“Ass,” I mutter and behind me I hear War laugh.
They don’t waste any time. The bikes are parked in a lot near to a one story building, along with a van which Dominic opens and sets me on the passenger seat. He runs around and gets in the drivers side, while everyone else gets on their bike. I watch my dad through the windshield, he nods at Dominic and waves him ahead.
“I need to see him,” I say as Dominic pulls my seatbelt over me.
He starts driving after Hudson and War.
“That was fucking stupid what you did there.”
“Yell at me later.”
“I’m not going to yell at you.” I glance at him and see the fear still lingering in his eyes. “I’ll let Eli do that.”
A small laugh escapes, but I lose the smile as we drive away from the port. I don’t know how they managed to get in and out so fast and with no one stopping us but even if I did ask, they wouldn’t tell me. All that matters is that they showed up.
“How did you know?” I ask once we’re on the highway.
“Eli hit the SOS app on your phone.”
I quieten as I think about that. A few weeks ago I’d been planning to delete that app. It’s only that I didn’t want the hassle I’d get from my family if I did, that I left it installed. It’s the reason Eli is alive and I’m safe.
I reach a hand toward Dominic. He lets go of the wheel and takes my hand, holding it against his thigh, his quiet strength stopping me from losing it.
“You’re okay,” he reassures me.
“Who was he?”
“His name is Bernard Singer. He runs a smuggling operation through the port. I recently started working with him, that was where I was the other night.”
I won’t tell Dominic he said he was using him to get to us and find out where his wife had gone. I sit back and watch the world passing by, thinking about his wife, what she must have gone through.
Everything changed for her when she found out she was pregnant. That’s how it happens sometimes. Women put up with so much but as soon as a child becomes a possibility they have to escape, to protect their child.
Dominic can fill me in properly later, right now, I just want his quiet strength, the firm, warmth of his hand wrapped around mine, and the knowledge that Eli is safe. One man I’ve fallen hard for is bringing me to the other.
If that isn’t some soap opera shit, I don’t know what is.
Epilogue
Eli (Handlebar)
Three Months Later
Waverley is standing in the rear yard with Cassie, both of them telling Shady and Wafer, a new Prospect, where to put the grill. Thing weighs a fucking ton, and this is the third time they’ve moved it.
I’d move it if I could but I’m still recovering from the gunshot wounds. It’s still stiff and any heavy lifting strains my abdomen.
It wasn’t quite a gut shot, but it did almost perforate my liver. I lost a shit load of blood and it was only because of that SOS app that my brothers managed to get to me in time. They broke some serious fucking laws to get to me.
Hudson told me when Ballistic couldn’t get Cassie to answer her phone, Kansas tracked it so they knew where she was and a whole group of them headed out. They only found me. I’d let her get taken. Everyone said not to feel bad about it but how can I not?
Mace told me everything that happened and that if I gave Cassie shit for what she did that night, he’d shoot me in my other shoulder. Itwas dangerous and risky, and she could have fucking died but, like he’s pointed out a million times since, she didn’t.
As per Ballistics directive, Rosa hasn’t been given the full story, all she knows is we got her back and Hammerput Singer’s body into his acid bath. There is nothing left of the prick. Good riddance.
Watching Cassie in a pretty red summer dress and bare feet, laughing with Waverley makes my heart swell. How can she look so beautiful and feminine and be responsible for the death of two violent men?
Mace is right, I am proud of her. And I always will be.
