Page 144 of Savior

I followed him out to the barn, surprised to see that Olivia was still sitting on the dock with Wolverine, fishing pole in the water. The other two had run back up to the house to splash in the pool.

“Look at your girl.” I pointed to the dock, loving the way his face softened when he looked at his kids.

“Livvy’s the patient one. She’ll sit out there all damn day until she catches something. Mark my words. Gets that from me, obviously.”

“Looks like she’s chatting Wolverine’s ear off about something. She gets that from you too.”

His eyes narrowed, but he grinned. “Yeah, that’s probably right. So…” He dug in the front pocket of his jeans. “Close your eyes.”

I closed them. “You ain’t gonna whip your dick out, are you?”

“Jesus, Pops. What kind of a maniac do you take me for? Just, uh, just let me tuck this back in.” I shook my head, and he began laughing. “Kidding. Open your eyes.”

He held his palm out with a triumphant grin, and I squinted at it before retrieving the glasses from the front pocket of my shirt. I slid them onto my face. “What do you have—”

I gasped when I realized what he was holding. A gold ring with the number thirteen encased within a diamond. A ring I hadn’t seen since the man wearing it had dropped me in the middle of the mountains.

“How did you get it?”

“Me and Zane tracked him down outside of Oklahoma City. Knew you’d been looking for him for a while now, so I handled it.”

I turned the band over in my hand. “It’s done?”

He nodded. “It’s over. Anyone who’s laid a hand on our family is in the ground now. We can move on.”

The old me would’ve been angry that I hadn’t been the one to send him to the Reaper, but I’d wasted too many years seeking revenge. I’d seen where that path led.

Betsy had let the little slights and hurts build up until they consumed her. She’d wasted her life and missed out on so much because she was hellbent on destroying my wife.

Mikey blinked a couple of times and took a shaky breath before continuing. “When I was a kid, you told me something that’s stuck with me.”

“Oh, yeah?” I grinned. “Your old man taught you something?”

“Not a lot, but you got a few things right. No, you told me you’d be my ax, that you’d fight for me. Even when you were at your weakest, you gave the order that saved us all. You fulfilled your promise when I couldn’t take the shot.”

His lip quivered, and he paused, working his jaw back and forth a couple of times before continuing. “Time for me to be your ax now, Pops.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and nodded, letting him pull me into a hug. “I, uh, I got somethin’ for you too.”

“Better not be your dick,” Mikey joked before releasing me and swiping a hand over his face.

I held the sobriety chip out. “Found this a few weeks ago in the back of the old dresser we took from Angel’s house. I was getting ready to sand it down and get some new stain on it when I ran across it. Thought it was fitting since you just hit three years.”

“Love you, Pops,” he gulped before swiping at the tears on his face.

“Love you too, kid.”

“Fuck,” he groaned. “My mascara’s gone to shit. I’m just gonna go freshen up.”

I stayed back in the barn, needing a few minutes to get myself under control. The final string connecting us to the past was severed with Cobra’s death, allowing us to finally move on.

“Thought I might find you in here,” Celia said from the doorway. “Olivia says she’s sitting on that dock until the fish come out. And Thor insisted that you told him that it was okay for him to eat the fish right out of the pond.”

I grinned. “Whatever works for him. What about the other two?”

She stepped closer. “Well, Charlie talked Hazel into visiting her arm decorating shop.”

“Kid’s gonna be a tattoo artist, just you wait. Where’s everyone else?”

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