Epilogue

Brix woke to the first glimmer of sunshine they'd seen all week. He rolled over, his reaching hands found Calum, and like a moth to a flame, he chased Calum's warmth, wrapping himself around him until it was hard to tell where Calum ended and he began.

He dozed, drifting in and out of the best kind of sleep, but it was hard to stay in dreamland when his real dream come true was right there.

Calum was still sleeping. Brix propped himself up to stare, ghosting a fingertip over his cheekbone, lost in his mile-long dark lashes and velvet scruff. Calum had no idea how beautiful he was, but Brix knew it more and more every day they were together.

How did I get so lucky?

He'd asked the sea that a thousand times. Still didn't know. All he was certain of was that while watching Calum sleep had its perks, he missed him.

I need him.

Calum had a way of sensing disquiet in Brix before Brix did. His breathing changed and his eyes fluttered open, his slow and gentle smile wrapping Brix in sunshine. "Mornin'."

"Morning." Instant heat pooled in Brix's belly. He tried to hide it, but Calum knew him too well.

He tugged Brix on top of him, driving his morning wood against Brix's. "Were you lying in wait for me?"

"Maybe."

It was too early to fuck. They moved together instead, a languid, grinding rhythm that was almost as good as being buried in Calum's tight heat. That magical fucking thing Brix could almost do without blinking now.

They'd fucked last night. Calum on his knees, gripping the headboard, Brix driving into him from behind.

God.

"I'm gonna come," Calum suddenly gasped, cut off by the groan that tore through him. The deep shudder. "Fuck."

His release splattered his abdomen, Brix's too.

Reeling, Brix rose up and took himself in hand, leaning back, using Calum's strong thighs as support. A year ago, coming on someone had been filed so deep in his brain that he'd forgotten it was a thing.

With Calum, it was every-fucking-thing, and he didn't blink at that either. He came hard, and fast, watching his cum land on Calum's chest through hazy eyes.

Liberated.

Thankful.

Free.

They cleaned up. Calum cracked the lid of Brix's pill bottle and dropped what he needed in his palm. "Let's eat."

Calum had breakfast mastered. Brix had gained half a stone in the last six months and it felt amazing.

He inhaled everything Calum put in front of him. Then he took a shower, resisting the urge to drag Calum under the spray with him. Every morning was a fucking gift, but they had shit to do.

Chicken shit. Where it had all begun.

Calum drove, while Brix kicked back in the passenger seat. "Sure you don't want to take your dad instead of me? He seemed up for it when I saw him yesterday."

Brix choked on a laugh. "No chance. He'd get arrested again."

"You keep telling me shit like that, but your dad's so nice to me."

"He's mellowing in his old age."

"Are you? Rubi was telling me stories when I finished that chest piece last week."

"Rubi has a big mouth."

"He's big everywhere. Doesn't explain why you punched the old landlord of the Joker."

Fuck's sake."This is what I get for introducing him to you?"

"So it's not true?"

"Of course it's true. Ain't the point. Tell Rubi I'll swap his appointments with Cam's and he can come to me. See how he likes to gossip while I'm the one with the needle."

Calum laughed. "Nice idea, but Rubi's the only biker from that club who digs dot work. The rest of them are all yours now Kim's not around much anymore."

"All but one."

"The quiet dude?"

"Saint Malone." Brix tapped his fingers on his bent knee. "I wasn't sure you'd noticed Lee sneaking him in after hours."

"I noticed. Just didn't think it was any of my business. That's her friend? From up north?"

"Yup. Small world, eh?"

"Depends what you're looking for." Calum spotted the sign for the battery farm and hung a left. "This is the place?"

"This is the shithole." Brix sat up and directed Calum up the narrow lane that led to the huge barn holding hundreds of hens. At first glance, the operation didn't look that bad—well-kept and tidy, with the right amount of homely touches. But Brix knew better. This farm was one of the worst he'd seen, and it made him wish the Rebel Kings Motorcycle Club cared as much about chickens as they did about fighting the Dog Crows up the road.

Calum parked. "What happens now?"

"We wait."

"How many are we taking?"

"As many as we can fit in the van."

"Fair enough. That the dude?"Calum pointed through Brix's window as the farmer emerged from the barn, dragging a handful of chickens by their legs, their heads scraping the ground. "What the fuck?"

Calum opened his door.

Brix grabbed him. "Be cool. Kicking off just makes it take longer."

"But—"

"Trust me. It's horrible, but we can't fix everything."

They got out of the van and approached the farmer, who greeted Brix with a curt nod. "How many?"

"Forty-five to start with. Might be able to squeeze in a few more."

"I've got seventy off to slaughter."

"We'll take as many as we can."

The farmer grunted, standing aside as Brix and Calum played Tetris with chicken crates until there was one left. A small one they could wedge on the front seat now Brix had a wingman to help him hold it steady.

Seventy birds.

Calum lifted the last crate over his head to take it to the farmer to be filled. In the early morning sun, his biceps bunched, displaying the black-and-grey lion Brix had etched for him before Christmas. His skin had been a dream to ink, and he carried the fact that he was the only soul to ever put a needle to Calum close to his heart.

The farmer threw the last birds in the crate. It was tough to watch, but Brix made himself do it, if only to remind himself why rescue runs were so important. Paying the farmer felt like rewarding him for being a complete cunt, but that was life?—

A bird cried out, her leg caught in the crate's lid.

The farmer pushed down, oblivious, or not giving a fuck.

Brix moved to intervene, but the farmer shoved him away. "Ain't got time for your fuss this morning."

"Her leg's trapped. Lift the lid up."

"Piss off."

The farmer pushed the lid again, and Brix saw red. Fury lit his veins, Lusmoore rage charging every step.

I'll kill him.

But his bunched fists never met their target. Cos Calum got there first.

The farmer fell on his arse, holding his jaw, stunned silent by the quiet man who'd morphed into the Incredible Hulk.

Brix sighed and tugged Calum away. "No more beer dates with my dad."

* * *

That day, thanks to Calum playing fast and loose with his fists, they found themselves with two-hundred more hens than they'd bargained for. Brix had to call his dad to build a giant new enclosure that took up every scrap of space in the garden.

Brix didn't seem sad about it. Calum had checked, more than once.

He hammered the last nail into the post, mindful of the Lusmoore audience watching him. "Will it hold all of them?"

John grunted, gruff and coarse. "If they're good gals. Could be rowdy if ya get a couple o' wrong'uns scrapping, but they'll settle down. Chooks can make a home anywhere."

"Thank fuck for that. Thought Brix might send me back to London when I told the farmer we'd pay double for his meat hens too."

"He'd have had me to answer to if he had." John rose from the damp grass. "Told him a hundred times that farmer wants shooting."

Calum couldn't disagree. By now, the Lusmoore way of thinking was life.

John left.

Calum had grand plans for sketching, but he felt the afternoon he'd spent away from Brix like it had been a week, a month, a year.

Miss him.

He walked to the shop. Brix was tattooing one of the bikers, the blond one who smiled a lot and had the same habit as Rubi of falling asleep on the table.

The quiet gave Brix space to concentrate, head down, lip caught between his teeth. If not for his longer hair and new geometric knuckle tattoos, they could've been in Camden a decade ago.

His face is just the same.

But was it? Back then, Calum had missed the black emotions that had almost taken Brix from the world forever.

He didn't miss them now, and he moved closer, stepping into Brix's eye-line. "All right?"

Brix wiped blood from the biker's skin, as if it took him a second to believe Calum was real. Then he smiled and Calum relaxed.

He's okay.

"I missed you," Brix mouthed.

Calum grinned and blew him a kiss.

Then he retreated to the desk to do all the shit no one got round to now Lena was gone, and it was late by the time he glanced up to see the biker leaving the shop.

He felt Brix's presence behind him like an open oven door. Made himself wait for the slow slide of Brix's arms around him. "How did it go today?"

Brix kissed Calum's neck. "With what?"

"With Kim."

"How do you think it went?" Brix turned the kiss into a bite. "It was fucking fine and the only thing he was bothered about was that I hadn't told him years ago."

Calum shut the computer down and turned to face Brix. "Don't feel bad about that. You told him when you were ready. Do you think you'll tell anyone else?"

"I told Cam. Dropped it on him while I was inking him before Nash."

"Cam O'Brian?" Calum tilted his head, picturing the president of the motorcycle club that seemed to have brothers everywhere he looked now summer was here. "Why him? I didn't know you were that close."

"We're not. But we've known each other a long time—I trust him—and I wanted to see what it was like to tell someone I've inked a thousand times."

"How was it?"

Brix took a slow breath. "Amazing, actually. Deep down, I know I was scared he'd react badly, but he was so fucking nice. Almost made me cry."

Emotion welled in Calum too, and he wasn't ashamed to show it. "I'm happy for you. Are you ready to go?"

"Always ready for you, mate."

The innuendo made Calum hot all over. Sex with Brix was a wild, complex thing that kept him on his toes every day of the week. Every night.

God, I love him.

And he always would.

* * *