Page 130 of Bleed Me

“She made me fucking promise to let you live.”

My mouth fell open. Does this mean—

“For the sake of her precious heart and mental well-being, Dad and I are not forcing her to press charges.”

I blinked. Was he for real?

“She wants you ‘free’.” He angrily finger-quoted in the air.

“Tuck—”

“Nope. Don’t say my name. Just leave and never come back.”

It was an answered prayer and another death. A judgment, freedom, and condemnation.

Begging the teetering tears in my eyes not to fall because I knew Tuck would view them as only treacherous lies, I nodded.

With a vile warning in his dark eyes, he told me, “You broke her. Maverick put her back together. Now, stay the fuck away from us all.”

Since I wasn’t to return to Georgia, the state in which I was born, I had one more thing I had to do.

Collect Jenny.

Gathering her bones was like collecting pieces of me and putting them in a box for safekeeping. With the sun shining through the trees that protected us, and Justice holding that box close to her chest, I found more fragments to make Jenny and me whole.

Stallions stayed a distance from us. It wasn’t from being squeamish. It was more out of respect. I was literally digging up my past and welcoming it back into my heart.

Justice must’ve understood and valued the true meaning behind this act that most would find gruesome. Once the pretty white box had all of Jenny’s obtainable remains, she placed the lid on top, wrapping a light pink and light blue ribbon around it. With utmost reverence, she wrapped the sacred box in a blanket and tied it to the back of my bike.

I won’t lie and say there weren’t tears behind my sunglasses as Stallion bikes surrounded mine, ready to escort me and my Jenny home. And I can’t say that I didn’t fight for air when we pulled out to the main road and saw Redemption Ryders on the side of the street, standing in front of their bikes with pink roses lying at their feet. And I can’t say that my world didn’t feel whole when I saw Tucker with them.

As we drove past men that were such a profound part of my life, old and new, I felt a heavy weight, one I hadn’t realized I had borne my entire life, gently glide from my shoulders. I mean, it melted away. I almost felt like a new man who no longer had to carry a truckload of guilt. What happened between me and Delilah couldn’t be changed, but it could be forgiven. There could be peace.

Peace. A beautiful word. A beautiful feeling.

In my rearview mirror, I watched Tucker wiping tears.

Love you, brother.

That peace continued to grow. After all that had gone down, the club was able to settle and let down their guard a little, even though they were planning more revenge. As they put out feelers for information about the mystery gang, Justice and I were able to stretch out our roots and buy a home for our kids. I had lived at the club for so long, it was almost unnerving to no longer rest my head there. It was even harder for Justice. But once we unpacked and had furniture delivered, it felt right. It felt whole. And once we relocated Saph and Jenny to their final resting place, my world was absolute and complete.

In our backyard that faced the woods, we built the kids a swing set, and an adult one, too. Justice loved our bench swing. We sat there so many nights, watching the sunset. We didn’t need to talk out there. Sometimes we sat in silence, in love, watching over our children and our two girls in the ground. Sounds morbid maybe, but we found it home.

Sitting with a few brothers in the back of the courtroom, I listened, watching the forensic interview with the child in question. My heart ached for her, as she was only five at the time. Answering questions by the interviewer, she sounded like Gracie, her words not quite right. “And da mans hurt my mommy…”

My ears rang, and my mind was suddenly feeling attacked. Images of Sapphire’s body kept plaguing me. I kept telling myself, she’s safe now. Home. With me. Right where she would always be. But my stomach continued to twist and turn…

I started listening again when the lawyer stopped the video to speak to the jury. “The two accused men…”

His voice faded as I thought back to the night Ice and Grace had been kidnapped. Gracie’s little red nose and tear-stained lips crossed my mind, and I remembered her saying, “But, dose bad mans pushed her.”

My spine stiffened as I stared at the lawyer who had just said, “The two accused men…”

Just like the video of the little girl in the courtroom, Gracie had used the word mans.

Could she have meant two?

Then I thought of Gracie again and how she had pointed to her teeny hands. “Goves. Where’d goves.”