Soulless (Lawless #2)(71)

The person who makes you happiest.

I’d never known what a real home was, and now that I’d found it, I was never letting it go.

Home for me would always and forever, be Bear.

We started as a broken promise, one never meant to be kept.

We ended on the promise of forever.

THE END





EPILOGUE




Bear


It had been two days since I’d taken Ti out for a ride and burnt down the f*cking shit house that had brought her so much grief.

For the first time ever, with no impending deaths or distractions on the horizon, I felt content.

Peaceful even.

Not just because my old lady seemed like the weight of the world had been lifted off of her shoulders, and I helped alleviate some of that weight, but because things were getting back to business as usual.

Well, not usual. Better than usual.

Now that the war was officially over and Chop was officially gone from this world, the first order of business for The Lawless was church. I chose my officers from the best of the men and between Wolf, Munch, Stone, Craze, and Lock, we made the decision to reach out to the Bastards existing business connections and figure out which relationships we could salvage, and which bridges had been burnt beyond recognition.

The second order of business was fixing up the sorry excuse for a club that the compound had become. It was a shit hole when I’d left, but now it was like a bomb had gone off.

Plus, it smelled like dead bodies.

Mostly because of the dead bodies.

We were in the middle of the most thorough “clean-up” in biker history. We tore down all Beach Bastards’ memorabilia, for the exception of a small banner hanging above the pool table, which we kept as a way of remembering the past and where we came from.

A reminder of where we never wanted to go again.

Bodies were removed. Blood was cleaned.

By the end of the second day, Munch even had the pool converted from a mold pit into an actual working pool.

I wanted us to operate like a team. Like a unit. We needed time to do that, but I was sure it was going to happen. We needed to learn each other again, get to know one another and most importantly, remember how to be brothers again.

I considered a party but decided against it. There would be no parties, no celebrating, no nothing until the place didn’t smell like death and we had something to actually celebrate again.

Maybe when I knocked up Ti we could have the first official party. Or when I made the shit between us legal.

My cock was getting f*cking hard thinking about her being mine in every way.

The thought of strapping myself to someone forever, of having an actual old lady, used to make me laugh or at the very least, maybe a little f*cking sick.

Now the thought of giving Ti my last name, which I planned on making a good one again, made my f*cking cock strain against my f*cking jeans.

I chuckled. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

An oh how I have loved every single stomach flipping second of that f*cking fall.

I walked around the compound all day, assessing what needed to be done and figuring how much it would all cost. It made me wish Preppy was there. Not just because I stopped hearing his voice two days ago, but because as bad as he was at holding a serious conversation, the kid was a wiz at numbers. It probably took me twice as long as it would him, but I got it done and I think he would have been proud.

With the cash I found in Chop’s safe, combined with what I had buried on the island behinds King’s place, there would be more than enough to make the dump a place we could be proud of again.

The Lawless Compound.

“I’m out for the night,” I called up to Wolf who was helping Stone carry out a blood-stained mattress from one of the second story rooms. They tossed it from the balcony, a cloud of dust billowed into the air as the mattress landed on top of a broken chair, sending one of the legs skidding across the pavement.

I wanted to get home to Ti, but I also wanted to talk to King about what he’d designed to cover up my Bastards’ tattoos. Ti had also asked Ray to draw her something for her first tattoo, and I couldn’t wait to see what it was.

Her pale and perfect skin was amazing perfection.

The thought of marring that skin with a tattoo that represented us?

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

“See you tomorrow, Prez. Call me if you need anything,” Wolf called back. “We’re going to take this to the dumpster.”

“Check the back building. See if maybe there are some extra mattresses in there or lamps or whatever to replace the broken shit. This place used to be some sort of motel. Maybe there’s shit back there we could use,” I instructed.

“Ten four, Prez,” Wolf said, wiping his hands on the front of his jeans.

I rode back to the apartment feeling more content than I had in my entire life. Pancakes greeted me in the driveway, but instead of his usual tongue-down, he was growling and focused behind me. I turned around to see a black van pull up behind my bike. I grabbed my gun and started walking toward the van, because if whoever it was, was bringing a battle to my front door, they were going to be stopped before they got anywhere near, Ti. King must have seen it on the security cameras, because he was beside me in an instant, his own gun in hand.

The driver’s side door opened. “It’s just me, boss!” Wolf called out, jogging around to the passenger side. He slid open the side door and Munch leapt out, colliding with Wolf who pushed him back and held him at arm’s length.