Page 66 of Vice
EPILOGUE
The Widow Makers have their fingers in many pies. In order to fund the work we’ve been doing to find Laura, alongside helping other victims of sex trafficking, we’ve had to become resourceful. We do run guns occasionally. We do transport weed every once in a while, though we don’t sell it ourselves. And we also have a tattoo shop in New Mexico—the Dead Man’s Ink Bar. Above the tattoo shop is an apartment I’ve been using as a base for a while now. Separate, away from the compound, I’ve always found I can think better here. Breathe better.
As I show Natalia into the apartment, I’m wondering what she’s thinking. She’s used to luxury. She’s used to having people around her, twenty-four seven, to wait on her hand and foot. And now, she’s going to be living in a two-bedroom apartment full of guy stuff. Old plastic tubs filled with my military gear. Toolboxes, grease-covered towels, and a small mountain of shoes discarded in a heap beside the front door. At least there aren’t dirty plates and cooking utensils all over the place. She walks around the apartment, lifting up random items—a photo of Jamie and me out in the desert, arms slung around each other’s shoulders; the scratched and scuffed silver pocket watch that belonged to my grandfather; my cut—Widow Makers Vice President, New Mexico emblazoned on the back.
I’ve never thought what another person might think of the place where I live. I’m barely here, really. I often end up sleeping at the clubhouse when shit is going down, so my bed remains unslept-in a lot of the time.
“It smells like you,” Natalia says.
“Ha. Sorry.”
She shakes her head. “You smell good, Cade. You always smell good. I like it.”
“Well I guess that’s okay then.”
She smiles, her eyes curving into half crescents. “So what do I do here?” she asks matter of factly. “What is my role here, Cade? How do I fit into this life of yours, here in New Mexico?”
This is the conversation I’ve been dreading. “I don’t know. I guess the first question we need to answer is, do you want to fit in here? Do you want to have a life in New Mexico?”
“Are you staying here?” She hangs my cut over the back of the sofa, turning to face me. Her expression is open, her eyes inquisitive and clear.
“Yes. I’m going to stay. My parents still live in Alabama, but my real family is here. Jamie. The club. I don’t want to move on any time soon.”
“Then yes, I do want to stay here, too. I want to be where you are, Cade. I want to be with you, wherever that is. Is that all right with you?”
I try not to smile too wide. I don’t want her thinking I’m fucking soft in the head or something. “Yeah, Natalia. That’s all right with me.” It’s more than all right. It’s fucking perfect. It’s exactly what I hoped she would decide. She smiles too, and for a moment we just watch each other—two grinning idiots, happy for the first time in a long time.
“You can always help out in the shop,” I tell her. Her expression falters. “I mean, I know it’s not the most glamorous work. Not the most mentally challenging. But the pay is decent, and it would mean you’d be close by all the time. I know booking in appointments and doing admin stuff probably sounds really fucking boring, but it’s not too bad.” From the look on her face, I think she’s going to tell me to go fuck myself. But then she rushes me, throwing her arms around her neck.
“A job? A real job?” she asks.
“Haha, yeah a real job. You’d like that?”
She beams, planting a kiss on my mouth. “I’m going to love it! My father would never have let me leave the estate to get a job. Never.”
I kiss her on the side of her head, laughing under my breath. “There will be lots of things you can do around the compound, too, if you want that.”
“I do. I am looking forward to staying here and being with you. But I’m also looking forward to building my own life. I want to figure out what I like and what I don’t like. I want to experience so many new things. I want to go to a bar! Will you take me to a bar, Cade?”
She seems so excited that it seems cruel to burst her bubble by describing the dive establishments in town. They’re certainly nothing to write home about—sticky floors, peanut husks and sports on the old school TVs mounted on the walls—but she will probably love them. “Of course I will, beautiful.”
“Good.” She crushes her tits up against my chest as she hugs me, and I’m sure she can feel the effect it has on me. My cock is getting harder by the second.
“What about Laura?” she asks, leaning back. My dick mourns the loss of her pressed up against my body, but that can wait. I’m going to fuck her all night long, and Natalia knows it. She keeps eyeing the door to the bedroom, like she already knows what’s about to go down and she can’t wait.
“Laura’s going to stay, too,” I tell her. I honestly had no idea what to expect from Laura. She was a high-powered lawyer before Fernando’s men took her. She’d just been made partner at Dad’s firm. She was making a healthy six-figure salary, and she was kicking ass, winning all of her cases. In my head, it seemed reasonable that she would want to go back to that, to resume her old life, pick up where she left off. I was surprised when she said that she couldn’t. Didn’t want that life anymore. Too much has happened to her. She’s changed so much that she said she wouldn’t even know how to insert herself back into her old life. Besides, she hasn’t even told Mom and Dad she’s alive and well yet. We’re going to do that together later, and boy is there going to be fireworks. Dad’s going to be pissed that I didn’t take her straight home.
“She’s going to be our on-site legal rep,” I tell Natalia. “And, just like you, hopefully she can have a fresh start here, too.”
“What about your friend? She was in love with him once. Are they going to be together now?”
I’ve thought about this. Once upon a time it would have made sense if my best friend and my sister ended up together. Now, it makes no sense at all. I shake my head, tracing my fingers down Natalia’s cheek, studying the perfect symmetry of her face as I talk. “Jamie’s heart belongs to someone else now. He doesn’t belong with my sister. He never did. He belongs with Sophia. Laura’s got a long way to go before she’s ready to be with anybody, anyway. It’s going to take a lot of time and work before she’ll want that, I’m sure.”
Natalia nods. “You’re right. She’s been through so much.”
I don’t think I’ll ever know exactly how much Laura’s been through. She refuses to talk about what happened to her at Fernando’s estate, and I haven’t been pushing her for information. Her nightmares are her own. If she needs to talk them out with anyone, I’ll be the first person to listen. But until that time, I aim on being the best brother I can be. Whatever she needs from me, she’s going to have.
“So,” Natalia says. “Are you going to mind if we don’t have a half-built motorcycle in the living room from here on out?”
“If it’s a choice between you and the bike, then it’s really no contest.”
“I am happy to hear it.” She tucks her hair back behind her ear with one hand and shoots me a seductive, very suggestive look. “Now all of that’s out of the way, what are you waiting for, Mr. America? Don’t you have any more of those wicked vices of yours you’d like to show me?”
I have plenty more. Countless deviancies and kinks that I think she’s going to love. Her eyes glint, and I find myself thinking that perhaps she might have one or two of her own that she might like to show me. Or at least I hope she does.
I stoop down and pick her up in my arms, making her squeal. “If you insist,” I growl, biting roughly at her neck. I’m about to show the new head of the House of Wolves what a real animal can do with his teeth.