“Outlaw Souls?”
He nodded. “We take care of each other.”
That was a little disturbing, but I tried to stay focused on the relief of knowing that Trainer wasn’t going to be dragged away in handcuffs. I just didn’t want to know what they’d done with the body or any of the details of covering it up.
I looked down at where my fingers were twisted together in my lap, trying to wrap my head around what Trainer was telling me.
“Are you mad?”
I looked back up into his eyes. Was I mad? Or sad, maybe?
I thought that I should be. I searched my heart for those feelings, trying to recall a time when I thought I loved Jeff, but I couldn’t grasp that. Not anymore. All I could feel was relief. I was free of him. For the first time in nine years, Jeff wasn’t a part of my life anymore. I didn’t have to be afraid of him. Maybe it made me a monster, but I was glad he was gone.
“No,” I said, reaching out and grasping Trainer’s hands. I pulled him closer to me, and he didn’t resist. “I’m not mad.”
He didn’t look like he believed me, so I put my arms around him, ignoring the pulling around my ribs. I buried my face in his chest and let myself relax.
Trainer ran his fingers through my hair. I was always surprised by how gentle this big man could be.
“Do you regret it?” I asked.
“No,” he replied without hesitation. “Maybe I should, but the way I see it, I was defending someone I love.”
I lifted my head, looking up into his face. “Love?”
Trainer gave me a little half-smile as he looked at me warmly. “Of course. You didn’t know?”
“Well, you’ve never said it…”
“Let me fix that,” he placed his hands on each side of my face, his brown eyes shining with affection. “I love you, Erica.”
“Eve,” I said, wanting to hear him say it. “Call me Eve.”
“I love you, Eve.”
“I love you too.”
Trainer placed a soft kiss against my lips, carefully avoiding the spot that Jeff had busted open.
It was hard to believe that I never had to fear him again, that I could stay here, living my life as normal, with my real name. I never would have asked him to do this, never would have thought it was something that Iwanted,but Jeff had pushed me too far, and I wouldn’t allow myself to grieve his loss. My dark past needed to stay behind me because the future was bright.
* * *
“Eve?”Tammy said, scrunching her nose. “Your name is Eve?”
“Yep,” I confirmed. It had been a week since I left the hospital, and I was in Swole and Tammy’s apartment on the ground floor of the Outlaw Souls complex. Our boys were in the next room, playing a video game. I wasn’t a big daytime drinker, but when Tammy had offered to open a bottle of sweet red wine, I gladly accepted a glass.
I was still in the early stages of healing from my final altercation with Jeff. It had been a whirlwind of a week. Trainer had talked to Ryder and arranged for a larger apartment so that Dominic and I could move in with him. He offered to move into the duplex with me, but the place didn’t feel the same to me after Jeff attacked me there. I knew he was gone, but the trauma he caused still lingered, transforming that place from a home to an empty shell with a very bad memory.
Here, I felt safe. We were surrounded by his fellow Outlaw Souls, and I knew that they would look out for me as they would for Trainer because we were so important to him. That was what Tammy meant when she said we were family.
Family was such a nice thing to have after everything we’d been through. Dominic and I had come to La Playa completely alone, but I found something that I hadn’t even been looking for in Trainer.
“I don’t know,” Tammy said, “it’s weird to think of you as anything other than Erica.”
“You’ll get used to it,” I assured her. I, for one, was thrilled to be embracing my real identity. I even had an appointment with a hairdresser later in the week to have my hair returned to its natural color.
“I supposed I’ll have to, since you’re sticking around,” she smiled. “You know, I was worried when I visited you in the hospital. I could see the fear in you, and I thought you were already planning to run away.”
