Epilogue
Van
I’m in the kitchen reorganizing his cabinets to make room for my things when I hear the door open.
When I hear footsteps make it far as the living room and pause, my heart leaps into my throat when I notice Rush standing there, hands on his hips and head hanging to where his chin is touching his chest.
“Rush. You okay?” I ask. When he lifts his head, there’s a sinister look on his face, it’s insidious, which has me backpedaling. In my lifetime, I’ve never seen that much anger radiating from a single person. Internally, I tremble.
“I’m not sure,” he states, staring at me as if he’s trying to probe my thoughts. “The club is fixing to be in trouble and I’m going out of my fucking mind worrying about if I can make things safe enough for you and little man.”
“Wanna talk it out?” I question, pulling up my big girl panties and eating up the distance between us.
When I’m standing directly before him, I place my hands on his shoulders and stare into his eyes.
“You told me before that being an outsider, I may have a different perspective. Let me help, Rush.”
“Can’t let you go, Van. For one, I’m a selfish bastard who loves you and refuses to live without you. Does that make me an asshole? No doubts about it.”
I was expecting him to expand on that statement, but when he doesn’t add to it, I nod my head. “For two?” I prompt, wanting him to continue and get it all out in the open so we can start working through his issues.
“They’ve seen you, they know your face which means you’re already on their radar,” he says, blowing out a heated breath.
“Something happened, didn’t it? When you went to take care of that thing you told me you had to do, something freaked you out, right?” I ask, swallowing past the lump in my throat. “Something that has you anxious and afraid.”
“Not afraid, Van. Terrified,” he amends. “I just found you and now I’m scared shitless I’m going to lose you.”
“You aren’t going to lose me, Rush,” I verify. “I’m made of some pretty strong stuff.”
“You are, but you aren’t bullet proof,” he says, reaching out and tugging me to him. “We’re facing war, Van. One that’s bound to get bloody and we may suffer some losses.”
“And you’re frightened that one of those losses could be either me or Gagey?”
“Bingo,” he sighs. “Now I’m wondering if we should send you, Zoey, little G, and Elodie to Rio until this is over.”
“No,” I deny, shaking my head. “I’m not running, Rush. I’m staying here with you. I promised myself that with you, I wouldn’t tuck my head in the sand, that I’d stand tall.”
“Dammit, Van.”
“Don’t do that, Rush. Don’t ‘dammit, Van’ me. From what Zoey explained to me, an old lady’s place is at her man’s side. Is that right or wrong?”
“An old lady does, yes,” he verifies.
“Is that what I am, Rush? Am I your old lady?”
“Fuck yes, you are,” he growls.
“Then that’s resolved,” I state. “I’m staying here. As far as being bullet proof, nobody is. But this house is, the clubhouse is, and so is the mortuary, right?”
“Yeah,” he mumbles. “They are.”
“So, what’s the protocol in a situation like this?” I continue.
“Damn, you’re hardheaded, Van.”
I smirk at him before affirming, “I am, hope you can live with that because I doubt that’ll ever change.”
“I can live with anything you throw my way, baby. But if you’re going to stay here with me, you have to promise to do everything I say whether you agree with it or not.”
“I may be hardheaded, but I’m not stupid. I’ll follow your directions to a T, Rush. You worry about keeping the club safe and I’ll worry about keeping me and Gagey safe. Deal?”
“Deal,” he agrees. “Where’s little man?”
“Icer has him and Elodie at the clubhouse. He said something about introducing Gagey to a whole new world, whatever that’s supposed to mean.”
“It’s his code for a Disney marathon,” Rush laughs. “Which means, we have the house to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. Wanna put the unpacking on hold and take advantage of that?”
“What do you have in mind?” I ask, my voice growing raspy.
“Practice,” he huskily says.
“Practice for what?” I probe.
“Making our boy a big brother,” he says, lifting me off my feet and tossing me over his shoulder. I’m not a giggler by any stretch of the imagination, but since Rush came into my life, I find myself doing that more often than not—like right now.
As he climbs the stairs, lugging me with him, I say, “You know what they say. Practice makes perfect.”
“We’re already perfect, Van. I’m going to remind you of that right now.”
“We have forever for you to remind me of it, biker man.”
No matter what tries to separate us, no matter how many enemies come after us, moments like this will give me a lifetime of memories to hold onto during the hard times.
Rush is my shield. My protector. My lover.
My best friend. My man. My family. I’ll never stray from his side because he owns me completely.
The End