Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169013 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 845(@200wpm)___ 676(@250wpm)___ 563(@300wpm)
Guilt and another burden I knew he would carry.
Two others had sustained gunshot wounds but were in stable condition, the same as was confirmed for my brother.
All of them had been taken to Moonlit Ridge where there apparently was a secret medical facility set up to care for incidents like this.
Silas hugged and rocked Elena for the longest time, their relief and sorrow explicit, before she peeled herself out of his arms and stumbled over to me.
Swiping at the tears streaming down her face.
Her footsteps harrowed and heavy, though her arms were firm when she wrapped them around me. “I’m so mad at you. Don’t you dare do that to me again. I was so scared. So freaking scared.”
Emotion pulsed and swam, and I wheezed, “I’m so sorry. I was scared, too.”
She sniffled. “I know. I heard what happened. You were just fighting for your family, the same as Silas was fighting for his. But God, I hated every second that you were away.”
My nod was soggy. “But that’s you now, too. My family. And I never should have left that way. I can never express how devastated I am that I handled this all wrong.”
She dug her fingertips into my back. “It’s okay. We’re all finally going to be okay.”
She pulled away, and when I looked up, I found Meems on the porch with a wiggling Kai in her arms.
My heart tried to spring from its confines.
Joy and the most staggering relief.
“Bwinwey.”
He pointed at me with his chubby little finger, crooking it like he was calling for me.
But he’d been calling to me all along.
I stumbled up the porch steps.
“Bwinwey owie?” Concern filled his precious face when he saw my eye up close.
My head shook as the tears continued to fall nonstop. “No, my sweet boy, I’m okay. I’m okay.”
Elena was right. I finally was.
With trembling hands, I pulled him into my arms.
Hugged him to me so fiercely I couldn’t see.
“My sweet boy.” I peppered kisses all over his forehead and cheeks. “My sweet boy.”
Meems touched my arm.
Tenderly.
Murmured, “Now there’s the good.”
And I felt the swarm of energy gather from behind.
Solid footsteps sending shockwaves along the wooden planks as Silas slowly climbed the steps.
His presence overpowering.
I’d once been terrified to even look at him, afraid of the way he compelled me.
The man too violently beautiful to be real.
But as I turned, I knew he was all those things.
Violent.
Beautiful.
Real.
Mine.
And as he curled his arms around both of us, I knew I didn’t want anything else.
The only thing I wanted was this love that had been forged in the fire.
EPILOGUES
Silas
What the fuck was she wearing?
My dick stirred as violently as the air when Brinley emerged from the thicket, strutting her way toward the lapping fire where I sat under the shelter of night surrounded by my crew.
She was dressed in this fucking flowy, satiny black skirt that didn’t even come to mid-thigh. Soft fabric brushing bare flesh. Toned legs for fucking days, amplified by the sky-high heels that she never failed to don.
A plain black tee with the neck cut out of it draped off one shoulder, fitting her snug since it looked like it was tied in the back.
Wild curls blew around her stunning face. Those long locks threaded with strands the color of harvest leaves wisping around her high-cut cheeks.
Eyes entrancing flames with the single-handed power to lead me out of the dark.
Autumn riding in on a hurricane.
A wildfire sent to torch my senses and incinerate my heart.
A stunner strutting around on my property.
Best fucking sight I’d ever seen.
I played it easy, though, sipped from my old-fashioned like I was hardly affected as I watched her approach. Whiskey hitting my tongue and gliding down my throat to pool in my belly.
My sister was in tow, as per usual, though she was wearing her own black little number, which was something new.
I’d always been amazed at Elena’s resilience. Amazed that after everything she’d suffered, she’d maintained this doe-eyed belief.
But in the last three months since everything had gone down with Kent Ellison—his entire fetid organization decimated, the death of him and all eighty-three of his men blamed on a feud with a cartel—a new confidence had emerged in Elena.
It was terrifying, honestly.
I still had this soul-deep need to protect her with everything I had, but I knew I had to give her some space so she could spread her wings.
How, I wasn’t sure. But I was trying.
You could say Brinley had been inspiring. Standing for her like a sister. Her best friend. Her closest confidant.
And that was one thing I could take confidence in.
“We’re at a stop sign, and this chick just climbs out the window of her husband’s car and climbs right onto the back of my bike.” Brody stood to the side of me, wielding a bottle of tequila in his hand, dude trading off exaggerated stories with my men. “Said she’d never been with a biker before and wanted a ride.”