Epilogue
Sin
TWO YEARS LATER
The mountains look softer in spring.
The snow finally let go, the pines turned bright again, and the air smells like sun on cold rock.
I stand at the kitchen window with a mug of coffee in my hands, looking out at the porch and the gravel drive beyond it. Morning light spills over the yard, catching on the little row of lavender I planted last year.
I planted things.
That still feels like a miracle.
Two years ago, I didn’t know if I would survive one night.
Now I know where Sin keeps the extra coffee grounds, which cabinet sticks, and which one of his shirts I steal most often because it smells the most like him.
I know what safety feels like.
Not perfectly. Maybe not ever perfectly.
But enough.
Enough to sleep through most nights.
Enough to laugh without startling at the sound.
Enough to look in the mirror and see myself instead of what someone almost turned me into.
Luke never got near me again after that night at Sin’s cabin
The Saints made sure of it.
He’s in prison now, along with men tied to Salazar’s operation. Not life, because the law never seems to understand the full shape of evil unless it leaves blood in plain sight. But long enough that his face is starting to fade in my mind.
Salazar took longer.
Almost a year.
A year of raids, arrests, and quiet names turning into evidence. A year of the Saints moving like a storm through every hidden room and rotten connection he had buried in Blissmont County. Men who thought money made them untouchable learned otherwise.
Tank rescued the girl who was sold before me that night.
Her name is Julie.
The first time I saw her at the auction, her eyes looked far away. Now she laughs like she means it. She found love with Tank, and when she looks at him, her whole face lights up.
She found her happy ending.
Sometimes I still can’t believe I found mine.
Sin comes through the front door behind me. A second later, his hands settle at my waist from behind, and everything inside me goes quiet in the best way.
“What’re you thinking about?” he asks against my hair.
I smile a little. “How strange it is that I’m happy.”
His arms tighten.
“Not strange,” he says. “Right.”
I turn in his hold and look up at him.
He still steals my breath.
The rough edges are all still there. The scars. The size of him. The darkness in him that only makes me feel safe. But there’s something else too. Something he never had when I first met him.
Peace.
Not all the time.
But enough.
“I was thinking about Julie,” I say. “About Luke. About all of it.”
Sin’s jaw tightens at Luke’s name, then eases. “It’s over.”
I nod. “Yeah. It is.”
That still feels big enough to sit with for a second.
Then I glance toward the hallway. Sin notices immediately, because he notices everything.
“What?” he asks.
I try for casual and fail. “I think we need a bigger table.”
One dark brow lifts. “A table.”
“And maybe another bedroom.”
He goes still.
I can actually see the exact moment he understands me.
His hands tighten at my waist, just enough to tell me his whole body heard it.
“Ruby.”
I duck my head a little, smiling because suddenly I’m shy. “I mean, if we’re talking about a big family.”
He tips my chin up.
There’s something raw in his eyes. Something fierce and wrecked and so full of love it makes my chest ache.
“Should we try again now?” I ask, tugging lightly at his cut.
He lets out a rough breath and pulls me against him so tight I laugh.
That laugh still surprises me sometimes.
Not because it exists.
Because it comes so easily now.
Sin kisses my temple, my cheek, the corner of my mouth.
“You trying to kill me, sweetheart?”
“No,” I say, curling my fingers into his shirt. “Just trying to give you everything.”
His forehead rests against mine.
“You already did. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
THE END