It took us a long time, a lot of strength, patience and a few tears from her, but we got there. She settled in front of me, leaning most of her weight on mine. I knew her strength was fading already, so I made short work out of heading off.
The journey to the beach was beautiful. A part of me expected to be hauled off the road by a busybody pig, but we made it without interruption. Passing miles of coastline, the ocean glittered in the warm summer evening, and it was a joyous sight to behold. With each minute, weakness had her settling more into me and though the judders of the engine rocked through my system, exhausting me with each moment, I absorbed it.
This would be our last ride.
It was worth it.
Then we made it to the cliffs.
"I told you I meant it when I said ‘til death do us part.’" I buried my face in her throat as I tucked myself low, one arm tight around her as she clung to me as much as I did to her, and whispered, "I love you, baby girl."
A soft sigh escaped her, one that I shouldn’t have heard but that the wind gifted me. "I love you too, Asher."
Always Asher at moments like these.
That was when I revved the engine, that was when I slipped off the asphalt and onto the rocky terrain at the side of the road, and that was when both of us flew free into the unknown.
But we did it together.
This wasn’t our last goodbye, but the start of something else.
Something just as beautiful as the last fifty-three years.
Eternity wasn’t frightening when you had your soul mate at your side.
** Bonus Scene **
When Hook’s screams were loud enough to pierce my eardrums as I watched the flames consume his beard, I grabbed the extinguisher, took off the cap, then sprayed it all over his head.
Digger snorted out a laugh, SL coughed with surprise, and North muttered, "Jesus."
"Don’t breathe in, Hook," I taunted. "This shit can be deadly when you inhale it." I motioned at SL who stood there, hovering, and I sniped, "Pour it on his head, SL. Fuck’s sake."
SL grimaced. "Ain’t never done this stuff before, Prez," he grumbled, but he did as I asked, revealing a pretty scorched-looking Hook.
"Now, I can keep on doing this, Hook. You got plenty of other shit I can burn off ya, and you can die in a beautiful bonfire worthy of a funeral pyre, or I can slit your throat. Nice and fast. Your choice."
His breathing was labored, pained but he managed to get out, "Slit my throat."
"Thought as much. Now, talk to me about the Rabid Wolves."
He sucked in air, the rasping sounds reminding me of someone with emphysema, but he spluttered, "Sticky stole something from them when he came down here. It’s one of the reasons why Butch let him stay."
"Wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart, then," I drawled.
Hook frowned. "No. Worth a lot of money."
"What was it?"
"A necklace."
Whatever I’d expected him to say, it wasn’t that.
"You shitting me? A fucking necklace?"
Hook nodded, then repeated, "It’s worth a lot of money."
"Would have to be, Christ."
"Pearls or something. Butch took it, but we know he never sold it."
"Fucking pearls?" I scowled. "How?"
"Butch would have told his council."
"Would he? Wouldn’t he have had to share in the spoils?"
"Butch wasn’t like that," Hook gasped.
"From the state of your accounts when I got here, I can tell you that’s BS," I drawled.
"And you fuckers were loyal to him?" Digger muttered. "Bigger idiots than I thought."
"Hey!" SL groused.
"It’s true. Jesus. That kind of shit would get split with the chapter back in West Orange, wouldn’t it, Storm?"
"Bet your ass it would," I replied, folding my arms across my chest. "What was so special about this necklace?"
"It belonged to a crime family in New York," Hook rasped, before he started coughing. Before our eyes, pink welts started to appear on his skin, and I knew that was from the irritants in the retardant spray. "The Wolves stole it about a decade ago from this rich tycoon."
"What’s this necklace gotta do with today?"
"Sticky wanted you to let us back into the Sinners so he could get access to the safes. Everyone’s been loyal though. We couldn’t get in otherwise."
"You genuinely thought that taking the Prez’s family hostage would get you reinstated into the Sinners?" Digger demanded. "Are you fucking shitting me? Or have you just been taking stupid pills?"
Hook shook his head, wiping his cheek against his shoulder to ease the irritation on his skin. "It’d have worked with Butch. And with the Prez of the Rabid Wolves. Might is right."
My brow puckered. "If you seriously believe that, then I’m glad the world won’t have to deal with your shits for brains for much longer."
"You wanted the necklace to sell it? Or to take it back to the Rabid Wolves?"
Hook shrugged. "Sticky said we’d be made welcome back at the Rabid Wolves."
"I think you’d have ended up dead the second Sticky got his fucking mitts on that necklace," Digger retorted with a cackle. "He wasn’t about to split the money with you fuckheads."
My Enforcer wasn’t fucking wrong.
Something about what he’d said resonated with me though. "You said safes. Plural." I had two in my office. One for guns, the shit that was legal and that the sheriff could call on to see, and then one for money.
Hook blinked, then what appeared to be some sense slivered into his eyes. "Yeah. There are some hidden in the clubhouse. I’ll show them to you if you let me go."
Because I knew he was bluffing, I smirked. "I’d prefer for those safes to burn the fuck down than to let your moronic ass live to see another goddamn day. Now, you can carry on talking or I can slice your throat and let you bleed out slowly. Your choice."
Never let it be said that I wasn’t diplomatic.
REX IS NOW AVAILABLE ON PREORDER!
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You’ve met him, you think you know him, but does anyone really know the aloof Prez of the West Orange chapter?
Need to know how MaryCat and Digger got together?
Learn how the Five Points and the Satan’s Sinners got their wires tangled in this exclusive prequel!!
A Very Naughty MC Christmas!
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Afterword
REX IS NOW AVAILABLE ON PREORDER!
Grab it here: www.books2read.com/RexSerenaAkeroyd
You’ve met him, you think you know him, but does anyone really know the aloof Prez of the West Orange chapter?
Need to know how MaryCat and Digger got together?
Learn how the Five Points and the Satan’s Sinners got their wires tangled in this exclusive prequel!!
A Very Naughty MC Christmas!