She’d saved her father’s life too.
It was over, because of her.
She’d seen a way beyond all of us, a way that none of us were used to looking at, a way that none of us trusted in.
But it’d worked.
The Feds had come through with everything they’d promised her. Iron Kings MC had been granted full immunity. The Rogues were behind bars.
There had been some fallout with Scott, though.
Knox hadn’t been recovered. He’d managed to escape just in time. Tricks had led a recovery mission with a couple of the boys in an attempt to track him down, but it hadn’t turned up anything. Being that close to taking out the man who’d killed his wife, then having it ripped away, was brutal. He was taking it hard, drinking, working out like crazy, avoiding everyone as much as he could, given he was Prez.
But it’d only been a couple of days.
He needed more time.
Then he’d see the situation for what it was. A win.
The Rogues were gone for good.
I’d seen the file on them that Jesse had compiled. Every one of them would be doing hard time. And just to make damned sure it worked that way, the right way, that justice prevailed the way it was supposed to, Scott and Jesse were using their high-level connections borne from good friends they’d made during their military days to follow through.
Knox hadn’t just lost his club, which had been the source of his strength and the reason he was such a threat, but he was also now a wanted man. He wouldn’t be able to come up for air without the law swooping down on him. Nobody in the criminal underground would touch him either. It was too great a risk with his current fugitive status. He was on his own, his threat-level null and void.
The best thing Scott could do was to take the win and move forward with his life, just like I was somehow managing to do, bit by bit. It was still a little hard at times to accept that I could actually have one.
And so much of it was due to the incredible woman currently straddling me.
I reached out with my good arm and clasped her hand. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just—”
“You like to think of yourself as invincible. Getting wounded flies in the face of that.”
“Wow. You know me too well.”
“And I love you,” she said, leaning in and suckling on my knuckles.
I drew in a sharp breath, my cock jerking beneath the covers. “Love you too, little warrior.”
She rose up then, her silky tank top dipping, offering a tantalizing view of her sexy cleavage. I wanted nothing more than to grasp her ass in those cock-teasing satin pajama shorts and yank her against me, impaling her on my cock so fucking deep that she’d see stars.
Sensing my need and my spiking frustration that I couldn’t react as I normally would with my wounded arm, she wagged her finger at me, telling me in that raspy, turned-on tone of hers, “Just let me take care of you. Relax and enjoy.”
A loud smack startled both of us.
I looked around her to see Jesse bursting in. The second he took in the sight in front of him—a scantily-clad Ashley mounting me over the covers—he cursed and spun around.
“Jesus.”
“Crap!” Ashley shrieked, grabbing her robe off the floor and hurriedly tying it around her, while I strategically placed a pillow over my budding erection.
“Is knocking too good for you nowadays?” I griped.
He held up his hands. “Sorry. I really didn’t think the two of you’d be… doing that… with that fucked-up arm of yours.”
Ashley perched on the edge of the bed and told him, “He was getting antsy. He needed calming down.”
Jesse grinned. “Huh. I wish I’d thought of that strategy for all the times he’s been antsy in the past.”
“It’s a shame you’re not my type.”
He slapped his hand to his heart. “Damn, that hurts, buddy.”
The three of us laughed.
As it died off, Jesse asked seriously, “How you doing now?”
It was actually thanks to him that I wasn’t holed up in the ICU.
After I’d fled the Rogues compound and evaded the Feds, I’d made it several miles on foot, until things had started to take a bad turn. I’d been on the verge of passing out when Jesse had come by and pulled me into his car. He’d brought me back to the clubhouse infirmary where a doctor on Iron Kings payroll had treated my wound.
“Alive, thanks to you. Ask me again in a couple of weeks and I’m sure I’ll be back on top.”
“Actually, I won’t be around in a couple of weeks. I’m gonna take off. I stopped in here to say goodbye.”
Disappointment settled in the pit of my stomach. It’d been comforting having him around and I’d regretted that we’d spent so little time catching up, the war with the Rogues taking precedence over everything. But I knew he had to get back to his life. Now that I was finally settled somewhere, my life stabilized for the first time in so long, it’d make it a hell of a lot easier to see more of my old friend.
“All right, my friend,” I said, holding out my hand of my good arm.
He came to the bed and took it and we shook hard. “Until next time.”
I smiled. “Yeah.”
As he pulled away and gave a chin lift to Ashley, she said, “Thanks for everything, Jesse. We’ll miss you around here.”
“Miss you guys too. Keep him out of trouble, okay?”
“Will do.”
With one last wave, he left the room, his booted footsteps echoing down the clubhouse corridor. I heard Scott’s voice rumbling. It sounded like he was saying his goodbyes too. The next thing I knew, we
