“Well, Mick’s gone. The island is gone, and the cops have gone after anyone else involved.”
“And the girls?”
He sighs. “They’re not good, but the force has put them in some serious mental health care. They’ll get there...eventually.”
“At least we saved them. That’s a start.”
He sits up, groaning in pain as he does.
“They said you got shot again when you went after Mick?”
He lifts his shirt and right near the faded scar from the time I stabbed him, is a stitched wound. I stroke my fingers over it, and he shudders.
“Are you ok?”
He nods. “Yeah, I’m ok.”
“Cody?”
He smiles. “Been keepin’ me up all night. Revenge and all that.”
I giggle softly. “It’s fun, isn’t it?”
He strokes my lips. “Wouldn’t change it for the fuckin’ world, baby.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you after Mick showed me that photo. If I had listened...”
He cuts me off with a soft kiss to my lips, when he pulls back, he takes my face in his hands. “I know what you saw, and I don’t blame you for how you reacted. I would have believed it, too. Photo evidence is hard to turn away from. You had every right to be hurt over it. But I swear to you, I would never touch another woman.”
“I know,” I say softly. “I should have known that from the start.”
He shrugs. “It’s done. Justice has been served.”
“Where to from now?”
He grins and looks me dead in the eye. “Marry me?”
“I thought we’ve already been here and asked this?” I grin.
“Soon, Willow. As soon as possible, I want to marry you.”
“Aren’t you still married?”
“No. Sharleen was made to sign the papers.”
I suck in a breath. “We can get married?”
“Next month?”
“Really?” I squeak.
He kisses the side of my mouth. “Really baby, what do you say?”
“I say yes, hell yes!”
“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT to do this?” I ask, holding Jagger’s hand.
“Yeah, I have to.”
We’re at the front of Mary’s house. She’s out on bail because her involvement with the whole thing was minimal, and Jagger was insistent that we speak with her. We knock on the door of the grand house, and she answers only a moment later. Her eyes are tired, but they widen when she sees her nephew.
I suppose she wasn’t expecting to see him after everything.
“Johnny...”
“We need to talk,” he says, his voice clipped.
“Johnny, please...”
“I want answers, and I’m not goin’ to leave until you give them to me. Firstly, I want to know why?”
She closes her eyes and has the nerve to look sad about what she’s done. Like it actually matters to her that she nearly ended the life of someone she was meant to love.
“It was a mistake. I...loved him.”
Jagger gasps and I squeeze his hand. Is she serious? She loved him?
“Mick?” Jagger grinds out.
“Yes, I loved him. We were together for a while after your mother died. I loved him, and I thought if I did what he said, he’d love me back. Maybe we would finally be together, but that stupid little woman Sharleen was in the picture.”
“You fucked my father,” Jagger spits, “When you knew what he did to us?”
She whimpers and her eyes fill with tears. No sympathy here, love.
“I thought maybe...”
“What?” Jagger barks. “That we were lying?”
“No, but...”
“You could have had me killed. You were supposed to love me!”
“I did,” she cries, “I do!”
“No,” he spits, “you don’t. If you did, you would have never set me up.”
“It was because of her!” she wails, pointing at me.
Jagger goes to step forward, but I stop him. “Don’t you ever try and blame her. She has done nothing but love me. She is doing what you should have done. We’re done, I’m done with you. I hope you rot in prison like you deserve...”
“Johnny,” she cries, reaching out for him.
He slaps her arm down and glares harshly at her.
“You are nothing to me. Don’t ever speak to me again. There isn’t a single thing left in this world you could say to me that would ever make me forgive you for what you’ve done.”
“Johnny, please,” she tries, her eyes welling with tears, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I could have been on that island, and you were goin’ to let him blow it anyway.”
“I told him I wanted you safe. I never wanted you to get hurt.”
“If you never wanted me to get hurt, you wouldn’t have been with him to begin with. Goodbye, Mary. Best of luck to you.”
Then he takes my hand and leads me down the front steps, leaving her to cry out after him.
Karma is a real bitch, ain’t it?
EPILOGUE
A month later
WILLOW
“Do you Johnny Black, take Willow Barnes to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, through sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
Jagger smiles, showing those perfect teeth and flashing blue eyes. “I do.”