Epilogue

I stroked Sofia’s hair away when the breeze pushed one of her curls against her perfect face. She’d fallen asleep. I knew she was tired when I pulled her into the hammock with me even though she tried to deny it. As I watched her chest rise and fall, I couldn’t help but think about everything we went through to get here….

“Hi,” the girl said to me, her voice so quiet I barely heard her.

“Hi,” I said back.

I didn’t like girls. They talked too much—and they smelled funny, kind of like those flowers in Grammie’s garden that always made me sneeze. But I liked this one, and how her springy curls spilled from her ponytails like mini-Slinkies. I wondered what would happened if I pulled one.

So I did.

Her light green eyes widened when I stretched the curl all the way to me. It snapped back like a spring when I let go. “Cool,” I said, grinning. “I’m Killian. What’s your name?”

“Sofia.” She dragged out the name like she wasn’t sure if she should tell me, then glanced at her little feet before looking back up. “Do you want to be my friend?” she asked quietly.

My grin widened. “Sure. Wanna play cars?”

It was the first time I saw her smile. Right then and there, she had me. And she didn’t even know it.

Aside from my family, Sofia was the one constant in my life—we’d skinned our knees playing in the street, shared candy and hoagies, and made each other laugh with stupid jokes that no one found funny except for us. Yeah. She was always there. Until she suddenly wasn’t.

The years flew by. It didn’t seem like too long after that that my boy Teo was off to serve, leaving me with his beautiful little sister.

“I’ve enlisted,” Teo told me. “I’ll be out of here in two weeks.”

We were at the Boss’s gym, kicking the heavy bag while we waited for our turn in the ring. I frowned. “Are you messing with me?”

He kicked the bag, shaking it despite how hard I held it.

“Gotta do something with my life,” he said. “Don’t want to end up like the old man.” He kicked again and then two more times, knocking the bag right into my gut. “The Army promised to help me become a mechanic and I’m going to take them up on the offer.”

I met his gaze. “You’re leaving your sisters behind.”

Teo knew what I meant, and who I was talking about. He lowered his leg before he could kick again, watching me carefully. “I can’t help them unless I help myself first, Kill.”

I let go of the bag and adjusted my sparring gloves. “Yeah. I s’pose.” Damn. I was pissed. But I knew he was right. At eighteen, it was time for Teo to do right by his family and find his way out of his shitbag life.

“Will you do something for me?” Teo asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’m serious, Kill.”

I was, too. Teo wasn’t blood, but he’d become my brother. “Name it. I got your back.”

“It’s not my back I’m worried about,” he said. He placed his hands on his hips and looked to where the younger fighters were mixing it up. “I want you to keep an eye on Sofia. She’s not Lety, you know? I don’t know if she’s going to make it if I’m not around to protect her.”

I glared at the mat, remembering all the times Sofia wore long sleeves in the summer to hide her bruises, and how red her pretty eyes would be after spending the night crying—thanks to her asshole father. I was getting bigger, tougher. I knew a day would come when I’d knock on Sofia’s door and give Carlos a little payback for the shit he’d put her through. But I was only sixteen then, so instead of talking big, I met Teo square in the face. “What do you want me to do?”

He tightened his jaw. “Just be her friend, Kill. Look out for her—make sure nothing happens to her, you feel me? She fears her own damn house. No need for her to fear the streets, too.”

“All right,” I answered without another thought.

Teo huffed like he didn’t believe me. “I need you to swear, to promise me like a real man. This ain’t a joke to me, Kill. Sofia’s not like everyone else. She’s sweet—maybe too sweet. Life’s too fucking hard for someone that good.”

Yeah. There was no one quite like Sofia. I met Teo’s rigid stare and offered him my hand. “I swear to God. Nothing’s going to happen to her.”

And nothing did. For the longest time, she was safe because she was with me.

That changed the day I fucked up—the day I went back on my word to be with Josefina Miller.

I hauled ass out of Josefina’s house, all the way back to the neighborhood. Holy shit. I finally got laid!

I threw open my front door out of breath, but ready to spill all the details. And, okay, maybe lie that I lasted longer than I actually did, but…

I knew something was wrong even before I turned into the living room and found my family gathered around our dining room table. Declan held my mother’s hand as she cried. Wren was crying, too. What the fuck? She never cried.

Angus stood slowly and walked to my side. “Kill, someone hurt Sofi,” he said.

I felt the color drain from my face.

“She was raped,” he continued quietly. “Some guy took her into his car and raped her.”

It was like I was swallowed up in a vortex, like in those piss-poor sci-fi movies I used to watch. Everything seemed far away. I remembered trying to bolt and Angus wrenching me back. Next thing I knew I was swinging hard, fighting my family—trying to get away—trying to fucking outrun all the rage tearing its way through me.

Mama was screaming, everyone was piling on top, yelling at me to stop. But I couldn’t stop. I had to find Sofia. I had to protect her. Nothing could happen to her—nothing. I promised. I fucking promised!

A meaty hand struck me in the face, again and again, rattling my skull. Wren was on my back, saying shit I couldn’t make sense of, while my brothers held my arms and forced me to kneel on our old wood floors.

Angus stood over me, ready to take another swing. My vision blurred and my eyes stung, but it wasn’t from his blows.

It was from knowing what I’d done. I bowed my head and broke down. I hadn’t kept my promise. I wasn’t a real man. Real men kept their word.

Especially when it came to those they loved.

Sofia stirred against me. “Are you hungry?” she mumbled, keeping eyes closed.

I tilted my chin to kiss the top of her head. “Shhh. I’m all right. Go back to sleep, princess.”

She adjusted her position against me, the small wrinkle in her brow easing as she returned to sleep.

Sofia was always the one. After all that shit happened, I’d kept an eye on her throughout the years. Checked in with her mother to see how she was. How could I not? I loved her even then. Too bad I didn’t recognize it for what it was, and too damn bad I didn’t deserve that same love back.

It took me a long time to meet Teo square in the eye. He never talked about that day—about the promise I’d made him. He’d let it go without calling me out, until he realized I wanted to be more than Sofia’s friend.

“Oh, I know you’re not checking out my baby sister,” he’d growled.

I s’pose he was surprised that I liked her. But then she was his little sister. He didn’t see what I saw, that the pretty little girl with the bouncy curls had grown into a beautiful woman I couldn’t tear my eyes from.

Problem was she was broken.

And I was the cause.

I promised myself to become a better man, and build a better life for me and maybe for us if she’d give me a chance. Buying my gym was the start. I just didn’t have a clue what I was getting into.

I was trying to make sense of my utility bill a month after buying my place. Holy shit. Heat costs how much?

Derek knocked on my office door. “Hey, Kill. Someone’s here about the office and computer work.”

I thought he was messing with me, especially when he kept grinning as he looked down the hall. That job I’d listed didn’t pay shit. “Fine. Send ’em in.”

I expected some old lady or a snot-nose kid who wasn’t qualified. I swear to Christ I turned to stone when Derek stepped aside and Sofia strolled in. She stopped so abruptly, she almost fell into the room. “Ah, hi, Killian,” she stammered, trying to hold on to her computer bag when it slipped from her shoulders. Her cheeks pinkened and her gorgeous face looked back at me.

Derek eyed her up and down like he wanted to bite her ass right there in front of me. “Don’t you have shit to do?” I yelled at him.

Sofia glanced at him as he disappeared, before returning her attention to me. She pushed one of her long curls back behind her ear. “I didn’t know you worked here.”

“I’m the new owner,” I told her.

I can’t be sure if those were my exact words. I was too busy gawking at her and recognizing her presence for what it was—my chance at redemption, my chance to make it up to her. I could watch over her, make sure nothing bad would happen to my Sofia.

My Sofia? Aw hell, I guess she was.

She returned my smile. That was all it took for her to knock me on my ass. I was a fierce and dangerous MMA fighter.

I didn’t stand a chance against this little thing.

When I finally kissed her…damn, I knew there was no going back. But fuck, when we started messing around, I completely lost my shit.

But then she said the words she wasn’t supposed to say: “I love you, Killian.”

God help me. She might as well have torn out my heart.

“Don’t say that unless you mean it,” I told her. “I’m serious. You don’t play around with that word.”

I was actually begging her to take it back. She didn’t love me. She loved the man I was supposed to be for her—the one who kept her safe. But when her soft green eyes met mine, and her bare skin curled against me, I knew she meant it.

I should have told her everything then, except I didn’t. Instead I waited for her to fall asleep to tell her I loved her, too. It was the first time I’d admitted it. Thing was, I still wasn’t the man Sofia needed.

She found out the hard way what kind of man I really was, and just like I couldn’t protect her, I couldn’t stop her pain.

“You were supposed to be different,” she said, crying so hard every word hit me like a punch. “I was supposed to mean more to you than this!”

She didn’t understand what she meant to me. Christ, my world fell apart when she left. But she was right, being with her out of guilt was bullshit, and not what she deserved.

I spent the next few weeks doing nothing, barely talking, and ready to war with anyone who pissed me off. Nothing mattered the whole time Sofia was gone—my career, my business, my family, nothing.

Curran texted me at home the week after we got back from Vegas. I almost didn’t answer it, figuring he was just checking in.

I’m at Teo’s party with some of my boys. The one thanking his mechanics and staff.

I didn’t text back. Instead I flipped the channel, even though I was barely watching the damn flatscreen.

Sofe’s here, he texted back when I didn’t reply.

That got my attention. So did the next three that followed.

She misses you.

She told me.

Come tell her you miss her, too, dumbass.

I stared at the screen. If Curran was lying I’d…who the hell was I kidding? I was going for her.

Where is it? I texted back.

“Wassup?” I asked Teo, trying to stay calm when I found out I’d just missed Sofia.

Teo smirked as he polished off his Coke. “Evie’s pregnant.”

Teo was happy. I was happy for him. But I couldn’t help being jealous, too.

He had the perfect life, with the perfect woman, and now another perfect kid on the way. I had fucked things up with my perfect woman. Jesus…what would Sofia have looked like pregnant with my baby?

“You all right?” Teo asked me, his frown deep.

“Yeah. Fine.” I shook his hand. “Congratulations, brother,” I said, meaning it.

Curran and his friends were taking turns congratulating him when his phone buzzed. Teo reached for it in his back pocket and hit the speaker. “Hey, babe—”

“Teo, we’re in trouble!” Evie screamed over the cries of her baby. “We’re being attacked, I need help!”

Teo tore toward his ride with the rest of us after him. “Where are you?”

“A couple blocks down from the party, at the A and D Pharmacy. Hurry!”

Curran slipped into the car with his partner as he called in the attack to the closest precinct. The rest of his boys jumped in their cars and hauled ass.

I climbed into Teo’s SUV, barely managing to shut the passenger-side door before he stomped on the accelerator and we flew out of the lot. He slammed on the brakes when the cops closest to the exit cut him off.

“Fuck!” he yelled. “Evie, I’m coming. Stay in the car with Mattie and Sofi—”

“Sofi’s out there with them!” she cried. “They have her. You have to come now!”

The bottom of my stomach fell out. They had Sofia.

Mattie kept wailing, Evie kept begging Teo to hurry, Teo was telling her to grab her piece—trying to assure her. Through it all I heard Sofia. Her grunts. Her swings. Her kicks.

Jesus Christ, my girl was fighting for her life.

Teo punched it all the way there, bumper to bumper with the squad car in front of him until he saw an opening between two cruisers and drove the car over the sidewalk. The cops piled on top of the two motherfuckers spread across the asphalt.

Both were bleeding.

And so was Sofia.

Curran and his friends collided with me and Teo when we tore out of his ride. I was going to kill those assholes and Curran knew it. “Kill, stop—stop!” he hollered. “Goddamnit, stop or I’ll arrest you!” He knocked me in the shoulder. “Do you think this is helping Sofi? Let us do our job, Kill, and I swear to God me and the boys will protect her.”

I didn’t move, my focus locked on her shaking form and the blood that dripped from her knuckles. Fucking A, she didn’t need anyone to protect her. She’d already protected herself….

When the medic was done, there was no keeping me from Sofia, especially when I caught her looking right at me. I crossed the lot. She met me halfway. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, that I needed her with me. Instead, I said all the wrong things and watched as she walked away.

I spent the night working through all the shit between me and Sofia. I was lying in bed staring at the ceiling when someone knocked on my door. Christ, now what?

They knocked on the door again, this time louder. Jesus, it’s fucking Saturday.

I flung open the door to find Sofia there. At first, I didn’t know what to say, hating all the tension between us. But this was my chance to tell her what I felt. So I did, hoping I wouldn’t fuck it up. “When you came back into my life, I thought this was my opportunity to set things right. Like you said, a chance at redemption.”

She shrank from me, her eyes reddening and welling with tears. Shit. Didn’t she know it killed me to see her cry?

“Sofia,” I said, watching her tears spill. “I’d spent years living with regret and wondering how I could fix things. I saw our time together as an opportunity to do right by you…but then we became something more.”

Her voice shook. “But it wasn’t for the right reasons, Killian.”

“No. Not at first.” I slipped my hand over hers, careful not to hurt her swollen and bandaged fingers. “When you called me out that day you left, I was scared you were right—that what I felt was for all the wrong reasons.” I huffed. “Been scared and miserable this whole damn time. But then something happened last night, and it changed everything—how I saw you—and showed me what you really mean to me.”

She didn’t say anything, waiting for me to find the right words. “Teo told us Evie’s pregnant.” I held her hand carefully. “And all I could think about was what you’d look like pregnant with my kid.”

She stopped moving. I thought I freaked her out until she did that happy cry of hers—the same one as when I gave her the wooden jewelry box. I gathered her to me. I couldn’t stop now. She needed to hear everything.

I opened my mouth…and everything I felt poured out in a rush. “I want to marry you, Sofia. I want to make babies with you, and grow old with you,” I rasped. “I love you. God, I am so in love with you.”

She struggled to speak. I almost couldn’t hear her. “But how do I know that what you feel comes from something pure, and not from the guilt you still carry?” she asked.

In my voice—in my fucking stare—I begged her to believe what I knew was true. “Because I’ve loved you since the first time I saw your smile and you asked me to be your friend….”

Sofia lifted her head and blinked her eyes open, smiling when I kissed her. My hand trailed over her growing belly. “How’s my boy?” I asked.

Her hand covered mine in time to have our son kick us both. She laughed. “I think he’s trying to tell us he’s hungry.”

“Then I should feed you both.” I rose, pulling Sofia carefully to her feet. I kept my arm around her as we left the yard and walked into the house.

The day I married her, I swore to her that I’d always take care of her. In another month, I’d have a son to take care of, too. But that was okay by me. A man keeps his promises. Especially when it comes to those he loves.