Vixen
L eaving town with Dare wasn’t a hardship. He didn’t have to do much convincing because honestly, she’d go anywhere with him. Living without him had shown her that wasn’t something that she ever wanted to do again.
When he showed up at his apartment, waking her in the middle of the night, she feared that Wyatt hadn’t kept his promise to leave her alone. But when she opened her eyes to find Dare standing over their bed, telling her that it was time to wake up because they had to go, she didn’t think twice. She would have followed him anywhere, and she had.
Banshee had found them a place to lay low about an hour out of town. That way, she’d be close to her doctor for checkups, but they’d be out of the Ghosts’ way and that was what mattered right now. From what Savage and Banshee had heard, Wyatt was able to convince the Ghosts that he had done all he could to stop Dare from taking off and even had them believing that he had fatally shot Dare as he ran out of the warehouse. Wyatt had to spend a night in the hospital, and she guessed that the guy that Dare called, “Boss” had bought the whole story. That worked out in her and Dare’s favor because no one would be coming after them—well, hopefully, no one would be able to find them at least.
Savage, Demon, and Banshee all insisted that the two of them spend a few weeks at the safe house, and that worked for , even if it had turned into three months instead. Juno and Rebel had agreed to help out around her shop, and she was thankful to them both. She would have hated having to close and the girls really liked to help her out when she needed it. They both knew the ropes and was sure that her shop would be in good hands with them both taking over for her.
Dare seemed to be going a little bit stir-crazy, but Riggs had given him some time off from the tow company. A part of was hoping that she’d be able to use the time that they had been given to convince Dare to rethink being a cop. From what he had told her and what she had heard around Savage Hell, he was a damn good cop and didn’t deserve to be blaming himself for his team’s death. But every time she brought up the topic of him returning to that line of work, Dare would change it, telling her that he didn’t want to consider going back to the force. He even went as far as to insist that he loved working for Riggs at his towing company. She knew that he liked the work, but she was one hundred percent sure that he didn’t love it, as he claimed.
Dare’s older brother, Saint, had called him a few times to check in on him. A part of wondered if Dare had told his brother about her and the baby, but he put the call on speaker and introduced her to Saint. His older brother promised that once this was all over, they would all have to go to Savage Hell together. thought that it was strange that she hadn’t met him there already, but Saint explained that he had been out of town for a few months and that he’d be going back into the club soon. had to admit she missed Savage hell and her sisters in the Harlots. Every time they brought up the clubhouse, both she and Dare seemed just a bit down—until they started talking about their friends and all the good times that they had there. She liked to remind him that if it wasn’t for Savage Hell, they would have never met, and that seemed to help cheer Dare up.
Every day, they’d hear from some of the club members, and that was always a highlight of their day. Savage called later that morning, after their call with Banshee and Saint, and told them that he and Demon had come up with an idea to get the Ghosts to completely believe that Dare was dead and no longer a threat to them.
“And how the hell will we do that?” Dare asked. “I hope that you two haven’t decided that I need to be shot or something like that.” He as joking but a part of worried that he might have guessed correctly by the dead silence on the other end of the line.
“Savage,” breathed.
“Don’t worry, no one is going to shoot Dare, ,” he assured. “But we do need to throw you a memorial service. You know, have the guys say something nice about you and then, we’ll dump your ashes.”
“Dump my ashes?” Dare asked. “How the hell are you going to cremate me if I’m still alive, Savage?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t have to have you cremated,” he insisted. “I have worked it out with a local mortuary that they’ll cremate a cow, and we’ll use its ashes.”
“Is that even allowed?” asked.
“Don’t know and don’t care,” Savage admitted. “The owner of the mortuary owes me big time, and I’m going to collect. It will save your ass, Dare and get the two of you back home where you belong.”
“Are we coming to the memorial service?” Dare ask.
’s gasp filled the room, and she shook her head at him. “I don’t want to go to that,” she insisted.
“Oh, come on, honey,” Dare said. “It will be fun to hear what the guys have to say about me while I’m still alive. And you can play the dutiful widow,” he teased.
“We’d have to be married for that to happen,” she mumbled.
“Well, then, how about we go back home, attend my memorial service, and get Savage to marry us?” he asked.
“I’ve been ordained, so that works for me,” Savage agreed. “But you two need to be careful getting back here. We don’t want to give away the fact that you’re still alive to the Ghosts.”
wasn’t sure what either of them was really saying. She was too fixated on the fact that Dare had just asked her to marry him. “Did you just ask me to marry you, Dare?” she whispered.
“I did,” he admitted. “Is that okay?”
“Um, I—well, you just caught me off guard,” she admitted.
Savage cleared his throat on the other end of the call, reminding them that he was still there. “How about if I let you two go and work this all out? Call me tonight and we can go over plans if you want.” He didn’t exchange pleasantries or wait for either of them to do the same. Savage just ended the call, and Dare shoved his cellphone back into his pocket and pulled into his arms.
“So, how about it?” he asked. “Would you like to attend my memorial service with me, followed by our wedding?” She knew what she wanted her answer to be, but she was too afraid to say it aloud without first knowing the truth.
“Are you asking me to marry you because I’m pregnant and you feel responsible for me and the baby?” she asked.
“I am responsible for you and the baby, honey,” Dare insisted. “I have told you that from the very beginning. But it’s more than all that. When I was with the Ghosts, I promised myself that if I ever got out of there and back to you, I’d ask you to marry me. I’ve just been dragging my feet since we had to take off for this place, but nothing has changed for me. I still want to marry you, and I want the three of us to be a family.”
“You do?” she asked.
“I think that I’ve made that pretty clear with my whole speech, honey. The question here is, do you want to marry me and make the three of us a family?” he asked. smiled up at him, cupping his face with her hands.
“I’d love that,” she whispered, gently brushing her lips over his.
“Thank fuck,” he whispered against her lips. “Then, how about if we let Savage plan my funeral and then we can plan our little wedding.”
“Can the Harlots come?” she asked.
“Of course they can,” he agreed.
“And the Bastards?” she asked.
“And them too,” he said. “I mean, if they are all going to stand up and say nice things about me after my supposed death, we should at least invite them to our wedding, right?” he asked.
giggled and nodded, “I think that’s only fair. I also think that it’s time that I call my friends and tell them about the baby.” She had been avoiding Juno, Phoenix, and Rebel since they had left town. The last thing she wanted to do was spill the beans about the baby and it was getting harder and harder to keep him or her a secret.
“They’ll be able to tell that you’re pregnant as soon as they see you, honey,” he teased, rubbing his hand over her belly. “I think that it’s about time you told them.”
“Good, I’m going to call them and do a conference call,” she said, trying to crawl off his lap. He pulled her back down and wrapped his arms around her once more, kissing her the way that he did the night that he escaped from the Ghosts.
He broke the kiss, leaving them both breathless. “What was that for?” she asked.
“I’m celebrating the fact that you have agreed to be my wife,” he whispered into her ear. “And for saying that you want the three of us to be a family.” It was all she could think about now that it was going to actually happen.
“Well, if that’s the kind of treatment I’m going to be getting from you, the girls can wait to hear our good news just a bit longer,” she insisted.
“They can?” Dare asked.
“Yep, I think that we should do some more celebrating first, don’t you?” she asked. Dare rolled her under his big body, giving her the answer she was hoping for. Everything else around them could be put on hold, but right now, was exactly where she wanted to be.
The memorial service that Savage and Demon had planned for Dare was supposed to be small, but when they showed up at the clubhouse, the parking lot was packed. Bikes lined the road, and she wondered how things had gotten so out of hand.
“Wow,” Dare whispered.
“Yeah, I guess that a lot of the guys wanted to pay their respects,” she teased. “Seriously, they do know that you aren’t dead, right?” she asked.
“I’m sure that they know that honey,” Dare said, “but Savage will want this to look convincing in case any of the Ghosts check things out.” He parked in the back of the lot, to stay out of the public eye, and they were met by Demon and Banshee at the back door of the clubhouse.
“You ready to face your own demise?” Banshee asked Dare.
“Do I have a choice?” he asked.
“Not if you want your life back, you don’t,” Demon explained. “You two need to stay in the kitchen so that no one sees you. We honestly don’t know who’s working for the Ghosts and who’s loyal to the Bastards and Harlots. We need to be extra careful. But once this is over, you’ll both be able to get back to normal and we’ll have a better idea of who we can trust.” Hearing the confidence in his voice gave hope that he was right. She was ready to get back to her life and get ready for the baby.
“I do have one request,” said.
“Name it,” Banshee insisted.
“Can you have Rebel, Juno, and Phoenix meet us in the kitchen? I’d like to tell them about the baby before they see this,” she said, running her hand over her belly. She had started to really show about a week ago and there would be no hiding her pregnancy from her friends. She’d have some explaining to do and she wanted to do that in person.
“I’ll go find them now,” Banshee offered. She walked into the back of the bar and the rest of them followed her. Dare grabbed her hand, and she knew that he was feeling a bit nervous. It was one of his tells—needing to touch her when he was unsure of the situation.
“It’s going to be all right,” she assured.
“I know, and after this circus is over, we can get hitched,” he said, giving her his shy smile that always melted her defenses.
“I can’t wait,” she whispered up to him. She couldn’t either. She wanted to be his wife more than anything now, and today was going to be the day that her dream came true.
walked into the kitchen as her friends filed in behind Banshee. “You’re here,” Juno squealed, running over to to pull her in for a hug. She could tell the exact moment that her friend realized that something wasn’t quite right.
“Um, that’s why I’ve asked to see the three of you,” whispered as Juno stood back from her and looked down at her belly.
“You’re pregnant,” Juno whispered.
“I am,” said, “and I wanted to tell the three of you before this, but I also wanted to be able to share our news in person. I hope that you all can forgive me for not telling you before now,” she said.
“Of course we can,” Rebel insisted. She pulled in for a hug and Phoenix did the same.
“I’m so happy for you both,” Phoenix said.
“Me too,” Juno agreed, pulling in for another hug. “You just caught me off guard.”
“Are you going to be okay today?” Phoenix asked . She looked over at Dare and he rolled his eyes.
“I’m not really dead,” he reminded, holding his hands out wide as though showing them that he was still alive.
“We know, but we do need to put on a good show,” Rebel insisted.
“Right, and we will,” Juno said. “But right now, I want to talk about the wedding we are having after the memorial service is over. We got everything that you asked for, .” She had asked her friends to pick up a few things for her that she had ordered in town since she couldn’t exactly go out to go shopping.
“The dress is gorgeous,” Phoenix said.
“How about you let us help you get ready for the real ceremony while the guys handle the fake one?” Rebel asked.
“I think that sounds like a good idea,” Dare insisted. “You don’t need to sit through the show of everyone saying nice things about me. I’m sure that you already know how wonderful I am.”
“Okay, well, you enjoy the guys singing your praises and I’ll meet you after to get married,” said.
He pulled her into his arms and gave her a kiss that seemed to make her friends swoon a bit, judging from the sighs and “aww” that filled the room. “I’m looking forward to it, honey,” he whispered into her ear.
Rebel grabbed her hand and dragged her down the hallway to Savage and Banshee’s office that they shared. The rest of the women followed them, going on about how excited they were about the baby and the wedding, and for the first time, in a long time, felt as though everything was going to be all right.
The rest of the day passed as a blur. wasn’t sure how the Harlots had pulled it all off, but they had. Her wedding was perfect and marrying Dare had been everything that she wanted and more.
The Bastards had put on a pretty convincing show at Dare’s fake memorial service, and she hoped that they’d finally be free from the Ghosts, but only time would tell. For now, they agreed to stay in a safehouse in town that Savage had found them, and that worked for her. They were going to need a place that was bigger than Dare’s one-bedroom apartment. Of course, Dare promised to buy her a home of her own once he got back to work—not that it mattered to her much. Her home was wherever Dare was now.
But the best surprise was the wedding present that he gifted her. Dare told her that he was planning on going back to work on the force. He said that he couldn’t promise her that it would last, but he at least wanted to try. Dare said that Saint and she had been right and that he needed to face his fears and get back to what he was meant to do. would never want to push Dare into something that he wasn’t ready for, but hearing him say that he wanted to give the police force another try made her happy—she just hoped that it brought her new husband the same happiness.
The Harlots had decorated Dare’s bike, that Demon had picked up and brought over to the clubhouse for them. It was gaudy as hell, but she couldn’t help but smile at it when they walked outside to say their farewells. She and Dare had decided that going away on a honeymoon wasn’t something that either of them wanted, after spending so much time away from home over the past few months. Instead, they decided to get a head start with unpacking the stuff that the Bastards moved to their new home. It sounded like a perfect honeymoon to her—spending time with her new husband and setting up their future together.
Dare helped her onto his bike and smiled back at her. “Ready to go home, wife?” he asked.
“I am, husband,” she agreed. “You must be exhausted—dying and getting married all in one day,” she teased.
“Ha, ha,” Dare drawled. “I think that we need to give that mouth of yours something to do rather than be sassy. I think that I can come up with a few things,” he said, flashing her his wolfish grin.
“I like the way that you’re thinking, husband,” she whispered into his ear, wrapping her arms around his waist as he started his bike.
“Let’s go home then,” he said. laid her head on his shoulder as their friends all waved at them. They pulled out of the parking lot and headed into the sunset and couldn’t help but smile at the irony. Her whole life, she worried that she’d never find the right man to ride off into the sunset with, yet here she was, doing just that with the only man she’d ever want to spend forever with. All in all, that sounded like a pretty good ending to her—or in this case, beginning.
The End
What’s coming next from K.L. Ramsey? You won’t want to miss Juno (Royal Harlots MC book 6) is coming in April 2025!