EPILOGUE
KNOX – SIX MONTHS LATER
I missed my son’s first four birthdays. By his fifth, I had overcorrected.
There were shark balloons tied to every fence post, enough food to feed three motorcycle clubs, and a cake shaped like an ocean with Noah’s plastic shark sitting on top of it.
Diesel had built a ramp across the clubhouse yard for the new bike waiting beneath a sheet, while Reaper stood guard beside it because I didn’t trust any of the brothers not to show an excited five-year-old his present early.
“You know that thing has training wheels, right?” Diesel asked.
“Yeah.”
“And a speed limiter.”
“Yeah.”
“And you made Gunner inspect it twice.”
“Three times.”
Diesel shook his head. “Poor kid ain’t gonna feel the wind in his hair until he’s thirty.”
“That’s the plan.”
Across the yard, Noah chased Maddie between the picnic tables while Sarah stood laughing with Callie and Eloise.
She wore jeans, boots, and one of my old shirts knotted at her waist, her dark hair loose over her shoulders.
Six months ago, she had arrived at that gate covered in dirt and blood, carrying everything she owned in one bag and waiting for another vehicle to appear behind her.
Now she stood with her back to the road because she knew I was watching it for her.
We had driven to St. Louis with half the club and brought home every dinosaur, book, and box Noah had left behind.
His bedroom had taken over the smaller half of my rooms within a week.
Sarah filled the rest more slowly, leaving a sweater over my chair, shampoo in my shower, and photographs on walls that had been bare for years.
There were still nights when she woke and checked the locks. There were mornings when I looked at Noah and felt the old anger over everything I had missed. We had learned not to pretend either wound had vanished simply because we loved each other.
We talked. We fought. We stayed.
Gunner rebuilt the compound security and spent every spare hour hunting the leak. Rafe had gone quiet after losing Rook and the south-yard shipment, but nobody mistook silence for surrender. The Iron Flames watched the roads, guarded their families, and waited for him to make his next mistake.
Today, however, belonged to Noah.
Maddie dragged him toward the cake while everyone began singing. Noah stared at five burning candles with the solemn concentration of a man preparing for serious work, then took one enormous breath and blew hard enough to spray blue frosting across Diesel’s shirt.
The laughter broke across the yard.
“Kid,” Diesel said, wiping icing from his cut, “I made you pancakes.”
“It was an accident,” Noah said, looking anything but sorry.
“Definitely your father’s son,” Sarah told him.
I pulled her against my side. “Thought you said he was all you.”
“That was before he started swearing and threatening people with sharks.”
Noah opened his presents quickly until only the sheet-covered bike remained. He stopped in front of it, eyes wide, then looked back at me.
“Is that mine?”
“Take the sheet off.”
He yanked it away, revealing a small black electric bike with orange flames painted along the frame. His name was printed beneath the handlebars, and a small shark decal sat where a club patch would have gone.
“Dad!”
He hit me around the waist. I lifted him and held on while he talked about wheels, ramps, speed, and all the places he planned to ride. I understood maybe half of it. The important part was that I was there to hear it.
When I set him down, he ran to show Maddie the shark. Sarah watched him go with tears in her eyes.
“Too much?” I asked.
“Completely.” She smiled. “He loves it.”
“Good. Got something else I need him to love.”
I reached into my pocket.
Sarah’s gaze dropped to the ring in my hand, and for the first time since I had known her, she appeared to have nothing to say.
“You told me big decisions belong to both of us,” I said. “So I’m asking. Marry me. Make this legal before some school administrator tells me I ain’t allowed to pick up my own kid because my name isn’t on the right piece of paper.”
Her laugh broke through the tears. “That is the least romantic proposal I’ve ever heard.”
I caught her hand before she could wipe her face.
“I missed too much, Sarah. I’m not missing another birthday, Christmas, bad day, or ordinary Saturday.
I want your name beside mine on everything.
I want to wake up fighting with you when we’re eighty and still be the bastard you choose before you go to sleep. ”
Her fingers closed around mine. “That was better.”
“You gonna answer?”
“Yes.”
I slid the ring onto her finger and pulled her into me. She caught the front of my shirt, kissing me while the brothers shouted things neither of us needed to hear and Noah demanded to know why his mother was crying.
“She’s happy,” I told him when he squeezed between us.
“Because of my bike?”
“Sure, kid. Because of your bike.”
The three of us stood together in the center of the compound, Sarah beneath my arm and Noah leaning against my leg. It was not the family I had expected to find. It was one I had almost lost before I knew it existed.
An engine screamed beyond the front gate.
Every patched man in the yard turned toward the sound.
A battered sedan shot through the entrance as Gunner opened it, then swerved across the gravel and stopped outside the garage. The driver’s door flew open. A woman stumbled out with blood covering one side of her blouse and a flash drive clenched in her fist.
Gunner reached her before she hit the ground.
She fought him until he caught both wrists and forced her to look at him. Whatever she saw in his face stopped her struggling.
“My name is Myla Hyde,” she gasped. “I have evidence against the Black Thorns. Routes, payments, names—everything.”
Gunner’s expression did not change. “Who hurt you?”
“Rafe Maddox.” Her gaze moved across the watching club before returning to him. “And if you don’t get me somewhere safe, the person feeding him information will know I’m here.”
Gunner lifted her into his arms.
Hawk ordered the gate locked while the celebration emptied toward the garage. I handed Noah to Sarah, drew my gun, and followed my brothers.
Rafe Maddox had made the same mistake again.
He had sent a frightened woman to the Iron Flames and expected us to leave her unprotected.