Epilogue One

EPILOGUE ONE

VEX

"Fuck me, her ass looks good in that skirt," Halo mutters as he leans back in his seat near the clubhouse bar and watches Ari as she brings more food to the large table the old ladies are setting up.

Lola toddles next to her.

Bates chuckles. "You think her ass looks good in everything."

"Or nothing," Clutch adds.

"All true," Halo says. "It's a fucking joy to know I get to hit that ass later."

Spark puts Archer over his shoulder and rubs the little guy's back in circles to get the kid to burp. "Stop talking about fucking when Archer's listening."

Bates shakes his head. "I've got a daughter who carries the Fort Knox of panda backpacks because of how much Niro swears. Your kid's got no chance of not swearing before the age of three."

Rock music plays loud, but not as loud as it once did, given Archer's little ear drums can't take the volume. Avery is dancing in the middle of the room with Niro. I say dancing, but it's more of an energetic jump and twirl around.

Vi encourages the two of them while Catalina takes a video.

"You ready?" Switch asks.

We all look at the ring box currently sitting on the table in front of me, and then I look up at the clock on the wall.

Calista will be here soon.

Her New York office in the Financial District has opened this week. A few of her staff opted to transfer from the West Coast office to build some experience out here and to get everything rolling. Alessio, thankful I helped discover who was hacking into their systems, was able to push the permit process through with the assistance of some council officials he knew. And Switch and I oversaw some of the renovation.

Then the club has been away on our first meaningful run of the year.

I offered to stay behind, but Cal said it was a good thing. She could just stay by her work and focus on a successful launch, and I could go focus on some trouble the Outlaws in Detroit were having with some local gangs. Was fun to get out and cause some mayhem.

And, I finally have time off, thanks to the prospects I hired to take on security. I still took my laptop with me when I rode out with the club. But it helped everyone, knowing there were two teams monitoring everyone's property, women and kids included, while we were away, sleeping and drunk.

My liver may still be suffering from the amount of alcohol I consumed, but the rest of me missed my woman something fierce.

"Never been readier. I want to start the rest of our lives."

King spins his wedding ring on his finger. It's a black and titanium band, but beneath is a simple tattoo bearing Rae's name. "Best thing I ever did was marry my woman."

Clutch laughs. "That was quite the day. Hope this proposal goes more smoothly."

"That's an understatement," Switch says as the rest of us laugh. The wedding that almost didn't happen is the stuff Outlaws' stories are made of. Nothing says I love you like a band of Outlaws arriving at the wedding slightly beaten and bruised.

Switch and I have been working hard to renovate the condo Calista and I bought and intend to use on the nights she plans to stay over for long days and early starts. It needs some work, and, in the meantime, we've rented a short-term place for her to use. It's a short walk from the office and has secure parking for my bike.

And we can relax now that Walt Timberlake has been arrested and charged for way more than what he did to Calista. The Los Angeles chapter of the Outlaws had something on a judge out there. Didn't ask what, don't want to know. But for a small shipment of weapons, they applied some pressure on our behalf to get a warrant to search his home. There, they found a burner phone and a complex set-up to make sure the text messages were untraceable.

And the evidence revealed Calista was not his only victim.

I wanted to kill Walt, thought about the way I could wrap wire around his throat and listen to him gurgle as he died.

Motherfucker.

Calista asked me not to.

The case brought another wave of other women who'd been harassed by Walt to the surface. Ones who didn't appear on the phone he'd set up. The allegations had gotten worse, especially for three women who ran companies he'd invested in.

Their stories inevitably became the headlines.

Walt is ruined. And that's enough for Calista.

Rumor has it, he's going to be given the maximum sentence, and my girl gets to move on with her life, which…

I grab the box from the table and flip it open. The simple three-carat oval diamond in a gold band sparkles under the lights in the clubhouse.

"Pretty," Saint says. "Bet she'll love it."

I don't want to admit I'm nervous she won't. But she has such classic, simple taste, that I knew she wouldn't want anything bigger or more ornate.

"She's going to say yes either way," I say, but even I can't ignore the hint of uncertainty.

"You telling us that or reassuring yourself?" Clutch asks.

I glance up at my VP. "Probably both."

Laughter erupts around us.

Archer cries, and Avery runs over to us. "Is he okay, Uncle Spark?"

Spark moves Archer from his shoulder into his arms so that Avery can see his little face. "He's fine. Just needs to go to bed soon, Cupcake."

It's become her road name and replaced Avery on the front of her cut. Everyone calls her Cupcake. Her current plan is to open a girls-only motorcycle club she currently calls the Ruby Outlaws. But it's also been called diamond, gold, or, weirdly, candy-floss outlaws.

"Can I babysit him?" Avery asks.

"Not yet," Spark says gently. "When you're a bit older, maybe."

"Okay." She touches her lips to Archer's hand and then dances off to the kitchen.

"So, I got some news," Halo says.

"Yeah?" King says, then takes a swig of his beer.

"Ari and I are going the surrogacy route."

I squeeze Halo's shoulder. "That's huge, brother."

Halo glances in Ari's direction. "Yeah. Well. The whole jerking off into a container was weird, but we want to try before we go the adoption route."

"How's Ari doing?" King asks.

"Surprisingly okay. She's been doing a lot of work to accept she can't physically have kids. Lola helps. I said we should skip this step and go straight to adoption, but she was adamant if she couldn't have kids, she wants them to be part of others she loved. Lola is half her sister. Our kids would be half me." Halo gets a little choked up, and coughs before he takes a chug of his beer.

"Big move, brother," Clutch says. "Hoping to join you next year."

King eyes him carefully. "Are you saying my sister is pregnant?"

Clutch shakes his head. "Not yet. But I'm sure you don't want the details of how I'm working on it."

I almost spit my beer out in laughter.

Niro pulls out a chair and sits. "What are you losers talking about?"

"How you have zero dance moves," Bates says, without missing a beat.

"I had an idea," Niro says.

"Oh, fuck. Not another one." Clutch laughs at his own joke.

"No. It's a good one. Hear me out. We should buy the land behind the clubhouse. Expand. And build, like, activity shit for the kids and a skateboard park."

"None of us skateboard," Switch says.

"I do. Or, I used to. Was thinking of starting again. Got watching some videos and now I wanna do it again. And, uhh…"

"What?" King asks, with warning in his tone.

Niro glances at Bates. "I just promised Avery I'd teach her."

Bates rolls his eyes. "You can negotiate that one with Vi."

"So you say yes?" Niro asks.

"No. I said you need to talk to Vi because I like it when my wife isn't looking at me like I'm an irresponsible asshole."

"Haven't been on a skateboard in twenty years," I say. "Might be fun."

"For fucks' sake," Clutch says. "Don't encourage him."

Lola toddles over to Halo and opens her arms out wide when she sees him. He picks her up and kisses her cheek. "Hey, cutie." He settles her on his lap. "I think a play area for kids is a great idea. Think about it. Cookouts in summer with more kids. Somewhere safe and secure they can all play."

"See?" Niro says. "It's a good idea, right?"

"Fine," King says. "You and Halo and Bates can work on it."

"Wait," Halo says. "Why am I working on it?"

King tips his chin at Lola. "Because you know what the little kids need. And Switch, tell Sophia to make it happen. I don't want to pay over the odds for that land either."

Switch huffs a laugh. "Have you met my old lady? She'll wrangle the owners down into the dirt. They'll be paying us to take it off their hands."

"That's why we like her," Niro says.

"Okay. You can't all be sitting in a group like that when Calista gets here in six minutes," Rae says, placing her hand on King's shoulder.

He grabs her wrist and tugs her down onto his lap before kissing her soundly. "We can sit wherever we feel like," he says.

"Not if you don't want to sleep in the spare room tonight?"

King grins at Rae. "You heard what my wife said. Move."

I look at where Calista is on my phone. She humors me with the number of trackers I have on her. I put one in her work purse. There's one on her car, now all her belongings have been shipped here. She has a new watch, and there is even a micro tracker in the back of it. I keep all but the one around her neck muted at her request.

Her rationale was solid.

If she went missing, I could unmute them all. Until there was a problem, the locket should be the only tracker I needed.

"You gonna sit there all day or go stand by the door like a gentleman?" Niro says.

"She's four minutes away now. Not sure how you all convinced me that I should do this in public."

"Then don't," Rae says. "Take her to your room. Or your pantry. Or the yard."

I shake my head. "I want the grand gesture. Proposing in front of you all. Mixing your lives together. It's important to me."

"Is she here?" Sophia says when she comes into the bar.

Switch takes her hand. "Not yet, sweetheart. But stay here anyway."

Catalina slips beneath Niro's arm and he throws his over her shoulder. "Remember when you proposed to me?" she asks.

"Not really. I was fucking terrified. I remember the sex we had that night, though. When you?—"

She slams her palm over his mouth. "They don't all need to know."

Gwen laughs as Clutch pulls her in front of him. "We already do. You told us when we went to that new bar Rae had found and you drank all those cocktails."

"Shit," she curses, and the women laugh.

Iris takes Archer from Spark, and the little guy almost immediately soothes. Spark strokes the top of his head. "Feel the same way when my mouth is anywhere near those tits too, buddy."

Iris shakes her head. "You're ridiculous."

Spark laughs. "It's true, though."

Halo lifts Ari so she's sitting on the bar. It's one of his favorite things to do. I swear to God, he probably fucked her on it one night when everyone else had gone to bed.

"Why is everybody standing up?" Avery asks.

"Because Uncle Vex is going to ask Auntie Calista to marry him," Niro says.

"NIRO!" The word and groans come from everyone. It's meant to be a secret from Avery because she's a little blabbermouth.

"You are?" she asks. "Can I be a bridesmaid? I was a good bridesmaid for Uncle Colton," she says. "Pleeaasseeee."

Bates tugs her between him and Vi. "You don't ask. You wait to be chosen."

"You can be one for me and Auntie Briar when we get married next year," Saint says.

"Can I wear purple?"

Briar laughs. "No. The color scheme is a soft pale blue. But if you agree to wear that color, you can be one."

Avery grimaces, as if someone just put a plate of tripe in front of her. "Okay," she says, but it's like we had to drag the word out of her. "We can talk about it later."

Vi rolls her eyes. "Wonder where she got that sentence from."

Bates kisses her temple. "I don't say it that often."

"She's here," Halo says, glancing out of the window.

"Fuck," I mutter. My palms are sweating, and I move the box from one hand to the other.

I stand and King slaps my back. "Go get her, cowboy."

"Remember to say how much you like her mind," Niro says. "Chicks dig that."

"Chicks?" Catalina says.

He glances at his wife. "You know what I mean."

I hear the clack of her heels against the floor in the entrance as the room falls silent. Someone even turns the music off.

When she walks in, she looks like a million dollars. She's wearing a black dress that is professional enough for work but hugs her curves in a way that makes me want to strip her naked.

Her coat hangs off her shoulders like a cape.

And the fucking shoes. Red, with little straps that crisscross over her ankles.

Sophia takes her coat, and I slide my hands around her waist. "You look fucking edible," I murmur against her lips.

For a hot second, she kisses me back, then pushes gently at my chest. "What's all this?"

I think back to New Year's Eve. When I sat at the bar and watched everyone else wrapped up in their own happily ever after. I had no idea that I wouldn't even make it to summer before I'd be facing my own.

And if you'd said it would be Calista, I'd have laughed long and hard.

But now I understand what they were all thinking. What they were all feeling.

So, I do what generations of men have done before me. I hold the box in my damp palm and drop to one knee in front of the woman I love with my whole fucking heart.

"Cal, sweetheart."

She places her hands to her mouth, and her eyes shine with tears.

My chest feels like a weight has been taken off it.

She's going to say yes.

I know it before I even ask. And it gives me the confidence to say what I want to, loud and proud, in front of my friends.

"Oh my God," she whispers.

"When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine anyone being so lucky to have a best friend like you. And now I'm a man, I still feel the exact same way. Only now, I love every single thing about who you are. I promise to always celebrate your huge brain, worship your body, and fuck you every time you wear these shoes."

My brothers whoop and holler behind me.

Calista grins at that and I finger the tie at her ankle, knowing I'm gonna kneel in front of her later, put the sole of that shoe on my chest, and untie them slowly.

I open the ring box and offer it toward her, but she doesn't even look down at it. Her eyes remain fixed on me.

"Now I have you, I can't ever let you go. So, I'm on my knees, offering myself and the best fucking life the two of us can build. You reminded my heart how to fucking beat, Cal. Marry me. Please."

"Oh, Ti," she says, placing her hand on her chest. "Yes, of course. Yes."

The next bit becomes a blur. Does she bend to me, do I stand? All I know is she ends up in my arms with my lips on hers while my friends cheer for the two of us.

I have friends.

I'll soon have a wife because I'm not fucking around with a long engagement.

And to top it all?

I'm a motherfucking Outlaw.