Epilogue
She sleeps better now. It’s only taken six months for her to finally feel safe enough to sleep for more than an hour at a time. She doesn’t sleep any more than five hours but it’s definitely better than one.
“Shhh.” I try to calm her as she stirs in my arms. I check the time on my phone and smile, a little over six hours she’s slept this time. Finally.
“Morning,” she says in a sleepy voice, fuck, I love her.
“Good morning, Firecracker. You actually slept longer,” I whisper.
I like to give her time to come around on her own, we’ve established when she first wakes up her anxiety is heightened if there is too much noise or too much going on or if people are rushing around, it can send her into a tailspin. She cuddles into me, and we lay in silence for the next thirty minutes.
“I have to go to the studio today, I have two bookings,” she tells me, her eyes still closed.
“I’ll get the prospect to drive you.”
“It’s ok, baby. I can drive myself. I’ll be fine.”
I grab her and flip her on top of me. “Don’t argue with me, Firecracker. You know the rules. You don’t go anywhere alone. I have club shit to do today, so the prospect will go with you, or you don’t go.”
She leans down and kisses me, her tongue pushing into my mouth, and I smile around it, kissing her back before gently biting her lip.
“Fine, the prospect can take me and bring me back.” She gives me another small kiss before climbing off me and heading into the bathroom. I’d love nothing more than to follow her, but she isn’t comfortable with that yet. We’ve still not slept together and while I’m ok with waiting however long she needs, I know she beats herself up every single day.
We have tried to take things further a couple of times, instigated by her, but both times she freaked out, completely losing it and having pretty severe panic attacks, so severe she blacked out both times. I told her after the second time we needed to wait. I know the guilt of not being able to do anything eats away at her, and no matter how many times I tell her it’s ok, it just doesn’t seem to sink in.
I get out of bed grabbing my jeans from the chair and pulling them on, I need to head down to Church, but I don’t want to just take leave. Knowing I can’t just go in there, I search my room and find a piece of paper and a pen, leaving her a short note telling her I’ll see her later and the prospect will be waiting for her.
“It was a dead end.” Ice sighs. “I’m sorry Wrath.”
I shake my head at him. “Sorry for what? Spending every damn night chasing down leads to find this fucker? Sorry for sacrificing your time to try and track him down? You have nothing to be sorry for. I can’t thank you, any of you enough for how hard you’re all working.”
“You don’t have to thank us man, you’re family. She’s family,” Data tells me as he taps away on his laptop.
“We won’t stop looking brother,” Nitro tells me. “We’ll find him, no matter how long it takes us. Now, go do the shit you need to do before you pick up your girl.” He bangs the gavel on the table, and we all filter out.
He’s right, I do have a lot of shit to do before I see her later.
I’m taking so many risks tonight. The first being with her safety, and her anxiety. I’d asked her back at the studio if she trusted me, she of course answered instantly that she did. However, I saw the look of indecision when I asked her if she would wear the blindfold. After a minute she finally agreed. I should have taken her car, but she drives a goddamn Mini and I’m six foot four, so we took my bike.
Once I helped her on the back she settled in like normal, and I pulled her forward as she wrapped her arms around my waist and her legs hugged mine. It should have only taken us twenty minutes from her work to where we were headed but loving the feel of her behind me, I took the long way.
I pulled up right outside and climbed off the bike before helping her off and guiding her toward the door.
“Baby, there are five steps. I’m gonna help you up, ok?”
“Ok,” she tells me her voice confident, and it warms me how much she trusts me. I can’t believe how relaxed she is as we make it to the top, unlike me who’s a fucking bundle of nerves. I unlock the door and guide her through the threshold and then stop.
I flick on the lights and stand right in front of her, gently kissing her.
“I’m gonna take this off now.”
She nods but doesn’t say anything as I slowly remove the blindfold. She blinks several times letting her eyes adjust.
“Erm, Wrath?” she questions, and I lead her further into the house, stopping in the front room right in front of an open fireplace.
“You are my world, Firecracker. It took me way too long to figure that out, but now that I have, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to be with you every minute, of every day. I love the fact that you live in my room at the clubhouse, but that was only ever meant to be a temporary measure until you decided if you wanted a new flat or not. But the longer you were there, the more I realised that I don’t want to live apart from you.
I know you feel safe at the clubhouse, but if you look out the window, you’ll see it’s just down the road, and this house has some one of the best security systems going, thanks to Data. What do you say, Firecracker, will you move in with me here?”
I watch her circle the room then walk over to the window and look down the road in the direction of the clubhouse. I’m so fucking nervous right now. I know she’s been in my room at the clubhouse for six months, but this is different, this is way more permanent.
She spins around to face me, and then grins before she races over and jumps into my arms.
“Yes. I’ll move in with you. Thank you for doing this. You mean everything to me, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.”
My heart finally stops racing the moment she says yes. I never thought that I would get my happily ever after. But here she is, in my arms, telling me she loves me. I failed to protect her when she got hurt, but I’ll make up for that. No matter how long it takes I’ll never stop hunting that fucker down. I will make him pay for hurting her.
And then I’m going to enjoy spending every day with her, making sure that she is safe and happy.
She is mine.
The End