Dulce

32

EPILOGUE

One week later

We stand around the burning wreckage and watch as the flames lick the sky.

“You, okay?” I ask Cain, who squeezes my hand.

“Yeah, it’s surprisingly freeing. I used to hate this place. It was supposed to be a place where miracles happened, but it was rotten through to the core.”

When Sugar had taken a team into the church, they wiped out over half the congregation, including Albert Eveson. As the only living descendant, everything now belongs to Cain. He wanted nothing more than to watch it burn, hence the fire portion of the evening.

“Do you have any idea what you want to do with this place?”

“Sell the land, I guess.”

“I’ll buy it,” Dmitri tells him from the other side.

“What?” Cain looks at him as if he’s joking.

“Why not? I have the money, and this is a lot of land. Why not take the bad memories and make better ones? We could set up some kind of foundation for victims of trafficking trying to readjust to the normal world. Set up counselors, doctors, help them find jobs and shit. What do you think?”

“Are you serious?” Cain asks him in shock.

Dmitri looks at me, then back to Cain, and nods.

“Yeah, I am. There are other places like this, but I think we have a skill set that could help. Not just with resettling them, but locating them.”

“Dmitri.” I walk toward him. “This is huge. I don’t think there are enough of us and we don’t—”

He places his finger over my lips. “Between us all, we have a shitload of money and connections. We can make this work, hire help, hire a specialized retrieval team. Anything really.”

“I’m in,” Griff says from behind Dmitri.

“Me too,” Hunter adds, walking over to stand beside Cain.

“We all have dark shit we are trying to move on from. Some of us more than others,” he states briefly, looking at Griff. “But you have a legacy tarnished with blood and pain. What better way to say fuck you to all those who came before you than showing them what it means to be an Eveson? Your grandfather would roll in his grave. But your father? Man, he’d be so fucking proud of you.”

Cain blows out a breath, looking at Hunter for a moment before slapping him on the back.

“Yeah, I’m in, Dmitri. That sounds really good.”

“What about the school? This place will need a lot of work. Can you do both? I mean, we can do it without you, but I don’t want to. If we do this as a family, it should include all of us.” I can’t imagine doing it without Dmitri at our sides.

“I’m not exactly headmaster material. I can hire all new staff. I only bought the place to catch the traders. I’ll admit, I got attached to a few of the students and want them to do well. Their parents are all shitty.”

“I don’t know, man. You were my favorite faculty member,” Cain tells him.

“You’re only saying that because I let you fuck Dulce over my desk.”

“Well, yeah, but it still counts,” Cain adds, making me laugh.

“So, we’re doing this?” Hunter questions.

“Fuck yes.” Cain grins, and it’s the first time since losing Abe that I’ve seen him look so animated.

Seems like we have a plan then.

Six months later

“Things are too quiet around here without you,” Reese complains over the phone.

“I still can’t believe you chose them over me.”

“We’ve been over this. They have bigger dicks than you do. It’s really a no-brainer.”

“Slut.”

“Shrew.”

She snickers as I tape the box closed and hand it to Griff as he walks past.

He kisses my temple before heading down to the moving truck.

“I still can’t believe you’re gone,” she grumbles before yelling at someone in the background.

“Aw, you miss me, huh? Well, we’re having a barbecue if you want to come down next weekend. Once the center opens, it’s going to be busy for a while.”

“I’ll see what I can do. I have an assignment coming up, so I need to be around, but if I can swing it, I’ll be there.”

“Oh, anything fun?”