Epilogue
Shadow
One Month Later . . .
“You good?” Tormentor asks, standing next to me, eyes straight ahead.
“More than good.” It wasn’t a lie. I couldn’t be better if I tried. Watching the scene play out in front of my brothers and me was surely satisfying. Though not as satisfying as when I get back home to Della.
Over the past weeks, with her healing from the bullshit she went through, we’ve grown closer. I hadn’t wanted to leave her yesterday, but I had business to attend to here in Tennessee.
Watching the men who’d hurt my sweet little mouse, Della, all those years ago feels damn good.
Dread made sure when they went down, those who didn’t help my woman when she asked for help also went with them.
I wasn’t fucking around. As they say, karma’s a bitch.
The woman who helped them, well, seeing her put in cuffs was a sight to see.
She fought and screamed about not knowing what was going on.
The best part is that they did it in front of her husband and his family.
That man looked pissed, and I didn’t give a fuck that he didn’t know his wife was capable of something as vile as filming another woman’s rape while laughing.
“Let’s get back home,” I tell my brothers as I turn my back on the sight and straddle my bike.
I was done here. As much as I wanted to kill the bastards for what they did to Della, them rotting in prison cells would be a much better punishment.
I’d find out which prison they were in and make sure word got around that they were rapists. They wouldn’t be lasting long in there.
“You gonna tell, Della, about this?” Dread asks.
“Nope.” I didn’t have to, because when Dread got to work on this, he didn’t just get me the names I wanted, he put a full-blown file together that would get them all locked away for a good long time for what they did.
Della wasn’t even the only one they’d hurt this way. Dread found the files—all of them.
“Good.” Dread nods, mounting his own bike. “Those fuckers deserve everything they’re getting.”
I rev my bike, feeling the vibration beneath me.
The satisfaction of seeing justice served is sweet, but it’s not enough to keep me here when Della’s waiting back home.
My little mouse has been through enough, more than any woman should, and I promised her I wouldn’t be gone long.
A day is far too long when I have her in my bed.
“Yeah, they do,” I agree, pulling my helmet on.
The only time I ever wear my helmet is when I’ve got to go on long trips, and that’s it, which drives Della nuts.
I’d gotten her a helmet after the first couple of rides on the back of my bike.
I wanted her safe, but she likes to fuss over the fact that she wears one, but I don’t.
But I’d take her fussing over the fact I nearly lost her.
Thinking of that, I shout over the rumbling bikes, “Let’s ride.”
It was gonna take us nearly till the sun was up to get home, but I didn’t care. I was ready to get back to my woman.
The highway stretches before us as we head back toward Oklahoma.
The miles fly by beneath our wheels, each one bringing me closer to her.
I can’t help the smile that forms behind my helmet visor thinking about how she’ll be waiting, probably curled up on the couch with one of those romance novels she’s been devouring since getting out of the hospital.
That day I nearly lost her was the worst day of my life. I don’t ever want to think about what my life would be like without her in it. She’s the most important thing I have in my life. It’s why I refuse to be without her.
With her healing up from the beating she took and the surgery, she’s worked from my house while people have visited her. I’ve taken her to the clubhouse when she needed to get out and to the ranch, but this is the first time I’ve been away from her for more than a few hours.
I don’t like it. It’s not something I want to do again. Granted, I know it will happen. I’ll have to leave her to go on runs with my brothers, but those times, I’ll see to it that someone’s watching over her. I’ll never make the mistake again of leaving her unprotected.
The wind whips around me as I push my bike a little faster. I check my mirrors, seeing my brothers flanking me on either side, their headlights cutting through the darkness. We’re making good time, but it’s not fast enough for me. I want to be home already.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and at the next gas stop, I check it. A text from Della.
Della: Miss you. Be safe.
Three simple words that make my heart pound harder than the engine beneath me. I text back quickly.
Me: Miss you more, little mouse. Be home soon.
“Everything good?” Tormentor asks, filling his tank next to me.
“Yeah. Just Della checking in,” I tell him as I shove my phone back in my pocket.
He nods, understanding in his eyes. “She’s a good woman. Strong. Perfect for you.”
“That she is brother,” I agree, grinning at Tormentor. “She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever known besides my mom.”
Tormentor, like the rest of my brothers, knows about how my mom battled breast cancer.
It wasn’t easy for her to do, but she did it and has been in remission for years now.
My dad and her were spending their time together traveling when they could.
Though now that I have Della in my life, they’ve been spending more time at home, wanting to get to know her.
My mom has been a big help with Della, mostly because my woman hates lying around the house with nothing to do. Hence, she was working a week after what happened. She doesn’t like being bored.
After we finish filling up the tanks, we get back on the road for the last stretch of the trip. I’m more than ready to get home and hold Della in my arms.
With this done and out of the way, I’ve got a question to ask her, and I intend to ask it the moment I’ve got her in my arms again.
* * *
Pulling up in front of my house, I’m not surprised to find Della sitting on the front porch in one of the two rocking chairs I now have there.
My woman’s eyes come to mine as I take my helmet off. She doesn’t stop holding my gaze as I climb off the back of my bike and walk in her direction.
“Hey, little mouse,” I murmur when I get to her as she gets out of the chair.
“Hey,” she whispers, sleep still filling her voice.
I’m guessing from the looks of her, she didn’t sleep much while I was gone.
Considering I knew she dealt with nightmares from the day she’d been taken from the ranch, beaten, and nearly died.
I figured she’d have them for a while, but eventually I’d beat them back for her.
“Got something I wanna ask you, baby.”
“What’s that?”
I reach in my pocket and pull out the ring, I’ve been carrying with me since the day after she got out of the hospital.
“First, I want you to know how much I love you,” I say, slipping the ring on her finger, hearing her gasp, eyes widening.
“But I need you to spend the rest of our lives at my side. I want you to marry me, walk next to me, stand at my side, be my forever. You are already the light to my darkness. You’re the first thing I want to see in the morning and the last thing I want to see when night falls and I close my eyes.
So with that, Della, will you be my wife, the mother of our children? ”
Tears spill down Della’s cheeks as she nods and whispers her answer on a breath, “Yes.”
The word barely leaves her lips before I claim them, kissing her, devouring her. Scooping her up in my arms, I carry her into the house, knowing exactly what I intend to do just as I’ll do for the rest of my life.
Showing her just what she means to me.
THE END.