Epilogue
RYKER
Five years later…
I sit in my recliner in the living room—the massive black chair I call “The Throne”—and watch as my son, Jet, aims his little wooden gun at his mother.
“Pew! Pew!” He laughs as Sable groans and falls backwards, pretending she’s hurt.
Giggling, Jet skips over to her and falls into her arms. I sip my drink and marvel at the wondrous peace and tranquility that is now my life.
The war is over. The Brambilla family has been scattered to the wind, and the Vale-Noir family reigns over Chicago.
The walls of this house used to be guarded by a fleet of armed men. Now only a small few remain.
Our potential enemies know better now. Sable and I didn’t suddenly become less dangerous when we became parents. But our power is so widespread that no one can stand against us.
Even the cops are fully paid off at this point.
Last month, one of our men slipped up collecting a payment and was reported by a bystander. The lieutenant who arrived on scene recognized he was part of our family immediately and let him go.
No one screws with the king and queen of Chicago.
In fact, just the other week, Sable and I were talking about how if we weren’t busy parenting Jet, we might just expand our operation. Without him, ruling with this level of power—with no one to oppose us—would just be boring.
Jet laughs again, the sweet little giggle that always goes right to my heart, and I rise from my chair and sweep him up into my arms.
“There’s my little tough guy,” I tease, tickling him in the spot that always gets him. He squeaks and twists in my arms, but I hold him tight.
Becoming a father truly changed me. But it didn’t make me weak—it made me sharper. More careful. I don’t want Jet to grow up in chaos. I want him protected by it.
He yawns in my arms, and Sable comes over, brushing his hair with her fingers. “Somebody’s sleepy,” she coos. “I think it’s time for a nap.”
Like many children, Jet doesn’t even protest. He curls up in his mother’s arms as she walks him to his room and puts him down. I just watch from the door, taking in the scene as she tucks him in and he closes his little eyes.
I turn off the light and Sable switches on his little star projector that covers the walls and ceiling with soft white dots that mirror the night sky.
I watch my wife as she walks over to me.
My world…
When we were first married, I was relentlessly jealous. Just catching a random guy looking at her would send me into a fit of rage.
But she’d tell me over and over that I’m the only man for her, the only man she’s ever been with or would be with.
And I saw the truth in her eyes.
Now I’m just a proud husband when we’re out in public and I see the other men checking her out.
She’s mine. We both know it. So I just hold her by my side and let the whole world see for themselves.
“Come here,” I tell her, pulling her from the room and into the hallway. She’s wearing silk pajama bottoms and a red halter-top, but my eyes instantly latch on to hers—where my heart resides.
“You’re a perfect mom, you know that?”
The rest of the world doesn’t know Sable Noir blushes. But I do. “Stop it, baby.”
“It’s true,” I reply, taking her in my arms. “And he’s the luckiest little boy alive.”
My love for her is overwhelming. Who would have thought that an icy criminal like me could ever feel this way?
I take her down the hall to the back yard and find Kane cleaning some of our guns on the patio table. We may be the rulers now, but we’re not letting our defenses down.
“Hey, can you check on the Lamborghini for me?” I ask him, giving him that look that every guy understands. “It was riding rough the other day. Give it a quick test drive for me.”
I toss him the keys, and he gives me a nod. “Sure, boss. No problem.”
Impatiently, I stand still and formal while I wait for him to go out the front. When I hear the door close, my hands are all over my wife.
Her halter top comes up, and my lips find her nipples. I kiss her breasts and pull her pants down over her hips. She’s commando again today, which she knows I love.
I can’t handle myself around her. Just seeing her bend over from behind when she’s doing something in the kitchen gets me hard as steel, and then I’m taking her, pumping quickly like an appetizer before we fuck later, taking our time for a full-course meal.
I kiss down her belly and part her slit with my tongue, finding the spot that drives her wild.
“You know just what to do, baby,” she moans, placing a hand on my head as I lick her faster and faster, flattening my tongue on her delicate clit.
I’m not lying when I say this woman is my life. Before we met, she was one person and I was another. But we changed each other. Now we exist as a single entity, a ruling couple with parents who accept our relationship and a beautiful son who is our future.
I feel her thighs going tense against my cheeks. She’s almost there. Reaching down, I catch the pre-cum dripping from my cock and use it to lube up my shaft.
Right when she’s about to come, I lift my tongue and stand. She gasps and looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, but before she can beg me to go back down, I slide my cock into her pussy. Every single inch with a single thrust.
She goes off instantly, latching her arms around me and pressing her lips against my chest to stifle her moans.
My right hand slides down and under, grabs her perfectly sculpted ass, and readjusts the angle of her hips, allowing me to go even deeper.
“Ryker!” she cries out, causing my cock to twitch. There’s nothing I like more than hearing my wife scream my name while she orgasms.
This one’s really hitting her hard. In fact, she’s quivering longer than she normally does, and it’s causing me to lose control.
“Fuck, baby, I can’t hold out any longer—"
“Then don’t,” she gasps. “Come in me!”
Don’t need to tell me twice. I go off, lifting her up onto her tippy toes as I thrust harder, practically impaling her on my shaft.
Beads of my cum drip out of her, spilling down the insides of her thighs as I capture her lips with mine and press my tongue into her mouth.
This is what it’s all about, right here. Not getting laid but being one with the woman of my dreams. Being linked in the type of bliss that only a true connection can bring.
Is our marriage perfect? Of course not. We still fight, but it always ends the same way—with us fucking our brains out afterward.
The city may answer to us, but we answer to each other.
“God, I love you,” I whisper.
Sable giggles. “Remember the first time we met? At Rocky’s when we fought like a couple of dumb thugs?”
I laugh as my hands move across her body on their own, tracing the lines I’ve embedded into my brain.
“Just be glad I took things I easy on you,” I tease.
She slaps me jokingly on the shoulder. “Don’t start with me, mister.”
Holding her in my arms, I take a seat and cradle her in my lap.
I look at the guns that Kane was cleaning that now surround us like a fence. A wall of violence and death that built us.
Those guns used to mean expansion, invasion, blood. Now they mean one thing—no one gets close enough to hurt what’s mine.
Safety for my family.
And anyone who forgets that doesn’t live long enough to remember again.
THE END