Epilogue
Three months later
“Do we have to go?”
Hudson chuckled into my neck. “I thought you wanted to be there. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t threatened everyone on the compound,” he licked my earlobe, then gently bit it, shifting his hips a little, making me gasp.
He wasn’t supposed to be back until tonight but his trip to New York had gone quicker than expected.
He’d been gone for two days. I’d worried the whole time but it was just a meeting he said, no job, no danger, just catching up and agreeing plans.
I wasn’t convinced, any meeting with the people he was with had danger written all over it.
He’d been given a new patch a couple of weeks ago, something King had decided to bring in, given the club was growing so big. He was now a Captain and he had four guys working on his crew.
I didn’t know the ins and outs of it but he was liaising with people out of New York.
They’d helped out when King was hurt and now the Devil’s Chaos was doing a lot more work with them.
Everyone kept telling me it was a good thing, didn’t mean I had to like knowing Hudson was going up there consorting with mobsters.
I only had to hear the name O’Connell once and I’d found out they were a part of the Irish mafia who ran their business out of New York and New Jersey.
Since the night my dad almost died, I’d learnt a harsh lesson and King spent every waking moment reminding me of my place in the club.
Don’t ask questions. Don’t get involved in anything club related and definitely stop trying to change things.
I wasn’t about to stop though and Hudson learnt when to answer me and when to humor me.
He gave me enough to keep me from getting into trouble.
We’d settled into a nice little pattern.
I never thought when Warren and Hudson came to get me that fateful night, I would end up not just living on the compound, but in a house with Hudson Kelley. Just the two of us. It had been weird at first, I’d never really lived with anyone, besides my family before.
Even when I was in college and after, I’d had my own dorm, then my own place.
Declan would stay over, and I’d sometimes stay with him too but, I lived alone.
It had been completed and furnished for three weeks now.
Most of the other houses were complete too, apart from the internal work, so although there were workmen about, they didn’t disturb us too much.
I’d finally managed to speak to Declan, very briefly.
He hadn’t wanted to speak to me, which was jarring after all the time he’d spent trying to.
After what happened to him, which he knew had something to do with me, I couldn’t blame him.
I just wanted the chance to apologize and check he was alright.
That was all he’d let me do before he hung up on me.
It hurt, but it was for the best. My life was here now.
The first thing Hudson did when he got back from New York was come down to the house and grab me from where I was trying to make dinner. He’d carried me fireman style up the stairs, and dropped me on the bed.
Hudson had perfected the art of stripping me and getting me so wound up I was practically begging him to get inside of me. He’d already had me writhing in pleasure once, but he was still hard and inside of me as he questioned me about the party tonight.
It was the first one since what went down in Summit. It had taken King that long to recover. At the time I didn’t know who’d provided the medical help, but we had driven to a private facility in Newark.
I’d been surprised by the place because it was actually a real medical practice.
Only that a doctor and nurse where there at four in the morning told me these guys were on someone’s payroll.
Those someone’s being the Irish mob I now knew.
At the time, I didn’t care who they were as long as they saved my dad.
He'd been lucky Hudson was grappling with Danica when she fired off the shot. If her hand had been steady, she would have got him right in the heart. As it was, she missed by about ten centimeters. It was still a bad injury and he’d needed to stay there for a couple of days before he came back under Medic’s care on the compound.
I’d been terrified that night, first seeing Hudson fighting with her, then racing to Newark with dad bleeding out beneath my hands, trying desperately to keep him alive.
Tonight, Hudson was right, something I had been fiercely advocating for was being celebrated.
Mace and a few of the men who had previously been Kingsmen, had been inducted into the Devil’s Chaos.
He didn’t come around here often and it had been a very tenuous and fraught switch over.
I’d heard there had been a struggle between Mace and his guys, their other chapters had turned their backs on those who made the switch, but they were protected now, and thus far, no one from the Kingsmen had retaliated against them, or us, for what happened to their club.
Ranger had helped, or so I’d heard. He hadn’t joined but he had started going back around their clubhouse.
They had moved out of state into Pennsylvania.
Stroudsburg was only an hour away but Mace wanted a fresh start.
I’d spoken to him a few times since and although I knew he was on board with the change, it obviously would never have been his first choice.
He seemed happy enough, King approved of how he was running the place, I’d heard him say a few times he was a good Prez, good head on his shoulders, and he’d hit the ground running working with us.
Fortunately, nothing came of the fight with the cartel. The Kingsmen in New Jersey were gone, the cartel knew not to approach us because of our ties to the Irish, so that all died along with Nytro and his other asshole men.
The explosion in Summit had been put down to a gas leak. A tragic accident that had killed the homeowner and widow of Francis Miller, that was all she had been reduced to. I don’t know how they managed to cover up the bodies in the basement, but no one had ever reported anything about them.
They’d all disappeared, just the way King wanted them to. He hadn’t spoken to me or Warren about Danica. I’d had nightmares for a while about what happened that night. As much as I hated the bitch, seeing her neck snapped shocked and scared me.
Dad had looked like someone I had never seen before when he was choking her. But I accepted it for what it was, his revenge for her taking his wife.
Mace had agreed for their chapter to head over here for tonight’s party, which was why Hudson was telling me I ought to be happy about going over to the clubhouse.
“Fuck you feel too good,” Hudson pushed up on his elbows, hovering over me. “Missed this.”
“This,” I arched a brow. “Or me?”
“Always you,” he said with a smirk as he thrust his hips. “Can’t have this without you,” he winked.
If he hadn’t started pumping into me harder, making me grab onto his forearms, I would have given him shit for that, but I just arched my back as he picked up the pace, lowering his head to suck on the skin below my collar bone.
“You gonna come?” he rasped out. “Give me another one before I do, I want you to come on my bare cock, baby.”
His dirty words alone did me in but I pushed my hand between us and pressed onto my clit.
He was too far gone to worry about knocking my hand away and taking over like he usually would, the possessive bastard.
I bucked up at the double pressure, tilting my head back so far I could see the headboard.
Hudson roared and pushed hard, then forced me to lower down on the bed so he could fall on me.
He never gave me his whole weight, but I held him against me anyway.
He shifted sideways and lay down beside me, stroking his hand over my lower belly, breathing hard.
“Have you seen much of War?” he asked after a few minutes of us catching our breath.
The switch from incredible sex, to talking about my brother was unpleasant.
“He’s been keeping busy, out of the way,” I told him, letting my worry show through. “He’s still trying to find the guy Danica hired. He disappears a lot.”
“It’s what he’s got to do, Wave. He’ll come through the other side,” he kissed my temple.
His words were sincere, but I didn’t think he fully believed what he was saying either. My brother changed after everything that had happened. Killing Lily and Omen, being there when Danica shot dad and he snapped her neck. Then everything with Connor.
He was still the same guy, still tactile and friendly and involved in the club, outwardly showing everyone he was fine, but I could see something different in him. It didn’t help he was still having issues with Connor.
Hudson got them in the same room together. Once Connor was out of the woods, moving around more, going to physio, regularly seeing a therapist and even walking outside of the hospital.
Hudson came down hard on Connor. He’d eventually agreed to talk to Warren, but my brother was struggling to get over the ultimatum and trying to figure out how they could continue the way they were before.
They were both hurting, neither one of them able to come to an agreement that gave them both what they wanted.
I could totally understand why Connor wouldn’t want to be around the club but the fact he could so easily throw away what he had with Warren, or walk away from our family, stunned me.
I wanted to go to King and tell him all it took was one word from him and things would be okay, but Warren said he’d never speak to me again if I went behind his back and did that, and I believed him.