Page 109 of Midnight Racers

“I love you,” she said again into my mouth.

“Love you, too, baby,” I replied, lifting her on the counter so we were eye to eye. “No sex for you since you’re injured, but I can perform my caveman role and feed you.”

She grinned at me, and my heart responded since she controlled him.

I would never be a good man, there was too much darkness inside me and too much death in my past, but for her alone I would become a better man. That night, she curled herself around me, and my soul once again found peace. She was the light to my darkness, the redemption that I didn’t deserve, but that I would cling to for the rest of my life.

Her love was the greatest prize I had ever won, and that included all my past and future races. Some victories were the sweetest because you’d suffered and given everything you had to win them. Love was earned, not given, and that was why it was the greatest gift.

I’d finally found my way home.

***

Epilogue – One Year Later

Charlotte

“What the fuck!” Jordan screamed as he ran for his life, two winged devils chasing him. Matilda and Mavis had stalked him for a few moments before launching a sneak attack. They were as good as gold for both Flynn and me, but anyone else was fair game on their property.

Megan screeched with laughter, and she would have been doubled over if her stomach hadn’t been too big to prevent it. She had my sympathy, because I had been as big as a beachball when I was in my third trimester. She was expecting twins and was waddling around in flip-flops while Jordan fussed and panicked at every twinge or movement the babies created.

For a man who liked to kill anything that pissed him off, he was a tamed tiger where Megan was concerned.

Xavier chuckled at his friend as he tried to shoo the angry geese away. I didn’t want to point out that that would make them worse. Cassandra sat with Gabriella on her knee, bouncing her and pointing at Uncle Jordan being chased by geese.

“Jay, Jay, Jay,” she shouted, waving as if they were doing it just to entertain her.

“Matilda! Mavis!” Flynn called them as they did their infamous velociraptor move where they came at their prey from both sides so they had nowhere to run.

“Stop them biting me!” Jordan shouted, trying to escape into the sanctuary of the house. “I swear they make Simon and his demented offspring look like saints.”

Flynn calmed the girls and chased them into their enclosure for the night.

“They’re better than guard dogs,” I said. “And are great against garden nasties and bugs.”

“They are the garden nasties,” Jordan snapped as he came into the house.

Ash and Lucrezia sat cuddled together, his hand protectively on her small baby bump, entertained by the spectacle of what was happening outside.

Tonight was our one year wedding anniversary. Flynn had taken no time to organise a wedding after I agreed to marry him. He did what he did with most problems and threw money at it until it was resolved. We were having a barbeque for family and friends to celebrate. This past year, I had become close to the other women in the group after Megan introduced us. Lucrezia made my engagement and wedding rings, and we tended to be ladies who went for lunch and shopping together. My career choice had meant I didn’t have many female friends, and now I had women who watched my back and welcomed me into their circle of trust.

Mum and Dad stood hand in hand beside the pond at the back of the house. Our accident had brought them back together while Dad stayed at her house in the aftermath.

I was finishing the salad when Flynn wandered into the kitchen, Finley peering over his dad’s shoulder with his fist in his mouth.

“I still can’t believe that Dale got married,” I said. He and Craig had disappeared after my accident, a photo appearing on social media every few months of their adventures. It turned out the never-ending list of women hanging on his arm had been his attempt to disguise that he and Craig were in a relationship together. All their time spent together had made sense too late.

The latest photograph showed them getting married somewhere warm and tropical in white suits.

Flynn set Finley down in his bouncing chair where he sat and watched us as we worked in the kitchen. There were days that I doubted any of my genes made an appearance in our son since he was a tiny replica of his father, with messy black hair and green eyes. One of his first toys was a steering wheel with lights and horns on it.

“Maybe they’re photoshopped,” Flynn replied. “Technology is amazing these days.”

“Don’t be silly, Flynn. People don’t just disappear and are kept alive with random photographs on social media.”

“Oh, course not,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

Mum and Dad were staying here for the weekend to look after Finley while Flynn took me away for an anniversary weekend. Pixie had finally accepted her new baby brother, probably because she had discovered that he had a cot and bouncing chair that she could occupy when he wasn’t in them.

---