Reparation

by Kristin Harte

  Deacon could only glare as I chuckled. “Yeah, I know.”

  Parris shrugged, meeting my gaze and offering a hand. “I owe you.”

  I wasn’t positive what for, but I had a good idea it had something to do with the woman at my side. And though I didn’t trust Parris as much as I did my men, I needed the help. Camden had left, Bishop was pretty much living in Vegas, and we still had Soul Suckers to deal with. Parris showing up in town might have been a lucky stroke. Maybe Jinx wouldn’t be living up to her name, after all.

  “Welcome to Justice,” I said, shaking the hand he offered. “Try not to fuck anything up.”

  He coughed a laugh. “I’ll do my best. Deacon—I’m going to need a room.”

  “I can handle that.” Deacon raised his eyebrows and lifted his chin at me. “I’ve got help now. You can head on home to your woman.”

  My Shye. “You sure?” I asked even though I was already headed for the door.

  “You’ve been a cranky bastard since we left. I’m glad to be rid of you.”

  I took one last look back before I left. Deacon, Parris, and Jinx stood together, looking like some sort of ragtag protection detail. Or a really shoddy criminal operation. Maybe both.

  “I have a feeling we’re going to have a lot more trouble at the Jury Room,” I said.

  Deacon grinned. “You bet your ass, we will.”

  Wonderful.

  But that was stuff I could deal with at a later date. Right then, there was only one thing I wanted.

  And she was likely waiting for me.

  Speed limits could fuck off—I had a woman to get home to.

  And a promise to keep.

  Chapter Eight

  Even after three days away, three murders, two fires, a biker moving in to town, and a refugee of sorts under Deacon’s watch, the last stretch of road home seemed to take forever. I just wanted my girl. Wanted to see her face and smell her hair and feel her arms around me.

  I also had a promise to keep, one that would finally put the rings my father had left me to some use.

  I’d texted my brother that I was on my way, so it was no surprise that Finn was on the front porch when I pulled up. He looked ready to leave with his backpack slung over his shoulder, ready to give me space so I could be alone with Shye. Smart man.

  I gave him as much of a smile as I could when I stepped out of the truck. “How’s things, brother?”

  “Good. Have fun in Vegas?”

  The lie had to run deep to be believed. “The Strip was crowded, but we had a good time.”

  He stared me down, likely knowing those words were bullshit. Also knowing I’d never admit that to him. With the potential blowback of the mission we’d just completed and the potential legal ramifications if someone knew and didn’t alert the authorities, everyone in my circle was on a need to know basis. And Finn didn’t need to know shit.

  My brother finally relented. “She missed you.”

  Those words might as well have been a stab to the heart, yet they also soothed something inside of me. Shye and I were a matched set, not wanting to be apart. Too in love to handle separations for long. I had known she’d missed me because I’d felt empty without her beside me. “I missed her more.”

  “Good.” He helped me drag my bags out of the back and drop them on the porch, the two of us working in tandem until the bed was unloaded. When we were finished, he gave me a fist bump. “Glad you’re back. If you don’t need me anymore, then I’m going to head out. I want to roll over to Deacon’s to see if he needs anything before going home.”

  “Sounds good.” It took me a second to pull my head out of my ass and remember that Deacon’s now meant Parris and Jinx. I wasn’t sure what my brother’s type was when it came to women, but Jinx was cute…and pure trouble. “Hey, Finn.”

  He turned, his eyebrows up. “Yeah?”

  “There’s a couple of new people in town. Deacon can tell you what’s up, but just so you know. One’s a woman. Her name’s Jinx.”

  “Jinx? Like curse?”

  “Yeah. I guess so. Said she lives up to her name, too.”

  He grinned. “I’ll be sure to say hi and give her a Justice welcome when I see her.”

  “You do that. Then stay away from her.”

  Silence. His brows came down, furrowing deep, and he cocked his head a little to the side. In that moment, with that look on his face, he reminded me so much of a younger Finn. Of a kid.

  He wasn’t a kid anymore, though. “Why do I need to stay away?”

  Because you’re fragile. Because your sobriety is important to all of us. Because a woman can be your greatest strength or your biggest weakness. Because I can’t deal with more trouble.

  All things I could never say. “She was mixed up in some shit that might come back one day. Best to keep your distance.”

  “Distance. Got it.” He slowly smiled as the front door opened and Shye stepped out onto the porch. “Looks like our time ran out. You two have a good night now.”

  But I couldn’t answer him, couldn’t even make sense of his words. My girl was there, standing in a beam of light that bathed her in an ethereal sort of glow. My angel looking absolutely radiant. And so damned happy to see me.

  “You’re home.”

  Two words. That was all it took to break my heart wide open. The emptiness inside of me disappeared, filling with the warmth that being loved by this woman always gave me. The house, the land, the whole damned town—none of it anchored me the way she did. I wasn’t home until I was with her. So, yeah, I was coming home.

  “I missed you, honey.”

  Her lips quirked into a smile that stole my breath. “I missed you too, my dragon.”

  Her dragon at the gates. She’d told me that once—how I was her protector. Not a prince but a dragon ready to burn down the world for her. Fitting—I’d just burned down Pistol’s world for her. For us. For our forever.

  And I didn’t want to waste another second before we started it.

  I bounded up the stairs, stopping only when I stood right before her. Practically shaking with my need to touch and taste and feel. To have. But after the past three days—after seeing firsthand the damage that fucker had done to Jinx—I couldn’t just take. Shye deserved better than to have me overpower her, even if she wanted me to. Right then, in that moment, I needed her to give to me. To truly, utterly surrender without any coercion on my part. I needed her consent, and I’d wait for it. I’d wait forever if I had to. So long as she was happy and safe and still mine.

  That pouty bottom lip I loved to bite practically called to me as I asked, “Are you okay?”

  “I am now that you’re home.” She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me in close. Taking from me. Burying her head against my chest as I shook with my need for her. “I really did miss you.”

  “So much.” Her body felt so small against mine, so fragile, even though I knew she was one of the strongest people I’d ever met.

  And suddenly, I didn’t want to let her go. Not then, not ever. I had her exactly where she belonged, had her giving her touch and her heart to me just as I’d wanted, and I needed to keep her there. Keep her in my arms, safe and protected but also loved. Supported. Happy.

  I wanted her to be mine in ways I’d never wanted anything else.

  “You remember what I said before I left? About what I’d do the second I got home?”

  “You’ve been home for more than just a second.”

  Spitfire, my girl. “Marry me, Shye.”

  She went stiff in my arms, so I inched back, giving her room. Ready to give her my heart. She already had it, but this would make it official. I just needed to get the question right, because demanding she marry me wasn’t the way I should have gone.

  “I’m sorry—that was all wrong. Not the question but the delivery because marrying you is all I want to do right now. I really thought I’d plan this moment out and get all the words right in my head to ask you the way you deserve to be asked s
omething like this, but instead, I blurted that out. You just looked so pretty and I’ve been dying to ask you for so long and the moment seemed perfect so I said the words instead making them all flowery and shit—”

  “I don’t need flowery and shit,” she said, sounding breathless. Looking ready to cry. “I just need you.”

  “You have me. Christ, woman, do you have me. Just… Wait a second.”

  I raced into the house, pounding across the wood floors into the entertainment room. On the bookshelf, where I kept things like the Kennard family bible and the history books of the region, sat a small wooden bowl with a lid that my dad had made. He’d given it to my mother for her to keep her jewelry in, and after his death, he’d given it to me to hold on to. He’d told me then to use the rings if I ever found someone I loved as much as he’d loved his wife. Well, I had. And I was ready to make sure the whole damn world knew it.

  After retrieving the ring I needed, I hurried back outside to my Shye. Before she could even ask what I was doing, I dropped down to one knee, my hand shaking as I held the ring so she could see it. See the gold band and the diamond. Know what was coming.

  “I’ve been thinking about giving you this for weeks, trying to figure out how to ask you so you wouldn’t laugh in my face. I know it’s fast—it’s so fast—but you’re it for me. You’ve been it for me for three years, honey. Since the first time I saw you. And having you here, being allowed to love you—it’s such a gift. One I don’t take for granted. And I just want—”

  “Alder.”

  “Hang on. I have something to ask you, but I need to find the words because there are so many, and you’re just…you’re mine. I want you to be mine. Forever, Shye. I want that so badly.”

  “Ask me,” she whispered, staring down at me with tears in her eyes and the biggest smile I’d ever seen on her face. “Just ask me, you big lug.”

  Ask her. Yeah, I could do that. I could do that all goddamned day. “Will you marry me, Shye Anderson?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding. So sure and strong and true in her declaration. Stealing my heart and my breath in one go. And then she was there, dropping down to her knees to wrap herself around me. To give herself to me. Planting one hell of a kiss on my lips as I dragged her against me. As I held my future wife—my fucking fiancée—against me.

  “My god, you feel good.” I slipped the ring on her finger, something weighty and heavy between us. A moment unlike any other as I got the first look at my physical claim to her. Mine. All mine. It’d be official soon enough, and that ring would be joined by another. Letting everyone know someone loved her, that she had someone at home who cared for her. That she belonged to someone and they belonged to her, because this marriage would be a two-way street. I put my claim on her finger, and sometime in the near future, she’d put hers on mine. And that thought? It destroyed me and rebuilt me as someone solely devoted to the woman in my arms. Fuck, I would need something more permanent than a simple band. I’d need something that couldn’t be taken off, couldn’t be damaged or lost. I’d need a true statement of forever.

  But first, I needed her.

  I tilted her head and attacked her neck, wanting to taste every inch. To savor it. To relearn her body all over again. To give myself to her and gratefully accept that which she gave to me. To worship her. She was mine in an ancient way now. She’d be mine officially in the modern way soon enough.

  It needed to be soon, at least. “I don’t want to wait.”

  She sighed and gripped my shoulders, holding on to me as I moved to run my lips along her collarbone. “Wait for what?”

  “This. Us.” I pulled back, needing to look into those dark eyes I loved so much. Needing to make sure she understood me. “I’m sure you have ideas and plans for what you want your wedding to be, but I don’t want to wait too long. I want—”

  “I want to have the ceremony here in Justice,” she said, interrupting me in the best fucking way. “That’s it. Marry me in the place that means so much to both of us. Give me that, and I’ll be the happiest girl on earth.”

  “I’ll give you that. I’ll give you anything.”

  “October,” she said. “Let’s get married in October before your birthday.”

  “Are you sure? That would be less than a month.” Which sounded too long to me, but I could be patient if I had to be. I could wait to give her the day she wanted.

  “A month sounds so far away,” she practically whined, verbalizing my thoughts. “But it will give us time to pull things together. Something small and intimate. Something truly for us.”

  I loved the sound of that, but still. “I can give you a big wedding if you want it. I’d give you anything.”

  “I told you. I don’t need a big wedding. I’d marry you today, but I’d really like your family there. And I want Katie to make the food, but her hands are still bothering her, so she needs a little healing time. And everyone else—this will be enough time to get everything ready and make sure we have the people we want around us.”

  Yeah, it would be. “You’re amazing. And so fucking mine.”

  Her sweet grin lit up her face before she leaned in to steal a kiss from me. “And you’re mine.”

  “I totally am. Always have been.”

  That grin turned a little devilish, and she slipped a hand down my stomach to tug at the waistband of my jeans. To make me hard as stone as she whispered, “How about you take me inside so I can show you how much I’m yours?”

  Consent…truly, purely, and uncompromisingly given. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

  I picked her up, carrying her over the threshold as if we’d already said the words that would tie us together for life. Already been through the ceremony that would make things official. Not yet. October, she’d said. Sometime in the next four weeks, basically.

  I had a feeling those were going to be the longest four weeks of my life.

  Epilogue

  “You ready for this?” Deacon slapped me on the back, a beer in his hand and a sarcastic grin on his face.

  “You’re already drinking? The ceremony hasn’t started.”

  He looked down at the beer and shrugged. “Needed it to settle my nerves.”

  “Why are you nervous? It’s my wedding day.” Thank fuck for that. Four weeks had passed since I’d asked Shye to be mine—demanded, really. I hadn’t been wrong that day. They had been the longest four weeks of my life.

  They’d also been some of the happiest. Every time I’d caught a glimpse of that ring on her finger, every time she’d told someone I was her fiancé or that we were getting married, my heart had swelled and I’d felt like a fucking king.

  But thank god the wait would be over in a few hours.

  Deacon took a drink of his beer before looking out over the crowd. “I know damn well it’s your wedding day, and you appear solid as a rock. But I wouldn’t be your best friend if I didn’t ask the question. So, yeah, I’m nervous because there’s only one right answer here.”

  Ah fuck. What the hell could he want at a time like this? “Ask it.”

  “Are you ready for this?”

  I looked him square in the eye, seeing so much there that my friend was trying to hold back. Knowing he was giving me an out in case I needed one. I didn’t.

  “I’m more ready for this than anything I’ve ever done in my life.”

  The tension left his shoulders, and his smile grew. “Good. Because if you backed out, I was totally going to take your place.”

  “You’d steal my girl?”

  “It wouldn’t be stealing if you gave her up.”

  “I’d never give her up.”

  “I was ready, though. I’m the best man—I figure it’s like those Miss America pageants. If the winner can’t fulfill his duties, the best man has to step up. I’m like…Shye’s backup husband.”

  Christ, this guy. “I really don’t ever want to hear you, husband, and Shye in the same sentence again. Ever.”

  “Use it as inspiration
to always do right by her. If you slip up—” he grinned and slapped me on the arm “—she gets me.”

  “I’d never do that to her.”

  My deadpan response earned me a laugh and a fist bump. I left Deacon to his backup husband plans, greeting our guests and making sure everything looked the way I thought it should. Shye had planned the event with Mercy Bell and Katie Baker, the three women taking over our dining room to plot out everything from what we’d wear to what we’d eat to what we’d say. I hadn’t been too involved so I wasn’t positive what to expect, but Mercy was walking around with a clipboard in her hand and a confidence in her gait that told me everything was fine.

  Which meant I could sneak away for a few to see my girl.

  “Everything good?”

  Parris—looking like some sort of bouncer as he blocked the door into the back of the hardware store—nodded. “There a problem?”

  “Nope. Just needed to see my girl.”

  “I thought it was bad luck to see the bride on the wedding day.”

  “I don’t believe in luck.”

  His laugh followed me inside and up the back stairs, finally cutting off when the door slammed closed between us. Luck could kiss off—I’d spent the night at Deacon’s motel after my bachelor party, while Shye had been at our house with Katie, Anabeth, and Mercy. I’d missed her. I didn’t want to wait until the actual ceremony to get my eyes on her.

  Deacon called me whipped—I was proud as fuck to agree with him.

  “Shye,” I called out when I opened the door to the apartment.

  She appeared at the end of the hallway, smiling brightly as she tightened the tie of her robe around her waist. “What are you doing here?”

  “I needed to see my girl.” I nodded as Jinx—looking strong and healthy and altogether like a different person than the one we’d dragged to Justice all those weeks ago—came around the corner behind Shye. “Can you give us a few minutes?”

  Jinx looked as if she knew exactly why I’d shown up. “Sure. I’ll be downstairs. Just holler when you’re ready for me to finish.”