She turns around and looks up into my eyes. “You really want to do this?”
“I love you, Skye. And I don’t know how many more times I have to tell you that before you believe me…”
“OK.”
“OK…?” I frown, but when I look into her eyes I see something that makes me feel something I haven’t felt in a long while. I’m starting to believe this crazy shit might actually work.
“If you’re stupid enough to throw everything away to be with me then I’ll take that, Special Agent Franks.” She throws me a sideways smile, but then her expression turns a little more serious as she reaches up and cups my cheek, standing up on tiptoes to kiss me. “Because I love you too, Gabriel.”
“We’ll make this work, Skye. I promise you that, we’ll make this work.”
She smiles, and it’s a smile that lights up her beautiful face and for the first time in forever I see some trace of hope there in her expression. “We don’t even know our new names yet.”
“Who doesn’t love a surprise?”
She smiles again, a bigger, wider smile, the kind I haven’t seen on her face since way before Cole Rockwell took her. “Yeah, well, you’re full of them, apparently.”
“Get used to it, darlin’.”
“Promises, promises…”
She rests her mouth against mine and she sighs quietly, and I just hold her and kiss her and I let all the nerves, all the fear; all the doubts and the second thoughts, I let them all go.
I love her.
I’m giving up everything I have for her.
And I can’t fucking wait for that uncertain future to begin…
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Skye
I keep my eyes closed and I smile, my fingers gripping the pillow as I feel him push inside me.
“You’re awake, then?” I murmur, pressing myself back against him as he thrusts deeper into me.
He laughs, a low down dirty laugh and I shiver as he pushes the hair away from the back of my neck, his mouth lightly brushing my skin. And I hold up my left hand and I look at the delicate gold band there on my third finger.
Gabriel Franks and Skye Maddison don’t exist anymore.
Blake and Carrie Weston took their place.
IT Manager and tattoo studio owner.
We have new birthdays now. New back stories. I never was born into a motorcycle club. That life has been wiped away, destroyed forever, as has his old life. No one knows he was once an FBI Agent. No one knows how we really met, the true circumstances under which we fell in love; the messed up world we left behind. No one ever will, as long as we’re careful.
“You ready to make that baby yet?” he murmurs into my hair, his hand on my stomach, and I arch my back as his gentle thrusts continue.
“No, Blake, come on…”
It took a while for me to get used to calling him that. For him to stop being Gabriel. But rule number one was that we had to wipe every trace of the past away, straightaway.
“You’d make a great mom.”
“I’d make a shit mum.”
He laughs again, and I feel my body start to tingle, that wave to start to creep its way over me until it hits me full on, shaking me to my core, and he holds me tight as he comes, too.
We have sex every day, without fail, because our lives are so normal now; so ordinary. Some may say we’re pretty boring, but they don’t know what we’ve been through. After all that shit boring and ordinary is everything we want. And maybe someday we will have a family, I don’t know. He wants kids, which is slightly ironic, given how he’d felt about becoming a father in the past. In his other life. When he was that other person. But I’m not ready yet, and he isn’t pushing it. I think he knows, deep down, that although I’m safe now, and he’s with me, I still have reservations about bringing children into our world.
“I’ll wear you down,” he whispers as he turns me onto my back and gives me the kind of smile that really does make me forget that any kind of life before this ever existed. “One day.”
I smile back as he jumps out of bed and heads into the bathroom.
We never talk about the past. Ever. Not even our past. Everything before now is dead. Gone. Buried. The only reminder I have that I was once someone else are the tattoos on my arms and back. I had to have one covered up – one that referenced my father’s MC – but the rest are still there, because there were just too many to erase. Which is why my new life involved me becoming a tattoo artist. And it’s something I love. Something I didn’t even know I could do, but now it’s my passion. I even gave Blake some pretty awesome ink – his first, but it won’t be his last.
“You going into the studio today?” he asks, coming out of the bathroom all damp and hot-as-hell from his shower.
“Later. Keeley and Niall are in this morning, and I don’t have any appointments until this afternoon, so, I thought I might spend a couple of hours doing absolutely nothing.”
I throw off the covers and slide out of bed, walking over to him, and he circles my waist and pulls me against him, kissing me deep and dirty, and even now, over two years on, my stomach still flips and my heart still beats that little bit faster the second his lips touch mine.
“You got a few minutes to do absolutely nothing with me?”
He grins, and I laugh.
We’re safe now.
We came through the crap.
Yeah, we broke a few rules along the way, but we survived that, too.
We’re safe…
Gabriel
We both look a little different now. Her more than me, I’ve just lightened my hair a little and trimmed down the beard. She’s had a slightly more noticeable change. She cut her hair, became a brunette, and her body’s now carrying the kind of curves that only make her ten times more beautiful than she was before. But it’s the weight that’s been lifted from her shoulders that shows the most. She wanted to become someone else, which made all of this so much easier.
Me? I actually think I wanted it more than her. Because of her? Yeah, because of her. She’s the whole reason I’m here. The only reason I’m here. I had nothing worth sticking around for, in the end. I was done. So I took a chance. A risk. A big fucking risk. I took her hand and we ran to a place where nobody knew who we were, they just know who we are.
Blake and Carrie Weston.
Mr. and Mrs. Ordinary.
A life I never wanted. Before.
The only life I want. Now.
Theo
I look up as the cell door opens and Mickey, one of the guards, walks in.
“Your lawyer’s here. Wants to see you.”
“Now?”
“Yeah. Now. And I didn’t know you were getting visitors today.”
“You’re not my fucking secretary, Mickey. Why would I tell you every time my lawyer comes to visit?”
“Hey. Watch your mouth, son. Y’know, you used to be one of the good guys, Theo. You shouldn’t have let this place do that to you.”
“Too late.” I climb off my bunk and drop to the floor and Mickey stands aside to let me through the door.
“Hey, wait up, bro.”
I look out and see Dom striding toward me. Then I glance over at Mickey and he sighs quietly. “Two minutes, Theo. You got a visitor. You can’t keep him waiting too long, you ain’t got that much time, OK?”
“I got it. I’ll make this quick.”
Mickey stands aside and I walk over to Dom.
“What’s up, Dom?”
“I hear your lawyer’s in the building.”
“Going to see him now.”
“Why? I mean, you ain’t up for parole any time soon, so… why’s your lawyer here?”
“That’s got nothing to do with you.”
“I’m your brother. It’s got everything to do with me, because this place, it’s changed you.”
“You noticed that, huh?”
He grabs my wrist, and his eyes darken as he stares me down. “What’s going
on, Theo? You only got a few more years to go, kiddo, and I’d hate to see you jeopardize that by doing something stupid.”
“What about Cole Rockwell? Mack Slayer? Sam Wheeler? What about them? They only got a few more years to go?”
“They’re not your concern.”
“Well, I heard rumors at least one of them is closer to freedom than I am.”
“Yeah, OK, Mack could well be out in a couple of months, I heard that, too. Izzi’s already planning his big homecoming, apparently. Guess they could only take the man out for so long, huh? Didn’t quite manage to shut down that chapter completely, or get Izzi to walk away. She must really love that guy…”
“I know all this shit, Dom. And I need to go now.”
His grip on my wrist tightens as I try to pull away. “Sam Wheeler’s still gonna be facing a few more years yet.”
I narrow my eyes and frown at him. “Yeah? So?”
“But Cole Rockwell… they’d like to keep him here a little while longer. Wouldn’t they? No one’s making any secret about that. But in order to do that, they need more shit. And I’m almost sure they’ve got nothing they can make stick right now. Although, I also hear he’s been shooting his mouth off, bragging about all kinds of crap they couldn’t use before. And if they could only get him to admit to that, if they could catch him, doing all that bragging, shooting that crap…”
“They need more, Dom. And I got more. I was only there, in that world, for a short time, but I took a lot of shit in. Shit I don’t want to keep in anymore, I am done. And I’ve been given a chance to escape it all, to start again. To forget all this crap…”
“That means forgetting me, too. You know that, don’t you?”
I drop my head, just for a brief second, because he’s right. But I’m all out for me now. I’ve become selfish and blinkered and Dom’s right, this place has changed me. And there’s no going back now. The shit I’d give up to get some kind of normal life back – no one could even fucking guess.
“All I have to do is talk, Dom. And then get him to talk, too.”
Dom laughs, and I know he thinks I’m crazy. That I’m putting myself in danger, but, Jesus, have I not taken enough risks? Have I not proved to myself that I can handle anything now?
“They can give me a new life. One just like the life I had before. A safe life.”
“You know you’ll never find her, don’t you? She’s gone, Theo. And nobody knows where.”
“I get that.”
“Do you? You’ll never find her. And doing this… Theo, look at me. You’ll never find her. And even if they do give you a new life, are you willing to risk that? To go on some wild-goose chase? ‘Cause it’ll be like looking for a needle in a fucking haystack, bro. She’ll have a new name, a new…”
“I know how this shit works, Dom.” I hold his gaze for a few beats. And then I finally manage to wrench my arm free of his grip and step back from him, and he shakes his head. But I know what I’m doing. “I need to be somewhere.”
“You’re really gonna go through with this? You’d actually wear a wire, in this place?”
“I need to do this.”
“No, you don’t.”
“OK, I’ll put it another way. I want to do this.”
“This kind of shit never ends well, Theo.”
“I’ll see you later, Dom.”
I go back over to Mickey, and we start to walk toward the room where my lawyer is. The room where I’m going to spill my guts, take their offer, and fuck the consequences.
She got a new life.
I want one, too.
And I don’t care how I get it, I just know that I need it. I think she owes me that. They all owe me that.
Mack’s going to be a free man soon, although, what shape his life is going to take once he’s out of here remains to be seen. The Soldiers of Darkness is still there, having risen from the ashes of that fucked up night. But whether Mack Slayer goes back to that life…
The Black Dogs, on the other hand, their New Mexico chapter never did resurface after Cole Rockwell was arrested. And that man, he doesn’t deserve to see the light of day ever again, which is why I’m doing this; to keep him here. To make sure he stays here. I’m doing it for so many reasons, but mainly for her.
Skye Maddison got under my skin, and I can’t forget her.
Skye Maddison doesn’t exist anymore, but whoever she is now I hope that she’s happy.
I hope that she’s safe.
I hope she got her happy-ever-after.
Now I’m gonna try and get mine.
About the Author
Michelle Betham is an ex-media technician turned author of hot, edgy, gritty romance, usually involving rock stars, sports stars, hot businessmen, and bikers. But not usually all in the same book. Yet. She is both self-published and published through HarperImpulse, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.
Addicted to binge-watching TV dramas she struggles to think of a life before Netflix or Amazon Prime, loves rock music, tattoos, spicy food, superheroes (and that includes a particularly unhealthy obsession with Iron Man), and Keanu Reeves – a crush that's lasted well over twenty years, and one she blames entirely on 'Point Break'. The original. She refuses to acknowledge any remake exists…
Her dream is to ride a Harley. And visit Las Vegas. And be able to eat any amount of chocolate without putting on weight.
She lives in County Durham, north-east England, with her husband and West Highland Terrier, where she can be found most days drinking tea and making up stories.
Contact Michelle
Keep up-to-date with what Michelle’s up to over on her blog: bit.ly/1Gz1d5w
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Bound (Soldiers of Darkness MC Book 3) Page 23
