Epilogue

Three months later

Chrissy

“Knock, knock…”

Yale and I looked up from where I was signing some final paperwork.

“Hey, you! What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Didn’t think I was going to miss this moment, did you?” Tony asked and I went around my desk and reached up, my left arm only giving the barest of twinges at the back of my shoulder as I put my arms around him and hugged him hard. His arm went around me, his hand pressing to the satin of my blouse, and I breathed him in. He smelled of leather, the road, and clean air and I loved that about him.

“What moment would that be?” I asked, “Starting a new job?”

“Not just starting a new job, precious, but the day the infamous Chrissy Franco, scourge and bane of ICPD and the Indigo City’s prosecutor’s office switched sides.”

I grinned at him ruefully and took a step back. The office was fairly nice, Indigo City’s taxpayer’s dollars at work. It was also mine. A box of my things rested on the corner of the rich, reddish wood desk, waiting for me to find them their place on the empty shelves behind it and along one wall.

“It was a long time coming, I think.”

I had essentially fired myself from Reardon, Colfax & Price when I got myself a civil attorney and filed suit against them for keeping the information about the threats silent. I’d helped myself to several of their internal memos that they had stupidly also sent to my email which I then promptly printed for my own records. Memos that all but made my case for me. They were trying to settle with me now, but had yet to offer me a number that I knew would sufficiently hurt their bottom line enough to make them change their policies.

“Yeah, well, long time in coming or not, we’re glad you’re on our side now,” Yale, I mean Mr. Parnell said, giving me a wink and shuffling the final employment papers I’d needed to sign into their legal folder.

“Thanks,” I murmured.

There had been a lot to celebrate lately. Life living with Tony was good, both the man who had published my address online and the man who had kicked in my door had taken plea deals, even though the prosecution had them both dead to rights, the case against Cohan for murder and attempted murder would have been hard to prove without Silver’s corroborating testimony.

Silver would be in prison for the next twenty to twenty-five years for Sami’s death, while Cohan would be inside for the next twenty. I almost felt sorry for him, but then I looked down into the box with the picture of me and Sami looking out, and any pity I might have had for his actions evaporated.

Anyone who said words couldn’t hurt you, obviously needed to walk a mile in my shoes.

“Soooo what’s in the bag?” I asked Tony, biting my lip as he set a big paper shopping bag with those twisted paper handles onto the small round table the office had sitting by the door.

“First things first,” he said pulling out a bottle of champagne and some plastic cups.

“Yale, you sticking around for this?”

“Absolutely,” he said grinning, and Tony untwisted the wire cage over the cork.

He popped it over my trash can and poured three cups. Pink and sweet, it was my favorite kind. I laughed.

“To Christina Marie Franco,” he said, “prosecuting attorney-at-law, and the love of my life.”

“Here, here!” Yale said and raised his glass. We all sipped and no one complained about my girly taste in champagne.

“Mm, so what else is in the bag?” I demanded, raising an eyebrow.

“K, Yale, now you need to get out.”

Yale nearly shot champagne out of his nose and shook his head, “I don’t even want to know, she’s been here five minutes. Close the door and whatever it is, don’t get caught.”

He left my office to peals of laughter, some of the people outside stopping to look, but then Tony shut the door and grabbed for me, pulling me close. The kiss was sweet with the taste of champagne and happiness and I smiled.

“Seriously, you’re killing me, what’s in the bag?” I asked.

“Jesus Christmas, you’re a bitch to surprise,” he said, smiling.

“Mm, I’m just a bitch period,” I said sipping the bubbly liquid in my cup.

“You’re definitely a bitch when you’re on your period. The rest of the time you’re pretty cool, you know, for a Wop.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “You’re going to be one dead Mick if you don’t tell me what’s in the bag.”

He laughed and handed it over and it was heavy. I set it on my desk and pulled the tissue paper off the top, my frown deepening as I reached in and pulled out leather.

“What is this?” I asked as they unrolled and I gasped, looking back down into the bag. “No!”

“Figured if you were going to carpool in with me, you were gonna need the right clothes to ride.”

“Does this mean..?”

“Get naked, I’ll keep my hands to myself, suit up and let’s go.”

I squealed and threw my arms around him, excited for this new adventure. Tony wouldn’t let me ride with him, he said, until a time he deemed me healed enough to go.

He grinned at me and it was full of mischief, “Get to it princess, I’m parked on the street and time’s a wasting.”

I stripped slowly, making damn sure he had a boner before I redressed slowly. I pulled on the pair of my jeans he brought me and he helped me here and there with some of the more unfamiliar things when it came to the chaps. I left my heels at the office and pulled on my brand new ladies motorcycle boots and asked nervously, “Well?”

“I need to get you home and right back out of that getup.”

“I kind of like that idea.”

“Mm, mm, mm, that’s nice.”

He handed me the last item out of the bag, a helmet, and we left the office, hand in hand, headed for the elevators.

“Keep the shiny side up, brother!” Yale called from inside his own office and Tony pointed at him with two fingers and called, “You know it!”

Down at the street, my heart palpitated with excitement as Tony told me everything he needed out of me as a passenger.

“Think you can handle that?” he asked, just about glowing with an excitement of his own.

“With you, I think I can handle anything,” I said. He leaned over the machine and dragged my mouth to his, kissing me soundly.

“That’s my girl,” he declared.

I got on behind him once he had the bike started and off its kickstand and I held on tight. The city traffic let me get used to things and finally, finally we pulled onto the freeway onramp to cross the bridge.

It was beautiful, freeing, and everything I imagined it would be, the sun starting to dip behind the western horizon, the sky lit scarlet, the weather fair, and my love for the man I held onto as infinite as the sky above us.

This was living, this was life, and new as it may be, I loved it. This was everything I could have ever wished for and I was never letting go.

The End