Epilogue One
EPILOGUE ONE
Ginny walked inside the diner and took a seat at the counter. It wasn’t long before Marty came lumbering out from the kitchen.
“I wasn’t sure you would be open today.”
“Should have stayed home. You’re the first customer I’ve had today. Been closed for a week. Everyone knows what happened here. Customers are either going to come back, or they won’t, regardless of how long I stayed closed.”
Her eyes went to the stitches on the side of Marty’s forehead. “How’s your head?”
“Better. I don’t feel as if it’s going to explode anymore.” Marty squinted, moving sideways to stand in front of her to avoid a ray of sunshine beaming on him from the window. “You want your usual?”
“No, thanks. I’m not hungry.” She straightened the dull napkin holder. “Can I ask you a question?”
“I didn’t take you for being a nosy shit, fishing for details about what happened.”
Ginny searched the face of the man whom she had considered as one of her fathers. “Why, Marty?” she asked him huskily. “When did money become so important to you it was worth more than a human life?”
Marty’s eyes went over her shoulder to stare out the front window. “I’m surprised that husband of yours let you come in here to ask that question.”
Remorse that she had befriended the man standing on the opposite of the counter had been eating away at her since Nickel’s and Widowmaker’s deaths.
Any hope that he would be repentant about the lives he had destroyed died at his unmoved expression.
“Gavin doesn’t know I’m here.”
“That doesn’t mean The Last Riders aren’t out there.”
“True.” Ginny met his gaze truthfully. “But they aren’t. At least, not yet.”
“What gave me away?” Marty laid an arm on the counter to support his weight. “Greer should go into acting. I thought he bought my story about getting locked in the freezer.”
“None of them bought your story. They had to wait until they could have a church meeting to set your punishment. The whole Ohio chapter had to come down for the meeting to place their votes for Wizard to carry out your punishment, as you’re the one who ordered Pace’s hit.”
“Figured that out, too, huh?” Marty straightened from the counter and started walking to the kitchen door without a backward glance toward her.
Sliding out of the chair, she followed him into the kitchen, watching him put hamburgers on the grill and drop fries into the fryer.
“Charles sent a text to Lily when he saw Gavin following them. He knew he wasn’t going to get away and wanted her to know of your involvement.” Ginny watched as Marty flipped the burgers. “Charles has loved Lily since they were kids. I guess he didn’t want to take the chance she would one day be at the wrong time and place, like Larissa.”
“They have their meeting?”
“This morning. They had to wait for Moon until he was ready to leave Larissa and his son long enough. It was traumatic, him coming so close to losing his family.”
“The Last Riders here wanted Moon to carry out my punishment,” he said matter-of-factly as he laid hamburger buns out on the counter and raised the fries from the fryer.
“No. They voted for Viper. As president of The Last Riders, it’s his right to exact justice since Pace was a new recruit under Viper’s protection. Moon had to be there so Viper could hand the responsibility over to him if he decided to ask. Because Viper and Wizard both had the right to be the one to administer what the clubs voted for, Moon was allowed to ask if he could administer the punishment because his rights superseded both Viper’s and Wizard’s.”
“How?” Marty started placing the hamburgers on the buns.
“Because you’re the one ultimately responsible for his woman and son nearly being killed. If you hurt one of their women, it’s a death sentence.”
“So, you know I wasn’t the one who ordered Gundy to lose his shit and start shooting. I was in the kitchen with Charles when it went down. Gundy broke the rule about coming here. His mom is dying, and he wanted to take her on some big trip.
“We were arguing in the kitchen, and I told him to get his ass out of here and we’d talk about it later. When Gundy left the kitchen, he must have thought Larissa and the kid had been there the whole time. Before I could get out front, Gundy had already started shooting when the other two came in the door. I guess he thought she had called them.”
“Would you have ordered him to kill them if she had, or would you have stopped him if you had time?”
“We’ll never know, will we?”
“I guess not.”
He might not have answered her directly, but with her blinders removed where he was concerned, she was able to discern what she had believed—him having a sarcastic attitude was for show. In reality, he hid an extremely callous person who was willing to do anything it took to remain in the background to protect his own interests.
Wrapping the burgers tightly, he started packing them into a plain brown sack.
“Why?” she asked again, heartsick that he had used their friendship as a cover to come to Treepoint to launder money.
If the workers he had recruited hadn’t stolen merchandise, which had been logged as mail then replaced with packages of money to be retrieved on the other end, Marty would still be pretending to be a normal restaurant owner, not a criminal who didn’t care who got in his way as long as his identity remained a secret.
“I could tell you it’s because my ex-wives drained me dry and I needed the money for alimony payments, but I won’t. I got greedy. It was too easy. I ran off the regular customers. Of those who did come around, it didn’t take long to find out who was strapped for cash, willing to do anything for an extra payday. It’s not like I was asking them to steal the Mona Lisa. Between the diner, Charles’ two businesses, and my connections, we were making bank. I could keep track of everything right here, set up my cameras, and rake the cash in.”
“Meanwhile, you had Megan and me telling everyone how bad of health you were in if anyone grew suspicious.”
“I did.” Dumping the fries on top of the packaged burgers, Marty folded the top down. “I took advantage of every opportunity offered to me. Where I screwed up was involving The Last Riders with transporting the money to Ohio. It was easy to reel Charles in; he goes back and forth to Lexington. He’s made more money with me than his restaurants make in a month. He warned me not to use The Last Riders’ trucks. I should have listened.”
“Yes, you should have. Why didn’t you?”
“Stupidity.” He shook his head. “I always knew a woman would be the death of me. Saffron caught Gundy stealing, and he told her. I let her convince me to funnel more money through some contacts she had in Ohio. Then, once we had enough put away, we could take off and live wherever we wanted. That’s twice in my life I’ve let myself believe that bullshit.”
Marty picked up the bag of food and handed it to her. “Goodbye, kid. Take care of yourself.”
Tears welled in her eyes. Marty knew why she had come today. When she had left Nashville, she had gone by his restaurant to give him a goodbye present.
Taking the food, she had to swallow the lump in her throat. “I will. Goodbye, Marty.” Blinking back the tears, she turned and left the kitchen. The front of the restaurant was still empty.
The tears were sliding down her cheeks when she went out the door, where Moon was waiting outside. When he saw her, he started to walk past her.
“Thank you,” she said with a tear-filled voice.
Moon gave her a curt nod. “We’re even now.”
Unable to respond without breaking down, she forced herself to continue toward the parking lot. She rounded the corner of the diner and found Gavin leaning against the side of her car with his boots crossed.
“I had to say goodbye to him,” she told him as she grew nearer.
“I know.” Gavin raised his arms, spreading them open.
She walked into his arms and broke into tears. “I hate him so much,” she sobbed as his arms closed around her.
“I know that, too.” Leaning away from the car, he opened the door for her. “Get in.”
He shut the door after she got inside, then went to the other door. Starting the car, he pulled out of the parking lot.
She looked at him when he didn’t head in the direction of their home. “Where are we going?”
“I thought we’d go to the park and have a picnic.”
Three Weeks Later…
Placing an arm around Winter’s shoulders, Viper handed her a glass of champagne. He took a sip of his own champagne and smiled as the newly married couple danced, holding their son between them.
“It was nice of Reaper’s in-laws to allow us to have Moon and Larissa’s wedding reception here.”
“They offered when Reaper told them we couldn’t find a big enough space to have a party where both of the clubs could fit. The only other option was the state park,” he joked as he continued to watch the couple.
A tap on his cheek had Viper turning his gaze to her.
“Be careful; he’ll catch you gloating,” she warned. “You’re looking too proud of yourself. Just don’t forget it was my idea.”
“It was your idea to bring the girls to the club to set Moon up with one of them. May I remind you that you tried to set him up with the wrong one?”
“Because Lana was the one staring at him as if he were an ice cream cone on the hottest day of the year. I led the horse to the water. It wasn’t my fault Larissa took a drink before Lana could.”
“Need I remind you that I was the one who gave Jonas the security tapes so he could slice out the parts where the women were there? I was also the one who had to convince the other brothers to go along with acting like Moon was making the whole thing up. Hell, the only reason I was able to convince them was because none of them wanted to go through another Christmas with Moon constantly whining about not having a family to share Christmas with like everyone else. I’ve never seen a man wanting to be in a relationship so badly, and then, when a woman gets serious about him, he sabotages it so they end up breaking up with him. The problem is he enjoyed the fucking chase more than the relationships.”
“No, the problem was that women fell for him too easily,” Winter disagreed. “They didn’t make Moon work for it. My girl keeps Moon on his toes.”
“Yes, she does,” Viper had to agree with that assessment. “Moon and Shade have a bet going which woman will give them a heart attack first.”
“Hmm … I might need to put a couple hundred on that bet. Who has higher odds?”
Viper laughed. “Last I heard, it was dead even.”
Winter burst out laughing at his pun.
Tightening his arm around her, Viper couldn’t help but press a kiss to Winter’s parted lips.
“What’s that for?”
“For not being Lily or Larissa.”
“You’re forgetting I’ve given you your fair share of nightmares.”
“Shh … I don’t like to think about it. You want to dance?”
“Yes, I do.”
Setting their glasses down on the picnic table, they walked to where lights had been hung on the trees to create a magical glow for the dancing couples.
“You think you’ll ever break and tell Moon we played matchmakers?” Humor glinted in her eyes as he pulled her close, swaying along with Foreigner singing “I Want to Know what Love Is.”
Viper watched as Moon and Larissa’s mother traded skank faces at each other behind Larissa’s back. “I’m not sure us playing cupid will be appreciated by everyone.”
Strolling among the wedding guests, Silas unintentionally listened to all the conversations going on. When he was younger, being around so many people would have sent him into excruciating pain, as if his mind was about to blow into a million fragments. As he grew older, he had learned to lower the volume of the voices to a manageable level. Then, if he chose, tune into those he wanted to listen to. He had also learned the hard way to stay away from huge crowds.
He found a darkened spot under a tree a distance from the party but was still able to watch the festivities, and his eyes caught on the wedding couple. Making a slight gesture with his hand, he sent the evening breeze in Moon’s direction.
Relax. Be happy. Your son is safe . You don’t have to be afraid anymore . After repeating the thought a couple more times, Silas released the wind to go on its wayward journey.
Desolate, he watched the guests for a few more minutes, thinking over the last few months. His eyes went to his family members, seeing the same regret and self-reproach in them as he was suffering from not everyone having the same happy ending as Moon and Larissa had been blessed with.
They had learned a harsh lesson when Greer had his stroke. He had been walking a tightrope by warning Moon because the child’s fate was in Moon’s hands. If they had interfered in saving a life that was meant to be taken, the repercussions would be severe. They would have lost one of their own. He and his brothers had kept Ginny and Gavin in the dark until it was too late for their interference.
Shaking himself out the doldrums, Silas started walking to where his family had gathered at one of the picnic tables. Tonight was meant to share in the joys ahead, not the sorrows of the past. And there were so many joys ahead … just waiting for a new day to begin, a new love to blossom.