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“I’m sorry. That came out way worse than I meant it.”

“It’s alright. I can take you wherever you want to go today. If you want to go home, that’s fine, but I’d rather you maybe go visit Sophie or, hell, even take a trip to see your parents instead. I can get someone to clean your house up before you get back.”

“Why would I go somewhere else?”

“Why wouldn’t you?” I asked and slid out of bed. Scrubbing my face with my hands, I stood up, ready to make my way to the bathroom.

She got out of the bed and cut me off, placing her hands on my hips. “He’s gone.”

“Yeah, but nothing else has changed,” I said, stepping away from her and pulling on a pair of jeans. “I’m still the guy you were repulsed by just a few days ago, and just because Niall is dead, it, doesn’t mean it’s over. I still have to deal with the consequences of that.”

“Jesus Christ… Are you going to be in danger now?”

“Honestly… I don’t fucking know. It could go either way. There are enough people under him who would take over in a heartbeat since I want no part of it. But, of course, there will be those who think I killed him or set it up for him to be killed, and they may be gunning for me… and that’s not even scratching the surface of the other shitstorm brewing. I mean, I have a mother out there who is just as fucked up as Niall. She knows where I am now, and I can’t see her. I won’t. I can’t forgive her for signing me over to him. I want nothing to do with any of them.”

“Let’s just leave.”

“And go where?”

“Anywhere. I can’t go back home.”

“Evie, listen to yourself. Did you forget everything you said to me about why you didn’t know if you could ever be with me?”

“I remember every word I said.”

“Then why the sudden change of heart? None of that has changed. I’ve done my fair share of bad things. Truth is, Niall wasn’t that much worse than me.”

“Don’t you dare say that. You’re a good person Jet. I was stupid to question that before. And you want to know why I can see that so clearly now? Because
this
,” she said, motioning her hands toward me and back to herself, “is the
only
thing that makes sense to me. No matter how hard I’ve tried, and God knows I have, I can’t shake you. Never have been able to, and now that you’re here in front of me when I thought…” She shook her head subtly. “Waking up next to you is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever experienced. I don’t want to lose that… or you.”

“You should want to get as far away from me as you can.”

“Stop,” she exclaimed. “Just stop. We don’t get to choose who we love, but even if we did, I’d still choose you because you give me the same butterflies in my stomach as you did when I was sixteen and hadn’t even spoken to you. You changed my life the day you asked to borrow that magazine, and I truly believe we’re meant to be together. Maybe this whole situation is fate’s way of fixing the mistake that was made when we were torn apart the first time.”

“Fate has a pretty fucked up way of making things right, doesn’t it?” I asked with a grin on my face. “You really mean all that?”

“Every word of it.”

Leaning in, I kissed her softly on the lips.

The sound of footsteps running down the hall put me on high alert. I reached for the gun I had stashed under the mattress, inching to the door.

“Stay here,” I whispered. “I think it’s Georgia, but she shouldn’t be home from school this early. I’m going to check it out.”

Cautiously opening the door, I poked my head out in time to see Georgia duck into her room. “It’s her,” I said as I popped back in and sat the gun down on the nightstand.

Evie had tears welling in her eyes. She brought her hand to her mouth, covering it as a gentle sob left her.

“She’s going to hate me, Jet.”

“Stay here while I go talk to her.”

“No, I should be there. I want to be there.”

I took her hand, and we went to Georgia’s room. When we knocked lightly on the door, she opened it a second later.

“Hey, chipmunk,” I said and hugged her. “What are you doing home from school? And why didn’t you go back to Katie’s?”

“We got out early. Something about the water line being busted. Katie’s mom didn’t tell me if I was supposed to come home or go back over there, so I just came home,” she said, looking past me toward Evie.

“This is my friend, Evie.”

“Hi, Evie.”

“Hello.”

“What’s going on?” she asked, eying me cautiously. It had to be a shock to her system for me to open without picking on her. Maybe I should’ve stuck to the norm.

“Sit down, chipmunk.”

She did as she was told and sat on her bed. Evie sat in a chair by the desk, and I sat beside Georgia.

“I have something to tell you.”

“Okay.”

I took her hand and said in a quiet voice, “Niall is dead.”

Shock spread over her face. Where I expected there to be tears, there were surprisingly none.

“How?”

“Niall wasn’t a good man. You know that, right?”

She nodded, tears beginning to glisten in her eyes.

“A long time ago, when you were barely more than a baby, we lived in another town. Evie was my girlfriend, but Niall threatened her in order to control me. I had to leave her behind when we moved up here. He would’ve killed her if I hadn’t started working for him.”

“You mean fighting for him?”

“How did you know about that?”

“I’m not stupid, bub. I hear things. I see things. I mean, every time you fight, it ends up on YouTube. I constantly have to hear from my friends how awesome it must be to be your sister.”

“Shit, Georgia. I never wanted you to know any of that.”

“I know what kind of man he was, too, and the things he did.”

My heart broke. I hadn’t shielded her from any of it after all, despite my best efforts.

“So what happened to him?”

“I ran into Evie recently, and I met a friend of hers. That friend had a brother who was kidnapped as a child, and as it turns out, he is me. Now, I don’t know if Niall kidnapped me or just took custody, but I challenged him to face me. Taking him out was the only way I could guarantee that you and Evie would be safe from him. I still love her just as much as I did back then. Niall caught wind that she was back in the picture and skipped out on the fight. He went to her home and was going to kill her to punish me.”

“You killed him?” she asked me.

“No,” I said. “But I should have.”

“Georgia, I’m so sorry,” Evie said, tears rushing over her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

I took a deep breath, and continued, “Evie shot him to save her own life. He died almost instantly.”

She looked past me to Evie and back at me. Standing, she slowly walked over to Evie and placed her hand on her shoulder.

“Please, don’t cry… You had no choice. Niall was a terrible person, and he deserved what he got.”

“Georgia,” I said. “Do you understand that he’s gone for good? Never coming back. He’s dead.” I couldn’t believe her reaction. It had to be shock or misunderstanding or something. There was no way this girl didn’t feel anything over her father being killed.

“I understand, but I also don’t really care.”

“How can you say that?” Evie asked. “He was your father.”

“No, he wasn’t. Jet is the only father I’ve ever had. Niall never cared about either one of us, and we’re free of him now. I know the only reason he didn’t abuse me was because of you,” she said, turning back to me. “I heard him more times than I can count holding me over you, threatening to hurt me so you’d do whatever it was he wanted. Now we’re free. You’re free, bub. I just want you to be happy. If you love her, I don’t see any reason why she can’t be a part of this family.”

She embraced Evie, holding onto her as she began to cry. The two of them cried together, Evie kissed Georgia’s forehead and said, “I’m here for you. Anything you need. If you need to talk about it, I’ll listen.”

Georgia looked at her and smiled. “Me, too. It’ll be nice to have another girl around for once.”

Watching them made my heart swell and my soul feel complete. For the very first time in my life, I had everything I ever wanted. My sister was safe and the woman I loved with every piece of me was at my side.

People say to appreciate the life you have because things can always be worse. My life was as bad as it could get, and I never knew anything to be better than what I had until Evie came into my life. I never could appreciate the shitty hand I’d been dealt, could never see anything good about it, but things were different now.

For the first time in as long as I could remember, I truly was appreciative. I had Evie back and my sister was safe and sound. The feeling of happiness and gratitude was foreign to me, but one I grew accustomed to easily enough. I’d hoped and prayed so many times for as long as I could remember for things to be different, for my life to be different, but when it finally happened, and my life changed, I didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse. Once I truly let go of my past and embraces my future, I knew it was a blessing.

Turns out when you finally get what you’ve always dreamed of, you stop dwelling on the bad things that dragged you down before. You start to view life in a whole new exhilarating way. Waking up in the morning wasn’t such a burden anymore and the nightmares could finally stop because Niall was gone and he’d never be a threat again.

No matter how big or small, some moments had a way of defining our lives, and I looked back to the one that set me on the path leading me to where I was now, knowing that had it not been for that one simple request I made to her years ago, I never would’ve ended up with her by my side for the rest of my life.

E
PILOGUE

“I’m out,” I yelled to the staff at The Warehouse. I’d had the old one torn down and a new place built where I could train people to fight. It was big enough to actually go legit, and I officially named it The Warehouse. I no longer had to fight, but the feeling of training up and comers with potential to go on to some of the bigger fighting organizations was awesome. “I’ve got too much shit to do and not enough time to do it. I’ll see you all tonight.”

“Walk you out?” Flint asked.

“Yeah, sure, but if you’re going to drop a load of bullshit on me, I suggest you wait until at least next week.”

“It’s nothing bad, I swear.”

“Alright,” I sighed. “But I swear to Christ if you’re lying I’m gonna knock your ass out.”

He chuckled, but I was serious. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could go wrong.

“Just wanted to let you know that I was able to finally make the deal with the cartel for the drugs. I’m taking over operations. Everyone is on board. You’re officially out, my man.”

Stopping in my tracks, I stared at him.

“Really?”

“It’s the truth. You’re free.”

I’d sat down with everyone close to Niall in the days after his death to discuss how to go forward. I made it clear I wanted no part of anything and that whoever wanted to take over could as far as I was concerned, just leave me out of it. I’d done my best to convince them that he brought on his death himself.

It’d taken them some considerable time to go over everything and to come up with who would go forward as the new kingpin in training. In the meantime, I acted in Niall’s place, though I hated every second of it. I had no desire to deal with drug lords, dealers, and prostitutes, but it’s what I had to do to move things forward.

Niall’s lawyer contacted me about a week after he died letting me know that he’d left nearly everything, including custody of Georgia, the house, and the warehouse to me. The money went to Georgia, which was fine by me. I had plenty of my own, and at least she’d be set for the rest of her life if she didn’t piss it all away. When I’d received that bit of news, I damn near fell out of my seat. I couldn’t believe the son of a bitch had actually done right by us.

But it didn’t come without consequence. Niall had also included a letter addressed to me with his will. It contained news that I never could have predicted. Turns out Georgia wasn’t his daughter, but she hadn’t been kidnapped either. Her mother was in a bad way when she reached out to Niall, who answered with a bullet to her head. She must have been desperate to seek him out, only to end up dead because of it, but I couldn’t feel sorry for her.

It turns out that Georgia’s mother was Niall’s ex, the same one who’d violated me as a teenager. The day I found out Georgia was actually my daughter, not my sister was a bittersweet one. I’d always treated her like she was mine, and maybe deep down I felt like she was, but to know that Niall knew this all along made me want to set fire to his grave and piss all over it. At least I could give her a real family now. One with a mother and hopefully a brother or sister for her soon enough.

I could barely focus on anything Flint had to say. It’d taken almost a year to hear the news I’d been anticipating and when it came from his mouth, I could’ve passed out, but there was no time for it.

I had an appointment I couldn’t and wouldn’t miss for anything in the world.

* * *

Beautiful. Gorgeous. Breath-taking. None of those words compared to the way Evie looked in her wedding gown. It was off-white and form-fitting through her body with the skirt flowing out from her waist. We kept the ceremony small with only her parents, Georgia, Big, Sophie, and Alex in attendance. I still had no desire to meet my mother, but Alex was sweet and had persisted enough that she finally wore me down. She eventually stopped trying to get me to meet the rest of the family, and I’d figured out early on that my brother didn’t really want anything to do with me anyway. That was fine by me. I had no room for assholes in my life anymore.

Our reception ended up being the biggest party the city of Oakton had ever seen. The staff at The Warehouse busied themselves all week in preparation for the festivities.

But the part I looked forward to the most was the quiet time after it all when I could be alone with my wife.

Quiet. Comfortable. Safe.

The life I always wanted had won the battle against the one I’d always known. For the first time in my life, I had a family, the love of a good woman and my daughter, and a future to look forward to.