ushering them to the nearby retaining wall. They leaned against the waist-high stone one by one, waiting for me to get to the point.
Rowan, with his arms crossed, eyes on me, simmering low and slow like a banked fire.
Angel, his eyes alight with compassion and happiness, two things he’d lacked for so long, it was like he was discovering them for the first time again.
And Nash, with his boyish exuberance, flipping that fucking Harpie Girl knife in his hand as he kicked one foot over the other and grinned like a loon.
These were the Blackwood boys, and though they weren’t the same ones I’d grown up with, they were the ones I had now. Men, where once boys stood. And I, their flaming phoenix of a girl, rising from death more than once to haunt them and dog their steps.
And to love them, both for who they were, and who they’d become.
"Rowan," I said quietly, pulling a letter from the inside of my pants pocket. "When I went back to the estate, I found this letter in your father’s desk drawer. It’s addressed to you."
I knew whose handwriting spelled out his name on the front of that envelope. I’d seen Rowan’s mother’s script on the back of the photo he’d carried in his wallet growing up. He’d take it out every year on her birthday and share it with me, the only time he opened up about her.
His voice was thick with emotion as he took it from my hand, cradling it like it was made of fragile glass. "My mother wrote this," he whispered, slipping his finger beneath the fold to open it carefully .
We all waited in silence as he read through the letter, line by line, a tear clinging desperately to the end of his lashes like a stubborn star clinging to the dawn sky. When he reached the end, he reached for me, and I let him envelop me in an embrace, raising my own hands to hold him back.
"Thank you," he muttered into my hair, his whole body lighter, it felt like. "You have no idea what this means to me, Harper."
"I have an inkling," I mumbled back against his chest, smiling to myself. "But you’re not the only one with a surprise today."
He released me and I hesitated, unsure who to turn to next. Angel’s expectant, eager eyes fell on me, and I caved, tugging the small slip of paper and folded photo out of my back pocket, handing them to him.
He unfolded the paper and the picture and stared back at me in confusion. "This is a picture of me when I was younger. But what’s the number for?"
"That isn’t you," I revealed, flipping the picture over before I handed it back. "His name is Kai. And he’s your brother."
Angel stared down at the photo in his grip, hands shaking as I slipped his phone from his pocket and offered it to him gently. "Does he know I exist?" he asked weakly, eyes filled with tears.
"He does now. And he’s waiting for your call, if you decide to make it."
Angel took the phone and pressed a kiss to my temple, transferring some of his fresh tears to my skin. "Thank you," he whispered, his fingers dialing the number on the paper slowly.
His thumb hovered over the send button, and I covered his hand with my own, knowing how scary this must be for him. "Your mother would want you two to meet. After all, you’re twins. Someone should tell him about her."
I left him contemplating his decision and moved to stand in front of Nash with two empty hands held upright. His eyes traveled from one hand to the other, and his face fell. "Aww, Harpie girl, don’t you have something for me?"
"I do. I just couldn’t fit it in my pocket."
I grabbed his shoulders and turned him around, directing his gaze toward the concrete circle, where a lone black car sat waiting. A woman emerged slowly, the sun at her back, her long hair flowing in the breeze, and Nash’s knees buckled when her face turned into the sun and made her profile visible.
"How?" He stared at his mother, a woman they told him would never wake up again, who was now alive, walking, and well, in disbelief. "She was brain dead . . ."
"That’s what he told you. Turned out, he’d been paying a doctor friend of his to keep her in a medically induced coma. He used her as a bargaining chip, and eventually, he’d have killed her if you outlived your usefulness."
"I can’t—" He stared down at me, speechless for the first time in his life. "Harpie girl, what the fuck?"
"Your father held things over your heads this whole time, using your emotions to turn you cold to the rest of the world. When I decided to kill him, I knew I had to find a way to return your humanity to you, so I dug into everything he’d ever touched and unearthed the secrets he never wanted you to uncover." I reached down and cradled his jaw in my palm, happier than I’d been in years. It was everything I’d ever wanted to bring this level of completion and closure to the men I loved. I wanted them to be able to step into a new, uncertain future with me, free of the chains that horrible man who’d fathered them had bound them in.
They were the most important things in my life. And I never wanted them to doubt that.
"I love you three," I said as they each battled their own demons, preparing to take some of the biggest steps of their lives. "More than words can express. "
"You’re too good for us, Harper Daniels," Rowan said, his soft smile melting my heart.
"Hell is too good for you, Rowan Blackwood. I’m just the girl who will remind you whenever you forget that."