Epilogue
I was in a bit of a daze for the first two days after the confrontation with Sonny. It was like being on autopilot. I was aware of doing things: getting showered, dressed, interacting with the people in the house, spending time with Denali, but it was like it was happening outside of me.
I guess it made sense, given the trauma of that situation.
But it was a relief to wake up on the third day, aware of feeling undeniably in my body. Hunger gnawed at my stomach as I slid out of bed and went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I felt the water cascading all over my skin when I stepped into the shower.
As I moved back into the bedroom to grab my last set of clean clothes, I turned to look at York. He was still in bed, an arm over his head on the pillows, shirtless, the blankets pulled off to my side of the bed, so there was nothing to hide the way his hardness strained against his shorts.
I didn’t stop to think.
I moved to the foot of the bed, climbing on between his legs and running my hands up his calves.
The barely-there touch had him stirring, but it wasn’t until I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his hipbone that he came fully awake, a low groan escaping him.
His hand slapped down on the back of my neck as I moved across his waistband for a moment before pulling the material down to free him.
His whole body tensed as I took him into my mouth. His hips bucked involuntarily up, forcing him deeper.
I worked him slowly, loving the rough sounds of his breath, the way his body tensed beneath me, how his hands grabbed my head and hair, holding me to him as I drove him up.
It wasn’t long, though, before he was pulling me up and over him, a rumble escaping him as his gaze slid over me when I moved to straddle him.
A curse escaped him as I lifted up, then slid down onto his cock.
Everything tensed, tightened, as my head fell back on a moan.
I rode him slowly at first, our breaths and heartbeats seeming to sync. But it wasn’t long before the need overtook us both. I rocked faster and faster as he rocked his hips up into me, making my moans grow louder as I got closer and closer.
“Fuck, that feels good,” York groaned as I came, my walls clenching around him, taking him with me as I came.
I rested against him afterward, my face buried in his neck, his arms heavy around me.
“Do me a favor.”
“Hmm?”
“Wake me up that way every morning,” he said, making a little laugh escape me.
His fingers started to slide up and down my spine. “Feeling better today?”
“Yeah. Thanks for picking up the slack.”
“Don’t gotta thank me for anything. I know that if there’s a day I drop the reins, you will pick them up to keep things on track. That’s how it works.”
“Fill me in. I know I wasn’t tuned in enough to tell me how everything has gone.”
“It’s handled. No one is gonna find the body.
The blood is gone. The weapon has taken a long trip to the middle of nowhere.
Sonny’s truck and phone are back at his place.
He’s made several phone calls since then.
Sent a few texts. And Arty had us get into his laptop so he could wipe anything about you out of it. ”
“Wow. It doesn’t seem like you guys have been that busy.”
“An hour or two here and there. The guys are heading back to Shady Valley today. I think we’re all set here without them.”
“I feel bad for not getting to know them better.”
“We can visit them when it cools down a bit, so we don’t melt in Death Valley.”
“I like that plan. Raff was good with Denny.”
“He’s a little kid-like himself.”
“So, what now?” I asked.
“Whatever you want. We can hang here, iron out the details with Greg. You can sell and move on. You can figure out how to just outsource the excavation.”
“What do you think?”
“I think it’s always smart to hold onto an asset.
Especially if there’s a body buried on the property.
It also lets you continue to come back here if you want.
Show Denali what your childhood was like.
I’m sure everyone at our club—and the sister clubs—would come here for vacations, keep an eye on things. ”
“That’s true. I don’t feel done here yet. But it’s also… not home. If that makes sense.”
“It does.” He paused, his body tensing slightly. “What feels like home?”
I lifted up to look down at him.
“You. You feel like home. And Denny. And the family you have built at the club. Though, I’d really like to go back to having our own space. I might love your club family, but I’d prefer they not hear us having sex.”
“I’m going to make that happen,” he said, tucking some of my hair behind my ear.
“Then once we get this all sorted out, we will go back to Golden Glades.”
“I like that idea. I will put you in touch with Teddy.”
“Why?”
“Because if you’re going to be buying luxury real estate, you’re gonna want to talk to the pro.”
I didn’t want luxury real estate.
I wanted a home for our lives to grow in.
A yard for Denny to play in.
And York at my side.
York - 3 weeks
“Stop looking so guilty,” Huck demanded as he handed me a second gun, just in case.
“I don’t like lying to her.”
“You’re not lying to her. She, like all the women around this club, knows that she can’t know every detail. For her own protection. And for the protection of the kids. Trust me, Runa gets that.”
“I guess.”
“And you can tell her when it’s done that she doesn’t have to ever worry about the bastards again. That’s all she needs to know.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
We hadn’t really discussed the hitmen since we talked about Sonny hiring them.
Runa seemed to believe that was just… over.
But that wasn’t over for me. Especially after seeing the evidence from Arty that not only were they hired to kill Runa, but our daughter as well.
The kind of men who could be paid to murder a child didn’t deserve to be in this world.
And I would be happy to take them out of it.
There was no scuttlebutt yet about Sonny being missing. From what we could tell while we were still at the ranch, Sonny had fired everyone who worked there, so there was no one to question him when he was mining the rare earth minerals. So no one was missing him on the daily.
Arty had shit set up so Sonny’s rent and bills would continue to get paid until his money ran out in his accounts. We had at least a year or two before someone knew he was missing.
That was what you got when you were a greedy, miserable prick—no one missed you.
By then, there’d be no reason for anyone to suspect Runa.
She’d hired a few familiar faces back at the ranch to upkeep the grounds, grow the hay for the cows, and take care of them. She decided to cease the cattle operation and just have the cows live out their natural lives on the ranch in retirement.
Everything with the minerals was moving forward, but she’d already sold off the rocks that Sonny had already mined. Judging by what she’d gotten for just that small load, yeah, she was about to never have to worry about anything again.
But she wasn’t talking about flashy cars or multimillion-dollar homes.
No.
She was talking about the preservation of undeveloped land. She was talking about women’s shelters for at-risk mothers like she had been for so long. She was talking about giving back to the world, not trying to take more of it for herself. As if I needed more reasons to love her.
Denali was off at a club sleepover. Runa was in talks with Teddy—who was happy to take her under his wing to help her manage her new financial reality.
And I was off to kill the hitmen.
I slipped the second gun into my waist holster then made my way out the back door.
This was the last thing standing in the way of us closing the door on all the trauma the girls had endured for years.
I drove my bike out to the middle of nowhere, to a small rental house that was in foreclosure, so there was no one around to know what was about to go down.
And that was a trap.
When we’d gotten back to Golden Glades, I tore everything the girls owned apart, looking for a tracker, knowing there had to be one if they were getting found over and over while being off the grid.
And I found it.
Buried deep in the belly of the goddamn capybara stuffed animal.
I pulled it out, sewed the baby back up, then put it in a Faraday cage until I could get my plan set up.
At the foreclosed house, I set the tracker in the mailbox, then made my way outside to hide in the trees across the street.
I hoped to pick them off before they went in, or after they came out of the house. It was easier to wash blood away with a hose than it was to scrub it out of walls or carpets.
Runa’s car sat in the driveway.
It was the same car I’d use to haul their bodies out in the tarp-lined trunk I’d set up the night before.
The gators would be eating good this week.
I was decked out all in black, sweating through my clothes as I waited. And waited. And waited.
It was about an hour and a half later that I saw headlights turning down the street. Then cutting off.
That had to be my guys.
No one cut their headlights on a dark, unfamiliar road at night unless they had ulterior motives.
My pulse skittered as my mind flashed to one of these bastards with a belt around Runa’s neck and pulling tight.
Of both of them ambushing her when she was alone with my daughter on a supposed work call.
Of them ramming their car into hers.
I lifted my arm as the car pulled up and parked a few feet from Runa’s car.
The driver climbed out, glancing around, seeming to look right at me, but not seeing me.
I sucked in a breath, aimed, and squeezed the trigger.
Once.
Twice.
His body jolted, stumbled, wavered, and fell.
But the other ducked down behind the car, protecting himself behind the wheel.
With the moon shining just right through the clouds, I saw the glint of metal.
There was no way to take him out while he was hiding. And no way to approach when he was armed and aiming at me.
I was still debating my options when the craziest shit happened.
The trunk to Runa’s car slid silently open.
And a man folded himself out.
I saw the gun.
The gun focused on me?