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“Yeah. I love you and I want to be with you because I want to, not because I need to. I want to wake up every fucking day andchooseto be here with you, in your life and at your side. I didn’t choose to love you but I’m choosing to be with you because I love you.” My heart pounded as I waited for him to say something, hopefully to return the sentiment.
“Emma,” he began slowly, almost hesitantly. “I’ve spent most of the past six years searching for you. Every blonde pixie I came across I gave her a second look hoping she was you. It wasn’t just the sex that night, but fuck that shit was incredible.” His lips curled into a teasing smile. “But there was something there between us that night, some spark that was like a high I’ve been chasing for years, and I didn’t experience again until you.”
I closed the short distance between us. “Slate.”
“I never thought I was the settling down type until you and Ash but now I can see our life, our future laid out so fucking clearly and it’s all I want.” He dropped a kiss to that spot on my forehead that made it hard to think for a full minute. “Sunday morning breakfasts. Cheering on Ash in whatever she chooses todo. Holding other babies. Loving you. Fucking you. Growing old with you.”
“Slate.” I pushed up on my toes and kissed him softly. Slowly. Sweetly. “That sounds absolutely perfect.”
His broad shoulders relaxed. “We should probably seal this promise with a fuck.”
I laughed. “Don’t you mean seal it with a kiss?”
“Hell no,” he punctuated the words with a shake of his head. “You and me babe? We make our own rules. Live good. Love hard. Seal our promises with a good hard fuck.”
There was only one thing to say to that. “Yes, please.”
Epilogue
Emma
Seven Months Later
“Hey Mom!” Ash greeted me with a smile and a hug which didn’t lessen the sting off the fact that she no longer called me mommy. She was in school now and making tons of friends, which meant she was too big to call me mommy.
It was a shame, but she deserved this rite of passage, and I wouldn’t deny her for anything. “Hey honey. How was school?”
“So great,” she answered with wide eyes and a bright smile. “Mrs. Kincaid says that I’m the best speller in the class.” Her cheeks flushed prettily. “You and Daddy are gonna come to the spelling bee, right?”
“We wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m sure all the guys will show up if you want them to.”
Her eyes widened with excitement because my little girl loved her uncles. The guys treated her like she’d always been a part of their lives, teasing her and protecting her and cheering her on in every possible way. It was so damn sweet that just thinking about it brought tears to my eyes.
“Mom, are you crying again?”
I shook my head and surreptitiously swiped at my eyes. “No.”
“Mom,” she whined.
“Sorry, baby. Ready to go?”
“Please,” she answered in a tone that belonged to a girl twice her age. “What’s in the box?”
“A surprise.” My lips parted into a smile at the surprise I had planned for Slate and Ash. “We’re going to the clubhouse.” As I drove through the streets of Steel City, I felt so different than the woman I’d been a year ago. She was afraid of her own shadow and her only goal was survival. These days that woman was dead, and the new and improved Emma focused on living life, enjoying it, and thriving in it.
Alex was still considered a missing person, but his abandonment combined with the history of abuse meant that I was able to divorce him without the usual years’ long waiting process. I was—as of today—free and clear to be with Slate.
The divorce didn’t mean that the Sheriff’s Department was done with me completely. Once a month, Sheriff Cross called or showed up to ask if Alex has reached out, but Detective Massey kept his distance after Kira threatened a lawsuit for his harassing behavior. The police were still investigating Mark’s death, based on what was found on his computers, it was assumed to be payback either from one of the people he’d been investigating, or someone he owed money to. There was nothing to link it back to the Steel Demons and, thanks to their due diligence, there was nothing to indicate that either myself or Ash had ever been held in his house. Life was still in limbo in some ways, but in the ways that mattered? Life was beautiful. I’d come to terms with what had happened that night with Alex. The voice in my head that had taunted me with the word ‘murderer’ for months, had quieted. It was self-defense, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt, if I hadn’t done what I did, then Ash and I wouldn’t be here today.
“We’re here, Mom.”
I blinked and looked up to find the car parked outside the Steel Demons clubhouse. “Yes, we are.” I hopped out first while Ash fidgeted with her seatbelt, determined to do it herself because she was a big girl now. I grabbed the box and the small giftbag beside it and shoved the door closed with my foot, stepping inside to find the place buzzing with activity.
It never ceased to amaze me how much happened at the clubhouse on a daily basis. The MC had many business holdings which required meetings and accounts and all the things businesses—on both sides of the law—dealt with. “Hey. Is Slate around?”
Rebel nodded, his face lit with a smile when Ash wrapped him in a hug. “Hey kiddo. Learn anything new at school?”
Ash nodded and launched into a detailed explanation of all the things she’d learned in school today.
