Epilogue
Lockout
Eight years later
“What’re you doing?”
I froze as I shut my office door, then looked over my shoulder and down. I would recognize that voice anywhere.
Butcher and Isla’s daughter blinked up at me. Her face was solemn as she watched me turn back around and lock my office door. I had to do that now with so many kids living here. This door and the one to the armory always stayed locked. There was too much shit for kids to get into.
“I was going to go for a walk,” I told her.
Bay was the spitting image of her father. Right down to the emotionless hazel eyes. Whatever…condition…he had, he’d passed down to his daughter. And possibly to the son Isla had just given birth to a couple days ago.
“What are you doing?” I countered.
She tilted her head and studied me. “I’m supposed to be napping,” she told me. “But I wasn’t sleepy.”
“Uh huh. And did you tell your mom or dad that you were coming downstairs?”
“No. Was I supposed to?”
She was four years old and too damn smart for her own good. Must’ve gotten that from Isla.
“Yeah. Parents don’t really like it when their kids aren’t where they left them,” I told her. I held out my hand, then grinned when she took it. “Let’s go let them know where you are.”
“Okay, Uncle Lock.”
I’d fucking burn the world down for this little girl.
For any of the children. Our families had grown at a rapid rate, especially over the last couple of years.
So fast that we’d started adding on to the clubhouse.
Other than Toxic and Billie—who lived out on Cholla Summit Ranch—everyone still lived here and no one wanted to change that.
Toxic had finally found a good crew for the ranch though, so they were here most days after they finished morning chores, their family just slept out at the ranch house. They’d stopped at two kids, so far anyway. Two little boys.
Who knew, there might be more at some point.
Just because most of us guys were feeling old as dirt these days didn’t mean the women were.
And they had Daryl and Gramps living out there with them.
They were here drinking me out of house and home most days, but everyone was happy to have the two men around, especially since they were getting a lot older and slower.
We stepped out of the way as Priest’s hellions ran past. “Hi, Uncle Lock!” was chorused and trailed back to us as they disappeared out the clubhouse door.
There were a few more of them these days.
Priest and Jenny now had seven kids, all daughters.
He was a lucky motherfucker because they were amazing kids.
Somehow, Gabby was twenty now and living away from home.
Fucking killed me that so many of the kids were getting older and wouldn’t be here much longer.
But so far Gabby was the only one who was out of the house. We had the rest of them for a short time and the young ones for much longer. I glanced down at the little girl, whose hand I was still holding. “Maybe they’ll let you go play later.”
She shrugged. “Okay. Cove was awake crying a lot last night,” she told me as we made our way up the stairs.
“Newborns do that,” I told her. “Do you like your new brother?”
She shrugged again. “He looks like an old man.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, they do look that way.”
“Wait,” she said when I started to knock on their apartment door. “Mommy might be sleeping.”
I stared down into her solemn little face. “You’re right. We should be quiet.”
The door opened before I had a chance to decide what to do.
“Shit. Thanks, Lock,” Butcher said, leaning down and scooping his daughter into his arms. “Just went to check on her and realized she wasn’t there.”
Neither father, nor daughter, looked worried about that fact at all. I grinned at him. “No worries. How’s Isla doing?”
“Good. She’s sleeping now. Sloane came and took Cove. Said she’d keep him until he needed to eat again so we could get some sleep.”
“Well then, why don’t you let me take Bay?” I asked. “She can play with my rug rats for a couple hours.”
“I’m not sleepy,” Bay announced, giving her father a grim look. They stared at each other, not blinking, for a full minute before he handed her over to me.
“Sure,” he said. “Appreciate that.” He started to turn, then paused at the door. “If you need anything, just text me. I’ll have my phone close by, but the notifications off so they don’t wake Isla.”
I smiled because it had taken a while for Butcher to pick up on how to be a father, but now he was a natural at it. Seeing him being normal—or as normal as he could be—and having a wife and kids was a fucking trip.
Hell, seeing all of us with families was crazy. But all of my brothers were happy. They were all settled. We still protected this city, but now instead of partying and fucking around, we went home to our families at the end of the day.
I took Bay with me and stepped up to a door and knocked.
It was around nine in the morning, so I wasn’t going to be interrupting nap times.
Only Smoke’s youngest daughter, Abby, would still be sleeping.
She’d started sleeping through the night early on and now, at three, she was a champion sleeper.
Her brothers and older sister were always up at the ass crack of dawn, though.
“Hey,” Hell said. He leaned against the door frame, wearing only a pair of sweats.
I frowned. “What the fuck is all over you?”
He chuckled. “Syrup.”
My brows shot up. “Getting frisky, huh?”
“I wish. Trying to feed some kids waffles.”
“What’s frisky?”
We both looked down at the little girl in my arms in surprise. I’d forgotten she was there. “Oh. Uh… It means to be playful,” I told her.
She nodded, absorbing that information, but otherwise staying quiet.
Okay.
Looking back at Hell, I shrugged. “Want to bring everyone down to the playground?”
“Shit, yeah,” he said, then gave Bay a guilty look. “I mean… Yeah, I’ll round them up.”
“Bring all of them,” I said. “Let’s clear this place out so that Isla can get some sleep. They don’t need kids running up and down the halls.”
“Leave it to me, Prez. I’ll spread the word.”
With that, I went to my apartment and smiled as I saw Keely setting dishes from breakfast into the sink.
“Everything alright at Skyhawk?” she asked. She came over and took Bay from me without even questioning why she was here. “You hungry, Sweetie?” When the girl nodded, she started making up a plate for her.
“Yeah, Matt just had a few questions before the new group of students started tomorrow,” I told her. I’d finally started up the school I wanted and now once a week, I taught people how to fly.
“Good,” she said. “Lamar, put that fork down right now,” she said, narrowing her eyes on our seven-year-old.
He put the fork—and the food that he’d been about to launch at his twin—down. “Sorry, Mom,” he mumbled.
Leo waited until Keely’s back was turned then stuck his tongue out at his brother.
I sat down next to them and gave my sons ‘the look’. Unlike Butcher I’d fallen into fatherhood quickly and easily. Probably because I spent years basically parenting both Butcher and Toxic.
My boys grinned at me while Lily, our ten month old, munched on her eggs in her high chair. I’d wanted to name her after Daph, but didn’t want to make anything tough on Hush, so we’d settled on Lily, another flower name in honor of her aunt.
“We’re meeting everyone down on the playground,” I told Keely. “Leave the dishes, I’ll come up and do them as soon as all the kids pass out for their afternoon naps.”
“Thanks,” she said and came to sit at the table while the kids finished breakfast. “That’s a good idea,” she said, giving me a sly look.
“What is?”
“Getting the kids outside where they can scream and play but not bother Isla,” she said, reaching out and wiping a drip of ketchup off Bay’s chin with her thumb.
She wiped the sauce off on her jean shorts, not caring if she made a mess of herself.
Keely was an amazing mother to our kids.
She was loving and kind, but cracked the whip when she needed to.
We had great kids because of her. We’d gone a long time between the twins and Lily so that Keely could figure out how to be both a lawyer and a mom.
She was fucking phenomenal at both jobs.
But she was retired now and had wanted another baby.
Lily might not be our last if my wife had anything to say about it.
It’d give this woman anything she wanted. As big of a family as she wanted.
I shrugged. “Wasn’t that long ago that we were getting zero sleep,” I told her, making a face at Lily. “That was you,” I said to my daughter. “You were the one making sure none of us slept.”
She grinned at me, laughing a little as if she understood what I was saying to her.
“Can we go down, Mom?” Leo asked.
“Yeah, we’re done,” Lamar insisted.
“Go put your shoes on first,” she said.
“Ugh,” they both groaned together.
“Last time you went barefoot I was digging cholla out of your feet for weeks,” Keely told them. “Shoes. Now.”
“Fine,” they said as they dashed away from the table.
She gave me an accusatory glance. “That was you,” she said, echoing my words to our daughter. “We had twins because of you.”
I chuckled. “That’s not a twin thing. It’s a boy thing. Trying to keep them clothed and from killing themselves is a full-time job.”
“A truer statement has never been spoken,” she sighed. “Go on down with them. I’ll bring the girls after they’ve finished.”
I stood up, kissed the top of her head, then followed my sons downstairs. They sounded like a herd of rhinos on the stairs, but I didn’t try to quiet them. Soon enough they’d be outside with everyone else.
Kids and dogs were everywhere. The kids ranged in ages from a few months to sixteen—which was Taylor.
How the hell there were teenagers running around here, when those kids were all just as old as Bay the last time I looked, would forever baffle me.
Taylor, Dex, and Sean were all driving now.
Which was horrifying enough but soon Cassie, Caitlyn, and Tori’s son Dylan would be too.
These kids were growing up too damn fast. Toxic and Billie’s sons, Wyatt and Waylon rushed past to join the flock of kids over by the playground equipment.
A hand tugged at my jeans and I swung Jeanie—Idaho’s middle child at three—up into my arms. “Hi,” I said.
She ducked her head, smiling at me. She rested her head on my shoulder, content to watch the other kids play.
“I think she likes you more than me,” Idaho complained as he walked up with Carter, one of his six-month-old twin boys.
“No wonder why,” I told him. “I’m better.”
“Fuck off,” Idaho muttered, but he was grinning.
“Language,” Eva told him, walking up with their other boy, Elliot. Anders, their oldest, went to join the mob of children on the playground.
“These kids are growing up in a motorcycle clubhouse,” Toxic said with a grin. “If they can’t handle some bad words, we’re all going to be in deep shit.”
Eva sighed and shook her head. She and Billie walked off to go hang out with the other women, who were perched on the picnic tables near the kids.
“Been a bit since we all managed to get out here,” Ricochet said, walking up with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
His daughters Reece and Ryan were playing in the sandbox.
Well, Reece was playing. Ryan was shoving fistfuls of sand into her mouth as fast as she could before Jordan managed to stop her.
Static and Gwen’s younger crew went running past, chasing each other.
They had five total now. Hush and Seek had two, Sawyer and Tucker.
But it was Riptide and Sloane who were giving Priest and Jenny a run for their money.
Rip and Sloane had six kids now and I wasn’t sure they were planning to stop anytime soon.
Being a mother suited Sloane like nothing else. She was amazing. All these women were. They’d banded together throughout the years and the fact that we had social, thriving, caring kids was all because of them.
There was a time in my life when, if you’d told me this was where we’d all end up, I’d have laughed my ass off. Just picturing Butcher with kids would have made me think it was a lie. But fuck… We were pretty good at this parenting thing. Even us guys.
I turned as Toxic nudged me and watched Butcher walk up. He looked like shit. Pretty much the same look we all had with newborns. “You’re supposed to be sleeping,” I told him.
“Isla wanted to hang out with everyone,” he growled out as his wife gingerly picked her way across the lawn to the others. She took Cove from Sloane with a grateful smile.
For a woman who worried she wouldn’t fit in, Isla had found her place amongst us. We were like a stopping ground for people with nowhere to go, and I was just fine with that. This was my family. I’d kill for it. Die for it. And no one would rip us apart.
Toxic and Butcher went over to set up the slip-n-slide, after much pleading from the kids. I shook my head as the two men ended up in a water fight with the majority of the older children. The shorts Butcher had tossed on sagged down enough that you could see the top half of his tattoo.
“Figured he would have gotten that lasered off by now,” Hush said with a chuckle.
“You kidding?” I said with a laugh. “He wears it like a badge of pride. Fuck, if Isla and Billie hadn’t come along those two probably would have grown old together as bachelors.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard the story about how Butcher ended up with Toxic’s name on his ass,” Idaho said with a laugh.
“Inside a heart,” Static added as he walked up.
“Typical story,” Riptide said.
“They were drunk,” we all said in unison.
“Believe it or not, none of us know the full story,” I said with a shrug when Idaho arched a brow. “There was a bet. Butcher lost. To this day neither of them will tell us what the bet was.”
“Shit,” Idaho muttered. “Those two keeping a secret like that for that long? Had to be a fucking good bet.”
“For all we know,” Hush said, “it was somethin’ stupid.”
“Knowing those two,” I said, “could be either.”
Watching the kids laugh and play in the sunshine, I knew our best years were laid out in front of us.
Some might think that being single, partying, fucking, killing, and doing whatever the fuck we wanted all the time was the best life.
They were fucking wrong. This. This was the best life. The only thing that mattered in life.
I knew my brothers would agree with me. Our wives.
Our kids. That was what made our world turn.
We might still protect our city, but it always came down to them.
Everything we did was for them. And no price would ever be too high to pay.
They were our salvation. The legacy of The Viking’s Rampage Motorcycle Club.
***
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