Page 33 of Saved By the Rogue

"Oh," she murmured. "Oh, I...I get it."

She rolled her shoulders back and raised her eyebrows at Chuck.

"So that would make for an even more interesting story," she suggested.

"Maybe," he replied, and he nodded the door. "I think you should go now."

"I’ll be back to visit!" she told us, and I watched as she headed out the door, shaking my head at her.

"She better not," Chuck growled. "I don’t need a journalist getting up in my business."

I shook my head.

"She’s not going to cause any trouble," I promised him. "She’s just enthusiastic, that’s all."

"Yeah, and I’d rather she wasn’t enthusiastic about this place," he replied. "I saw how she took down your father."

I waved my hand.

"She’s fine," I replied, trying to calm him down. He’d been on edge after the attack on the shop, when those guys my father had sent had turned up and pulled a gun, and I couldn’t blame him for being a little more cautious. He was still getting used to having me around, and I wasn’t going to try and piss him off.

Chuck muttered something to himself as he stalked off into the back again, and I raised my eyebrows at Jaxon. He chuckled.

"Yeah, I get the feeling that girl’s going to be a problem for him," he remarked. I pulled a face.

"Maybe," I agreed. "It’s not my problem. She’ll probably lose interest anyway and find another story to focus on..."

"Or maybe she wants her edgy story about the gangs of Atwood," he remarked. "Who knows?"

"Who knows?" I agreed, and I dropped a kiss on his cheek. "Anyway, I love my new tattoo. Thank you."

"You’re welcome," he replied. "You want to head home? I’m hungry after all of that."

"You were just sitting in a chair," I protested, and he grinned.

"Yeah, working my ass off," he replied. "I think you owe me takeout in payment."

"Hmm, you sure there’s not some other way you could think of for me to pay?" I asked him suggestively.

"Damn, you really are wild these days," he laughed, and he kissed me again. The sun was streaming through the large window in the front of the store; a handful of his paintings adorned the walls now, brightening the place up and bringing it to life.

"You ain’t seen nothing yet," I joked, and he slipped his hand into mine and led me out of the store, towards the apartment that we shared now. It wasn’t much, but it was ours, a home that we could share – full of his paintings, somewhere we could have coffee in the morning and pretend like the rest of the world didn’t exist for a little while. Waking up next to him was the kind of gift I didn’t even know I’d needed until I got to experience it, day in, and day out.

The fresh tattoo still stinging on my back, I followed him across the street once more, letting him lead the way.

Epilogue – Star

"Ugh!” I exclaimed, as the bike nearly keeled over from underneath me once more. "I’m never going to get this!”

"It takes time," Jaxon told me patiently, as he caught the bike before it crashed to the ground again. "You should have seen me when I was first starting out. I was useless."

"You’re just saying that" I pouted back at him. "I bet you were great."

"If you could have seen the number of bruises I got those first few months," he replied, shaking his head. "You wouldn’t be saying that. Come on, give it another go – I know you can do this."

I took a deep breath, gathering myself again. I knew he was right. I was capable of this, I was sure of it – I was going to have to be, if I was living here and working for the Dark Dogs. It had been nearly six months since I had officially joined their ranks, and I still didn’t know how to ride a motorcycle – something that I was determined to remedy, with Jaxon’s help.

The last couple of weeks of practice had been frustrating, to say the least, but Jaxon’s patience had helped keep me from flipping my shit. I had never driven anything before in my life, so I knew it was going to take a long time before I really got the hang of it, but I wasn’t exactly the most zen person on the planet. It was taking time for me to accept that, but I was getting there.

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