Pressing my lips over his chest, I answered his plea. “I will.”

Epilogue

RILEY

I paced the length of the apartment as I waited for Evie to get back. She’d been gone all afternoon, hours spent without me, discussing things I knew she’d rather never mention again. But she did. She was so fucking brave, so strong. She amazed me.

She’d called awhile ago when she’d finished up at the courthouse, letting me know she was done and on her way. She’d sounded exhausted, her voice scratchy and rough, no doubt from crying, and I wished so fucking much that she’d let me be by her side when she had to do shit like this. That she’d let me go with her when she’d gone to the police station the very first time. Or any of the dozens of times she’d met with her lawyer. But I could understand her reasoning for wanting to do it on her own.

She wanted to know she could be strong even without me by her side.

A key slid into the lock, and then the doorknob was turning. Evie walked through the door and shut it behind her as she leaned back against the heavy wood, her head bowed and eyes closed. Her hair was pulled away from her face, secured in a ponytail at the base of her head, not hiding any bit of her from me. She looked absolutely exhausted, purple bruises marring the skin beneath her eyes.

I walked over until I stood in front of her, then reached for her hands. Running my thumbs back and forth against the backs of them, I waited until she lifted her eyes to mine. When she did, there was the undeniable exhaustion I knew would be there, but there was also pride shining through.

She tipped her chin up and said, “I did it.”

I bent my knees until we were eye level, and a smile spread across my face. “Yeah, you did, baby.” Wrapping my arms around her, I lifted her off her feet as her arms encircled my neck. “I knew you could.” I turned my face to her neck and inhaled, then pressed a kiss to her skin. “You wanna talk about it?”

She shook her head against me.

I asked every time, though her answer was always the same. After every step of the way—when she’d gone to the police station, after her first meeting with the lawyer—she’d come back emotionally exhausted, without the desire to expend any more energy talking about what happened. In time, she always told me. Sometimes in bits, sprinkled throughout several days or even longer, and other times in a waterfall of information all in one sitting. However it was, however she was most comfortable sharing, I’d take. I’d take it and I’d sit there and be the shoulder she needed to lean on.

Setting her down on her feet, I pulled back enough to look in her eyes. “What do you want to do? Name it.”

She answered the same as she always did. “Movies and ice cream.”

With a nod, I said, “Done.” I leaned in and captured her lips between mine, pressing several kisses to her mouth. Then I wrapped my hands over her shoulders and turned her around before giving her ass a slap. “Go change. Meet you on the couch in five.”

While she was in the bedroom, I grabbed a carton of her favorite flavor out of the freezer and a spoon, then set them on the coffee table—an addition Evie’d said we had to have when we’d moved into this new apartment in a better area of the city to make movie nights more comfortable. I went back into the kitchen and opened the cabinet over the fridge. It was too high for her to reach, so I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about her accidentally coming across the long rectangular box I’d slipped in there a couple weeks ago. The box that had been sitting there waiting. For the perfect time. For today.

Her footfalls echoed down the hallway as she made her way into the living room, then she shuffled through the collection of movies we had until she settled on what she wanted. “How was work last night?” she asked.

I’d gotten home late, after three in the morning, and she’d left midmorning, waking me long enough for a good-bye kiss before she went to the courthouse.

I grabbed a beer out of the fridge, mostly so I didn’t walk out there empty-handed. “It was okay. I actually had a visitor.”

“Oh, yeah? Who?”

“Aaron.”

Her head whipped around from where she stood by the TV, her eyes wide and panicked.

“No, it’s okay. It was nothing wrong. Well, not really.”

“What was it, then?” she asked as she walked over to the couch, kneeling on the cushions and bracing her arms on the back as she looked at me still in the kitchen.

“He wanted me back.”

“Running jobs?”

“Yeah. Said I could pick and choose which ones I take. That I’d have seniority over all the other guys there.”

I studied her face as I said everything, watching for a hint of apprehension. And I found it. Even though she didn’t hold it against Aaron for stepping up to run the crew after Max’s death, she didn’t agree with it. It held such bad memories for her—first the place she’d run to when she’d needed an escape from her life, then the place she’d run from.

“What’d you tell him?”

I twisted the cap off my beer and shrugged. “That I’m happy bouncing at the club, and I have no intentions of ever going back.”

I didn’t, either. The years I’d spent running with the crew seemed like a lifetime ago, though in reality it’d only been months since I’d been in that life. I’d done it initially because it was all I’d known. And then, even when I didn’t have to stay in it, when I could’ve done a dozen other things, I’d let myself get pulled deeper because it’d been the only way I knew to obtain justice for the murder of the girl I loved. But the only guys who needed to pay for that were both six feet under.

Slipping the box into the pocket of my hoodie, I walked over to her and sat on the couch, settling my beer on the table. She turned toward me, then sat down, her legs tucked under her.

“You’re sure? I don’t want you to feel like you have to stop for me.”

“Baby…” I reached out, tugging her face to mine for a kiss. “I started for you, and it was for all the wrong reasons. I’m stopping for you for all the right ones. And I’m not sorry about it.”

She stared at me for long moments, her hand resting on my chest as her eyes flitted back and forth between mine, then she gave a little nod of acceptance. Glancing over at the table, she asked, “Where’s your popcorn?”

“Forgot to make it.” I moved to get up, but she pressed the hand on my chest harder.

“I got it. Get the movie started.”

She walked into the kitchen and soon the microwave was going, the kernels popping and masking the sound of me moving around. I slipped the box out of my pocket and set it on top of the ice cream container, then settled back against the cushions as she came back around and handed me a bowl before she sat down next to me.

Without looking down from the movie already playing on the screen, she reached for the carton on the table, knocking the box off in the process.

Glancing at it, she asked, “What’s that?”

“Looks like a box.”

She rolled her eyes and reached over to grab it, setting it in her lap. “I can see it’s a box, but what’s in it?”

“Should probably open it and find out.”

Narrowing her eyes, she stared at me for a minute before she looked down as she pulled the lid off. It wasn’t even a second later before recognition struck and she gasped, her eyes already filling as they looked up at me.

“Riley…”

I reached for the box, gripping the thick silver chain-link necklace as I pulled it out. With steady hands, I unclasped the hook, then gestured for Evie to turn her back to me. I slipped the necklace over her head, placing it on her neck and hooking it in place.

“How long have you had this?” Her voice was barely over a whisper.

“A while.” She glanced back at me, and I said, “The whole time. Gage had gotten it for me after the story of the boat went through the ranks in the crew. It’s been sitting in a drawer, broken, for five years. But you deserved to have it back. A couple months ago, you told me it always made you feel safe whenever you wore it, and I want you to feel like that all the time.”