Jackal (Heartlands Motorcycle Club #12)- Frankie Love Page 0,23

through, and so she gave me a gift when I got out of the slammer, and you know what that was? It was the evidence I need to make sure you don't fuck with me. Now maybe I should have given the ultimatum a long time ago, but I didn't know where I was going, and now I do. I'm only going one place, and that's home to the Heartlands, and you sure as hell aren't coming after me."

Welder looks at his men and I see they're scared. "Fuck, Welder. If he's got some evidence of shit that Rooster was doing..."

I know what they're thinking. "I know what you guys were doing 10 years ago, trafficking women and children. I've seen the fucking evidence. All of you would pay if it came out and you know it, but I've already done my time and I have nothing left to lose. So give me my woman and stay the fuck away from us."

My threats seem to work and they bring me Lydia, anger in their eyes. But I see their fear there, too. Fear of going to prison for what I have on them.

"Baby," I say, pulling her to my chest, kissing her hard, "I fucking thought I lost you."

"You'll always have me," she says, looking up into my eyes, pressing her hand to my chest, "because I'm right here in your heart. Always, Jackal. Always."

"Good," I say, "because as soon as I can go shopping, I'm buying a ring to put on your finger. Do you understand?"

The men I ride with holler and clap around me, understanding what's happening.

"Is that a proposal?" Lydia asks. I lean down and I kiss her hard. The girl of my goddamn dreams.

"Fuck, yeah, it's a proposal," I say. "You're going to be my wife. You know that, Lydia?"

She smiles. "Yes, Jackal. I do. I know it with all that I am and all that I plan to be. I'm yours."

Epilogue 1

Lydia

One Year Later…

The morning Jackal came to my rescue, saving me from the Blue Devils, I knew without a doubt he was the man I believed him to be: strong and loyal, capable of taking care of me even when he feared he didn't have that sort of strength. He did. He does. And now, we're getting married in one day.

"Can you believe it?” I ask. A year ago, we were out at Hollow Oak Hill finally getting together, and now Jackal runs his hands over my back as he pulls me to him, kissing me softly.

"Now you're my bride."

"I can't wait for tomorrow," I tell him.

"Me neither," he says. "You made me wait a whole year."

I laugh. "Are you mad?"

He shakes his head. "Not at all. It's been a really good year," he says. We look out on our property. He moved out of his apartment after we got engaged and we found a little house not far from town, facing some hills with a large tree on the property. When I saw it, I knew it was the one for us.

"You sure?" he'd asked. The house was a modest three-bedroom, one-story home, with pale blue siding and white trim, flower boxes in the windows and a picket fence surrounding the front yard.

"It's perfect," I had said. I didn't need fancy appliances or state of the art anything. I wanted a home with four walls and a roof over our heads that I could share with the man I love. And the tree would be the perfect backdrop for lots of photographs.

"Whatever you want," he had told me. "The place is yours."

"We can afford it?" I'd asked him. I was just about to start community college and while I’d gotten a part-time job at a coffee shop, I knew it wasn't going to help pay for much more than my textbooks.

"I got it," Jackal had told me. "I got a raise at the shop. I think Conley was just being nice, but…”

I cut him off. "Don't say that, Jackal. You've worked there for a year. That's probably why you got the raise." And Jackal had nodded, trusting me.

When we moved in, we both had nervous energy. I'd never lived apart from my sister, and he'd never shared a place with a woman. It was new for us, but a good kind of new. Every day as we set up our place, it held that happy excitement that only comes from a new beginning.

Early on, I tossed out all his V-neck undershirts, saying they