“I’m older, Pez. Time is precious. I want to spend the years I have left with my family and Cory by my side. She brings me peace,” he leans down and kisses Cory. It’s a sweet kiss, but the love and happiness I see in their faces, brings tears to my eyes.
Skull comes up to my dad and gives him the equivalent of a bro-hug. “Latch would be happy for you, brother,” Skull says, quietly.
Dad nods. “Yeah, maybe. I’d like to think he’d be.”
“He would. Stop second guessing yourself, old friend. You’ve grieved for far too long. Let the past go. Sé feliz,” he says.
My Spanish is rusty, but I know he just told my dad to be happy, and that’s exactly what I want. I look around the area and see the men and women from my childhood—my dad, mom, Skull, Torch, Beth, Katie, Gabby, Hunter, and Spider.I see numerous new people from my mom’s new husband, Cory, the new members of the Blaze, Beau. There’s so many and I never thought I’d be standing here, not by myself and not as an outsider. I’m standing here in the arms of a man I love more than life itself and feeling a part of this life. I belong here more than I ever belonged anywhere else.
“You okay, sweetheart?” Eli whispers in my ear.
I grin up at him. “I’m perfect.”
“That you are,” he fake growls, making me laugh.
Yeah, this is where I definitely belong.
I’m home.
Epilogue
PEZ
We’re going over allthe information that we’ve discovered on Apex. It feels like we’re going in circles though. There’s nothing in here that tells us who would have wanted to hurt the man.
“I don’t know men, all this seems like a dead end,” Spider says with a tired sigh.
I know the feeling. It’s eleven at night. We’ve been going through this shit for hours and we’re not getting any closer to finding out what happened. Apex can’t remember anything either. The last thing he can recall clearly was sitting at a local bar downtown, talking to some redhead, and drinking a beer. That’s it.
He’s due to get out tomorrow, but until we figure out what’s going on, we’re keeping a man on him full time.
“Did we get footage from the bar?” King asks. I take out the file I have with the grainy image of Apex talking to some woman with carrot red hair. You never get a clear image of her face. King looks at the image in disgust. “This is it?” he asks, tossing the picture over to BB.
“That’s it. That’s the most we have of her. It’s like she knew where the cameras were and avoided looking at them.”
“Which means, she probably had something to do with it,” BB grumbles.
“Maybe,” Crank says. “It could be she was cheating on her old man and being extra cautious.”
“This is a clusterfuck. We’re chasing a damn ghost.”
“Pretty much,” I concede.
“Hunter!” Beau comes crashing through the door of King’s office, her eyes frantic and her hair a mess.
BB is up a in a minute. “What’s going on?” he asks, taking Beau in his arms.
“It’s Gordo! He and Slider were in a wreck. Some guy T-boned them in a damn dump truck and drove off. He’s in the hospital. Slider is okay, but they took Gordo in for emergency surgery. He had my number in his wallet. I had to lie and tell them I was his next of kin over the phone,” she explains. The temp in the room grows colder. Gordo is a body man at her garage. Everyone in the club knows and likes the guy.
“Fuck, c’mon baby. Let’s go to the hospital. Where’s Ty?”
“He is at your parents tonight. I came straight here.”
BB sends a look to King, that I catch. Then, he and Beau leave.
“Crank?” King growls
“Yeah?”
