Alive, conscious, and present.
“Well,” Ghost mutters dryly, voice rough but unmistakably Ghost, “you all look like shit.”
The room detonates.Laughter.Cursing.
Steel actually chokes on a laugh.“Fuck you, Ghost!”
Fury grips the side of the bed like his legs forgot how to work.Saint just stares, shaking his head slowly like he’s witnessing something holy and profane at the same time.
Savage steps forward last.Always last when it matters most.Because leaders absorb impact differently.
Ghost looks at him, mouth twitching.“Pres.”
Savage exhales slowly.“You stubborn son of a bitch...”
Ghost smirks faintly.“Learned from the best.”
Savage laughs, real laughter, raw and unguarded, before pulling Ghost into a careful but unmistakably emotional embrace.The room buzzes with something I’ve never felt here before.
Not relief but release.Weeks of pressure collapsing all at once.The relief of two people we care for being alive is unmistakable.
Men talking over each other, slapping Ghost’s shoulders, hurling insults that sound suspiciously like love.Cherry leans against the doorway, arms crossed, grinning like chaos is her natural habitat.
I stay back, watching.Feeling something strange and warm bloom low in my chest.Because this...This is family.Not the polite, holiday, obligation bullshit version.The earned one.
Savage finds me across the room.His eyes meet mine.And for a moment, everything else fades.Because there’s something there I’ve never seen before.Not possession.Not hunger.
Peace.
****
When the noise spillsback into the yard and the compound vibrates with disbelief and laughter and the kind of energy only survival produces, Cherry drops beside me at the bar.
“You look emotional,” she says.
“I’m not.”
“Liar.”
I smile faintly.“You look like hell.”
She grins.“Yeah.”
“They break anything important?”
“Nothing the doctors and really good drugs couldn’t fix.”
Of course.“You’re ridiculous.”
“I know.”
We sit in silence for a moment, watching the club breathe again.Ghost alive.Cherry returned.Cartels gone.The war dissolving into memory instead of inevitability.
Cherry nudges my shoulder lightly.“You fit here.”
I glance at her.“That wasn’t a question.”
“Good,” she replies.
