“To remind you… “ I say, fastening it around her wrist, “… that music brought us together. That you’re part of my world now. My family.”
Tears begin to trickle down her beautiful cheeks. Happy tears. “I love it. I love you.” She bites her lip.
But Beck appears with an envelope. “My turn. This is from me.”
Marley takes it and pulls out a photograph. When she sees it, she goes still.
It’s from the gala. Beck captured the moment when our foreheads pressed together, my hand on her face, her eyes closed. We look like the only two people in the world. The love radiating from that image is undeniable.
“Beck,” she breathes. “When did you—”
“Look at it, Marley,” Beck says softly. “Really look at it.”
She stares at the photograph, tears streaming. “We look…”
“Like you’re in love,” Beck finishes. “Because you are. You have been for longer than you both realize.”
She looks up at me, the photograph trembling in her hands. I take her hands, the picture between our palms, and look into her green eyes. “Marley, from the moment you collapsed into my back seat, I knew you’d change my life. You make me want tobe better. You make me whole. You see all of me, the biker, the musician, and you don’t flinch. You don’t run. You love me.”
“I do,” she whispers.
The clubhouse has gone quiet.
Everyone watching.
But this moment is ours.
“I love you, baby. Every curve, every quirk, every beautiful piece of you.” I release one hand to pull out her Property Patch. “Be my Old Lady. Officially. In front of everyone who matters to me. Claim me the way I’m claiming you. Bemine, Marley.”
Silence.
Then Marley laughs and cries, nodding hard. “Yes. Yes, of course, yes!”
The clubhouse explodes. Cheering, whistles, shouting. But all I hear is Marley saying yes. All I see is her smile as I pull her into my arms and kiss her. Really kiss her. The kind that stakes a claim, tells everyone she’s mine, and I’m hers.
The kind that binds her to me before she knows the whole truth.
I’m going to hell for this.
But at least I’ll have had heaven first.
When we break apart, she’s breathless and beaming. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Believe it, Small Town. You’re stuck with me now.”
“Good,” she says fiercely. “Because I’mneverletting you go.”
Those words should fill me with joy.
Instead, they fill me with dread.
Because when she finds out about Blackwell, she might not have a choice.
Sin steps forward, a genuine smile on his face. “Welcome to the family, Marley. Officially.”
Victoria hugs her next, then Sage and Beck, and suddenly Marley is surrounded by people celebrating her, not just because it’s her birthday, but because she’s one of us now.
She’s Defiance.
