“Did you know?” his mother walks up to him screaming at him now. Zeke nods his head and she slaps him, then walks off.

“What happened?” Zeke asks, walking into his father.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to go the clubhouse,” his father says looking deflated.

“You told her?” he asks his father.

“She had to know, I’m paying for his funeral, I was the first contact. It’s time we stop shielding her,” he says and notices me for the first time attached to Zeke’s side. He forces a smile and nods his head then walks away.

We don’t stay long and he drives me back to his house, the one I thought he’d sold. I give him a puzzled look when he opens the door and everything looks the same.

Did he lie to me?

“Quinton, I gave it to him,” he says explaining my unasked question. I nod my head and he walks to his office. This place carries bad memories for me. This is where I arrested him. “Just go to bed, Bexley,” he says, not looking up while searching through his files.

“Are we going back to this, Zeke?” I ask him standing my ground, he doesn’t look at me straight away.

“I don’t deal well with emotion, you should know this by now. I’ve been trying, but right now, I need space,” he says, and I don’t know if he means space from me, or just time to think.

****

I lay on the bed for hours. Hours of him not coming, hours of not hearing from him. Wondering what I should do? When he walks in looking deflated, he kicks his shoes off, and then the rest of his clothes follow. Climbing in next to me, he pulls me to him, then kisses my shoulder.

“He fucked up bad, I can’t leave again, Pixie,” he says sounding so depressed. I don’t voice my concern, I just lay there wrapped in his arms, wondering what tomorrow will bring.

****

The next day comes fast, most of it I don’t see him. He’s gone before I wake and I’m left alone. It’s not until later that day he walks back in the door looking run down and tired. He has blood on his hands, his face is masked. If I didn’t know him so well, I wouldn’t go near him. He looks scary with an evil glint in his eye.

“Zeke?” I say and he walks straight past me not saying a word, heading for the shower. I stand there shocked at first and decide to follow. He’s in the shower, head against the wall with hands on either side. The blood rushes off of him turning the water red and then disappears down the drain. He doesn’t move when I push the curtain back and step in. I’m clothed, in only shorts and tank top. I wrap my hands around him, hugging him from behind.

“I don’t want this life for you,” he says, not moving.

“I want this,” I say and squeeze him. One of his hands drops and he covers mine with his. The blood washed away, my mind can’t even ask him why there was blood covering him though I guess it has to do with Quinton.

“Marry me?” he asks, turning around to face me.

“I can’t have kids, Zeke, I have no equipment down there for that. It’s all gone,” I say wanting to make it clear to him that it can never happen for us. I’ve come to live with the fact and he shouldn’t have to if that’s what he wants. My mother had cervical cancer, so did my grandmother. I was advised it was safer for me to have everything removed before it took my life as well. I had cancer, it’s all gone now.

“I said, marry me, Pixie,” he says turning around and pinning me against the wall.

“Yes,” I say to him. He wants me, just me. Against all that has stood before us… it’s just us.

“I come with all this, Bexley. I’ve tried, but it’s all my responsibility and it won’t leave me,” he says brushing my hair from my face. Watching my lips carefully.

“Not all of it,” I say hoping he did get rid of the other businesses.

“Not all, just the MC. I can’t rid myself of that, it’s mine.” His lips slowly come down to touch mine and I let him. He stops all of a sudden and walks out of the shower, leaving me there yet again alone. I don’t move, and when I hear the door close, I look at it and see him naked with a ring box, he steps back into the shower. Rolls the case around in his palm and looks at me.

“I don’t do happily ever after, but I do, do, right now. I didn’t do women, once was all I needed, but then they weren’t you. I didn’t do love, it wasn’t for me. But you made me see it, and feel it. And it’s all yours,” he says taking the ring from the box and sliding it onto my finger. I don’t look at the ring. Instead, my eyes are trained on him. His face when he talks, the passion in his eyes, the way he watches me. “I did it all wrong, but I’m all kinds of fucked up, you already know that. But now, you have me anyway,” he says winking stepping forward and wrapping me in a vice like grip. I look over his shoulder at the ring. It’s a ruby, covered with diamonds surrounding it.

“It’s red,” I say surprised, but also loving it.

“The devil loves red,” he says and I smile. He gets me, and that’s all that matters.

We loved with a love that was more than love.

~Edgar Allan Poe~

She swings around the dance floor with my father, her black dress hugging all her curves on her beautiful body. We’re married, I didn’t want to wait long. It’s been two months since I put that ring on her finger. Two months of planning and organizing for this day. The moment she stepped down the aisle in her black wedding dress with a red sash wrapped around her hips, I knew I’d never want another woman.

She is it.

No one can compare.

My sight is blocked by my annoying friend, who’s dressed in all white. In a dress to be exact, and I stifle a laugh when I look her up and down. She smacks me hard in the gut.

“Laugh again and I’m punching lower,” Aria warns. She stands next to me and watches as my father dips Bexley back, and says something to her when he does and a smile lights her face, making her laugh. “I would never wear this for anyone else,” Aria mutters next to me.

“I would never marry anyone else,” I mutter back to her.

“Yeah, she’s something special, isn’t she? Can I have her?” she jokes, well at least I think she’s kidding.

“She is,” I reply and Bexley stands and kisses my father’s cheek. She spots us and makes her way over. Before she gets to us a man steps in front of her, she looks back to me then to the man and nods her head to him. Aria grabs my arm and stops me from walking.

“Chill man, you just put a ring on it,” she says holding my arm.

“Don’t you have anyone else to bother?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.

“Psst, you’re it. It’s so much fun, you’re like a child,” she goads.

“I’m walking away now, Aria,” I tell her stepping to where Tragger just took my wife to the dance floor. “Go all macho man on her ass,” she yells behind me.

I tap Tragger on the shoulder and he steps back and gives me my wife. She smiles up at me grabbing my red tie and straightening it.

“Miss me?” she asks placing her hands around my neck. My hands circle around her waist, hanging onto her ass.

“Always,” I say kissing her head.

“I want us to do something,” I say and she looks up at me and smiles.

“Yeah, what?”

“I want us to write notes to each other, seal them, and open them in two years’ time.”

“Oh, you’re pretty sure of yourself,” she says smacking my chest.

“Pixie, there’s no leaving me. You do realize that?” I warn her.

“I know, you would hunt me down and keep me locked up forever,” she teases.

“I would,” I say to her smiling.