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  Meaghan.

  Blinking, my eyes adjust to the light coming in from the window. Slowly, I slide out from under the hand.

  Inside, I want to run.

  Making my way to the bathroom, the one I found off the bedroom last night, I take a leak. The condom wrapper is on top of the trashcan by the toilet where I tossed it after finishing up.

  I had sex with Avery.

  I wait for the panic, the shame. There is none.

  Yet, I have this nagging feeling in my chest. It’s not something I am used to or comfortable with. I shake my head trying to wrap my mind around the emotions.

  The bathroom is huge. There is a Jacuzzi tub with candles all around it. Looking at the set up, the bathtub could easily fit three people. Closing my eyes, I picture Avery seated with Meaghan pressed to him. I get hard on the image of her back against his chest while he fucks her slow. I am in front of them, my hand working her clit while I suck her titty as the water sloshes around all of us.

  Yes, this bathtub could be fun.

  Looking at the shower, it’s big too. They even have one of those showerheads the shoots water down from the ceiling along with six other showerheads in the space that’s bigger than most closets I have seen.

  Obviously, they spent their money well on the place. The countertop has a vanity with two sinks with more than enough space between them.

  This is Avery’s life with Meaghan. I see a door at the end of the bathroom. With it open, I can tell that it opens to a large walk-in closet.

  They seem to have it all.

  Which leaves me to wonder where do I fit in?

  Sure, last night was fun, but it was just one time full of as much anger as lust.

  This, this right here is Avery’s life.

  And it’s a life without me.

  I have never been insecure a day in my life except with Avery Marcus Collins. How does one person get me so tangled up?

  Feeling the tensions inside me rise, I step out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. The first thing that hits me is the king-size bed with a black metal headboard. The navy blue sheets accented by the long blonde locks of Meaghan’s hair splayed out over the pillows while her face is cherub like in her slumber.

  She’s sleeping on her stomach and only a sheet covering her and stopping just over the swell of her ass. The tattoo on her back is of a sparrow taking flight and the words “free from the past” under the bird.

  Can we ever really be free from our past?

  The thing I notice most is the absence of Avery.

  Finding my pants on the floor, I quietly slide them on before making my way downstairs. As I hit the landing, I see him.

  Avery in all his manly glory stands with his back to me in just a pair of sweatpants. He is taller than I remember. And the definition in his back muscles tell me he works out. Two steps closer, I watch him as he turns around.

  His hair is wild on top of his head. His eyes look worried as they meet my gaze. Behind him on the counter, I see his inhaler and know he must have just taken his morning puff.

  “Want some coffee?” He asks with a rasp in his voice that shoots straight to my cock.

  “Nah, just gonna get dressed and head out.”

  He pushes off the counter he was casually leaning against and strolls to me. “No.” He is firm.

  It’s hot as fuck.

  I ignore him and move to where my shirt is on the floor, grabbing it and throwing it on. It’s when I bend down and pick up my cut a revelation hits me.

  I lost control.

  Last night, with Meaghan and Avery, I lost control. I threw my cut on the ground.

  I might be a death seeker, thrill chaser, motherfucking adrenaline junkie, but I respect my cut.

  It’s earned.

  Hard fucking earned.

  And in the moment, I tossed it aside for Avery.

  “Thinkin’ awfully hard for a man on his way out the door,” Avery says standing behind me.

  “Fuck you,” I spout off as my frustration builds.

  He crowds me with his height making him seem larger than life. “Dammit, Mitchell, stop fuckin’ runnin’ from me.”

  I sigh, slipping my cut on and feeling the heavy weight of the leather. “I don’t know how to do this!” I tell him honestly.

  He laughs and it soothes me when it should piss me off. “No one does. Stop looking for answers and just fucking be. Stop running, Mitchell. You’re fearless with everything but this.”

  “I fuck this up, Avery, the stakes are too high.” I tell him honestly.

  “Mitchell, you fuck it up every time you leave me. I know you thought they’d hurt me. Truth is back then, I was weak. I wasn’t a man, I was a boy – a lost fuckin’ boy. I don’t know what would have happened if you had stayed and we tried to make a go of it.”

  This surprises me. “Avery, I was young, stupid. I thought if I walked the line, followed the rules, life would fall into place. That night, nothing was falling into place.”

  He cups my chin and traces my chin with his thumb. “Don’t leave, Mitchell. Let the past be behind us and let’s sort our shit for the future. I won’t lie and say it’ll be easy. One thing about living with Meaghan, even after spending every day and night together for a year, shit isn’t easy. We’ll have to learn when to give each other space and when to pull each other close. I also will keep it real, I have something real with her.”

  I shake my head understanding. “You give her what you gave me.” I tell him as he raises an eyebrow not getting me. “Avery, I had no one. Not even my mother back then. From the time I was fifteen and we got evicted that day she never came back around. If you’re mom hadn’t stepped in and the jobs I did mowing grass, I wouldn’t have been able to eat because she wasn’t there to fill out the papers for my free lunch.”

  A sadness crosses his features. “Mitchell, Bernadette died.”

  “I know. Now, anyways I know. She overdosed two days after the eviction and was a Jane Doe in a hospital. Deacon searched the time frames and stuff until we figured it out. The dental records were eventually compared and it confirmed her identity.”

  His compassion shows in his beautiful eyes. “Things might’ve been different.”

  I smirk. “Avery, if it had, I wouldn’t have had you. Every bit of it is worth it because you gave me acceptance like no one else. You gave me strength when I had no reason to push on. You gave me confidence, Avery. You gave me the world and never even knew it.”

  He shakes his head at me. “You gave me understanding. You gave me a reason to believe the world wasn’t a bad place. You gave me hope, Mitchell. Then you took it away. Meaghan rebuilt what was broken in me. I can’t turn my back on her as much as I can’t shut you out either.”

  “I don’t want you to. Avery, I didn’t come home to fuck with your head, your heart, or your life. I’m just trying to sort my shit.”

  “What do you want?”

  I blow out a breath. “Fuck if I know.”

  “Stay here, stay with Meaghan and me. Let’s try this. I can’t not have you in my life. Whatever way that may be, but I won’t lie to you and say I don’t want more of what we shared last night. Just maybe a little less anger beforehand.”

  My chest tightens, “You sound like your mom.”

  He laughs. “She loved you, Mitchell. She loved you because you loved me. She loved you because I think she knew, Mitchell, if you hadn’t come into my life I would have died. The hell in my mind with Butch ate me away until you came into my world. I never got to tell you thank you, she never got to tell you she wanted us to find a way together.”

  It’s my turn to laugh. “Oh, she did. I would call to check up on you and we talked. I know she read between my lines. Avery, you scare me. These feelings scare me. And I’m not afraid of a damn thing. The fairy in bed upstairs has this power over me that leaves me standing here unable to fight the pull to her, to you, and to the possibility of what we could have together.”

  “Be afraid of not try
ing, Mitchell. Don’t fear the feeling, fear the unknown of not trying.”

  His face drops and his lips press to mine. I open my mouth to him and take as his gives. Instantly, I find home again.

  This is Avery. This is us. This is everything.

  Chapter Twenty

  ~Mitchell~

  One Month Later…

  B atshit crazy.

  That is the only way to describe my life.

  For years, I thought I would do more harm to Avery being here, and now that I have faced it, I realize I wasted too much time.

  They say time changes people. It’s true. It does.

  Fitz finally came out of the closet and has a husband. Good for him. I told him, as long as he stays away from what’s mine, I won’t slice up his husband like he did me.

  Michael died from a drug overdose four months after I left Leed. I suppose I will see him in hell when my time is called and the Devil calls for my due.

  Charlie and Gabe joined the military, so they have been gone. From what I have gathered, they don’t bother coming home. Good. They can protect my freedom since they almost took everything from me.

  While I typically can respect a service member and salute their sacrifice, what Gabe and Charlie got away with still messes with my head. I still carry the scars both physically and emotionally from that night.

  Andrew is currently locked up. Two weeks ago, he was charged with rape. The victim is a twenty-two-year-old woman he met online. According to the police report, he drugged her on their first date. She woke up naked in a strange house with no memory of the night before. A rape kit at the hospital confirmed sexual activity. While he’s waiting for his day in court, Deacon called in a marker for me and got the connections I needed to make sure he’s going away for a bit.

  While he does time at the state penitentiary, I have all intentions of making sure a rumor gets out that he was tied to child pornography. He will be someone’s bitch for sure.

  Julius, though, he thinks he’s king of the world.

  Today, however, today the king will hand over his crown.

  I stroll through the front door of the Mobile Movers’ office like I own the damn place. I don’t yet, but I will before I walk out.

  Collector, X, and Rowdy are all on my heels. I wish Deacon was here. He’s the one I have always been closest to. Regardless, he was the one who helped make this shit happen.

  All the documents are in order. One signature changes everything.

  Walking past the secretary’s desk, I don’t stop. I go into Julius’s office and take a seat like a proud fucking peacock.

  He looks up, and I see the fear.

  I smile.

  He should be scared.

  Julius sits back in his chair, trying to compose himself, but doing a shit job of it. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

  I laugh. “Nah, motherfucker, look what the devil brought home.”

  I see him blink while his chest rises and falls quicker. Yup, someone is nervous.

  He should be.

  X tosses the folder in front of him.

  “Julius, gonna need you to sign them papers,” I tell him while he looks wide-eyed to X.

  “That signs Mobile Movers over to us,” X explains.

  Julius stands. “And if I don’t?”

  “Leddie finds out about you and your favorite porn star, Pocahontas.” I toss my phone onto his desk after opening the video app. “She’ll love seeing that beauty as you poke-a-hot-ass. You pound away at Leddie like that?”

  Collector and Rowdy both laugh at my smart-ass remark. I just smirk.

  “Fuck you!” Julius snarls at me.

  “Calm down, man. I feel you. I poke-a-hot-ass, too. Only mine isn’t that Native American beauty you got. I have two hot blondes waiting for me. The videos I could show you, Julius …”

  I rise up from the chair and rest my fists on his desk, leaning over to be eye-to-eye with him. “Despite the shit you’ve pulled, I go home every fuckin’ night to Avery, Julius. While you can’t find your satisfaction with Leddie, the woman you married, the woman who carried them four kids in her body, the woman who holds you down, I get mine every fuckin’ night. While you can’t keep your dick in your pants, I can’t get hard for another motherfucker, and I’m damn proud.” I push off the desk and grab my crotch. “Shit, just thinkin’ of what I got at home gets me rock-hard.”

  “Wonder how much child support Leddie can get for all them kids,” Collector adds, leaning back in the chair like he has all the time in the world.

  “Fuck you. Fuck you all.”

  “Nah, Julius, you just aren’t our type. Now, I could pull out my knife, end your miserable life, and still take your company, but honest to all the good shit in the world, I wouldn’t be happy with that. Killing doesn’t give me nearly the same satisfaction as taking everything you hold dear. Because, killing you doesn’t make Avery safe. Avery’s already safe.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  X pushes the folder over to him again. “The company.”

  “And if I refuse?” The vein in his neck pulses while I see his body visibly shake.

  Rowdy laughs. “Been to prison. Did a dime. Learned more about how to get away with shit than I did about reform.”

  X steps into his space. “Well, this can go easy, or we can make it hurt.”

  Collector pulls out his phone. We hear the noise of him playing one of those candy games.

  “You think you can come back after all this time and take what’s mine?”

  I throw my head back, laughing. “Yeah, motherfucker, that’s what the fuck I’m doing. You keep delaying shit, I’m gonna whip my dick out and make you suck it until it gets hard, which you not bein’ Avery or Meaghan, my cock ain’t gonna be happy. They got that magic.”

  “Sick fuck. You should’ve stayed gone.”

  X moves to stand behind him, pulling out a knife and pressing it to his throat. “Or, could’ve been dead had he not landed on Old Dog’s door. You left him to die. To bleed out like an animal in the streets. What the fuck you think we should do to you for that?”

  Julius lifts his hands in surrender, all while I keep my eyes on his, relishing the look of fear on his face. He grabs a pen, and with X holding the knife to his neck, he signs the papers.

  Rowdy pokes his head out the door to the secretary. “Go ahead and send everyone home for the day, Chelly.”

  Julius’s eyes go wide.

  “Yeah, fucker, everyone knows what’s going down. The only thing you get to keep is your pride. You’ll have the car ride home to decide what you’ll tell Leddie about the videos she’s got in her email.”

  “You fucker—” Julius begins, but Collector stands, silencing him.

  “Be pissed at yourself and the decisions you made. Be thankful you get to walk outta here. Everyone else who has ever crossed any of us is dead. Consider it love from our women and, in Trapper’s case, his woman and his man. Greedy fuck,” Collector jokes with me. “We’ve matured. You get to live. But mark my words, your path crosses any of ours ever again, we’ll gut you in front of your lover before we bury you with not one fucking question ever asked.”

  We hear the sound of liquid hitting the floor and look to see a puddle forming under Julius.

  “Gonna need a new desk chair, brothers,” I tell them before picking up the papers and heading out.

  Collector and I are going to take these to the attorney to finalize the deal while Rowdy and X stick around to pack Julius’s shit and make sure he understands he no longer exists in Leed, Alabama.

  We have set up some money for Leddie if she chooses to stay since she didn’t ask to get fucked over by the douche. She wants to stay with him, that’s on her. When he leaves here today, he does so knowing he has ten days to get out of town, no looking back.

  Satisfaction. It’s something I have never felt before.

  Contentment. It’s something I never thought someone like me could ever have.

  Pure fuckin
g bliss. It’s waiting for me at home, and I won’t miss another moment.

  Life is crazy.

  Life is good.

  And I don’t want to waste a single second of it.

  SECTION FOUR

  Bottom Line

  The Devil’s debts are paid in full …

  Where do we go from here?

  One Year Later…

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Collector and Sonnie

  ~Sonnie~

  “D over,” I whisper his name, knowing he’s half-asleep. We just spent the last two hours making love, me testing the man’s endurance. “Thank you for the life we have. Thank you for knowing me well enough to know this shop is where I belong.”

  I sigh as he simply grunts.

  We have been through so much. He is rough and soft all in one. Dover “Collector” Ragnes, my best friend’s older brother, my very own Prince Charming. Not that I’m the kind of girl to believe in fairy tales, but from the outside looking in, someone might think our love is that kind of love.

  And it is.

  I feel the butterflies in my belly just thinking about him and how far we have come. The loss of Raleigh tied us together in tragedy. The justice for her death connected us in vengeance. The legacy she leaves in each of us is unconditional love.

  I look at the tattoo I gave him on his chest in memory of Raleigh. The gargoyle to protect him, and the words circling around it are all about his sister.

  Made of stone,

  She never crumbles;

  She never wavers;

  She never fades.

  Always solid,

  Always strong,

  Always watching,

  She’s been with me

  All along.

  “Dover, I don’t think I wanna have kids,” I whisper my fears. The ones I have never told him. I haven’t had to.

  We have been on the road. It’s what the Devil’s Due MC is about. Six nomads living life, seeking justice for the unsolved crimes of their pasts.