Epilogue

Old dogs know more tricks than you think they do.

- Silas to Sawyer

Silas

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this!” Sawyer grumbled under her breath as we made our way into the courthouse.

I shrugged. “It needs to be done. You deserve it.”

She sighed and stopped protesting, even though I could tell she was still just as pissed now as she had been earlier.

I hired a lawyer to take care of Sawyer’s restitution case.

The state had countered with an offer for $50,000. However, I still felt that wasn’t nearly enough.

Especially considering how even after being released from prison six months ago, and with a full four months for the people in this town to absorb the knowledge that she’d been wrongfully charged, convicted and sentenced, everyone still looked at her differently. It broke my heart every single time I saw how it affected her and how she tried to bury and hide her hurt.

It’d been four months since I’d had my ass kicked by Shovel, and I still felt like shit some days.

It was harder to recover now from something like I’d been through than it had been for my younger body.

Bouncing back the next day just didn’t happen for me anymore.

But I had the help of a beautiful woman, who was happy and doing something she loved with her life – training dogs.

She and Trance had teamed up after Trance saw how well she’d trained her puppy, and they were now well on their way to building a thriving business training dogs for people all over the Ark-La-Tex.

“It’s not just for you, you know. The government makes mistakes just like real people do. If they made a mistake with you, then they need to realize that it’s not okay. They can’t just placate you with fifty grand and call it even. You can’t really put a price on the years of your life that you’ve lost, but if you could, it certainly wouldn’t be a measly fifty grand,” I told her, once again telling her my feelings on the subject.

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

I knew she wanted it, though, just like I did. She was afraid.

Afraid that she’d not get what she felt she deserved.

Afraid that she would get even more attention for killing four people than she previously did.

Afraid that she’d be humiliated by the court.

All of those were very warranted concerns, but it didn’t change the fact that she needed to do this.

“I’ll be right here,” I whispered. “Then afterwards we’re going to get drunk.”

She turned to me and laughed.

“We’re getting married tomorrow. You most certainly are not getting drunk the day before. I want you to look good for pictures,” she said, shaking her head.

I winked at her. “Darlin’, I look good no matter what I do. Getting drunk the day before our wedding isn’t going to change that fact.”

She snorted.

“Whatever you say, Silas. I don’t think that you can hack it anymore, though. You did say that you were getting too old for this shit to me just this morning,” she teased.

I stopped and turned her to face me.

“That was because you wanted to have sex two minutes after I just came. What exactly did you expect me to do? I’m not fifteen anymore!” I laughed.

She giggled, and I wanted to spank her.

Alas, my damn cock-blocking, busybody bunch of children walked up at that precise moment.

“Dad, seriously? You can’t say that stuff in a courthouse! Not to mention everything you just said echoed off the walls,” Shiloh said, color blooming in her cheeks.

I grinned.

“Is that right?” I asked, offering one arm to Sawyer and the other to Shiloh.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Shiloh grumbled.

“I don’t think I’ve heard this rule,” Sam said from behind me. “Have you?”

“Nope,” Sebastian confirmed.

I laughed as Shiloh started to turn to give her brothers a piece of her mind, but I held on tight and walked the two of them into the courtroom where we were scheduled to be in less than five minutes time.

“I can’t believe it’s come to this,” Shiloh said, shaking her head as she took her seat.

Sawyer sat next to her, and I sat on the end, Sebastian and Sam filling up half the seats directly behind us as they waited for their wives to arrive.

“I can’t believe they all showed up,” Sawyer murmured, looking behind us.

I followed her gaze, looking over my shoulder at the men filling the seats behind my boys.

The Dixie Wardens were formidable in all their glory.

Each one of them had their cuts on, proudly declaring them as members of the Dixie Wardens.

They were getting the attention of not just us, but the entire courtroom.

“They love you, what can I say?” I asked, turning back around.

And they did.

Sawyer fit right in with the other women.

She helped out where she could, offering her support to all the other ladies.

She helped watch their kids, trained their dogs, and even helped with errands.

She was the quintessential lead biker babe, always there when you needed her.

And I loved the fuck out of her.

Loved that she loved my club just as much as I did.

“This is going to either go really, really well…or really, really bad,” she muttered under her breath.

I smiled and faced forward when the bailiff made his way to the front of the room.

“All rise,” he boomed.

We rose and awaited the decision that would affect the rest of Sawyer’s life.