"Yes."
"How you get him unarmed?" Alaric asked.
"Slammed the door on his wrist," Belle explained, shrugging. "He dropped the gun. I got him on his knees. The rest..." she said, trailing off, waving a hand outward.
"Christ," Huck muttered, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. "Babe, I say this with love and respect, but I think you need therapy," he declared.
"Why? You walked into that house to get Betty and killed men. You walked into the bakery and killed men. I'm sure it wasn't the first time either."
"She's got a point, boss man," Eddie said, nodding.
"Alright, yeah, but this is what we do. It's not what you do," Huck insisted.
"I think I am reevaluating what I want to do," Belle declared, making my stomach drop.
Again, yes, selfishly.
The plan had always been for us to go into business together, to build something for ourselves, to spend most of our time together.
Learning that was not likely to happen was upsetting.
Even if, at the end of the day, I knew that the nail salon thing was more my dream and my passion. Belle had gone to school for nails simply because it was something I was familiar with, and I knew she could make some money with. It hadn't been what she truly wanted to do with her life.
So if she found something else she wanted to do, who the hell was I to stand in her way?
"What do you want to do? Killing people isn't exactly a profession," Huck declared.
"I want to get some training, and I want to teach self-defense to women," Belle said, chin lifting.
Clearly, it was something she'd given a lot of thought to judging by the determination and fire in her eyes. And, honestly, it sounded like a great path for her. I could see it.
"Oh, well, kind of dig that," Remy declared, shrugging.
"There are so many women out there with abusive exes or stalkers, and the cops can't or won't help them. I want to teach them how to help themselves. So that is what I am going to do now that I am free to," she said, giving him a firm nod as she got to her feet, moving through the crowd of men, and going back upstairs.
"Well," I started on an exhale, "that's that, I guess," I said.
"Seeley, Donovan, Alaric, you guys are on the body," Huck declared, and each of the men had mirrored looks of resigned distaste. Remy, Che... the carpet and wall?" Huck asked, sighing.
"Yep," Remy said.
"On it," Che agreed.
"I guess I will deal with whatever vehicle he drove out here. It's been a while since I chopped a car," Huck said, smirking. "Should be fun."
"Once everyone is out, I will get the security system back up," McCoy offered.
"Good. Good. Everyone has a job. Someone give the hangabouts a hard time for letting this fucker inside," Huck said on his way toward the door.
With that, everyone hopped to work in a flurry of capable action. While I stood there feeling a little shell shocked from it all.
"Babe," McCoy said, reaching out to snag my chin, pulling it up so I faced him. "You okay?"
"I saw my sister kill a man tonight," I said, the words so absurd that I couldn't seem to keep in the weird, choked giggle that rose up and bubbled out.
"You did," McCoy agreed, ignoring my completely inappropriate laugh. "And that's gotta feel fucked up," he said.
"I, ah, it was kind of dark, so I didn't see as much of it actually happening. But after..."
"Yeah, it wasn't pretty," McCoy agreed.
"I feel weirdly detached from it all."
"Could just be disassociating from the shock. Or maybe you're able to rationalize how it was always going to end with Anton's body, so you're not as shocked and appalled as you might otherwise have felt."
"I kind of hope that is the truth. I don't want to be unaffected by someone getting killed. Even if they did have it coming."
"I know this is a strange time to say shit like this, but I gotta remind you... this is part of my life," he said, waving a hand out toward the front room. "This isn't the first body. It likely won't be the last. It's not the first or last time someone will get past security, that you will be scared, that things might get dicey."
"I understand that," I agreed.
"Do you, though? Not just as a concept, but a likely reality?" he pressed.
"I, ah, yeah, I got a taste of reality just a little bit ago," I reminded him, pointing toward the living room where it sounded like the guys were spraying something on the carpet to get rid of the blood.
"But can you live with that happening again?"
"Well, I guess that depends," I said, noting the tension in his jaw and neck, like a part of him was sure I was going to turn my back on him, on this life.
"On what?"
"On if I can always count on you to be there for me after," I told him, moving forward to slide my hands around his hips.
"Baby, you know that this life doesn't let me give you promises. But as much as I have control over it, I will always be here for you."
"Well, then, I guess we have a future then, huh?" I asked.
"I guess we do," he agreed, leaning down to press his lips to mine.
Epilogue
Shy - 3 weeks
"Why are you staring at me?" I finally blurted out after catching Huck looking at me for the fourth time. Each time before, he glanced away when I'd felt the tell-tale tingle at the back of my neck, so I just kept working on my sketches.
"You do nails," he said, making my brows raise.
"Yes, I do. Or, I did. I plan to do them again in the near future now that I am free to."
I had to admit, I'd been a bit of a slacker. What can I say? I hadn't taken more than a couple days off since I was sixteen years old. I'd gone ahead and taken advantage of the fact that I'd been fired, and that my bills weren't quite due yet.
I just wanted some time with McCoy, some time to relax and unwind, to wrap my head around the whole situation with the club and my sister.
But the new month was quickly approaching. Which meant bills would be due. And I'd have to pay them with my savings. That savings was important to me. Especially now that Belle wasn't going to go into business with me. I'd been counting on her putting some money into building the shop.
I needed to get a new job soon to get back on track with my plans.
It was still going to be ShyBelle.
And I was still totally going to con my sister into helping me with the paperwork end of things.
"Nail places... is that something that deals a lot in cash?" Huck asked, getting my full attention as I turned on the stool to face him.
"Yeah. I mean, not as much as it used to be. When I started, it was almost an all-cash thing. But now it is like half and half. Why?"
"Just thinking."
"Thinking about what?" I asked.
"The future."
"My future?" I clarified.
"Well, your future is club future now. So yes."
"Okay, well, what are you thinking about the future?" I asked.