Page 146

Eden

If the world you want to see doesn’t exist,

build it.

It takes a few months to make even the most initial agreements between all parties. Months of meetings and discussions. Months of building trust. Months of arguments.

But in spite of all that, they’re also months of respite.

Months of relief.

Months where our healing finally has a chance to begin.

In the end, the most important things were the easiest to agree on. The Free Women, as they’ve called themselves, have claimed the farmlands for their own, as partial payment for their treatment.

There were a few weeks in the beginning when the tension between Alastair and Sullivan almost spilled over, but after a week back at the Den, they came back strangely calm, with Alastair in command of the Sinners and Sullivan appointed as the head of his new council.

After some discussion with Bentley, the Free Women agreed that the teenagers from Red Zone and a portion of their protectors could join them at the farmlands.

Including Bentley, who has resumed control of Red Zone... and Mateo, who can’t take his eyes off him.

And, both for their own interests and to provide as much defense as needed for these people who have already been through too much... our civilians agreed to leave Bristlebrook and join the Free Women as well.

The Free Women had their own debates about how to handle the Reapers. In the end, nearly two thirds of the remaining Reapers were executed—every single man directly involved in the capture, captivity, or trafficking of the women.

Sawyer, Cole, and Pete were among them.

And not a single person questioned the Free Women’s decision.

The remaining Reapers—those who turned willful blind eyes and who bore the guilt of doing nothing—are being kept as closely watched prisoners for now.

They’ll be kept only for as long as the Free Women decide they’re useful.

And currently, their only use is in sharing their knowledge of the land and livestock and how to keep the farmlands flourishing.

Red Zone and the civilians will oversee their imprisonment until the new inhabitants of the farmlands can take over.

.. and then the Free Women will decide what becomes of them.

More happily, all groups agreed that the farmlands, as the source of all food, and that the people now living inside the farmlands, as the source of our new hope for the future, must be kept safe at all costs.

The specifics of the trade agreements are part of ongoing discussion, but it was generally agreed that all parties are committed to a new era of exchange. A commitment to a free flow of ideas and training. A commitment to mutual defense and security. An openness of trade and ongoing communication.

It took weeks to arrange even that, with the promise of much more discussion to come.

And then, it was time for the brutes to return to Bristlebrook.

It’s mid-morning and spring is just starting to bloom when we finally say our goodbyes out in front of the main compound.

Bentley wraps me in a hug that lifts me off the ground, making us promise to come back to visit the farmlands for the May Day festival he has planned—because of course, if he’s going to become a farmer, then he’ll bring back some old traditions while doing it.

Over the months, the heavy, long-overgrown road through the forest to Bristlebrook has been cleared, and now we’re just a few hours’ drive back home.

We’ve been back and forth a few times now, to get supplies and oversee some of the Red Zone artisans, who, as promised, are installing new custom windows.

Fuel is still too precious to make the trips more than occasional.

Still, I wouldn’t miss Bentley’s festival for the world.

Mateo kisses my cheek and squeezes my arm, gratitude soft in his eyes as he sends me off. He goes back over to Bentley with a grin and a glow he never once wore with Alastair... and Bentley makes no secret that Mateo is the new center of his world.

Soren waves to me from beside them, and I wave back to him warmly.

They’ll be happy here, I think.

Alastair wanders over to talk to Mateo, and he gives me a polite nod, one marginally less arctic than they used to be. Maybe with a few more years of friendship, I’ll be able to work my way up to lukewarm.

Ava, Sloane, and Mary Beth tackle me with fierce hugs and promises to visit. Sloane hasn’t let Mary Beth out of her sight since she arrived—apparently long distance didn’t work for either of them, and Mary Beth was ready to climb Sloane like a tree on arrival.

Ava is healing well, both inside and out, and I’m relieved to see the spark returning to her eyes the longer she spends here.

Before they all back away, she winks at me.

.. then tucks an enormous hunk of cheese into my pack.

That alone was almost enough to make me stay.

Billy, Baa-bara, and Henrietta are all being kept here now, since my brutes and I are planning to spend much more time out hunting for precious resources and medicine for the farmlands.

Which means I’m on a finite supply of cheese until we either get visitors or make our next trip back.

And I’m about eighty percent sure they were so pleased about the arrangement because it meant I would come back.

Ida and Ethel are saying goodbye to my brutes, winking at Lucky’s flirting and patting Jasper’s scarred cheek with tender smiles.

And Kasey and Jayk are standing awkwardly in front of each other, their hands tucked identically into their pockets.

“Well, bye, I guess,” Kasey mutters, her jaw set and surly.

Watching her, Jayk scowls heavily. “Don’t say bye to me like that, you little shit. I’m coming back. I saw how you mangled that fucking engine yesterday.”

Her head snaps up. “It wasn’t mangled . It was already broken. I wasn’t done fixing it.”

Jayk rolls his eyes. “Fix it like that and it’ll never run again.”

“Oh, and you’re going to show me how to do it?” She crosses her arms, and the stubborn curve of her lips turns soft and shaky. “You’re leaving.”

Jayk stares at her, then he yanks her in for a hard hug—and her arms come around him fast.

“I told you, I’ll be back so often you’re going to be throwing that wrench at my head,” he mutters to her fiercely.

Finally, Jayk drops her back on her feet, and they both step back, rolling their shoulders like it was nothing, and I bite my lip to contain my smile. Behind them, Ida rolls her eyes.

“Anyway, you’re my apprentice or whatever, so I need to visit a lot. New agreement, all that,” Jayk says gruffly, shrugging, and Kasey shrugs too, her eyes wet.

“Okay, sure. For the agreement or whatever.”

She leaves with Ida and Ethel, and Jayk watches her go with a scowl, until Beau comes up and claps him on the shoulder, talking to him quietly.

My brutes start gathering up their bags, their goodbyes almost done.

“Ready to go home, pet?” Dom asks me softly, and I look up at him.

Home .

“Almost.” I let out a heavy, bittersweet breath. “There’s just one more person I need to talk to.”

Heather’s leaning against the tall gate to the compound, watching Alastair with that same, absorbed intensity.

For the last few months, she’s been non-committal about where she’s planning to settle. The civs and the Free Women have both begged her to join them here to lead their defense, and even Mateo sounded like he meant it when he told her to stay.

I also heard Sullivan and several of the Sinners talking to her over lunch the other day, proposing that she help them train and run a security force for the area—one that might also help any new groups they come across find safety.

But Heather has refused to agree to anything.

She’s also hardly let herself within three feet of Alastair.

Smiling softly to myself, I walk over to her, and she looks up at me sharply.

“Eden,” she says, pushing off the rusty tin gate. “You’re going.”

“I am,” I say softly, watching her, and she avoids my eyes with a grimace.

“You going to make me do the big feelings apology stuff? Bent won’t shut up about it.” She rolls her eyes, but she says it with so much affection that I smile, too.

“No, we can skip it, but... does that mean we’re good?” I ask.

Meeting my eyes, Heather smiles back at me. “Yeah, babe. We’re good.”

Her deep red hair lifts in the breeze, and she shoves it irritably out of her face, and I laugh softly as I help her tuck it back.

“Then, at the risk of overstepping, there’s one last thing I want to talk to you about,” I tell her, and her stormy eyes flash to Alastair.

Because she knows.

When I’m through, I worry for a long minute that she’s going to punch me.

But instead, she wraps me in a brutal hug.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

I turn around with tears in my eyes to see all five of my brutes waiting for me, standing together in front of our two new trucks, both loaded high with supplies. They’re standing like a team.

A family.

My family.

My brutes are taking me home.

We’re quiet as we park in front of Bristlebrook, and I slip out of the passenger seat with too many feelings battling inside me.

Ten months ago, we left Bristlebrook scarred, burned, and deeply damaged. There were bodies and bullet holes, deep divots in the earth from grenades and explosions. Our windows were broken and taped, and Bristlebrook was overwhelmed by too many starving people doing their best to survive.

The civilians have tended our home carefully in the months since we left, and while we’ve been back for quick visits, this is the first time all of us have been home together.

It’s the first time I’ve really paused to take it in.

My brutes gather behind me as we look out over Bristlebrook.

It’s like returning to see a beloved friend.

The pikes have been cleared from the moat, and the defensive platforms and archery field have been pulled down. There’s a new, beautifully constructed work shed out in front of where Jayk’s barn used to be, and the large vegetable garden we worked so hard to grow is now lush and sprouting.

The grass is thick and flowing, the divots in the ground filled in. More than half the windowpanes have been replaced, and the fresh glass winks in the sun.

And out the front of all of it, our apple tree is starting to turn a new leaf.

I wipe away a happy tear from the corner of my eye, my heart aching at the sight.

It’s really here. We’re really home .

“You okay there, darlin’?” Beau asks me, and I look up at him with a wide, tremulous smile.

Dom’s eyes melt over me, and Lucky’s return smile is warm and dimpled with kindness.

“I’ve just...” I swallow down my husky voice. “I’ve never really had a home like this before, and I... it just means a lot. To be here, it means so much.”

Beau’s face softens, and he draws me in for a tight, enveloping hug.

I catch Jayk’s eye over his shoulder, and he’s staring at me hard, as many emotions in his face as I feel in my chest.

He knows.

When I finally pull back, I laugh huskily, and Lucky winks once before he takes off over the bridge, shouting something about a shower. Exchanging a look with Jayk, Dom and Beau follow him more slowly... until I’m left alone with Jasper.

Who I realize hasn’t said a word as he looks over our home.

He stands tall and beautiful against the forest, the sun doing its best to coax sunshine into the depthless shadows of his hair.

“It’s quiet,” he says, and I nod.

There’s no Kasey hollering at Ida and Ethel, no chatter flooding every hall.

Jasper draws in a deep breath, and it has notes of bittersweet nostalgia in it. “That will take some getting used to.”

Smiling, I lace my fingers into his, and his thumb coasts over my skin.

“It looks different from when you first arrived,” he finally says, his voice tentative and a little hushed. “I’m not sure it will ever return to how it was.”

Oh, Jasper.

“It’s been through a lot,” I agree softly. “We all have.”

My eyes hot with tears, I look up at him.

The scar on his cheek is still textured and raised, but the healing pink is almost faded now, and I’m becoming used to it, loving it for the fierce character mark it is.

The roguish slash turns his beauty from something distant and refined into something devilish.

The dangerous edges of him feel tantalizingly close to the surface now.

But the harshness also throws into relief all the ways he is soft. The full, gentle curve of his lips, and the dark, sooty crest of his lashes.

And he makes my chest ache.

I squeeze his hand hard until he looks at me.

“It’s flawed and it was hurt—and look at it. It’s your teapot. Those flaws have turned into something truly spectacular, Jasper,” I whisper. “And you should be so, so proud.”

Jasper searches my face for a long, tender moment, then he squeezes my hand back. “I love you, too, darling girl.”

To the sound of our brutes calling for us to hurry up, he kisses my forehead.

“Welcome home, Eden.”