Epilogue
EPILOGUE
A tattoo needle buzzes across my inner thigh as Pixie forever marks me with his name—Colton. The script is beautiful. It’s his. He wrote it.
Putting someone’s name on you is supposed to be the kiss of death. Ask me if I care. I don’t. I want his name down there, beside my pussy, so anytime he’s getting me off, he sees who I belong to. Him.
Lolling my head to the side, I look over to my husband, my old man, as Jade, a curvy, dark-haired artist at Pixie’s all-female shop, inks a wedding band with my initial on his ring finger. As if the brand wasn’t enough, he wanted a tattoo. And by brand, I mean metal into a fire and scorching flesh. That happens tonight at the mother chapter compound in front of all the brothers. Thankfully, Dark never had one—a brand for me. The forever claiming mark many of the Sacred Sinner men endure for their women. Perhaps it was because we were too young when we got together, or maybe it was because he intended to cheat. Not that it matters either way. It’s easier to end things when you don’t have someone’s initial to carve out of your skin.
I’m married now.
To Sunshine.
The black coffin ring on my left hand says so.
It’s perfect, by the way. Thoughtful. Unique. Something I never plan to take off.
Our wedding wasn’t anything fancy. A ride on Sunshine’s Harley to the courthouse after a quick phone call to my sons, who already knew this was going to happen sooner or later. How or why… I don’t know, but they didn’t sound surprised. We asked Till to act as our witness, and within an hour, we were standing at our local courthouse, saying “I do” in regular clothes in front of a judge.
We spent our wedding night at home and left to ride here this morning—as an unofficial honeymoon.
“I can’t believe you married Sunshine.” Pixie giggles as she swipes the ink residue from my pale skin.
“Why not? He’s perfect.”
Shaking her head, focusing on her fine lines, Pixie snorts good-naturedly. “His job is to dispose of dead bodies.”
“Exactly. He’s perfect.” I flash her a wide smile. Who else would make a better partner? Seriously. Consider it. I know I did. Isn’t it everyone’s dream to have a partner who loves you, worships you, and has your back no matter what? It doesn’t hurt he’s smoking hot. Who wouldn’t want to hit that? Gray and black hair. Gray eyes. Tattoos. Muscles. A beard any woman would want to ride on. It’s a no-brainer .
Could we have waited?
Yes.
Would he have waited for me to decide?
Yes.
But why?
So I could double and triple-check what I already know to be true?
If I’ve learned anything… it’s that life is short. Don’t waste it.
“How’s it goin’, Sweets?” Sunshine gestures to my tattoo.
“It’s not too bad. You?”
“This is a walk in the park compared to tonight.”
“You don’t have to take the brand.”
His nose scrunches up like I’m being ridiculous. “Yeah. I do. It’s tradition.”
“Nothing about us is traditional.”
“I know, but all of us old-timers in the club brand ourselves for our old ladies. It wasn’t long ago I watched Gunz do it for his old lady. They fucked like rabbits outside the clubhouse afterward.” A sinister grin curves at the corners of my man’s mouth.
“We aren’t fucking like rabbits outside the clubhouse,” I reply, shooting that notion down right now. There will be no public fucking. I understand that’s a thing in the club world, but I’m not a biker chick. Not in the normal sense of the word.
Sunshine frowns, but it’s fake. I can tell by the twinkle in his eye. “Come on, Sweets. The brothers would love to hear you scream.”
I flip him off. “Shut up. They would not. ”
“They probably would,” Pixie throws out to be a total pain in the ass.
My husband winks. “See.”
“No. That’s final. You and I both know you don’t want a bunch of men seeing me naked.” He would carve out their eyeballs with a spoon. Trust me, they want to keep their sight.
“Who said they’d see anythin’?” he teases. “I said they’d hear it. I’m a big man. None of the brothers will wanna watch my bare ass bangin’ my old lady. But they’d be hard as a spike hearin’ you come.”
I sigh. “We are not talkin’ about this, Colton.”
“It’s just a suggestion.” He shrugs.
Reaching into my bra, I extract whatever boob rock I find, and I chuck it at his head. It smacks his shoulder and rolls down his pec. Sunshine bursts into gruff laughter as he claims the small crystal and shoves it into his front jeans pocket.
Pixie chuckles.
Jade doesn’t react.
I glare without any anger at my guy.
He raises his free hand, the one not getting tattooed, in mock surrender. “I love you. Don’t poison me.”
“Shut up. I would never do that. Just like you would never actually fuck me in front of a bunch of your brothers.”
When the naughty jerk doesn’t confirm my statement, I throw another boob rock at his head, and it lands on his lap. He breaks into another chorus of deep, sexy man laughter, and I don’t know whether to murder him or fuck him senseless. He’s in so much trouble. Then again, I’ve never seen him like this before. Smiling big. So carefree. He’s practically glowing, and I know it has everything to do with us. Finally getting what he’s always wanted. To claim me. To have his name on my thigh. To have my brand on his skin.
We continue teasing each other for the rest of the tattoo session. It’s lighthearted and more fun than I’ve had in ages.
Once we’re done, cleaned up, and covered in a thin layer of cocoa butter to protect our tattoos, I hug Pixie, thank Jade, and practically float out of the shop on a high I’ve never felt before.
Sunshine mounts his bike first, and I slide right behind him. Wrapping my arms around his middle, my cheek on his shoulder, I watch the world fly by as he takes us to places unknown. I’ve only visited the mother chapter, where the club began, a handful of times. This is where Sunshine grew up and watched the current national president take office after his father passed.
Pulling up in front of a single-story white house with green shutters in an average neighborhood, Sunshine turns off the engine, but we don’t dismount. “This is where I grew up.”
I squeeze him around the middle, touched he wanted to show me. “It’s cute.”
“My father was a businessman who beat me and my mother. When he was out of town, my mother would take me to the Sacred Sinner compound with her. It wasn’t much back then. Not like it is now. They didn’t have the wall built around the compound yet. There was no gate. She liked it there, and I did too. It felt like home. ”
Kissing his shoulder to show my appreciation that he’s opening up to me and that I’m here for him, no matter what, I don’t speak. I want him to continue. Over the years, Sunshine has let bits and pieces of his childhood slip through the cracks. But as soon as he let his wall down, even a little, he threw it back up.
Covering my hand on his abs with his own, Sunshine continues, “My mother died young. Brokenhearted. My father rotted in a state-run facility after he started to lose his mind to dementia. I never visited him. Not once.”
I want to tell him that’s okay. That he’s a good person and did what was best for him, but that’s not my place. So, I listen.
“I know us bein’ together hurts Dark. I don’t want to hurt my son. I’ve never wanted to hurt my son. I’m not like my father. That doesn’t make me happy. I will always want what’s best for him. I’ll always be there for him. But I… feel guilty… even now…” Sunshine heaves a sigh and goes quiet and introspective, and I leave him to simmer in his thoughts.
I understand.
This is a lot for our family to accept.
Marrying my ex-father-in-law, my sons’ grandfather, isn’t something I thought I’d do. I didn’t plan this. But it’s been years in the making. Far more than a decade, if I’m honest.
“You’re the only person I’ve ever loved. I know it’s not the same for you… and that’s okay. All I’ve dreamed of the last seven, eight years was to see you happy, whether that be with me, with Dark, or whoever. But I can’t fuckin’ lie and say I wasn’t hopin’ things would turn out like this. Wi th your brand on my thigh and your lips around my cock. You fuckin’ own me, Kali. You bring me to my goddamn knees…” Lifting my hand to his lips, Sunshine kisses each knuckle like they’re the most precious things he’s ever touched, and I melt. “I have somethin’ I need to show you,” he whispers as he lowers my hand back to his stomach and refires the bike. Before I can ask him where we’re going, we speed down the road, and for the next two hours, it’s us, the wind, and freedom. It’s peace.
He eases our bike down a dirt path in the middle of nowhere. The path thins out the further we go, trees grow denser, and the air is thick with a hint of smoke. We reach a small clearing in the center of the woods. In the middle is a giant pit.
Parking on the edge, next to the trees, Sunshine cuts the engine and helps me dismount before joining me. I don’t go far as I take in the sight. Death lives here. I can feel it. The eeriness ripples up my arms. This place could use about a dozen smudge sticks and an exorcism to feel right.
Folding my hand into his, Sunshine escorts me to the far side of the pit, beside a large mound of loose soil and a wheelbarrow with two shovels stabbed into the pile.
“What is this place?” I ask, taking it in.
He nods toward the dirt. “This is where I make your garden soil.”
Wait.
What?
Make my garden soil? He makes the bags he brings me in the spring to use? I thought he bought it. He said he bought it .
“You mean…”
“The stalkers,” he cuts in. “This is where they rest.” Sunshine sweeps his arm toward the pit. “I have friends. I can’t say who. Who dismember them for me. Grind what they can. Then they come here.”
Covering my mouth, I gasp. “All the stalkers?”
“All but Anthony. He’s being delivered to Penelope.”
Holy shit.
“What do you mean he’s being delivered to Penelope?” I ask.
Gently pinching my chin, Sunshine turns me to face him, and I tilt my head back to meet his eyes. “You don’t get to send him into my old lady’s life and get away with it. I don’t care if she’s Dark’s. I don’t care if she was a jealous, insecure bitch. I don’t care who her fuckin’ father is. You don’t fuck with my family, and you sure as fuck don’t fuck with my wife. Penelope will get hers,” he growls, and more goosebumps rip down my arms all the way to my toes.
“But Dark…”
Sunshine’s nostrils flare. “Dark will learn where his allegiances should lie… and that’s his journey. Not mine. I have my priorities straight.”
“So this is…”
“My secret. Where all your stalkers are buried to make soil to feed your plants.”
Looking up at him, at the man I married just yesterday, I don’t think I’ve ever been more… touched in my life.
Emotions bubble in my throat. I try to swallow them down, but they lodge there as the watercolors of dusk paint the sky above, and my heart wallops in my chest.
I open my mouth to say something, but a single tear trickles down my cheek.
Sunshine catches it with his thumb. With a furrow knotting his brow, he steps forward until my breasts touch his stomach, and he wraps a hand around the side of my neck. “Talk to me.”
My bottom lip wobbles. “You’ve been feeding my garden for years with the literal blood of my enemies, and you never told me.”
“I didn’t know how you’d feel,” he replies. “I didn’t want to ruin a chance at this. At marrying you.”
“Colton.”
“I love you. I would do anything for you.”
“This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me,” I sob.
“Shhh.” Sunshine crushes me to his chest, and I stuff my nose between his glorious pecs to breathe him in. My tears stain his red shirt as I try to stop being a big baby with even bigger emotions. But this is… too much.
Sweeping me into his arms, my husband carries me in my black leggings and black t-shirt over to his Harley, sets me on the ground, and pulls my pants down to my ankles, where they wrap like cuffs. I grip his shoulder to keep from falling over. “What are you doing?” I blubber like an idiot, swiping my tears from my face as he kneels at my feet and stuffs his face against my pussy, where he audibly breathes me in and slips his tongue just inside the fold, where he groans as if he loves the taste .
I grip a fistful of his hair, and in return, he grips my ass cheeks, holding me against his face. “I will eat your pussy here. To make this place even more special for us. Then I’m gettin’ that brand. Next week, we leave for our real honeymoon. Now spread your legs and let me taste my old lady.”
Not needing to be told twice, I stare in awe as the big, sexy biker with broad shoulders feasts upon me, and I fall even deeper in love with the man who’s given me everything and more.
Here’s to our forever.