Devil's Bargain

“Do your bodyguards count?”

I smile because I think she’s joking. “Just Axel.”

“What about the casino? The hotel?”

“Axel will manage both. It’s not important. Don’t you see, I’ve lost too many years. Half my life. I want to start living how I was meant to live. And I want you by my side.”

“You want me to live here with you?”

I smile wide, touch my thumb to the delicate skin beneath her eye that’s already wet. She’s so sweet. So innocent. She never lost that, even after what those bastards did to her.

“That won’t do, Melissa. Not for this proposition. I want more. I want everything. You’ll marry me. You’ll be my bride and my wife, and I’ll be your husband. I’ll give you a proper last name. I’ll be your family. And together, we’ll fill this house as it was meant to be filled, with children and laughter and family and joy.”

Her mouth falls open and she’s staring up at me and all I can think is how right this feels. How perfectly right.

“Will you marry me, Melissa?”

Epilogue

Melissa

Three Months Later

I realize something about Hawk that I guess I should have known all along. I mean, it’s in keeping with the man I’ve come to know over the last few months.

When Hawk makes up his mind, you can consider it a done deal. He’s the same in business and his personal life.

We flew back to Vegas together a few days after that proposal a very different couple than the man and woman who arrived here not a week earlier.

A happy one.

That’s not to say he wasn’t sad over the death of his father. Of everything that time stood for. He was. And I don’t think Hawk will ever forgive himself for the loss of those years. But he has a way of taking things in stride and in this case, making up his mind to be happy.

I’ve made up mine too.

We never discussed Sean Boyd again. I know the day Hawk went to him. I know the day Hawk hurt him. Maybe did worse to him.

Does it make me a terrible person that I don’t feel remorse over it?

Deirdre happily accepted my offer to become manager of Wrinkles in Time. I wasn’t sure she’d want it with her granddaughter being so young, but she surprised me when, in accepting, she began to tell me of the changes she’d be implementing. Things she’d thought about in passing but never had the ambition to do. I just had to promise her a trip to Scotland to attend our wedding which I happily did.

Fifty percent of the proceeds of the shop will still go to the homeless shelter and that’s on top of the generous donation Hawk made in Marjorie’s name.

That was a surprise. I hadn’t expected him to do that and wouldn’t have even found out if it weren’t for the woman who manages the shelter dropping the hint.

I didn’t tell Hawk I knew but every time I look at him, at my Highlander, home now and happy, I think about the kind of man he is and I feel more blessed than I ever thought I would in my life.

“Don’t cry,” Deirdre says to me. “You’ll ruin your makeup.”

But I can’t help it.

I’m standing at the back of the church where Hawk is waiting for me at the altar, his brother at his side, his grandfather standing in the first pew.

Deirdre, like the grandmother she is, licks her thumb and wipes at what I guess is a smudge of eyeliner on the corner of my eye before rearranging the veil to cover my face.

“Ready?” James whispers up.

When we told him our news and he learned I had no family, no father to walk me down the aisle, he immediately stood up and offered his hand and I’m so happy I’ll be a part of his life. He’s a very special boy.

I look down at him dressed like his father and uncle in traditional Scottish clothing, the kilt displaying proudly the colors of Clan MacLeod. It’s still amazing to me the amount of history here. The amount of family.

“Ready,” I say to him.

He holds out his hand and I slip mine into his little one. He clears his throat like Hawk does and straightens his shoulders. I see Declan at the alter with his proud smile as his son walks me down the short aisle of the chapel.

My eyes are locked on Hawk’s and it seems the past weeks flash before my eyes as I take each step. The moment I first met him, that first night, the next day when he showed up at my house, and all the ones that followed when he wouldn’t just take what he had a right to but instead cradled me in the protection of his arms and wouldn’t let me go. Not even when I fought like hell to be free of him.