Page 34

EPILOGUE

KALEB

A wareness courses through me. Raises the hair at the back of my neck.

It’s as real as the ocean water I’m sitting in. As hot as the sun hovering in the sky. My skin prickles.

Though it isn’t the whitebaits that brush against my legs.

Someone’s behind me. Watching me.

Silently.

They’re far enough that their shadow doesn’t cast over me.

I’m not supposed to notice their presence.

I do, and this isn’t right. I’m usually the one to be the silent observer. The stalker.

The freak.

This time, it’s different. I’m the one being watched.

Onyx and I are, to be exact.

“Mommy’s being sneaky, isn’t she?” I whisper into my daughter’s soft brown hair so only she can hear me. “Do we tell her we know she’s there? Or maybe we should stay quiet. She does like being a stalker these days.”

She responds by searching for my forearms that I have wrapped around her. Her chubby fingers flex and grasp me as she wiggles her feet in the clear waters of the West Atlantic Ocean.

Something that sounds like a giggle escapes her as salty drops land on her cheeks.

A smile tugs at my lips as I wipe them off her.

A smile, yes.

It happens often these days. For over a year now, if I’m being honest.

These smiles started reaching my eyes a month after Shiloh and I’d bought and moved to this private island. It was the same month we found out she was pregnant.

We could afford it, easily. After our parents’ deaths were pinned on Dr. Reynolds. After it was proven that we’d killed him in self-defense.

Shiloh’s dad’s estate had been settled. After that, she sold every property he owned. Every share in his company. Every cent was transferred to numerous bank accounts in the Cayman Islands to a woman named Shiloh Payne, the wife of Kaleb Payne.

True, it would’ve been safer to change our first names, too.

But I dare anyone to try coming for us. The small army we hired to protect our island wouldn’t let any hostile entity get anywhere near our small piece of heaven .

I don’t mind outsourcing. What’s safer for Shiloh and Onyx works for me.

Especially when my wife lets me be as violent as I need whenever I need it. She lets me cut her. Spank her. Welt her. Mark her with my teeth.

Her pain and blood satisfy the depraved hunger that simmers inside me.

Her eyes are as blue as the ocean. Her cries of pain. Her mouth and cunt and ass, that are mine to violate any day or night.

Her soul.

From the very beginning, her soul was what drew me to her. What made me love her. First as my little sister, then as a woman.

It gets her off just as much.

My wife.

She’s so good. So understanding. Calm in the face of my madness. Unhinged when the mood strikes.

The woman who transformed me from an outcast to a big brother and then to a husband.

And eventually to a father.

My wife.

“Well?” I tickle my daughter’s tummy over her black swimsuit. “What do you say?”

“Ha!” she exclaims, the sound warming me down to my bones.

“Is that so?”

“Ha!” Her hands create tiny waves in the water, splashing more of it on her and me. “Ha! ”

I can’t help it. I laugh at how cute she is.

Unbelievable.

Onyx was born six months ago, and she already owns our hearts. She has since the day she was born, this little girl with gold specks in her blue eyes.

A shadow looms over us. The dark figure moves to my side and, ah, there she is.

“Wife.”

Air surges into my lungs when Shiloh rests her head on my shoulder. “You two look adorable together.”

“Onyx is cute, but me?” I fasten my grip on our baby with one arm, freeing a hand to tip Shiloh’s chin up. Meeting her warm gaze. “Did you just call a serial killer adorable?”

Her lips curve into a sweet smile.

She doesn’t mind it when I say I’m a serial killer out loud. As long as the staff and the midwife we hired to live here aren’t on this side of the island. They have their own home, we have ours.

Not like they care. Thanks to Shiloh’s bastard of a dad, they’re fairly compensated for their confidentiality.

Besides, we won’t be living here forever. Shiloh paid off a few of her dad’s friends at the bureau, and they assured us that in five years, we’d be able to return to the States. They’re hard at work to erase any sign that we ever existed.

“Like what you see?” she teases, her hand covering my forearm, holding Onyx with me.

“Hmm.” I rake my gaze along her body. Along the blue bikini that matches her eyes. Her sun-kissed skin. The new curves that are so fucking gorgeous on her. The fresh cuts on her thighs from last night.

Back to her expectant eyes.

“Well?”

She knows the answer. I use my words and hands to worship her every second of every day.

However, I sure as fuck don’t mind indulging her.

“You’re as beautiful as your heart, Mrs. Payne.” I brush my lips to hers. “If we weren’t married already, I would’ve proposed right this fucking minute.”

“Ha!”

We both laugh. Onyx likes curse words just as much as she loves the scary bedtime stories we read to her. The mask I wear from time to time.

“Let me hold her.” Shiloh’s voice is full of longing, and I give her what she wants. She feathers kisses all over Onyx’s face, then cradles her in her arms. “You and Daddy have fun together?”

“Ha!” Our daughter wiggles her legs, grasping at Shiloh’s arms. “Ha!”

“Motherhood suits you,” I tell her for the millionth time as I watch the two loves of my life together. “You were meant for it, Shi.”

She hums, and it’s so out of tune that I laugh again. I tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear.

What a fucking miracle that I, of all people, get to have this .

A family. Happiness. Unconditional love and acceptance .

“You make the perfect Dad yourself, Kaleb.” She inches closer, allowing me to wrap her in my arms.

We sit there as the horizon and future stretch before us.

My woman. My family.

I’ll always be here to protect them. To love them.

To kill for them.

Mine.

The End