I planted things.
That still feels like a miracle.
Two years ago, I didn’t know if I would survive one night.
Now I know where Sin keeps the extra coffee grounds, which cabinet sticks, and which one of his shirts I steal most often because it smells the most like him.
I know what safety feels like.
Not perfectly. Maybe not ever perfectly.
But enough.
Enough to sleep through most nights.
Enough to laugh without startling at the sound.
Enough to look in the mirror and see myself instead of what someone almost turned me into.
Luke never got near me again after that night at Sin’s cabin
The Saints made sure of it.
He’s in prison now, along with men tied to Salazar’s operation. Not life, because the law never seems to understand the full shape of evil unless it leaves blood in plain sight. But long enough that his face is starting to fade in my mind.
Salazar took longer.
Almost a year.
A year of raids, arrests, and quiet names turning into evidence. A year of the Saints moving like a storm through every hidden room and rotten connection he had buried in Blissmont County. Men who thought money made them untouchable learned otherwise.
Tank rescued the girl who was sold before me that night.
Her name is Julie.
The first time I saw her at the auction, her eyes looked far away. Now she laughs like she means it. She found love with Tank, and when she looks at him, her whole face lights up.
She found her happy ending.
Sometimes I still can’t believe I found mine.
Sin comes through the front door behind me. A second later, his hands settle at my waist from behind, and everything inside me goes quiet in the best way.
“What’re you thinking about?” he asks against my hair.
I smile a little. “How strange it is that I’m happy.”
His arms tighten.
“Not strange,” he says. “Right.”
I turn in his hold and look up at him.
He still steals my breath.
The rough edges are all still there. The scars. The size of him. The darkness in him that only makes me feel safe. But there’s something else too. Something he never had when I first met him.
Peace.
