Epilogue

Aro

“I should go in alone.”

Hawke side-eyes me, and I can practically read his train of thought.

I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’ll be nicer if you’re with me.

But I get it.

You don’t want to hide behind your boyfriend. Got to own up, get his respect. Yada, yada, yada…

After all, I did break into Jared’s house, steal his property, and kind of tear apart his town.

Maybe I shouldn’t go in, after all.

But I stop and shake my head. No, I should. He’s related to Hawke. We’ve got to get past it.

Hawke sighs, unhooks his seatbelt, and gives me a tight smile. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

I plant a peck on his cheek and step out of the car, carrying my piece of paper. I head across the lot, glancing over my shoulder and seeing him watching me. I pull open the door to JT Racing.

A roaring engine hits my ears, and I look over to the back corner on the right, a tech working on one suspended in the air at his eye level. I look around, scanning the rest of the area. Employees, two cars sitting front and center with their hoods up, and then the fridge, counter, and offices behind. To the left, a red stairwell leads to an office upstairs, its windows allowing for viewing down into the shop. The floor shines, and of course, I’ve always liked the smell of tires.

A man approaches.

“Is Jared Trent in?” I ask.

He nods, shouting, “Jared?”

I look up and see Trent appear at the top of the stairs. He wipes his hands with a shop towel and starts down, holding my eyes the whole time.

“Everything okay?” he asks.

He probably thinks I harmed his nephew or daughter.

But I nod. “Yes.”

He walks up to me, and I simply hold out my résumé. “You have a part-time position open for an assistant,” I point out.

His eyebrows shoot up. “And you want to work here?”

It’s not a question, just a statement, like he doesn’t believe me.

“I want to work,” I tell him.

Here is as good a place as any.

He stares at me, takes the résumé, and I watch his eyes move over it before he starts laughing. “Debt collection.” He looks up at me and then continues reading. “Sales. Security. Investments… I’ve never seen someone say extortion, fencing, assault, and embezzlement in such nice words before.”

“I’ve got gifts.”

“You do,” he says, reading over the document some more. “Back in the day, we probably would’ve been friends.”

But not now. He’s looking at me with different eyes, and I get that. He has things to lose now, and for a while, I assumed I’d eventually lose anything I did have anyway. Judging from the stories, he lived rather recklessly once upon a time too.

I’ll just lay it out. “I know the job is cake,” I tell him. “Evenings and weekends. Run and get food, make coffee, sort mail, clean up…I don’t care. I’ll be on time, and I’ll do it right the first time you ask.”

“And when someone leaves their wallet laying around?” he asks me. “Or you want to take one of the cars on a joyride one night, or a competitor comes and offers you ten-thousand dollars to steal my passcodes and my plans for my new engine…?”

I look away. Yeah, I get it.

I’m going to run into this problem every time I apply for a job or college or a loan… I have a record, and it’ll be around a while. References will help, but I need to get those.

Which means I need a job.

“I’m not going to steal from you,” I tell him.

He says nothing.

“I like it here,” I explain. “I like my siblings being in this town and with Jax and Juliet. I’m not going to ruin that.”

He cocks his head but remains silent. He hasn’t said no, which means he wants to say yes. He knows as well as I do, we’ll probably run into each other a lot, since I’m dating his nephew, but he doesn’t trust me.

I stare at him, unblinking, as his workers drop tools, slam doors, and shout at each other across the shop behind me. I clear my throat. “There’s a camera on me from the southwest corner, up by the window that’s painted shut with the dead fly stuck to the screen,” I tell him. “Another one at the southeast corner, but I really wouldn’t trust that one, if I were you. It’s blinking red right now which indicates it’s offline.”

His eyes dart up, glancing behind me to the camera that’s dead.

“There are also seven witnesses in the shop, other than you,” I go on, “and while I’m pretty sure Mullet Mike back there is high, since his pupils are as big as black marbles, four of the others made direct eye contact with me when I walked in and will remember they saw me here today.”

Trent’s gaze flickers, but I remain still, my hands at my sides.

“There’s also the woman walking in right now, carrying her dog,” I point out. I saw her reflection in the glass wall behind Jared a moment ago.

He looks around, seeing old Blue Hair enter the shop holding her brown-chihuahua-cocker-spaniel-mix. Chipaniel? I have no idea.

He looks down at me again, slightly unsettled.

“If I steal from you,” I tell him, “you won’t see me.”

His jaw flexes.

“No one will.”

He may not believe I’ll never commit another crime, but he can be damn sure I won’t commit one here. That would be stupid.

Thirty seconds later, I’m running back out to Hawke.

“I got the job!” I beam as I climb into his car. “I start this weekend.”

“Congratulations.” He grabs me and kisses me. “Let’s celebrate.” He shifts into gear. “Rivertown.”

I slam my door shut but put my hand on his before he shifts into gear. Inching up, I lean over the console and start nibbling his neck. “Lake.”

I bite his lobe.

“You start school tomorrow,” I remind him. “Don’t you want to have some last-minute fun with your high school girlfriend?”

He does a little laugh-gasp, but when I slip my hand between his legs, feeling him already hard, I don’t have to ask twice.

“Seatbelt,” he growls, shifting into second and peeling out of the lot. “Now.”

Two Weeks Later

I look out my window, seeing Dylan through the tree as she lies on her bed. She’s on her stomach, feet bobbing behind her as she scrolls through her phone and listens to music on her headphones.

My stomach fills with a weird feeling. Nerves and apprehension, but also anticipation and…

Warmth.

Matty is ecstatic—loves Jax. And Bianca, aside from the whining over the distance from her boyfriend, sleeps and smiles more now. She’s worried about fitting in at our new school, but I’ll be there, and I’m really hoping everyone knows that before they fucking mess with her.

I look around Hawke’s old room—which I’m told was once his father’s and then Jared’s before that—but I didn’t change much because I like Hawke’s smell on everything as it is. I want to cry a little.

But I won’t. It’s so weird.

I have a room of my own, a job, a college boyfriend, Matty and Bianca are fine and fed, and I have a tree that connects me to my first female friend.

I look out the window again, and Dylan looks over, immediately breaking into a smile and hanging her tongue out in a funny face.

I laugh. She’s got me excited for the school year, as much as I hate to admit it. The first football game is in two weeks. Rivalry Week is in seven weeks. We have the senior ski trip and her birthday sleepover. I’ve gone full-on suburb.

A knock hits my door. “You all set?” I hear.

Hawke walks in, and I look behind me, my stomach dropping. I hate it when he dresses like this, especially when his parents are home.

Black joggers, no shirt, bare feet. Like he doesn’t even live here anymore. Does he purposely remove half of his clothes when he visits from the dorms, just to drive me nuts? Thankfully, we still have the hideout, although we can’t get to it as much as we want. School, work…

I nod. “I think so.”

He wraps his arms around my waist and I circle his neck.

“You’ll have Dylan and Kade.” He stares down at me. “No one will mess with you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“Exactly, and I would rather you didn’t,” he retorts. “I know how you handle females who get on your nerves.”

I laugh, remembering both times I handled Schuyler. And Dylan. I should probably apologize for that one at some point, actually.

But he tugs at me. “I’m serious. You get suspended or expelled, and I’ll have to start dating someone more mature.”

I jump up, and he catches me in time as I wrap my legs around him. “Need I remind you of all the very mature things you like to do to me, Pirate?” I whisper in his ear.

And he whips us around and lays me down on the bed, hovering over me. “They’re burned into my memory, Pirate.”

“Oh, that’s right.” I wince. “Shit.”

I’m a Falls girl now. Technically speaking. Under a black flag we sail. Woohoo.

“Seriously, though.” He kisses my nose. “Cut yourself some slack. And cut them some slack. A lot of students haven’t had the experiences you have. They’ll be a little shallow and ignorant, but someday, they’ll understand everything you do. Their behavior is not your problem.”

“Okay.”

I say it like ‘yes, sir’. I know he’s right, although it might be hard to remember it in the heat of the moment when they piss me off.

Either way, I’ll put his mind at ease. “It’s only a year anyway,” I tell him.

“And then you’ll be with me.”

Maybe. If I can get into college, that is. I’m trying not to think too far ahead yet.

But it’s hard. I keep thinking about being where he is, freedom, and having all night.

“Until then, I’m going to enjoy you sneaking time with me whenever you can,” I say, pulling him down.

He kisses me, his tongue dipping into my mouth and reaching down through my body. I moan.

“Hawke, out,” someone says.

He jumps off me, and I suck in a breath, sitting up. His mom stands in the doorway, holding the door handle.

“Now,” she orders.

But he’s gaping. “Why?”

“She has school tomorrow.”

“I’m not going to keep her up all night.”

She gives him a look, lowering her voice for the kids getting ready for bed. “I know what you’re here to do,” she whispers.

I bite back my smile, my eyes vollying between Hawke and his mom.

“We’re eighteen,” he points out. “And we were alone in the hideout for lots of unsupervised nights.”

“Well, now she lives here.”

“Mom!”

“She’s in our care, Hawke!” Now she shouts. “And in high school. How would it look if my son is slipping in and out of her bedroom whenever he wants? Now out!”

He scowls, but he doesn’t argue further. Leaning over, he kisses my lips and says, “I’ll pick you up from school tomorrow.” And then he looks at his mom and heads out the door, brushing past her. “The ride home will take several hours.”

I struggle to hold back my laugh.

His footfalls hit the stairs, but Juliet pokes her head back in the door before she closes it. “I’ll pick you up from school tomorrow,” she tells me. “I think we should go to the gynecologist.”

“Mom!” Hawke yells.

But she closes the door, her voice still carrying from beyond. “You’re not allowed to make me a grandmother until Matty is in middle school, Hawke!”

I crash back on the bed. Oh, boy.

It’s going to be a fun year.

THE END