Epilogue
Denny entered Attic in his civilian clothes. His general attitude was that when he had on his uniform, he was on duty. After work was a different story; he could just be himself.
At least that was his intent tonight. Whatever he heard in conversation would stay right here with all the other secrets he suspected the Knights had under their belts.
One of the girls danced with full enthusiasm on the stage.
Fake tits, fake hair, and fake tan, but genuine moves.
She’d had some training at one time in her life.
Melter, Ratchet, Stalemate, and Crossman sat at the Knights’ normal spot at the round tables off in one corner.
Their conversation carried over the music.
“Didja bang your Date Knight girl?” Ratchet took a big swallow of beer, spilling some over his chin.
Melter’s eyes bugged out. “No, dude, and get this: The woman won’t stop calling me!”’
“You should totally bang her.” Ratchet suddenly raised an eyebrow. “Wait, did you just call me dude?”
“Yeah?”
“You high?”
Melter’s lopsided grin gave it away. “Yeah, I am.”
Stalemate took a drink of his beer. “Did you bang yours? Even though she outweighed you by a hundred pounds or more?”
Ratchet placed two fingers over his mouth and waggled his tongue between them. “What do you think?”
“Seriously, Ratch, I hope you showed her some respect on the date,” Crossman groused.
Ratchet laughed. “You, my friend, got the cream of the crop. What’s her name, the girl from the bookstore? Hot, my friend. Banging hot.”
Denny moved on through the club to find the president.
Wolf stood at his normal sentry post and jutted his chin at him. “Officer.”
Denny expected the cold greeting. For the last couple of weeks, he and the club had been at odds over the disappearance of the Sweet brothers.
Then the investigation ended and the whole event became nothing more than a brief blip in the news cycle.
Journalists had already moved on to the next story and the next crisis.
“Wolf. I’m just Denny tonight. Long day filling out a shit ton of paperwork and forms. The Sweet brothers are on their way to the crematorium.
We found a distant cousin who’d vaguely heard of them.
Once he found out there was no money, he signed off, and the state is paying to have them taken care of. ”
Wolf let out an exaggerated sigh. “Too bad.”
Denny played along. “Not really. The system is so backed up it would have been years before they’d gone to trial.
Feeding and housing them, costing the taxpayers money.
Then people gotta deal with jury duty. It’s a pain in the ass, especially when everyone knows the outcome.
Nah, it’s not a bad thing for those two to drown while making a run out of state on the river.
Good thing those bodies washed up and we could make a positive ID.
Seems they got pretty banged up on shore rocks.
If we hadn’t, we’d still be investigating. ”
Wolf nodded in agreement but stayed silent as the officer kept talking.
“Saves a lot of headaches. Paperwork is finished and filed. As far as I’m concerned, this case is over and done with, and we can all move on to better shit.”
Wolf’s face remained impassive. “Good to know. First beer is on the house.”
The phone on the table buzzed impatiently. Cam paused with the lifted hammer in his hand. His arm ached from nonuse all these weeks, but getting back to work in the forge felt good. Real good.
However, a break wouldn’t be a bad idea. That and some care from his personal in-house massage therapist.
Cam grinned big as he picked up the phone and glanced at the number. Then his face fell as he saw it was Kyle who was calling. He took a breath and swiped to answer. “Yo, what’s up?”
“Tammie left the rehab last week and was found this morning in Nashville. Overdose. She’s gone.”
A stab of pain hit Cam’s heart. There was no love lost between him and Tammie; it was more the waste of life that hurt. Vera and Cecil had tried hard to help their last foster, but no matter what they did, Tammie stayed on that path of destruction until it finally ran out.
“I’ve arranged for a cremation, but I have no place to put the ashes. Can we scatter them somewhere?”
“She liked visiting Point State Park when we were kids. I say we take her there and scatter her in the river.”
“Is that legal?”
“Fuck if I know. You gonna call Morgan?”
Cam heard his brother take a long, resigned breath. “I already did. He’s not interested. I’ll call you back when I have more information, n’at. Yeah?”
“Sure.”
The line clicked dead. Cam suddenly didn’t feel like finishing the billet he had on the anvil.
He powered down the shop and furnace, putting the tools away but leaving the metal to cool by itself.
The drive home was uneventful. He’d already parked the bike, as the winter cold was too much this first week of January.
His four-wheel drive still had trouble on the roads from the recent ice storm that made its way through the city.
Sabrina met him at the door with Rugrat firmly anchored to her shoulder. “Hey, sugar. Long day?”
“Yeah, you could say that.” He entered the mudroom and hung up his thick winter jacket before pulling off his boots. “Kyle called me.”
She blinked at him over her shoulder as she made her way back into the kitchen. A big pot of something that smelled delicious bubbled away on the stove. “Really? What did he want?”
“Tammie died in Nashville. Drug overdose.”
She turned from where she stirred the pot’s contents. “Oh, Cam, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
He nodded and planted his butt against the counter in front of the stove. “Yeah, I’m good. A little numb. There’s a part of me that’s sad she’s gone and another part of me that’s glad it’s over.”
“I can relate. If I found out Rigo was dead, I’d be both sad and okay with it. Right now I’m pissed as hell at him for trying to sue both me and Sunstone for getting shot. Like Cicely needs to deal with that shit on top of being shot herself.”
Cam picked up the matching lizard salt and pepper shakers and switched them back and forth. “I still don’t understand that. It wasn’t your fault. Not Cicely’s either. I’m glad you don’t work there anymore.”
“I am, too, sugar.” She yanked on a pair of oven mitts and bent over to open the appliance. The yeasty smell of fresh bread wafted over the counter. “You need to make arrangements or something?”
“Kyle is handling it.” His eyes drifted over the golden crust of a round sourdough. “Did Rodrigo ever get the rest of his shit settled with Rosa?”
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “As far as I know he did. Rigo gets half of Dad’s estate, and I get the other half. It’s not enough to make anyone rich, but it’s a good start to saving up for my own future massage practice.”
He smiled. “Guess that means you’re gonna stick it out here, with me.”
Sabrina pulled two large bowls from the cupboard. “Was there ever any doubt? Yes, sugar. I’m sticking it out here.”
Cam watched her ladle the Irish stew into the bowls and break off big chunks of bread to add to the side plates. He lifted the saltshaker with its curling lizard tail and placed it in front of her. “How ’bout we make it official?”
Dangling from the end of the tail was a ring of Damascus steel. Sabrina stared at it. “Did you make that?” Her voice quavered.
He picked it up and held it to the light to show all the colored layers. “It’s not a diamond, but it’s made with lots of love and care. You can call it an engagement band if you want. We can rename it later as your wedding band, or I can make a different one for that.”
She slipped the ring onto her finger. “It’s perfect.”
Cam took her hands in his. Nervousness made his stomach feel like Jell-O, but he pressed on.
“I spent a lot of time alone in my life. There was a brief moment of family, but then it was gone when Vera and Cecil passed. My brothers and I aren’t close.
I found the Knights, but they’re still a dysfunctional mess.
I never realized how much I need that in my life, something solid and steady.
Someone.” He raised her hands and kissed the spot where his ring sat on her finger.
“I love you, Sabrina. I need you. I need you to be my family. Will you take me and forge a new life with me?”
Sabrina didn’t make him work for it. With a wide smile, she nodded. “Yes. Of course I will.”
End