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I captured his cheeks in my palms and kissed him.
He had given up all he had worked for, for me, and while I didn’t know the story yet, it was apparent he had given up his brother, as well. He did that without the promise of anything from me. Without even knowing if I would come back.
That was love.
Little did he know, in a few years when I got my inheritance, I would pay him back and then some. I would give him his shop. I would give him the world because that was what he deserved.
Epilogue
AIKEN GOT A JOB AT A LOCAL BIKE SHOP,and while he brought in less money than he did dealing drugs and raced illegally, he was happier. We struggled some months, but we had each other, and that was all that mattered.
I graduated high school a little while after we got settled in the apartment and started taking a few classes at the local technical school until I was ready to jump in headfirst.
I went every other Sunday like always to visit with Erik, who was due to be released early for good behavior, and Mom had settled down with an older man who owned several banks around town.
The house we stayed in before everything went badly, sat empty, a ghost in the center of the property that housed the secrets of a family who fell apart. I stopped by there on occasion to make sure the place was still standing just in case Mom and her new man didn’t work out, and she needed a roof over her head.
As far as Will was concerned, he ran off to Florida after Aiken almost killed him, and we never heard anything about him again.
That was our life, and I was proud of it. Our trials had turned us into the people we were. Even though the guys who worked alongside him at his new job called him Skull, I knew Aiken was no longer the criminal he once was. Just like I was no longer the scared little girl who was afraid to live. Thanks to Aiken, I was more alive than ever. I was even learning how to drive Aiken’s motorcycle, much to the detriment of his nerves.
I pulled up at the garage and cut the engine. Getting out of the car, I went inside to find Aiken. On days when I wasn’t working or had class, I would stop by so we could eat lunch together.
I found him beside an old Harley, working on the engine and looking sexy covered in motor oil. He looked up when I approached him and smiled in my direction.
“Hey, gorgeous. What can I help you with?” he said, pretending I was a customer.
“I seem to be having some problems under my hood,” I said, playing along. “I know you only work on bikes, but I thought maybe you could help me out?”
He stood, his broad shoulders blocking out the wall behind him. “Under your hood, huh?” He smirked. “What kind of problems are you having?”
I moved closer to him, running my palms down my sides and drawing his eye to my body.
“My engine seems to be running dry. I was hoping maybe you could lube it up and get it purring again?”
He grinned, wiping his large hands on a rag to clean away the motor oil.
“Oh yeah. I can help you out there,” he said, reaching out and pulling me into his arms.
I laughed and stretched up to kiss him.
“You’re adorable,” he said. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
I smirked up at him. “I think I remember what you did. Let’s step into your office, so I can remind you.”
He laughed and pulled me into the small office off to the side where we usually ate lunch together. When he shut the door, he locked it before pulling down the blinds.
He turned toward me, licking his lips and rubbing his hands together. “About lunch,” he said, lifting me onto the table and stepping between my thighs. “Can I eat it now, or do I have to wait until later.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. “Now, please.”
He removed my pants and spread my thighs as he settled between them. When his mouth touched me, I covered my mouth and tried to remain quiet. After all, we were at his job. People didn’t need to know Aiken was busy eating his lunch. They especially didn’t need to know I was the lunch he was eating.
WHEN YOU’RE INVISIBLE LIKE I USED TO BE,people step right over you. They look through your soul, only seeing what’s on the other side of you. They don’t see your heart—your essence—your mind. They don’t care if you’re hurting or broken. They only see the wall behind you, dark and dripping with your shadow.
Aiken Cross saw me when no one else did. His dark eyes found me in the deep end and plucked me from the thickness I was swimming in seconds before I could drown. He didn’t look through me. He looked at me. At my essence. At my mind. And once he found my soul and my heart, he touched it with his fingertips, and I disappeared.
I was no longer invisible like I once was.
Thanks to Aiken Cross, I no longer existed.
The Everly I used to be—afraid and full of anxiety—was long gone. I was no longer a ghost but a living girl.
Only two men in my life had ever really seen me—the one who made me—and the one who saved me, and both would own my heart forever.
