Page 37 of Biker's Dark Revenge

"I’ll explain later," I replied, as I dropped into the seat opposite Kara to get a look at the picture she was drawing.

"Wow, that’s awesome," I told her, and she looked up at me, her blonde hair slightly chaotic, even where Liana had tried to pull it away from her face.

"Can I see?" I asked, and she nodded, turning the picture around so I could get a better look at it. It was a house – this house, actually, with the red roof and the light blue borders on the windows. And, outside, stood two people, on either side of one smaller stick figure. They were all holding hands.

"Is this...us?" I asked her. She nodded.

"That’s Mommy," she told me, pointing to the woman, with her long, curly red hair scrawled around her face. "And that’s you."

"And this is you?" I asked her, tapping the spot where she stood on the picture. The image, though it was scrawled, had a huge smile on its face.

"That’s me," she replied. Liana came around the table to look over her shoulder and admire the picture, and she dropped a kiss on top of Kara’s head.

"I think this one needs to go straight on the fridge," she remarked, sliding it out and pinning it to the front of the appliance. I eyed it, taking it in – admiring not just the image, but what it represented. Me, as part of a family. Kara, seeing herself as worthy of the care and love that we could both give her. And Liana, pulling us all together, filling out our little home.

Our perfect life together.

Epilogue – Liana

"Come on, Kara!” I called through the door, as I banged on it one more time. I heard Kara let out a little groan, but at least I knew she was awake. I glanced at my watch – I knew I had to be out of the door in the next half-hour, and I wanted to see Kara on to the bus by then.

"Is she up?" Lee asked as he stepped out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth.

"She better be," I replied. "I have breakfast on the table already. Ugh, where’s my coffee-"

Before I could get too lost in overthinking, Lee caught my arm, stopping me in my tracks.

"Hey, Liana," he murmured to me, a gentle smile on his face. "It’s going to be okay. We always get it done, don’t we?"

I paused, inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. He was right. I had to keep reminding myself of that. No matter how hectic these mornings got, we were always able to get Kara to school, me to college, and Lee across town to the tattoo shop to meet with the Dogs; though I seemed to forget that every time the alarm went off and I was sent into full-blown panic mode.

"You’re right," I replied, and, just as I said it the door to Kara’s bedroom opened and she wandered out sleepily. I couldn’t help but laugh at the manic state her hair was in – she'd wanted it cut short recently, and it looked adorable on her, but in the mornings, it was as though she had been thrashing around in a pile of hay.

"Come on, sweetheart," I told her, leading her downstairs. "Breakfast. I’ll brush your hair while you’re eating."

"Good morning," she mumbled to me, and I squeezed her hand.

"Good morning," I murmured back, hardly able to keep the smile off my face.

It was hard to believe it had been nearly six months since she started school – she was growing and changing so quickly, but I was beyond happy to see that she was keeping up with the rest of her classmates. I had been worried that her start in life might set her behind everyone else, but from everything her teachers told us so far, she was doing an amazing job.

Of course, there were still struggles. She still asked about her mom sometimes, her birth mom, and we’d managed to come up with some version of the truth that didn’t seem to sting too much – that her mother had been ill, and had passed away, but that she cared for her very much. I didn’t know how Kara remembered about what happened in that prison cell of a home, but I guessed it would start to come back to her as she grew older. I couldn’t undo what happened to her, but I could provide her the most solid, stable grounding to work through it, and that’s what mattered.

As for me, I had been throwing myself into my studies – I had been accepted in a social services course that would let me begin work as a support worker for women who were escaping domestic abuse and addiction, and I could hardly wait to get started. I knew it was going to be a demanding career choice, but after everything I had been through, I knew I could handle it. I remained silent about my real reason for getting into this job, making sure none of my classmates knew that I was living with a member of a motorcycle gang. They wouldn’t understand, and I got why.

But if they could see all the good the Dogs were doing for the city of Atwood, I know they would feel differently. Lee was currently working closely with another branch of the Dogs from another part of the state, to help bring down another sex trafficking ring that had taken root there – and the Dogs had cleared out the compounds Lombardi had used to house his victims in and turned them into safehouses where the women fleeing any nightmare where they were kept captive – whether trafficking or abuse - could settle for a while as they got back on their feet. He’d called in my help for that, getting my guidance and advice on how to make the place feel truly safe and welcoming after these women had been through such unthinkable hell.

I brushed out Kara’s hair while she munched on some toast, and Lee poured himself a generous cup of coffee, taking a long sip as he leaned on the table. Just beside him was one of the pictures Kara had drawn of the three of us – the first one that featured us as a family, I was pretty sure. It still made me smile every time I looked at it. A reminder of how far we had come – from the girl I grabbed from that cell all those months ago, to a real family.

"Do you have everything packed?" I asked Kara. She nodded.

"Your gym bag too?" I reminded her. Her face twisted, and she bolted away from the table, rushing back towards the stairs to get it all packed. Lee chuckled.

"She’s just as forgetful as me," he remarked, and I sighed, shaking my head.

"I don’t know how anything gets done around here, with the two of you forgetting everything important..."

"Hey, we’re not that bad," he protested, and I grinned and came around the table to kiss him. He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me in close.

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