“It’s Anna” is all I say.
“Yeah,” he agrees, kissing the last tear away. “She deserves to be happy. She deserves the best. Never thought she’d find it in someone like Arrow, but I guess weirder things have happened.”
I elbow him playfully in the chest. “Stop it.”
He laughs and kisses my lips, then joins in with the cheers and shouts for Anna and Arrow. The couple comes up to us, and Anna and I hug tightly. “Congrats.”
“Thank you,” she replies, kissing my cheek.
“Brother,” Arrow says to Rake, slapping his shoulder.
Rake nods his head, the look in his eyes saying more than any words could. “You’re already my brother. I guess this just makes it official, huh?”
Arrow’s lip twitches. “Guess so.”
“Just hug already,” Anna says, bouncing on her toes. “And hurry because I want to hug my big brother.”
Arrow and Rake share the quickest hug I’ve ever seen, and then Anna is in his arms, and he’s hugging her like she’s his world.
“Will you walk me down the aisle?” I hear her ask.
“Fuck,” Rake replies, eloquent as ever. “Of course I will, Anna. I’d be proud to.”
I blink quickly, trying not to cry for a second time in the span of ten minutes.
Arrow leans down to me and kisses me on top of my head. My eyes widen at his rare show of affection. “You’re a good woman, Bails.”
“Th-thank you,” I stutter, smiling shyly at him. “I like you too, Arrow.”
He grins and ducks his head, going back to his woman and tugging her out of Rake’s arms.
“Time to celebrate privately,” he says to her, making her giggle. Rake’s expression turns from pure joy to wishing someone would shoot him in the head.
“Okay, enough of that,” he says dryly, taking my hand in his. “Bailey?”
“Yes, Rake,” I say, giving him my full attention.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” I tell him, resting my cheek against his chest. And I’d never get tired of hearing that from him.
“I want to talk to you about something,” he says, sounding slightly nervous, which is very unlike Rake.
“What is it?”
“I want to officially adopt Angel,” he says, running his hand through my hair. “Would you be okay with that?”
I lift my head. “Really?”
He wants to adopt Cara? Officially? Just when I thought I couldn’t get any happier, he manages to surprise me. I’d love nothing more than for him to adopt Cara, and the fact that he wants it, that he thought of it, means the world to me and shows the level of dedication he has to our family.
“Yeah, really,” he says, lifting my chin in his hands. “I’ll talk with her about it, but I’d really love that.”
“Okay.” I breathe, my heart melting. I try not to cry, but instead I end up sniffling a little.
“Baby,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice.
“Yeah?”
“Stop being cute,” he says softly. “Open your eyes.”
I open them.
“I love your beautiful, big, brown eyes.”
“Okay,” I mumble.
His lip twitches. “Happy tears. I hope they’re all I see from now on.”
“Rake?”
“Yeah?”
“Stop being cute,” I tell him.
He laughs. I close my eyes again, and just feel him.
His warmth. His essence. It surrounds me.
Fuck.
Everything I’ve been through in life has led me to this moment.
And it’s all been worth it.
* * *
“Who got rid of Wade’s body?” Lana whispers, pushing her glasses up on her nose and glancing around. “I mean seriously, we never hear about who does all the real dirty criminal stuff like that.” She pauses. “I don’t think it’s Tracker.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Maybe they pay people to do it, or use their connections or something. Someone cleaned all the blood from the carpet too. It was like nothing ever happened. Maybe you should ask Faye, as she probably does know.”
“Staying out of this,” Faye says cheerfully, shoving popcorn into her mouth.
“Intriguing,” Lana says, leaning back on the couch. “Irish killed someone and he’s acting totally normal. Which isn’t normal, don’t you think?”
Faye makes a sound of amusement. “I once asked Irish how he got his scar. He said it was in a knife fight, so I joked that I’d hate to see the other guy. Do you know what he said?”
“What?” I dare to ask.
“He laughed and said, ‘Me either. Skeletons freak me out.’ ”
“Jesus,” I whisper, not knowing what else to say.
Lana giggles. “Oh, come on, it’s pretty funny.”
I scrub my hand down my face. “This club turns even the most innocent, sweet women into bloodthirsty monsters.”
“Hey, I’m still sweet,” Lana objects.
“You write porn,” Faye throws in. “How sweet can you possibly be?”
“Romance,” Lana corrects, lifting up her chin. “It’s romance, not porn.”
“Hey, whatever it is, I like it,” Faye tells her, grinning. “I like to read out scenes to Tracker and ask him if he did that to you or if it was someone else from your past.”
Lana’s jaw drops open. “You don’t!”
“I do.”
I laugh, unable to hold it in. “Is that what the president’s old lady does in her spare time? Harasses the men?”
“You know it,” Faye beams, putting the bag of popcorn next to her. “I love them. I just like to annoy them now and again. Did you hear Pill’s no longer a Wind Dragon? They took his cut and everything. He was doing all kinds of shit to get his hands on drugs and money, and didn’t give a fuck about the club.”
“Really? Do you think he’ll want revenge over Wade?” I ask, brows drawing together. “I mean he doesn’t know what happened, but surely he’ll piece something together. And then there’s Amethyst—we don’t even know what happened to her.”
“If he tries anything, he will die,” Faye states simply.
“Jesus,” I mutter again.
* * *
“You had something to do with Dom’s death, didn’t you?” I ask Rake that night, as we’re both getting into bed. We moved houses, not wanting to be in the house that Wade died in. I was sad to move away from Tia, but we are only a few minutes farther from her and we promised we’d still see each other every day.
Rake stills, his body going tense. “Why do you ask?”
“I have a feeling,” I say, pulling the blanket down for him to slide in bed.
He gets under the blanket and stares ahead before answering. “I don’t want to lie to you, but I don’t want to scare you off either.”
“I won’t run,” I tell him. “I already know, Rake, whether you confirm it or not.”
“And yet you’re still here,” he says, turning to his side, his gaze searching my eyes.
“Yes,” I tell him. “I am. And as long as you keep loving Cara and me as you do, I’ll always be here.”
“If you really want me to tell you what happened, I will, but to be honest, I don’t want to. I want you away from all the shit. I don’t want you to think about it, or feel bad. And I know you, you will feel bad even though you had nothing to do with it; it’s all on me. My choices, not yours.”
“It’s all over now though, right? I don’t want anything else to happen.” I pause. “To anyone.”
“See, you’re already worrying.”
He rolls on top of me, and I love the feeling of his weight on me. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for either of you.”
“I know,” I whisper. “I can see that already, Rake.”
“No one will love you like I do,” he says, and I nod, because I know that too.
“My soul recognizes yours,” I say softly, bringing his head down so my lips c
an reach his. “I see you, Rake. I was born to be yours, and you will always be mine.”
“Vein-deep,” he whispers.
“Vein-deep,” I repeat.
“Fuck, Bailey,” he says huskily, kissing me gently. “What did I do to deserve you?”
“I think the same thing every day.”
“Need to be inside you right now,” he says, kissing me harder, his hands starting to roam.
I smile against his mouth.
I feel so happy.
So full.
Like my heart is going to burst.
This feeling.
I’d do anything to keep it.
I get lost in him, and him in me.
The way we’ll always be.
EPILOGUE
Ten years later
MOM! Tell Dad to step away from the door, please!” Cara begs, her brown eyes pleading with mine. “Matt is going to take one look at him and run scared.”
“Well, then he doesn’t deserve to be with you anyway,” Rhett comments, scowling at Cara. “He’s eighteen, tell him to man up already. Or find a girl his age, not two years younger like you are.”
“Rhett,” Cara growls, tugging on her black dress. “Don’t you start, please. This is my first official date, and you and Dad are making it a complete nightmare!”
“Calm down, Angel,” Rake calls out from the front door. “I put my gun away and everything.”
Cara puts her pink-tipped nails on my arm. “Mom, please. Imagine if this was your first date.”
I cringe and sigh, looking down at my ring finger, where Adam is written in cursive print. Yeah, it was definitely my job to rein my husband in right now.
I get up and head to the front door, where, no joke, Rake is sitting at the bottom of the staircase, sharpening a knife.
A knife.
Jesus.
He’s definitely taking this to a whole new level. Then again, this is the first time one of our girls is going on a date. I actually feel sorry for Cara, and her date for tonight.
“Rake, you’re stressing the poor girl out,” I tell him softly. “Can you at least put the knife away? Seriously, the boy is going to call the cops on us.”
“No,” he replies sternly. “Do you know what teenagers are up to these days? It’s a whole new fuckin’ generation of assholes. No little punk is going to try anything with my angel.”
I place my hand on his shoulder. “We need to trust our daughter, instead of worrying about the boys. She can take care of herself; we’ve made sure of that.”
Cara is a black belt and can probably kick any boy’s ass. Clover and Rhett are black belts too. Rhett is now even fighting in mixed martial arts.
“Maybe Rhett and I should follow them,” he muses, obviously not listening to me at all.
I squeeze his shoulder. “Rake, you’re not doing that. She will be so upset with you.”
“Not here to make best friends with my kids,” he comments. “Here to look after them and make sure they don’t get taken advantage of by horny little eighteen-year-olds.” His green eyes finally look up into mine. “I’m not overreacting, Bails; this is our little girl we’re talking about here.”
I open my mouth, then close it. Obviously there’s no arguing with the man, because he isn’t going to see reason. All we can do is hope he doesn’t scare off her date and ruin the experience for her.
“Remember when you took me on our first date?” I ask him quietly. “Imagine if someone ruined that for us.”
“I wouldn’t have run scared,” he replies, scowling. “I would have done anything to get that time with you.” He pauses, eyes narrowing. “And you let me kiss you and touch your tits that night. Fuck this shit—she’s not going anywhere. Her ass can stay at home.”
I puff out a breath and scowl. “This is her first date, Rake, and she’s going. We said sixteen and we can’t take it back now, can we?”
“She turned sixteen only last week, eager much?” he growls, going back to focusing on his knife.
Natalie, our second child, walks into the room. At just eight years old, with her dad’s green eyes and my dark hair, she is as beautiful as she is mischievous. “Are you sharpening your knife at the front door, Dad?” She looks to me. “This family is nuts, Mom.”
I have to agree.
I grab Rake by the arm and bring him into the living room, where Rhett and Cara are having a quiet argument. I don’t get why the two of them don’t date, but I know they’ll figure it out for themselves eventually. Rhett’s grown into a handsome man, and I know Cara isn’t blind. Tia tells me girls are coming after him by the hundreds.
A knock at the door has Rake on his feet, but this time he comes back in with Arrow, out of all people.
“Uncle Arrow?” Cara groans, standing up. “I love you, I do. But right now is not the time for you to be here.”
“Why not, Angel?” Arrow asks, lazily scratching his beard. “I thought I’d tell your date about the time I spent in jail.” He pauses. “You know. For killing someone.”
Cara covers her face with her hands. “I’m going to be a virgin for the rest of my life.”
“I sure hope so,” Rake calls out cheerfully, looking pleased. He looks to Arrow. “I’m sure Matt would love to hear that story, Arrow. Good man.”
Rhett makes a comment I don’t hear, but Cara sends him a cutting look.
Natalie walks up to Arrow and hugs him. “Uncle Arrow, why didn’t you bring Nate and Tory with you?”
“They were doing their homework with their mom,” Arrow tells Natalie. “I’ll bring them tomorrow if you want to see them.”
“Awesome,” Natalie replies, then looks at her big sister, who is on the verge of having a breakdown. “Relax, Cara. If he isn’t willing to jump through hurdles for you, then he isn’t worth it.”
“Agreed,” Rhett mutters, still looking extremely unhappy.
“Wise girl, Natalie,” Arrow praises, then grins at Cara. “You look pretty, Angel. But maybe you should put on a jacket or something.”
“I said the same thing,” Rhett grumbled, staring at Cara’s cleavage.
Another knock at the door, softer.
This time, everyone gets up together and descends to the door.
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AUTHOR PHOTOGRAPH BY KRYSTA GUILLE
CHANTAL FERNANDO is the New York Times bestselling author of the Wind Dragons Motorcycle Club series and the Maybe series, along with several other novels. She lives in Western Australia, where she is working on her next book. Find her online at www.authorchantalfernando.com, and on Twitter and Facebook.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Chantal Fernando
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-3955-0
ISBN 978-1-5011-3956-7 (ebook)
Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons Motorcycle Club) Page 24
