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She sighs, and I’m beginning to understand their meanings, to catch the slight nuances between them depending on her moods. This one contains happiness. “I love you, Simon.” While that soaks in, reaching my heart and grabbing hold of it, she lines me up. Knowing she can’t wait the few seconds it would take for me to fully undress has me thrusting forward, not a care in the world as to whether she’s protected.
Perhaps we should wait until I’m officially free of this life to create another, but nothing will touch her or any child we make. It would have to go through me first and for their safety, I will not hesitate to kill a mother fucker just for looking at them. For daring to breathe the same air as them.
Which is exactly what I tell her as we start moving to find our rhythm. Our hearts, our souls, melding as we race toward the peak. Her nails dig into my skin as my teeth do the same to her neck. It’s not enough to make her bleed. I would never cause my girl pain, but it does send her over, and her walls squeezing my cock take me with her.
“Forever,” I whisper as I roll and spread her on top of me, positioning her the way I want her.
“Forever,” she echoes.
Epilogue One
Simon
Five years later…
Getting rid of Carlson and Franklin was easier than you could imagine. I’d like to say accidents happen, especially when you plan them that way, but I actually had nothing to do with their untimely demises. Karma, on the other hand, is a bitch.
Not only were they playing each other, they were doing so with the same opponent. Namely, mine. Each promised to bring me to my knees, thereby sending my territory into chaos and allowing the person pulling their strings to take the reins in the melee. Little did they know I was in the midst of handing them over to someone else.
Following their deaths, the secrets they’d been keeping were discovered and any decisions they had a part in were investigated. Bristol’s suspension at their hands was one of them. It was determined to be an unwarranted action and was promptly thrown out. She was immediately reinstated and struggled not to cry when they returned her badge and gun, keeping the tears inside until she was in my arms.
Ezra and I had come to an agreement, even after I told him of my stipulations. First, myself and my family – which consisted of Bristol, our future children, her mom, the Turners, etc. – were untouchable. That promise of safety, and the adherence to it, ensured my silence. Second, any of the men or women in my employee that wanted to turn over a new leaf could do so with no repercussions if they did so before the deadline Ezra instituted. Anthony and Tommy were among those who left. They wanted to go legit, not only for themselves, but for the women that loved them and the families they hoped to eventually have.
As for me, I started the bakery I’d always dreamed of. Doughnut You Want One? is a huge success, with a line forming outside at least thirty minutes prior to opening. There were a few naysayers in the beginning, but they were all silenced the second they tried their first creation from me.
“You have a gift,” many have said, or something close to it, complete with crumbs spilling from their lips as their mouths are usually full of whatever they’ve bought. Surprisingly, one of my best customers is Chief Markum. Jack and I wiped the slate clean, his help in making all things pertaining to me disappear from the station’s evidence locker freeing him. We’ve sort of struck up a friendship. There are days that you’ll even see us talking over cups of coffee, an empty plate between us as we debate which teams will make it into whatever championship game is near. Every now and then, Drew will join us. He was promoted to Captain after Carlson vacated the position and will probably work his way up the ladder to Chief. Isn’t that a hoot? The former head of the now defunct Roanoke criminal organization is related to a police captain by marriage.
Bristol and I want a family, but it hasn’t happened yet. Any time we think ‘this is it, we’ve done it,’ the test declares otherwise. I hate seeing her cry, a bit more of her internal light dimming with every negative result. Hate that I can’t fix it.
The doctors have run numerous tests, declaring both of us healthy after each and saying that they see no reason why she hasn’t been able to get pregnant. We’ve decided that we just need to let nature take its course because the stress was taking a toll on her and me.
In the meantime, we’ve started the process of adoption. We haven’t received the call yet that lets us know our first child is waiting for us, but we know it’ll come. And when it does, she’s going to retire from the force. I reassured her that she didn’t have to, but she didn’t want to risk the chance that she might not come home.
Honestly, as much as I support her career in law enforcement, am damn proud of her becoming a detective, and would never ask her to give it up, I will be relieved when she does. I’m terrified of losing her. Having been on the other side of the law, I know how little disregard some crooks have for those in uniform, including plainclothes cops, and I worry from the moment she walks out the door until she comes back through it, in one piece.
I don’t know what I’d do without her.
Epilogue Two
Bristol
Ten years after meeting...
“Do you miss it?” My mom asks as we gather around the dinner table for our usual monthly family meal.
I glance at my husband and kids who bring me more joy than I ever thought possible and say, “Not even a smidge.” Simon and I have eight-year-old twins, Peter and Paul, and their biological sister, Margaret, who is ten. I came upon the three of them during a case my partner at the time, Deveraux, and I had caught. They were living in filth, the fridge and cupboards bare. Their guardian, an uncle, too concerned with his next fix to notice when his niece and nephews last ate.
They were immediately removed and placed with CPS. I’d gone home that night, my heart breaking, knowing what awaited them if a more stable relative couldn’t be located. Sadly, that’s exactly what happened.
Simon had seen my mood change and pushed me to talk about it. “No secrets,” he reminded me, and I was relieved that he did. Once I’d finished, he’d reached for his cell and scrolled through his contacts, stopping when he found who he needed.
“I have friends that owe me favors,” he’d shrugged. I knew he was selling himself short because the people he was referring to didn’t want to help him due to any dirt he had on them. They would do it without question because they care for him. A fact he still can’t fathom. “The things I’ve done, love,” he would murmur, shame causing him to hide his face, not wanting me to look at him when he’d admit that.
“If you were truly evil as you believe you are, I wouldn’t love you like I do.” It took a few times for that to sink in, and every now and then he asks me to repeat it. I’ve gone a step further and have written it on sticky notes, leaving them all over our house, his shop, and his car for him to find. He’s kept every single one, too. Has a stack of memory books containing them, his masculine handwriting on the back of each stating where he found it, the date, and what had been troubling him until he saw it.
How can a man that would do such a sweet thing be bad?
“Have you chosen a name yet?” My stepfather, Casey Reynolds, asks. He and my mom met after a mutual friend set them up on a blind date. They fell madly in love and decided to elope less than a week later. We’d all hopped on a plane to Vegas and watched them become man and wife. We hadn’t even been home twenty-four hours after their wedding when Simon and I learned Maggie, Peter, and Paul would be ours. There had still been some obstacles, legalities we had to handle, but it was worth it.
