It didn’t take me long to convince my best friend to man up and choose the woman he loved over his fucked up family. That’s just what he did. Left his racist family behind and married the woman he loved.
I’ve watched Jack over the years build his own family with that woman. We both created our own families, and I’d do anything to protect mine, just as Jack would his.
As I strike the match that will see this building burn down to the foundations, I know that’s one less nightmare in our lives. All of Lynette’s are now over. Just mine to fix. Soon as my Nova is home the nightmare will be over.
The blaze hits the heavens as we drive away from that dump. CueBall in the truck, taking the body of that fat old cunt to disintegrate it so no one will ever find it. Not that anyone will miss him.
“We’re a pair of fucked up motherfuckers. You know that?”
“Ain’t never been any different, BlackJack,”
“To the fuckin’ end, brother.”
I turn to look at the man who has been my best friend since we were kids, driving this cage with a satisfied smile on his face. The best fuckin’ guy I know. “To the end.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
Shepard
Six years later...
We’ve had a busy few years, the Snakes and me. We lost a few brothers, and we gained a few more. I still haven’t found Nova. God, I have searched the world almost, and there is never any sign of her. There’s no sign of Celia either. I came to the conclusion that they’re dead. Lynette almost took my head off when I confessed that to her. She told me not to give up. Never to give up because she won’t. She makes me stronger, she makes me keep on believing.
“Daddy? Can you help me with my shoe, please?”
“Sure thing, princess,” My little girl giggles shyly while taking a seat beside me at the kitchen table, and lifting her foot to rest on my thigh.
My little Sophie was born almost six years ago. The most beautiful little thing I’d ever seen. She looks like me, just as the boys do, just as Nova did, but there’s a lot of Lynette and Willow in her, too. She shares my wife’s green eyes, which mesmerized me as much as her mother’s do. Sophie also reminds me so much of Nova when she was a little girl. She has the same long dark hair, the same cheeky smile, the same giggle. When I look at Sophie, I see Nova.
Of course, VJ, Max, and Sophie know all about their big sister and why she’s not with us. Max doesn’t say much about it either way, but VJ and Sophie talk about her all the time. They sit looking at pictures of Nova as a little girl, and they speculate on what she might look like now. They also pray every night for her to come home safely to us.
None of them know Willow isn’t mine biologically, and I’d like to keep it that way. We’re a family, and she is mine as much as the rest of them are, even if they do ask why Willow has hazel eyes and not blue or green like the rest of us. I tell them that she has the same color eyes as grandma. Because, believe it or not, my mother has hazel eyes too.
Jett is precisely whom Lynette, and I thought he’d be, VP of the club, twenty-seven years old and stronger than two men his size. He’s a big bastard of a man. Jett is smart when it comes to business and making money for the club. He commands respect, and the men give it to him without question.
I buckle Sophie’s sandal and set her foot down. “There you go, princess.”
“Thank you, Daddy. I love you so much!”
I chuckle. Ain’t nothing better in this world than hearing my daughter tell me that she loves me. “I love you, too, beautiful girl.”
She giggles and jumps off her chair, kisses my cheek, and rushes off to find her brother's in the yard.
My boys are ten and twelve now, and they love their little sister. Lynette and I are raising them to take care of her the way Jett does Willow, the way he will Nova when she's finally home.
Lynette found out a few years ago about what happened to her father. I thought I’d have an argument on my hands, but I didn’t. My wife clung to me so tightly while telling me, thank you. She never has to say thank you to me. I did what I did to make sure there was no way or no how he could ever contact her again. Not that he ever tried.
Arms encircle my shoulders. Soft lips touch my cheek. “Hey there, husband of mine.”
“Hey yourself, beautiful,” I pull her around to sit on my lap. I kiss her lips softly, and she melts into me, much like every other time we kiss. “I have to get to the club soon, but I won’t be late home, baby.”
“Today is a good day, Vince. I have a feeling something amazing is coming.”
“Yeah?”
Lynette nods her head with a massive smile on her face. “I have a really good feeling about today. Just you wait and see.” She winks.
Her feelings are almost always right, and who knows what today will bring, maybe someone will finally bring me some information on Nova’s whereabouts.
Now, wouldn’t that be something?
The end!