Page 72 of Everest

Standing, I grab my purse.

“Are you leaving already?” Promise asks.

“Yeah. I’m out, but I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Taking my hand in his, Kallum walks me out of the club and over to his bike. Once he’s seated, I climb on behind him and wrap my arms around his waist. Closing my eyes, I breathe inhis familiar scent. One would think being back here would be hard, but having Kallum and being surrounded by his warmth grounds me. He’s become my peace.

Pulling out of the parking lot, Kallum heads West toward New Orleans. Twenty miles in, I notice him taking us on a detour away from the bar. I press my mouth close to his ear. “Where are we going?”

“I want to show you something?” he yells over the roaring sound of his bike. I’m confused when he starts leading us toward Riggs and Luna’s house, but then he takes a left turn about a mile before their driveway and heads down a dirt road. It’s pitch black with no streetlights. The only thing illuminating our path is the headlight of the motorcycle. I’m not typically a wuss, but there is something creepy about being in the woods after dark. I don’t know what Kallum is up to, bringing me out in the middle of nowhere at night. A few seconds later, the bike starts to slow, and we come up on a large clearing of raw land, and I gasp when I see the city lights illuminating a massive lake in the distance. Kallum cuts the engine, and I hop off the bike.

“What is this place?” I start walking toward the edge of the lake.

I feel Kallum’s heat on my back just before he wraps his arms around me from behind. “It’s ours.”

I turn in his arms. “What?”

“It’s ours. I bought it. A few acres.”

“You bought us land?” I ask, stunned.

He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “Yes. I want to build us a house here.”

My mouth goes dry.He wants to build us a house here.Did I hear him right?

When I don’t say anything, he continues, “I love you, London, and want to build a life with you.”

Tears stream down my face. “You’re serious?”

“I’ve never been more serious about anything in my life,” he says with conviction. “What do you say, baby. Can you see yourself building a life with me?”

“Yes,” I croak. “Yes, Kallum, I love you with all I am and want to spend every day by your side.”

EPILOGUE

EVEREST

The sun is starting to dip behind the cypress trees lining the back of Pop’s property. A few yards away, the old man throws another log into his old smoker as heavy smoke drifts on the breeze, carrying the smell of hickory. A few feet away, Riggs and Nova are manning the crawfish pots.

I’m standing on the porch, taking it all in, with a cold beer and sweat sliding down my neck. It’s loud with laughter and chatter, but beneath all the noise is something quieter. Peace.

And it’s been a hell of a road getting here.

The Velasco bloodline is dead.

We made damn sure of that this time.

The ghost of a man who watched every move we made after his father’s death is nothing more than a bloodstain in my memory.

But today isn’t about all that.

Today is for living.

For breathing easy.

The last few months have crawled and flown by in the strangest way. Some days, it feels like I just watched Velasco take his last breath yesterday. On other days, it feels as if it was alifetime ago. I still get an itch at the base of my spine sometimes, that feeling like a storm is brewing, even when I know the threat is gone.

And through it all, my woman didn’t just survive being taken and put through hell twice, she burned through it and came out on the other side stronger and still filled full of that fire and sass that makes her who she is.

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