EPILOGUE
One Month Later
I never thought I’d come back to the overlook. Not after Vera’s arrest. But she wanted to go full circle.
So I straighten my cut, tuck in my dress shirt, and watch the bikes pull in.
One after another. Dozens of clean, shining rides.
And one small silver Honda that’s seen better days.
Anna pops out, giving me a glare. “Well, here we are,” she mutters.
Then says hi to Skull all happy like.
The woman still hasn’t forgiven me for getting her camera impounded even though she got it back.
But she showed up like she did for Skull’s wedding too.
I’ll give her that. Course she could be here for the potential drama.
Plenty could happen with so many bikers in one place.
Skull chuckles as he tips his chin toward the road. “Looks like Winford’s got his hands full.”
In his uniform, Winford’s by the road directing traffic, keeping the gawkers from stopping.
“Not sweating bullets today,” I note.
“Yet,” Skull says, laughing. “Anything could happen.”
He slaps me on the back, then turns serious. “Thanks for inviting me.”
I fist-bump him.
Things were really fucked up, but they worked. Got me hooked on one brown-eyed vintage aficionado who has half the club wrapped around her little finger.
“She’s special,” Skull adds, looking toward the road where Vera’s limo will come. The same road the cops roared up when they came to arrest her.
This time the ride’s comfortable with luxury leather and sparkling apple juice—her choice—and a few of the old ladies. Which she has threatened me with bodily harm if I call her that.
“You ready?” Anna asks as she points a camera at my face.
I lift an eyebrow.
She gasps, “Oh my god. Your face has muscles. I thought it was made of stone.”
“I don’t have an expression for what you cause,” I mutter.
Laughing, she fires her camera at me. “And he speaks in sentences.”
Thank god, Prez strides over.
He’s tugging at his shirt collar, looking a little flustered. “All these weddings are giving me hives.”
“Come on, Prez, you know you love officiating,” Skull replies, slapping his back.
Prez grunts. “This wasn’t part of the job description.”
“There’s a job description?” I ask, ignoring the fact that Anna is laying on the ground again, shooting the three of us talking.
Slider whistles loudly across the grassy area of the small park. He’s standing by the arch of flowers that somehow appeared in the last hour.
“Time to go boys.”
I glance toward the road.
I don’t do nervous.
Never have.
Until now.
I clear the frog out of my throat.
No. She didn’t get cold feet.
“They’re coming,” Skull announces. “I tracked Katie’s phone.”
Smart. But I ask, “Does she know you do that?”
He looks at me sideways. “I’m not a stalker.”
“You’re her husband. A possessive bastard.”
“Don’t you track Vera’s phone?”
I scrub a hand over my mouth.
“Not yet,” I mutter.
“You forgot?” Prez asks, staring in disbelief.
“The woman’s got my head messed up.”
“Good thing we’re here to get you in the right spot.”
I glance toward the road again.
The pit of my stomach is twisting.
Then I hear an engine.
“Come on, groom. They’re about to pull in.”
Being the stubborn bastard I am, I don’t move.
Skull didn’t wait for Katie at the flower arch. I’m not either.
The long black limo slides into the parking lot. You can’t see a fucking thing inside, but I swear I feel her.
I’m at the door before the driver makes it around.
When I open it, a floral scent hits me. Fuck I love when Vera wears the perfume I bought her.
“Aren’t you supposed to—” she protests.
“Kiss my bride.”
Vera giggles and slides across the leather as the other girls laugh.
When I pull her out of the door and into my arms, my world feels right again.
“Missed you.”
She leans back to look into my eyes. “Missed you, too.”
Anna’s camera is firing as she darts in and out like a hummingbird. “Aww you guys. I’m so happy I set you up.”
Jesus. I growl at her.
Vera laughs and says, “May these photos forever replace the other ones.”
“Ready?” I ask, ignoring the flash that goes off in my face.
“You know it.”
I offer Vera my arm. The other girls surround us, straightening the long fabric behind Vera’s vintage wedding dress and putting flowers in her hands.
She looks like a dream in lace and her leather cut with my name on the back.
We walk across the same lot, over the very same spot where that box of money fell on the ground.
“I’m glad I came that day,” she says, squeezing my arm.
“Me too.”
Prez paid nineteen dollars to be an officiant. Three weddings ago.
“Always breaking the rules,” he mutters as I walk my bride to stand in front of him.
Everyone laughs. Vera leans into my shoulder. Her right hand is in my left one.
“We’re here to hitch these two,” he begins, then cracks a smile. “Just joking. Dearly beloved. We’re gathered here today to make these two say a bunch of important words in front of all of us.”
“Ace,” he tips his chin. “Do you take this brilliant accountant to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
“I do.”
He starts to go on, but I stop him. “I got more to say.”
Prez looks over the top of his reading glasses. “You have changed.”
I give him a glare as I shove the bouquet in his hands so I can hold both of Vera’s.
I begin, sounding like a frog, “I didn’t know I could let anyone close. Until I saw them take you away in cuffs, and I knew I was going to fight to keep you close. Whatever it took. You’re brave. You’re smart. You’re beautiful, and now I get the honor of calling you mine.”
Vera squeezes my fingers. “Tobias,” she murmurs.
“I love you,” I declare loud enough for everyone to hear. “And I hope you keep calling me fun, but if anyone else says that I’m breaking their face.”
She dissolves into laughter and I drag her into my arms, kissing her smiling lips.
“I have something to say too,” she pushes me back a few inches.
“I’m honored to be yours. It’s a pleasure to look up to you, and not just because you’re the biggest man I’ve ever known, you’re also the most loyal, and most honest. I didn’t know one plus one could make the world a completely different place. But now I do. I love you, big guy.”
Oh god.
There’s a fire smoldering inside my cut.
“Rings?” Prez asks, and I pull them from my pocket. Hers is a wedding band with inset diamonds, mine is hand made from an antler. Something Vera had custom designed with a motorcycle cut into the surface.
The crowd of troublemakers is surprisingly quiet. Until Prez pronounces us husband and wife.
Then the whole bluff echoes with cheers.
“Boy my life was quiet and boring before,” Vera says as I take her face between my hands.
“So was mine. Ready to scream in my ear in that limo?”
Her long lashes flare, eye shadow sparkling. “Lead the way.”
I don’t lead. I carry. And a whole shower of champagne douses us as a hundred bikers chase us all the way to the parking lot.
The place it all started.
When the limo door closes, I already have my hands full of Vera. Dragging her on my lap to straddle me. That’s when I discover she doesn’t have any panties on.
“Vera?”
“You’d just rip them off anyway.”
“You’re right.”
I don’t know who’s driving, but they ease the limo onto the road, leaving the screaming club behind us. No bikes follow. Thank fuck.
Vera whimpers as I devour her mouth, gripping her ass with one hand beneath her vintage wedding dress, and using my other to rip open my belt buckle.
We fuck like wild animals.
No prim accountant. That woman’s gone.
She rides me, gripping the back of the seat as I bite her breasts and spank her ass.
God knows where we are when she comes, by this point we’re on the floor of the limo and the driver is doing his job behind the blacked-out glass.
She screams in my ear. My own orgasm slams into me as she’s panting against my neck.
The car rumbles below us. Rocking as it goes through a curve. She laughs. “Weren’t we supposed to hang around for a reception?”
“You know how I feel about food…”
“Cake?” she teases. “I was really looking forward to smashing it in your face.”
I hit the call button on the console in the passenger area. “Driver, take us back to the reception.”
When we get back there’s an illegal keg party going on. There’s also a cake waiting on us. It has icing that looks like vintage lace on one layer and edible motorcycle chain around the other.
And next to it is a brown box with a gold ribbon.
Vera, looking thoroughly fucked and very happy, stops in her tracks. “Did you do that?”
“No way.”
We look around. Skull’s toasting us from the bench by the bluff.
“You open it this time,” Vera says.
I do. And inside I find a cold 50K in cash and a note. “It’s clean. Spend it well. Congratulations, from your club family, Skull and Katie.”
Vera’s silent, but smiling softly as I close the box. “What are we doing with it?”
“Anything you want.”
Her lips twitch as her dark eyes dance. “I know of some investments.”
A warm chuckle fills my chest as I look at my incredible wife. “I bet you do.”
“Now let’s smash cake.”
Yep, Vera’s not the same prim woman she was. I’m not the emotionless monster I was either. Because I laugh until I have a stitch in my side and let her nibble the icing off of my chin after she’s stuffed a huge bite of cake into my mouth.
One more Kings of Darkness down. I’m just glad it was me.