Epilogue
Six Months Later
The Chesapeake Bay was calm that evening.
The last rays of sunlight stretched across the water behind Peak's house, turning the bay into molten gold while the old dock creaked softly beneath his boots.
For the first time in years, his house didn't feel empty.
Laughter drifted through the open kitchen windows.
Wren was inside arguing with Warden over whether pineapple belonged on pizza, and Warden insisted it was a crime.
Wren insisted his beard made him incapable of making good decisions.
Maeve was laughing so hard she could barely breathe, and Peak smiled to himself.
He was home. It still felt strange calling it that.
For years it had simply been a house with too many bedrooms, too many memories, and too much silence.
Now, one bedroom remained filled because Wren refused to move out until she found a place of her own.
She claimed she was "house-sitting." Maeve called it freeloading.
Peak secretly hoped she would stay longer.
The library had become a workspace where he and Wren spent hours rebuilding the crawler—not as spyware, but as software that helped federal investigators locate trafficking victims faster than ever before.
The garage was usually full of Grave Prowler motorcycles, but the club was keeping him busier than usual.
Captain would stop in and claim that he was "checking on the progress.
" Peak was fairly certain his Prez simply liked stealing Maeve's coffee.
Life had become wonderfully inconvenient, and he wouldn't have traded it for anything.
His phone buzzed, and Captain's name popped up on the screen. Peak answered immediately. "Everything okay?"
Captain laughed. "You answer your phone faster than anyone I know.”
"You only call when something's broken,” Peak said.
"Exactly,” Captain grumbled.
Peak leaned against the dock railing. "What broke?"
"Nothing."
That made him suspicious. "Then why are you calling?"
There was a long pause. "You still planning on telling that girl you love her?"
Peak closed his eyes. "I've told her."
"No." Captain chuckled. "You told her you loved her."
"You ain't told her you're planning on keeping her." Peak rubbed the back of his neck.
"You spying on me now? I don’t see how my love life is club business,” Peak said.
"I'm just trying to help,” Captain insisted.
Peak laughed. "What do you want, Captain?"
"I want my damn hacker to stop overthinking everything."
"I don't overthink things,” Peak insisted.
Captain laughed so hard that Peak had to hold the phone away from his ear. "Boy, you built a custom operating system because you don't trust commercially available software." Peak couldn't argue, and Captain lowered his voice. "Quit waiting and make the girl yours."
“We’re heading your way, so do it before we get there,” Captain ordered.
He and a bunch of the guys were coming over for a cookout, and he knew that if he didn’t tell Maeve that he wanted forever with her, the guys would give him a lot of shit.
The line went dead, and Peak stared at the phone for a moment before slipping it back into his pocket.
Captain wasn’t wrong, and he hated when his Prez made sense.
The back door opened, and Maeve stepped onto the porch carrying two mugs.
She'd changed since the spring, not physically, although the worry that had lived in her eyes for nearly two years had finally disappeared.
No, it was something quieter. She smiled more, and she slept through the night.
Sometimes she laughed so hard she snorted, then denied doing it.
Peak had wisely learned never to mention it again.
She walked barefoot across the dock toward him. "Did Captain call you?" Peak nodded. "He checking on his favorite mechanic?"
"He says I'm his favorite hacker,” he said.
Maeve handed him one of the mugs. "That's practically affection."
"It is for him,” Peak agreed. They stood side by side watching the sunset, and neither felt any need to fill the silence. Peak had discovered that was one of the things he loved most about Maeve. Silence with her never felt empty—it felt peaceful.
She leaned lightly against his shoulder. "You're thinking."
"I am,” he said.
"I can tell,” she whispered.
"How?"
"You get this little wrinkle right here." She reached up and touched the space between his eyebrows. "It means your brain's trying to solve something."
Peak smiled. "I thought I hid it better."
"Not from me,” she said.
He looked out across the water again. "I've spent most of my life avoiding things."
Maeve frowned. "What brought this on?"
"I turned down the government, I refused Captain, and I stayed in this house because it was easier than figuring out what came next." She waited for him to continue, and Peak appreciated that about her. She never rushed him. "I kept thinking freedom meant not belonging anywhere."
Maeve slipped her hand into his. "And now?
" He looked at the clubhouse patch stitched onto the back of the denim jacket hanging over the porch railing.
Six months ago, Captain had walked into Peak's garage carrying a folded leather kutte. It had a patch on the back, but it wasn’t a prospect patch, or a patch for a temporary assignment.
It was a full patch, and across the back it said: GRAVE PROWLERS MC.
Below it, there was one rocker that said: CYBER OPERATIONS.
Captain had grumbled the entire time. "Don't make me regret this.
" Peak had accepted it without a single argument, because for the first time in his life, he wanted to belong somewhere.
He squeezed Maeve's hand. "Now I know freedom isn't about being alone."
She smiled softly. "It's about choosing where you belong."
He nodded. "Exactly."
The screen door slammed. "You two are disgustingly adorable!" Wren's voice carried across the yard. Peak and Maeve both looked toward the house. Wren stood on the porch holding a bag of marshmallows, and Warden stood beside her.
"I told her not to interrupt,” Warden said.
"You absolutely did not," Wren shot back.
Warden shrugged. "She's got me there."
Captain climbed out of his truck carrying a cooler, and Ruin followed with folding chairs. Dock backed another pickup toward the fire pit, loaded with firewood. Within minutes, the yard filled with motorcycles, laughter, and music. It was the unmistakable chaos of an outlaw family.
Maeve smiled. "Looks like we're hosting again." Peak looked around. Somehow, his quiet house had become the place everyone gathered, but he didn't mind—not even a little.
Captain wandered onto the dock carrying two fishing poles. "You coming?"
"In a minute." Captain looked between Peak and Maeve and seemed to notice the small velvet box sticking halfway out of Peak's jacket pocket. The old president's eyebrows lifted, and without saying a word, he slowly smiled.
He turned back to the house and shouted. "Wren, keep everybody busy!" Wren looked over, and Captain pointed out the ring box. Her grin became positively wicked.
"Oh!" She grabbed Warden by the arm. "Nobody goes near the dock!"
Warden looked confused. "Why?"
"Because I said so,” she said. Warden muttered something about stubborn sisters.
Peak sighed. "So much for subtle."
Maeve looked at him. "What are they doing?" Peak reached into his jacket. His heart was pounding harder than it had during the raid beneath the marsh. He'd faced mercenaries, explosives, and one of the most sophisticated criminal organizations in the country. None of it had made him this nervous.
Maeve's eyes widened as the small velvet box appeared in his hand. "Peak."
He laughed quietly. "I had a whole speech planned."
"You did?" she asked.
"Yeah, but I forgot every word."
She smiled through the tears already gathering in her eyes. "That's okay."
Peak took both of her hands. "When I met you, I wanted Captain to leave me alone, so I agreed to investigate you.”
She laughed. "I remember."
"I wanted nothing to do with the club,” he said.
"I remember that too."
"I definitely didn't expect to fall in love with a woman who argued with me every chance she got."
"I still do,” she reminded.
"I know." He smiled. "I hope you never stop.
" He opened the ring box. Inside rested a simple platinum band with a round diamond that caught the last light of the setting sun.
"I spent most of my life thinking home was a place.
" He looked into her eyes. "You taught me it's a person.
" Maeve covered her mouth. "I love you, and I'll love you when you're impossible.
"I'll love you when you forget to sleep because you're chasing another mystery.
I'll love you when you steal the blankets.
I'll even love you when you beat me at cards. "
"I've never beaten you at cards,” Maeve reminded.
"You will." He took a steadying breath. "Maeve Carter, will you marry me?"
She laughed and cried at the same time before throwing her arms around his neck so hard he nearly lost his balance on the dock. "Yes."
The word came out between tears. "Yes." She kissed him before he could slide the ring onto her finger. “Yes.” Cheers erupted from the shoreline, and Peak looked over to find every single member of the Grave Prowlers standing in the yard pretending they hadn't been watching the entire thing.
Captain whistled loudly, and Warden handed Ruin a twenty-dollar bill. "I told you she'd say yes." Wren wiped tears from her cheeks before running down the dock and wrapping both of them in a hug.
"I knew you'd figure it out eventually,” Wren said.
Peak laughed. "Figure what out?" Wren looked around at the house at his club, and the family surrounding them.
"Your code,” Wren said.
He frowned. "My code?”
Wren nodded. “The one you spent your whole life trying to write.”
Peak looked at Maeve, and then at the brothers who had become his family. He looked at the house that no longer felt empty and at the woman wearing his ring. After spending years believing he didn’t belong anywhere, Peak had finally found the one place he never wanted to leave—home.
The End