Page 84 of June 7

He strode out of the room. Five minutes later, he walked out of Havlin Motorcycle Parts shop carrying a ten-pound sledgehammer. He put the tool in his duffle bag with the handle sticking out and rode back to the duplex.

In the driveway, he glanced around before taking the sledgehammer out of his bag. He walked into the duplex and stopped to kiss Daisy in the kitchen. "I'm thirty-eight years old. I've been working for Havlin since I was eighteen years old. I've got twenty years of savings socked away. We can live here. We can move. We can remodel. We can afford to do whatever the fuck we want."

Daisy's lips parted, and she blinked at him in surprise.

He held up the sledgehammer. "But that wall is coming down."

Instead of shock or disapproval or arguments against his plan, Daisy clapped her hands. "Do it."

He strode forward. Every ounce of worry he'd carried, not knowing who was after Daisy and struggling with how to protect her, left him with the first swing. Sheetrock broke. Lumber cracked.

On the second swing, the head of the hammer cleared the wall and left a hole the size of his head into the other side of the duplex.

That was the beginning of their future.

Daisy had no more walls around her.

He'd broken them all down.

Epilogue

Red and black paper streamers lined the staircase to the pool. Bane led Daisy up the steps and through the open door. An hour ago, he'd promised his life away and took Daisy as his old lady at the courthouse in Seaglass Cove.

"When Liz asked you to pick a color for the party, you chose red?" Daisy laughed. "Why?"

"It's the color of the swimsuit you wear every day." He dropped his gaze to her plump breasts showing over the white sundress. "Why did you pick black?"

She patted his chest. "Your vest and Harley."

Liz appeared in front of them. "A little warning before you go inside. Actually, I probably don't have to warn Bane." She turned to Daisy. "But, your new family is already at the pool, celebrating your nuptials, and there are a lot of white asses walking about."

Bane grunted. "Bikers don't wear swim trunks."

"The security camera is off." Liz threw up her hands and stepped back. "You do you, Bane."

Daisy stood between the locker rooms, blinking up at him with all the innocence she could muster. He grabbed her ass and pulled her against the front of him. Over the last year, they'd snuck into the pool a few times and went skinny dipping.

---