Epilogue
Tegan
I didn’t realize how easily I’d fit into the girl-boss role. As someone who was forced to claw my way to the next day, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to run something of my own. As much as I longed for control of this magnitude, I didn’t think it would ever be in the cards for me.
Ace and Tye fell into their roles as my right-hand men as well. They have no problem allowing me to make decisions. It was awkward at first, and they were forced to guide me to my throne, but I took it eventually. Now I run things with very little interference on their part.
There’s a knock on the door. I run my hand down my new jeans before answering it. Samantha and Gery stand outside my door, two of the newer crew members. They fumble through their bags.
“Here, ma’am,” Samantha says as she plops a stack of orders into my hands.
Unlike Stacks, who ripped off every member of his fucking crew, I give the workers seventy-five percent of the income from the orders—a stark contrast to Stacks’ meager twenty percent.
I refuse to profit off the poor souls doing all the work.
In fact, I still get my ass out there and help with sales.
I put that toward our stays so they can keep more of their income.
The best part? If they want to room together and fuck each other stupid, we allow it. As long as they keep their issues out of the workspace, they’re free to do what they want.
I ration out my tiny cut, then hand the pair their wads of cash. Before I can close the door behind them as they leave, Tye and Alec push inside.
“Hey, boss,” they both say at once.
Yet another term I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. I never thought I’d be the boss of anything in my life. Girls like me don’t climb ranks. We crawl across the bottom rungs of the ladder.
I glance down at the food in their hands.
Normally, I’d overeat because that was my comfort.
But I take a bite of a hash browns and set it down.
I haven’t felt the need to overindulge since the boys taught me that I’m much happier fed in other ways.
I’ll never be skinny like most girls in the crew, but that doesn’t seem to matter one bit to Tye and Alec.
They love me for who I am. Every broken bit of me that they heal with their love.
Alec takes me into his arms and kisses me.
Tye comes up behind me and kisses my neck.
My eyes roll to the back of my head as their hands cover every inch of my body.
Alec’s hands grope my breasts and Tye’s grab a handful of my ass.
It’s hard to feel anything but beautiful while being so wanted. So touched.
So loved.
“I want that pierced tongue on my clit,” I tell Alec, in the commanding voice that he likes. I reach back and bury my hand in Tye’s long hair. “And I want your cock in my mouth.”
“Yes, boss,” Alec groans as he kisses me. “But we need you to handle an issue first.”
Duty calls, I guess.
“What’s going on this time?” I ask as the men unfold from my body.
Tye pushes his phone in front of my face. “We picked up a young guy. He was digging through dumpsters, looking for food. Can we use him in the crew?”
I take the phone from Tye’s hands and study the picture. The boy is on the heavier side, and pimples cover his face. Long, stringy hair hangs to either side of his jowls, and his clothes are covered in stains ranging from brown to black.
Placing the phone back in Tye’s palm, I smile. “Of course we can use him in the crew. Everyone is welcome. Get him cleaned up and—”
“That’s the thing,” Alec says. “He refuses to bathe. He was happy enough to accept the free meal and a room for the night, and he wants to join up, but when we mentioned hygiene . . .”
“You better handle it,” Tye adds.
I nod, knowing what they mean. As we pull people into our crew, we often have to mitigate the abuses they’ve experienced. Between the three of us, we usually have it covered.
Alec and Tye lead me to the boy’s room. When he opens the door, he looks terrified to see the boss standing before him. I offer a quick smile to put him at ease.
“No need to be nervous,” I say. “I just wanted to meet our new team member.”
We follow him into the room, and he seems to relax a little as he sits on the bed.
Through some gentle coaxing, I’m able to get his trauma out of him, as well as his name.
Jason doesn’t want to bathe because it takes too much energy.
After living in an abusive home where he was beaten on a regular basis, the entirety of his life was spent trying to survive.
He hasn’t left that mindset yet. He’s tired.
I place a hand on his arm, not caring about the grime.
“Jason, I know it’s tough. I wish I could say that it gets easier, but there are still days where I struggle to care for myself.
And that’s with other people doing a lot of the caring for me.
” I glance at Alec and Tye. “We all want to help you, but you have to help yourself a little too. Could you take a quick shower? Just wash your hair and rinse the road dust from your skin. After that, we can all go to dinner together. My treat.”
His eyes light up. “Can I pick the restaurant?”
Knowing that food is the great motivator, I feel a bit guilty for using our shared weapon against him, but it’s for the greater good. “Of course.”
He grins and shuffles toward the bathroom, then stops. “I don’t have any clean clothes to wear.”
“We took care of that for ya, bud,” Tye says. “We keep spare clothes around for all shapes, sizes, and genders. Follow me to the van, and you can pick whatever you’d like.”
Jason’s face brightens even more, and he follows Tye out of the hotel room.
When we’re alone, Ace leans over and places a kiss on my cheek. “You were made for this, you know that?”
“For what? Fucking you?” I smirk against his lips and kiss him.
He pulls back at the end of the kiss and looks into my eyes. “You were made for fucking me, yes, but I meant helping people. He was ready to take his free room and that’s it. You gave him the push he needed to make a change for the better.”
“I’m just paying it forward.”
He smirks and pulls me against him.
But he’s right. I never thought I would find the place where I belong, yet here I am. My hope is that we can help others find their purpose. Just as I have.