EPILOGUE
KNOX
Two months later, Axel got his wish.
The Sinners and Saints mansion had been transformed into something out of a magazine spread.
Music pulsed through hidden speakers. Lights cast the massive living room in warm amber and soft blue.
A DJ booth had materialized near the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, and the bar was stocked with enough top-shelf liquor to fund a small country.
I stood near the edge of it all, nursing a whiskey, still adjusting to the concept of celebration.
Tessa and Blake had hired a babysitter for the night, their first real evening out since the baby.
They looked lighter than I’d ever seen them.
Giddy even. Stealing glances at each other like teenagers who’d gotten away with something.
Blake’s arm stayed wrapped around her waist like he still couldn’t believe she was real.
After everything they’d been through, after she’d flatlined in his ER and he’d had to restart her heart with his own two hands, I understood the impulse.
Some people you just need to keep touching to prove they’re still there.
Jace and Scarlett were arguing about something near the bar, but even from here, I could see the smile tugging at his mouth.
The woman had accidentally handed him a revenge list about her boss.
Their love story started with a career-ending mistake and somehow ended with a ring on her finger and a permanent smirk on his face.
Axel stood with Dakota, her hand resting on his chest while she laughed at something he said. Fake engagement. That’s how they’d started. A scheme that fooled everyone except, apparently, their own hearts.
And Faith. Sweet, chaotic Faith, tucked under Ryker’s arm like she belonged there. Which she did. He’d been the one thing standing between her and a life sentence. Now he was just … hers.
Then there was me.
And Harper.
A blur of chaotic fur waddled past my ankles.
Rainbow.
Faith’s dog moved through the crowd like a four-legged biohazard, her mismatched eyes scanning for her next victim.
One eye tracked a waiter. The other appeared to be inspecting the ceiling.
Her signature gait was in full effect: three normal steps, one accidental cha-cha, repeat.
The growth on her side bobbled with each step, like a fleshy metronome.
A woman in a cocktail dress spotted Rainbow approaching and went through the five stages of grief in about two seconds. Shock. Horror. Confusion. Reluctant acceptance. And finally a grimace as she bent down to offer a tentative pat.
“Good … dog?” the woman managed, pulling her hand back like she expected it to come away sticky.
Rainbow’s tongue, slightly too long for her mouth, lolled out in pure satisfaction. She probably thought this whole party was for her. Fifty people gathered just to admire her magnificence.
Then she waddled off to traumatize her next target, her entire back half wiggling with enthusiasm.
Harper appeared at my side, wineglass in hand, her green eyes sweeping the crowd.
“Why are there two Jaces?” she asked.
I nearly choked on my drink. “Jace is an identical twin. That’s Grayson.”
“Seriously?” Her eyebrow arched. “How do you even tell them apart? Do we need name tags? Color-coded bracelets?”
“Jace’ll tell you he’s the handsomer one.”
“And those two?” She nodded toward two other men near the bar. “More Jace-adjacent people?”
“Hunter and Bryson. Jace’s other brothers. Hunter’s a prosecutor.”
“No shit. Like Law and Order: SVU?”
I smirked. “I’m sure that’s exactly how he sees himself.”
“So, wait.” Harper turned to face me fully, her analytical nurse brain clearly spinning. “From what I know about Jace, he inherited money from his father. Are they all …”
“Billionaires?” I finished. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s obscene.”
“Yep.”
She processed that for a moment. “There’s a new nurse I work with at Mercy Harbor.” Thank God she worked at a hospital now instead of the prison. The same hospital as Blake. “I should try to set her up with one of them.”
“The only single one is Bryson.”
“He’s handsome.”
I leveled her with a look. “You’re taken.”
Her lips curved into a slow, devastating smile. She linked her arm through mine and pressed close. “I love it when you’re possessive.”
Something warm spread through my chest. A year ago, that sentence would’ve made her flinch. Now she leaned into it. Into me.
That was the thing I was learning about us. About healing. About after. Jealousy could be playful instead of dangerous. Possessiveness could feel like safety instead of control. Context changed everything.
“But seriously, we should set him up,” Harper said. “He looks like he’s calculating tax returns in his head right now.”
“Apparently, he’s not big on dating. He’s basically a Jace mini me, before he met Scarlett.”
Jace approached, drink in hand. “I’d argue my brother is nothing like me.”
I’d argue they had more in common than either would admit. The same dramatic past. A murdered father. A mother lost to illness. Enough family secrets to make the average person run screaming.
Harper, apparently, had decided to investigate. She released my arm and made her way toward Bryson with the kind of determination I recognized from her shifts in the infirmary.
On the way, she held her hand up in the air like some kind of Bat-Signal and motioned toward the Sinners and Saints’ significant others. “Ladies, let’s do this.”
I watched, mildly horrified, as Tessa, Dakota, Scarlett, and Faith fell into formation behind her like a well-coordinated tactical unit.
A moment later, Bryson Lockwood was surrounded.
Five women. Five drinks. Five smiles that were a little too friendly. They examined him like a specimen under a microscope. Or a man about to be put up for auction.
The poor bastard didn’t stand a chance.
Now that these women had found true love, they’d apparently designated themselves Cupid’s arrow. Rescuing one lonely heart at a time. Whether that heart wanted rescuing or not.
I locked eyes with my fellow Sinners and Saints. Without a word, we drifted toward the ambush site.
Damage control seemed wise.
“Hello,” Harper said brightly.
Bryson paused mid-drink, taking in his surroundings with the dawning horror of a gazelle who’d just realized he was encircled by wolves. Very chatty, wine-holding wolves.
“Hello?” he managed.
“Bryson.” Harper extended her hand. “I don’t think we’ve officially met. I’m Harper.”
He shook it, his expression guarded. “Nice to meet you.”
“From what I hear, you’re a lot like Jace.”
Bryson’s eyes swept to his brother, then back to Harper. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
She laughed, head tipping back. “It was a compliment.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a but coming?” Bryson wondered aloud.
“I hear you’re single.”
His eyes narrowed. He glanced at her arm, which she’d re-linked with mine, then sized me up.
Tattooed ex-con versus billionaire.
I tilted my chin down and waited.
“I’m not hitting on you,” Harper assured him.
Poor bastard. There was no good way to respond to that. If he said thank goodness, he’d insult the woman standing next to the guy with prison ink crawling up his neck. If he said he was disappointed … well, same problem, different angle.
Scarlett swirled her wineglass. “Bryson’s work ethic makes Jace look lazy.”
“I’m standing right here,” Jace said flatly.
“I know, babe.”
Harper tilted her head, studying Bryson like he was a patient she couldn’t quite diagnose. “So, are you? Single, that is?”
“You’ll have to forgive them,” Jace cut in. “They’re—”
“Think long and hard how you choose to finish that sentence, Lockwood.” Scarlett pointed a perfectly manicured nail at him.
Jace smirked. “Exuberant. I was going to say exuberant.”
“Delightful,” Axel added solemnly.
“Intelligent,” Blake chimed in.
“Hardworking and tenacious,” I offered, injecting false cheer into my voice.
Five sets of female eyes turned to glare at me.
So, I, the tattooed ex-con who was twice their size and ten times their strength, did what any smart man would do.
I shut my mouth. And tried very hard not to laugh at poor Bryson Lockwood.
“What do you do, exactly?” Harper’s tone turned lighter now that she was focused on the object of Cupid’s bow.
“Besides avoid parties?” Scarlett teased. “Jace had to strong-arm him into coming tonight.”
Bryson’s jaw ticced. “A little of everything.”
“He’s being modest,” Jace said. “Serial entrepreneur. Owns more businesses than he can count, but he delegates most of them.” He paused, watching his brother carefully. “His real passion project is building a pharmaceutical company that manufactures medications at cost.”
Harper blinked. “Like … the good kind of Big Pharma?”
Jace nodded. “Our mom died of cancer. During treatment, she had access to the best medications money could buy. But the woman in the chemo chair next to her didn’t have that same luxury.”
Bryson suddenly became very interested in his drink.
“The Lockwoods stepped in to help that woman,” Scarlett explained, “but it stuck with Bryson. People out there need medications they can’t afford. He’s trying to fix that.”
Harper’s expression shifted. “That’s … actually noble as hell.” She looked at him like she’d just discovered a golden retriever hiding inside a lion.
“He’s sweet,” Scarlett said. “But broody. And grumpy.”
“All righty then. This was … fun, but …” Bryson set down his glass, clearly done with being the center of attention. “I think I’m gonna go.”
“Already?” Faith appeared at his elbow, frowning. “Stay for a bit.”
“Work calls,” Bryson said.
“Work can leave a voicemail.” Jace smirked.
“It’s not work.” Bryson checked his phone again, frowning. “It’s … complicated.”
“A woman?” Dakota perked up.
“A problem.”
“Same thing,” Axel muttered.
Dakota elbowed him. Bryson almost smiled.
“Good to meet everyone.” He headed for the door, but not before I caught the tension in his shoulders. The way his thumb hovered over his phone, like he was fighting whether to respond to something.
Whatever was waiting for Bryson Lockwood, it wasn’t just work.
We watched him retreat toward the exit, shoulders tight, phone already pressed to his ear.
“Well”—Tessa raised her glass—“I’d say that man needs a romantic intervention.”
“Good luck,” Jace said dryly.
The women exchanged a look that made me deeply suspicious they were already plotting his downfall.
Rainbow chose that moment to waddle over, depositing a mangled, headless rubber chicken directly onto Axel’s expensive shoes.
She sat back, one ear flopped inside out, clearly expecting praise.
“Jesus Christ,” Axel muttered. But he bent down and scratched behind her ears anyway.
Ryker’s eyebrows shot up. “I thought you hated that dog.”
“I don’t hate her. I just have … aesthetic concerns.”
“You bought her three beds last month,” Dakota said.
Axel went red. “There was a sale.”
“And the squeaky toys?”
“She needed enrichment.”
“And the hand-knitted sweater?”
“An Etsy ad attacked me.” Axel muttered something under his breath, and I let out what might’ve been a laugh.
Rainbow released a fart that cleared a three-foot radius.
“And that,” Axel said, standing abruptly, “is why I have concerns.”
But his hand lingered on her head for just a moment longer than necessary.
Harper shifted closer, her warmth bleeding through my shirt. Her green eyes found mine, and I saw it all there. The fear she’d conquered. The walls she’d let me behind. The future she’d chosen to build with a man the world said she should run from.
She didn’t run.
She stayed.
“This calls for a toast,” Blake said.
I lifted my glass.
“To freedom,” I said. And I meant it in ways that had nothing to do with prison.
“To happiness,” Faith added.
“To love,” Tessa finished.
Crystal clinked. We drank.
Harper leaned into my side, and I pressed a kiss to her temple.
“You okay?” she murmured.
I looked at the room full of people who’d become my family. At the woman who’d become my everything.
“Yeah.” My voice came out rough. “I’m okay.”
More than okay.
I was free. Loved. Surrounded by people who felt like home.
The Sinners and Saints had found their happily ever after.
And so had I.
Bryson's story is coming soon. In the meantime...
You've met Jace Lockwood. Now meet his brother.
Hunter Lockwood is my grumpy billionaire neighbor who never puts on a shirt and somehow ended up driving me to the ER after I tripped over a dead body.
Don't ask. Now I've got bigger problems: I've become the obsession of a masked killer with serious stalker tendencies.
And he's ending anyone who hurts me. Start SECRET VENDETTA now.
Or if you loved the forbidden romance energy in TRUST, you'll devour the standalone, FATAL CURE—where a DEA agent hunts the kingpin who destroyed her family while falling for the perfect man. Only to discover they're one and the same. Grab FATAL CURE now.
Craving more of Knox and Harper? Tap here for an exclusive extended epilogue you won't find anywhere else.
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Also by Kathy Lockheart
Featuring the Lockwood Brothers:
Secret Vendetta I’ve become the obsession of a killer with serious stalker tendencies.
Crossfire In my defense, I didn't know he was sent to kill me when I fell in love with him.
Immerse yourself in this bestselling, unputdownable romance series where desire and danger collide. Four couples, four standalones interconnected by a deliciously dark thread of romance, action, mystery, and shocking twists…
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Equal parts rapturous and intense, this roller-coaster series will leave you begging for more. Binge these stay-up-all-night romances if you dare…
“An amazing, gut-wrenching…out-of-body experience.”
“Raw, emotional, and beautifully written.”
“This is the kind of fairytale that would change our lives.”