Page 33 of Diesel
Epilogue
Afew weeks passed, but the aftershocks of what had happened at the bridge lingered like an echo in Sophie’s bones.
She didn’t speak of it often, and Diesel didn’t push.But every time she glanced at him, whether standing in the flower shop doorway with arms crossed, or sitting at her kitchen table nursing a mug of coffee, she saw it.The same haunted protectiveness that lived in his gaze now.
Yet beneath it, something gentler had begun to bloom between them.Their nights were quieter, filled with whispered conversations and tangled limbs beneath the covers.Diesel had practically moved in, not that they’d said it aloud, but neither of them wanted the space.
She’d never felt so safe.Or so utterly claimed.So, when Diesel asked her to close the shop early one golden Saturday, she was curious.He’d been restless all morning, pacing like a caged bear while she arranged bouquets and straightened displays.
“Diesel,” she teased, slipping her arms around his waist when he came up behind her at the counter.“If you’re gonna hover, at least pretend to be helpful.”
His answering rumble of laughter vibrated through her.
“Not hovering, sweetheart.Just waiting for you to lock up,” he said.
She arched a brow.“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
Which led to now.Sophie standing on the sidewalk in the soft glow of sunset, keys jingling in her palm as Diesel moved something covered with a tarp out from his truck bed.Her curiosity deepened when he hefted it toward the front wall of the flower shop.
“Diesel, what—”
He grinned, boyish and unguarded in a way that made her heart flutter.“Hold on.”
With practiced ease, he unscrewed the bolts of the tarp and pulled it free.Sophie gasped.A solid bronze plaque gleamed beneath the fading light, freshly mounted beside the front door:
PROTECTED BY THE IRON SENTINELS MC.TRESPASSERS WILL REGRET IT.
Her breath caught.Emotion rose thick in her throat.
“You did this ...for me?”She asked.
Diesel wiped his hands on a rag, then stepped beside her, one arm curling possessively around her waist.
“For you.For this place.I want everyone in this damn town and anyone thinking about coming through here to know.You’re under our protection now, Sophie.Undermyprotection,” he told her.
