“You did so good, my beautiful boy. I’m so goddamn proud of you.”
A happy smile spread across his mouth. “Love you so much. Love you both so much,” he whispered.
I could feel his body giving up the fight as his muscles clamped down on my dick. I knew I wouldn’t manage to come again, but it didn’t matter. Giving Sage pleasure was more powerful than any climax I ever could have been given in return.
“I love you, Sage. More than you will ever know.”
Daisy whispered her own words of love to him that were different yet the same, and long before the orgasm stole Sage away from us for the briefest of time, he found that peace inside of himself that he’d been searching a lifetime for.
Epilogue
Cash
Six Months Later
“We don’t have to do this,” I reminded Sage as we made the last turn onto the long gravel driveway.
“I know,” he said. “I’m okay, promise,” he added. His hand was resting on Daisy’s thigh. She was sitting between us in the front seat of our truck and I’d never been more grateful for bench seats in my life. Because her presence wasn’t only helping Sage.
I’d debated long and hard over whether what we were about to do was the right thing or not, but after talking to Sage’s therapist about it, we’d decided it might offer some of the closure he needed.
If such a thing could really be had after all he’d suffered.
It had taken us a long time to find a therapist Sage was able to connect with. He went through three before he finally found one who he felt spoke to him like a person rather than a case number. Despite him feeling more comfortable with the younger, female psychologist, it’d still taken him weeks to open up to her about the cult that had destroyed his life and stolen his innocence. He’d only recently admitted to the woman that he’d been the one to take Mouse’s life. We hadn’t been certain if it was something that should be addressed with the local cops who’d investigated Mouse’s death or not. Although she hadn’t said as much, Sage’s therapist had seemed to be okay with letting sleeping dogs lie. As far as she was concerned, it was the cult who’d killed Mouse. Just as surely as they’d nearly killed Sage.
Daisy and I had participated in Sage’s sessions whenever he or the therapist had asked us to, but it was a process that he had to endure mostly on his own. But we were starting to see real progress. He was taking on more and more of his own decisions and when he was struggling with something, we always tried talking through it first. If at that point he still felt the need to have me take over for him, I always did. His therapist knew about the dynamic we had, but instead of condemning us for it, she’d actually helped us to figure out when and how to use it to help Sage in his recovery. Instead of it being Sage’s only coping mechanism, it became one of many tools we used to help him get through the darker moments.
Which were fortunately happening less and less.
After Sage’s admission about what had been done to him and Mouse, I hadn’t been able to just let things go. I’d talked to Ronan and Memphis about the so-called church and its beliefs and before I’d even finished my story, Ronan and Memphis had started in on a plan to try and pinpoint if any sects remained, including the one that had been responsible for the brutality forced on Sage and Mouse. If they were found, they’d be punished and any kids who were located would be rescued.
But I wouldn’t be doing the punishing, though a part of me really wanted that more than anything.
For Sage’s sake, I knew I couldn’t be a part of it. He needed to put the cult behind him and there was no way for that to happen if I was participating in the process of bringing the perpetrators to justice. And there was no way in hell I’d do it in secret, either. Sage knew that the group would be going after the members of the church, but the only updates he would get would be if the people who’d hurt him and Mouse specifically were found. Even then, I’d be the one to make the decision how much I told Sage. He and I had both agreed to that.
Daisy was also limiting her interaction with the investigation. Like me, she didn’t want to keep secrets from Sage and she wanted us to be able to move on from the past as a family. So Mav would be the one who’d handle the tech side of the investigation.
Life between the three of us had settled into something I doubted any one of us could have envisioned. It was almost too easy sometimes. We’d moved Daisy into our bedroom the very night we’d made love together for the first time (after we’d eaten the rubbery pasta that had sat neglected on the stove for hours and hours). Daisy was busy with work, but she rarely played her online games anymore – a choice she’d made, since Sage and I had no issue with her enjoying them. We suspected that while most of that stemmed from her desire to spend more time with us, at least part of it had to do with the reminder that Dylan was still missing. We had recently gotten word that there was a new lead that one of Ronan’s men was going to follow up on to see if it led anywhere, but Daisy, not surprisingly, was careful not to get her hopes up.