Epilogue

Jaz

 

 

 

 

The steady hum of the tattoo gun fills the small room, and I flinch as the tattooist traces over the sensitive parts of my scar. There are times when the skin will tighten when I stretch, or Cutter will accidentally touch it, and I’ll remember how it got there. Sometimes I’ll even have flashbacks.

But when that happens, I breathe deep and look around me.

Because I’m not that girl anymore.

These past two months have been the hardest and the best of my life.

Moving past Dylan and everything that happened with him has been difficult. Dealing with the nightmares and the paranoia took a while, and there have been times when I thought I might not be able to do it. Having Cutter and the girls has been amazing. They’ve been my rock.

Getting this tattoo means so much to me. It’s not only erasing the physical scar that Dylan gave me, but the mental one too. This is something that he would have never allowed me to do, something that he would have loathed. Every time I look at it, it’ll be a reminder of the way I came out on top. The other parts of me have healed, too. The casts are off, and the bruises have faded.

Something cool swipes across my back. “All done.”

I stand up slowly, my body aching from sitting in the same position for so long. The tattooist starts to tell me about aftercare, but I’m not really listening, Lucy’s here with me, so hopefully she’s paying attention. Not to mention almost everyone at the club has at least one tattoo. Anything I need to know, they’ll have the answer.

Approaching the mirror, I’m almost scared to look. A hundred questions flow through me as I slowly turn around.

What if I don’t like it?

What if you can still see the scar through it?

Glancing over my shoulder I gasp at what I see.

Property of Cutter.

The club’s logo sits beneath the arched lettering, the colors so vibrant I can’t see the scar anymore. Tears fill my eyes.

It’s vanished.

The mark that he thought would always remind me of him, what he thought would haunt me forever, is gone.

“It looks great, Jaz.” Lucy smiles at me.

“Thanks. And thank you for bringing me here.” The boys have been out on a run the past couple days and they are getting back tonight. I wanted to surprise Cutter and Lucy managed to get me a last-minute appointment with the guy most of the brothers use.

“No problem, girl.”

After I’m bandaged up, we walk out of the shop and head toward the clubhouse. A wave of uncertainty crashes over me. “He’ll like it, right?”

Lucy grabs my shoulder, pulling me against her as we walk in tandem. “He’ll love it.”

“Okay.” I take a breath excited for him to come home and see my surprise.

We head back and start working on a welcome home dinner for the boys. We’re just about finished when we hear the telltale rumbling of approaching bikes.

A smile crosses my face as I turn toward the door, knowing that he’s back. When the doors open and the guys start to file in, it’s like everything blurs except for him. He smiles at me and my entire body warms under his gaze.

“Hey there, beautiful.” His voice is deep as he wraps his arms around me and lifts me up.

I wince and he quickly puts me down.

“What’s wrong?” His eyebrows pull together and he runs his eyes over me, looking for whatever hurt me.

“I-uhh, I kind of did something today.” I bite my lip.

“Okay, what’d you do?”

Here goes nothing.

I turn around and lift up the back of my shirt. The material sticks to the skin and I have to give it a tug to expose it fully. Lucy helped me take the bandage off earlier, wiping it down so it looks perfect.

There’s a sharp intake of breath.

I face him again and it’s hard to read his expression. “Do you hate it? I kind of wanted to surprise you, and—”

“I love it.”

He pulls me toward him, this time placing his hands higher so he doesn’t touch my new ink. “You are so sexy, and this only amplifies it. Seeing my patch, my name on you, it makes me so damn proud to call you mine.”

He kisses me and I relax in his arms.

There isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t make me fall more in love with him.

He’s showed me that being myself is more than enough.

He’s taught me that above all else, I need to be proud of who I am.

He’s made sense of all the mayhem that haunted me.

He’s made me believe in love.