“No,” I said honestly. “But I feel you. And right now, that is enough.”
He nodded, thumb stroking over my lower lip. “We’re gonna carry this together,” he said. “You ain’t doin’ this alone. You hear me, cher?”
“I hear you, baby.” I said.
I laced my fingers with his again and stepped out from under the willow.
The wake continued behind the house and the pain was still there, but so was he. This wonderful man who coveted my soul.
EPILOGUE ONE
JAMESON
One year later…
My baby girl slept with her cheek pressed to my cut, her small fist tangled in the leather for comfort. Her soft hair curled along her forehead. Every slow breath moved against my chest. I kept my palm spread over her back, feeling each rise and fall, counting them without meaning to.
The television was on mute in front of me, some baseball game I wasn’t really watching glared back at me. The living room was quiet except for the low hum of the fridge and the clink of dishes in the kitchen where Sadie moved around.
A lot had happened in one year. We had buried Virgil. We had nearly lost Grace. Hellsing had gone to Hell and come back. The Scorpions and Croak had taken every chance they could to fuck with our business, probing for weak spots, testing boundaries around the Quarter and the bayou. We had hit back when we had to, but the tension never fully broke.
And Sinnerman returned. He’d been gone a long time and surprised us all when he showed up at the clubhouse. The last time we’d seen him, his eyes had been hollowed from lack of sleep, and I knew that look in his eyes all too well.
Vengeance.
I couldn’t blame him after what he’d gone through. His entire family annihilated, and we all knew Sinnerman had gone hunting. He had left without a word and honestly, we hadn’t expected him back, which was why Hellsing had gotten the title of Chaplin.
He said he was ready to return but there was something in his eyes that did not match the story he gave me. Something in his voice that did not sit right. He said justice had been served. He did not say how. He did not say what it had cost him. I had seen too many men in the aftermath of revenge to mistake that the Preacher was hiding something dark.
Either way, it all left me with two Chaplains, since technically, I never took his title away..
I looked down at my little girl again. She stretched a little and frowned in her sleep. I smoothed my hand up and down her small back until she settled.
From the kitchen, Sadie’s voice floated in.
“You better not be riling her up in there,” she called. “I just got her down.”
“I ain’t doin’ a damn thing,” I whispered.
A quiet smile tugged at my mouth. I heard the oven door close, and the smell of baked chicken and spices drifted into the room. Home. Something I never thought I would have in a way that did not feel temporary.
My phone buzzed on the coffee table. Before I could reach for it, the doorbell rang.
The baby stirred when I moved. I laid my hand gently over her back and patted until she settled again, then stood slowly, keeping her close to my chest. Her fingers tightened in my cut, but she did not wake.
“Sadie,” I called toward the kitchen. “You expecting anyone?”
“Not unless Bullet decided to bring dessert,” she called back. “Maybe it’s one of the girls. I told Kristin and Scorn to come by for dinner.”
“Doubt Kristin uses doorbells,” I muttered.
I shifted the baby in my arms and went to the door. Hellsing stood on the porch.
He wore that same tired face that had somehow found a new softness around the edges in the last few months. There were new lines near his eyes, the kind that came from actual smiles, not just grimaces.
I opened the door. “Exorcist,” I said. “You lost?”
He huffed a low sound that was almost a laugh. “Evenin’, Prez,” he said. “You got a minute?”
