Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 63608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 318(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
I look to Mellow as he stands straight up. “You made a vow in blood, brother.” I state the obvious while having a new appreciation for the man.
“No man goes after anyone under King’s protection. Even in his death, he needs to know he left his family vulnerable.”
It makes me an asshole to know that Mellow is serious about Lucy and making sure to still have the power over any enemy even in death and actually be happy about it.
“I’m gonna have fun with this one, brother. She’s young and impressionable. College and shit getting an education. Too bad her father didn’t give her the school of life because I’m going to wreck hers.”
I can only smirk and give a nod. Mellow is a calculated man who will no doubt fuck with Lucy and make sure she knows what a piece of shit her dad was. But no matter how much he may toy with her head, he won’t put her in physical danger like Jonas did to Kelly.
That’s the thing about this life I live, there are casualties in love and in war. Kelly almost became one, and now Lucy is going to have to learn the lesson for her father.
No one fucks with the Kings.
We reign down generational curses.
Twenty-Six
Ledger
Peace is louder than war when she’s breathing beside me.
One Month later
For the first time in days, maybe weeks, the compound feels still.
No gunfire. No alarms. No boots pounding down cement hallways like thunder. No shadows creeping at the edge of my vision.
Just quiet.
And warmth.
And the soft, steady sound of Kelly’s breathing against my chest.
I wake slowly—slower than usual, slower than I’d admit to any of the Kings—with a deep ache twisting down my left shoulder. The pain is dull now, manageable under the tight bandage and whatever meds Nitro slipped into my IV last night. He keeps giving me IVs for hydration to help speed the healing process. I have to say it has worked, but the scars will remain forever.
But the pain isn’t what wakes me.
It’s her.
Her fingers tracing circles over my ribs. Her forehead tucked under my chin. Her leg thrown gently over mine. Her body pressed against me like I’m the only safe place left on earth.
“You awake?” she whispers without lifting her head.
“Yeah.”
“You hurting?”
“Yeah.”
She lifts her head then, giving me that look, the one that makes my ribs ache in ways unrelated to the cuts.
A soft, worried, stubborn-as-hell look.
She sits up a little, brushing the hair off my forehead. “Let me get your meds.”
“No.”
She narrows her eyes. “Riot.”
“I don’t want meds right now.”
“And why not?”
“Because they knock me out.” I slide my hand along her thigh, anchoring myself to her. “And I want to remember this.”
Her breath catches.
We stare at each other, and the weight of the last few days settles between us—everything we lost, everything we fought, everything we remembered, everything we almost didn’t survive.
“Come here,” I murmur, pulling her back down.
She slides against me easily, fitting into the curve of my body like she always belonged there. And maybe she did. Maybe all that time we spent dancing around each other before the accident was just us waiting for the world to pull us closer.
Her fingers trace the scar on my chest from an old mission. The one hidden under my tattoos. “You’re covered in memories,” she whispers.
“We all have memories and scars,” I murmur into her hair.
She lifts her head again, eyes soft. “I want to make new ones.”
My breath stutters.
“I need you,” I say, voice low and bare. “Not just in moments of war. In the quiet shit too. In the dark. In the morning. In whatever life comes next.”
Her breath catches. “Riot…”
“And I’m gonna ask you something,” I continue, heart pounding, “but I want to do it right. Not while I’m healing. Not while I look like I got hit by a semi.”
She smiles softly. “You look alive.”
I smirk. “Barely.”
Then her smile fades. Her voice cracks as she murmurs, “I asked you once not to fall in love with me. You and I both agreed.” Her eyes shine. “And I did anyway.” My chest caves.
“I’m glad you did,” I whisper.
She leans in and kisses me—slow and sweet and grounding. And right there, with her mouth on mine and her hand on my heart, I make the decision that’s been fighting to surface for months, I’m asking her.
For real.
Not in fear.
Not in desperation.
But in love.
As soon as the world stops spinning and the blood stops being spilled, I’m dropping to one knee and giving her the future we almost lost.
Epilogue
Ledger
Kelly stands in the summer sun, laughing so hard she has to grab Shaft’s arm to stay upright as he reenacts some ridiculous story involving Chux, two goats, and a faulty generator.
Her hair is tied up. She’s wearing denim cutoffs and a worn Kings tee that used to be mine. While she wears matching pink Chuck Taylor’s with Ally because my brother has convinced them those are the best shoes to wear for everything.