Epilogue
ERIC TUCKER
Iwasn’t far from them when the text came through on my phone.
I need to talk to you. Soon. Very soon.
You know where to find me
The deep swelling of pride hit me like an RPG to the chest every time it dawned on me just how far my son had come along in my absence.
Drew may not have seen it, but I sure as hell did.
I saw the natural leader in him, the tactician, too.
I saw the way his men waited for him, their respect an invisible tattoo on their skin.
He was their human god, and I had been absent for his whole goddamn rise to the top.
Not a moment went by that the regret didn’t taunt me. I was a slave to it. A slave to all the mistakes I’d made that forced me to walk away.
Now I was back, and my secrets were tapping on their coffins, demanding attention, trying to find a way to break free and rise from the dead. It was only a matter of time because I’d been a fool, and foolish acts had a way of resurrecting to ruin your life years down the line.
There was no point trying to stop it. There were inevitabilities you couldn’t avoid, and sometimes it was better to strap yourself in and ride the fuck through them than try to avoid them like a coward.
I was prepared to ride through it all to keep my own flesh and blood safe. I’d never been a coward. There wasn’t anything in the world I wouldn’t do to protect the very being I’d had a hand in creating. Sometimes protecting the ones you love meant walking away.
But not today… or any time soon.
For now, the old Eric Tucker was back. He may not be who he used to be, but he was stronger in ways that couldn’t be seen, and the entire force of Babylon should fear that.
I wasn’t concerned with the futures, happy ever afters, or forevers.
All my good times were gone, buried with my wife, six-feet underground.
All that mattered to me was my today, and Drew’s tomorrow.
He deserved those tomorrows his mother and I never got to have, and so did Ayda.
As I looked up from my position on Drew’s bike, I saw the small clouds of black smoke start to rise from beyond the trees.
It was time to ride in, pretend I hadn’t been following them the entire time or watching from a distance, and whisk the two of them away.
They had lives to live, a wedding to look forward to, and a thousand days of good times ahead.
We’d figure out a way to save the men and the club because that’s one thing Drew and I could and would always do. The only thing I had to figure out was how to save Drew without him fighting and protesting.
I meant what I’d said when I told him I’d take the fall in his place. Now it was down to me to prove it. Every day could be my last with Drew. His anger would find me soon, and there’d be hell to pay when it did.
Hell didn’t seem like such a high price anymore.
I’d take it for him. I’d take purgatory, too. I’d take whatever the good Lord deemed fit.
What I couldn’t take was another day of secrets, lies, and distrust.
Kicking the bike into action, the engine flared to life, and I looked up at the smoke signal that was calling for me, my fingers pulsing as my hands twisted the bars and my arms tensed.
“Time to be the hero, old man,” I told myself, and then I weaved my way down an empty road, following the path to my boy, unsure what was going to happen when I whisked him away to a safer place, only to finally tell him everything I’d been hiding from him.
From all the men.
From myself, too.
No one else was going to die, and if they did, I’d make sure it was me. If anyone out here deserved that fate, I was that man.
To be continued… on one last ride.
Without Forever, coming early 2019.