Chapter 64
SIXTY-FOUR
brINLEY
The sun climbed above the landscape of peaked mountains as Silas turned his bike through the Crimson Crows’s gate.
Oranges and pinks were strewn into the sky. Colors that painted over the darkness and drew hope across the heavens.
After Silas had pulled off the road, I’d switched spots, and I now was wrapped around him from behind.
Fully and wholly attached.
A bunch of Crows were already back at the compound, their bikes lined in a semi-circle near the clubhouse. They mingled about as Lulu handed out beers as they hooted and popped off shouts of celebration.
Silas’s motorcycle rumbled as he traversed over the dirt drive, his men lifting their bottles in a salute as we passed.
He didn’t slow.
He only wound us through the trees to the back of the property.
That humble house came into view.
I thought it so odd the first time I saw it. Far too modest for a man I’d believed some sort of deviant criminal.
I remembered the first time I sneered ‘king’ at him.
Had I felt the power ripple through him then? The fact that there was something explosive?
Devastatingly mighty.
Great.
Good.
The second we came into the clearing, the screen door burst open.
Elena rushed out, though she fumbled to a stop when she saw Silas pulling his bike into its spot.
A hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.
Silas kicked the stand, silenced the engine, and carefully helped me to stand before he did the same.
Both of us battle worn.
Damaged but no longer broken.
“Oh God, I was so worried,” Elena cried, and she was bounding down the stairs and throwing herself into Silas’s arms.
“It’s over. It’s over,” he murmured at the top of her head.
“Is everyone okay?” she begged, her fingers curling into his cut.
“We lost two men. Cliff and Jupe.”
A sob leapt out of her. “Oh no, I’m so sorry, Silas. I’m so sorry.”
“I am too.”
He’d gotten the gutting text with their names an hour ago, his body recoiling with the news, pain bleeding from his pores.
Guilt and another burden I knew he would carry.
Two others had sustained gunshot wounds but were in stable condition, the same as was confirmed for my brother.
All of them had been taken to Moonlit Ridge where there apparently was a secret medical facility set up to care for incidents like this.
Silas hugged and rocked Elena for the longest time, their relief and sorrow explicit, before she peeled herself out of his arms and stumbled over to me.
Swiping at the tears streaming down her face.
Her footsteps harrowed and heavy, though her arms were firm when she wrapped them around me. “I’m so mad at you. Don’t you dare do that to me again. I was so scared. So freaking scared.”
Emotion pulsed and swam, and I wheezed, “I’m so sorry. I was scared, too.”
She sniffled. “I know. I heard what happened. You were just fighting for your family, the same as Silas was fighting for his. But God, I hated every second that you were away.”
My nod was soggy. “But that’s you now, too. My family. And I never should have left that way. I can never express how devastated I am that I handled this all wrong.”
She dug her fingertips into my back. “It’s okay. We’re all finally going to be okay.”
She pulled away, and when I looked up, I found Meems on the porch with a wiggling Kai in her arms.
My heart tried to spring from its confines.
Joy and the most staggering relief.
“Bwinwey.”
He pointed at me with his chubby little finger, crooking it like he was calling for me.
But he’d been calling to me all along.
I stumbled up the porch steps.
“Bwinwey owie?” Concern filled his precious face when he saw my eye up close.
My head shook as the tears continued to fall nonstop. “No, my sweet boy, I’m okay. I’m okay.”
Elena was right. I finally was.
With trembling hands, I pulled him into my arms.
Hugged him to me so fiercely I couldn’t see.
“My sweet boy.” I peppered kisses all over his forehead and cheeks. “My sweet boy.”
Meems touched my arm.
Tenderly.
Murmured, “Now there’s the good.”
And I felt the swarm of energy gather from behind.
Solid footsteps sending shockwaves along the wooden planks as Silas slowly climbed the steps.
His presence overpowering.
I’d once been terrified to even look at him, afraid of the way he compelled me.
The man too violently beautiful to be real.
But as I turned, I knew he was all those things.
Violent.
Beautiful.
Real.
Mine.
And as he curled his arms around both of us, I knew I didn’t want anything else.
The only thing I wanted was this love that had been forged in the fire.