EPILOGUE | JAX #2
I’m about to fire back, but then I see Sisk lean across the bar, her hand reaching out to stop Andy from pouring a drink.
She says something to him and he looks relieved.
She smiles as she corrects his grip on the bottle and shows him the right way to pour.
It’s nothing. It’s just Sisk being Sisk—kind, capable, taking charge without making a big deal out of it.
As she smiles everything else fades away and all I can see is her.
I used to think I wanted the world to burn.
I wanted revenge. I wanted to tear everything down because I was so fucking angry all the time.
But looking at her now, seeing that small, confident smile, I realize I was wrong.
This is what I want. This is what I was fighting for, even when I didn’t know it.
Her happiness. It’s all I ever wanted. My gaze goes up, past the ceiling, to the room where my son is sleeping, safe.
My father is up there, watching over him.
My father. The thought is still so strange it makes my head spin. How the hell did I get so lucky?
I’d burn the whole world down a thousand times over if it meant keeping this. Keeping her. Keeping them. I’d walk back into that pit tomorrow. Today. Right now. I’d do anything. Anything at all.
She finishes with Andy and turns, catching my eye. She walks toward me, and I meet her halfway, wrapping my arm around her waist and pulling her against me. I know, with a certainty that settles deep in my bones, that as long as she’s by my side, I’m home.
“So you guys really moving?” Lou asks, coming closer.
“We’re just going to the West Side,” Sisk says. “You’re acting like we’re leaving the country.”
“It’s not just ‘the West Side,’” Lou says, slapping his hand flat on the bar to make his point. “You’re moving back to THE ST. CLAIR MANSION. Jax is finally reclaiming the throne! You’re letting me decorate one room. Just one. I’m thinking velvet drapes and a gold chandelier in the bathroom.”
“Go for it,” she shrugs. “It’s going to be an adjustment, that’s for sure. For all of us.”
Lou takes a sip of his sidecar. “That house is a fucking palace.”
I notice the drink’s in the wrong glass, but I keep my mouth shut.
“It’s too big, I know,” Sisk sighs.
“We need huge,” I say. “Right now I’m sharing a bed with you, a nine-month-old, and a hundred-pound St. Bernard.”
Matt snorts.
“And Scotch snores,” I add.
“Scotch does not snore,” Sisk says.
“Scotch snores like a dying tractor.”
Lou grins. “Sounds romantic.”
I look at Sisk. “We need space.”
She sighs again. “Yeah… we do. At least I can keep an eye on my parents. I’m happy they’re moving in too.” She lowers her voice. “And you know… I still have hopes about Millie one day.”
I give her a small, tight nod. It’s a promise I don’t know if I can keep, but I’ll die trying.
“Alright,” I say to them all. “You four have been avoiding this conversation like I’m the goddamn tar for over a year. Now that you’re all on the same roof again, what the fuck actually happened at the docks? No more bullshit.”
Lou groans and rubs his jaw. “I got punched. That’s what happened.”
Sisk bursts out laughing so loud it makes a few nearby drinkers turn. “You got punched because you tried to sell a fake ID to Danner’s actual teenage niece, you absolute moron.”
“It was a test!” Lou protests, gesturing wildly. “I was selling the cover story! How was I supposed to know she was family?”
Matt, who’s been silently polishing a glass with the focus of a bomb disposal expert, slams it down on the bar. “You were supposed to be a professional, Lou. ‘I sell IDs to little girls so they can get a taste of the pop.’ You sounded like a fucking cop trying to talk street.”
Viper, tracing the rim of her glass with a black nail, sighs. “It was a disaster. The whole thing. Sisk swaggers in like she’s auditioning for a mob movie, introduces me as her ‘girlfriend who knows where the good parties are’—”
“—which was your idea,” Sisk cuts in, grinning.
“—and Matt as security, because you, Jax, were ‘too busy’ that night,” Viper finishes, ignoring her. “So one of Danner’s guys, this greasy-looking fucker, Whistle, starts staring at me. He leans over and says, ‘I bet I could turn you straight.’”
Matt, who had been quiet, goes rigid. “I forgot the plan,” he says, his voice roughening as he remembers. “I forgot we were supposed to be a circus. I stood up and got in the guy’s face. Told him to watch his mouth.”
Sisk cackles. “He told the guy he’d break his jaw if he looked at her again. It was very… chivalrous.”
Viper rolls her eyes. “It was very stupid. Danner just laughs and says, ‘So your chick’s got a boyfriend. How fucking quaint.’ He wasn’t buying it.”
“Tell him,” Lou nods at her.
Sisk’s grin turns sharp. “We had to sell it, didn’t we? I grabbed Viper and kissed her. Full-on, tongues, the whole show. Whistle just stared, and Danner… he nodded.”