Epilogue
There we were again—my wife and I on one side of the table, my family on the other. Tavares and Zaccai flanked my mother, and Layla sat holding Zaccai’s hand, her new engagement ring glistening. My brother had finally popped the question. Those two were a match made in Hades for sure.
We were at the company compound for a meeting I’d called. My new security members were stationed throughout the building and outside on the property.
“First, thank you all for coming,” I began.
“Of course. We wouldn’t miss it. I…uh, you look good. I hate this is my first time seeing you since you were injured,” my mother expressed.
I shrugged. “Had to be careful. Wasn’t sure who I could trust other than my wife.”
She nodded. “And you believe you can trust me now?”
“No, but I do know you didn’t try to kill me. We found the people behind that.”
“Good. I take it you all handled that in-house. I see the police are still calling your shooting unsolved.”
“Yeah, well…let’s get on with the meeting. Baby?” I said, deferring to Memphis.
My beautiful wife squared her shoulders and fixed her eyes on my family. “First, I want to talk about recruiting some new agents. I think we should take it back old school like when I was brought on. We need operatives monitoring self-defense classes…”
I watched her work and hoped she was right about not shutting my family out of the business. She believed that was the best thing to do to protect The Agency, and I trusted her insight completely. She was the only reason my family was still alive, having advised that killing them all would more than likely compromise The Agency. When I suggested just offing my mom, she rejected that, too, pointing out that my mom kept everyone else in line.
She was right, and I hated it.
An hour later, Memphis had wrapped up the meeting when my mother said, “Well done, Memphis.”
“Thank you,” my wife answered curtly.
“I’d love to meet your family. You know, I’m a fan of your father’s music. We should plan a gathering soon.”
Memphis smiled, placing a hand on her hip. “With all due disrespect, hell no . Business is business. That’s all this is and all it’ll ever be between me and you.”
Tavares and Zaccai looked like they wanted to say something but didn’t. Good, because my gun was always ready. Yeah, I’d agreed to let them live, but I didn’t mind asking for forgiveness.
She was so beautiful standing before me in a see-through orange dress and nothing else, her red-painted toenails digging in the sand. No words passed between us, just my eyes raking over the glory that was her body and hers observing my assessment.
Love.
I never deserved it but was beyond fortunate to have hers. Actually, this had to be a fluke or glitch in the damn matrix because Memphis Blue King-Pierce was everything and beyond. Beauty, brains, and a pussy that could make nations of men fall to their knees.
She smiled, slowly making her way to me. I sat up in the lounger, watching as she leaned in to kiss me before straddling my lap. Settling onto me, she rubbed a finger over the raised scar on my chest, a landmark and reminder of a major near miss. Then she kissed it before locking eyes with mine.
Giving her a lopsided grin, I said, “Damn, you being all sweet and gentle and shit. This an anniversary thing or something?”
Smirking, she lifted from my lap, pulling the dress over her head. My hands instantly moved to her breasts as she reached down to free my dick from my shorts.
“After a whole year of being your wife, I figured the least I could do is be halfway nice to you, but if you say some more dumb shit, I’ma stop.”
I chuckled. “Heard. Hey, I love you.”
As she slid down on my steel, she whimpered, “I love you, too,” and there on the beach of our familiar Zanzibar oasis, we made love as the sun ducked beneath the ocean.