Clearwater’s Redemption by Tiffany Casper

Chapter 14

Fiona

“Knox this is too much, I can’t accept this.” No one has ever done something like this for me. Normally, this would have been a major red flag for me, but with Knox, I knew that it wasn’t.

“Fiona,” he growled.

“Knox. I’m not with you because of what you can give me. I’ll get a better car when I can afford it.” I growled back.

“Well, I can’t fit in your little car. What if something happens to my truck and my bike and we have to be somewhere?” There he went again with his logic.

“Well… I…” I didn’t have a comeback for that one.

“Also, if you get hit, your car will be totaled. Doesn’t matter where you get hit. And if the son of a bitch doesn’t die before I get to you to make sure you’re alright, then I’ll kill them.”

“Knox….”

“I’m not joking Fiona.” And that was the truth, I knew that he wasn’t.

Then a thought occurred to me, “I’ll accept the truck on one condition; besides, I don’t want you to kill someone because of me”

“If you ever think for one second that I won’t take someone out for you, then you don’t know me at all, now, what is it?” He asked as he held the truck keys out to me, almost as if no matter what I asked, he would do it.

I felt a little wicked right now and completely overwhelmed, “I want my name tattooed on you, and I want your name tattooed on me.”

“I already had an appointment to get that done next week, so I’ll see if I can change it.” And the mic dropped.

I stood there floored, gaping I asked, “Seriously? You were already planning on doing that?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” How in the hell had I been this lucky to find a man like Knox? He surprised me every single day with another side of him that he has never shown to another soul.

Shaking my head to wipe the goofy grin from my face, I grabbed the keys he still held out for me as he pulled his phone from his pocket.

“Yeah. Fit me in today and my ole’ lady?” I froze, he had just called me his ole’ lady?

Without replying to whomever it was once he got his reply, he hung up.

“We gotta go. Going be a drive. Let’s go.”

I didn’t move, how could I? “Ole’ lady?”

He looked down at me as he grabbed a lock of my hair as he twisted it around his finger. “Yeah.”

With an impish grin, I asked, “Do I get a property kutte?”

I watched his face soften just for me. Then he nodded.

My ole’ man was a man of few words. I smiled to myself as I thought about that.

He placed a finger under my chin as he lifted my head, “What's that for?”

“You're my ole’ man.”

He laughed softly which was something new he had been doing as of late with me. With an arm thrown over my shoulder, we turned in his driveway, he walked us over to the behemoth white Ford truck, opening the truck door for me, I climbed in and settled myself behind the steering wheel.

I watched as he strode to the other side of the truck, when he climbed in he turned to me, “This feels fucking weird, don’t expect this again.”

I laughed; it did feel weird being in the driver’s seat with him in the passenger seat.

I started my new baby up then set everything how I wanted it, after he gave me directions, we broke in my new truck with a five-hour drive.

And I had had a fucking blast. However, about two hours in, Knox had fidgeted in his seat so much that when I pulled into a gas station and told him to switch seats with me, his relief had been audible.

“You’re a good driver sweetheart, but damn.” I chuckled as he held open the door for me.

The moment we parked in front of the tattoo parlor, Knox jumped out of the truck, walked around the front of it, and opened my door.

With my hand in his we walked inside and I freaking loved it. All of the designs were amazing. The floor-to-ceiling beams were stained in a dark walnut.

“Knox, how’s it going?” A woman called from behind the counter.

I looked at Knox to see that he had nodded at her, then he tilted his head, “Shiloh, this is my woman Fiona. Fiona, this is Miriam’s sister and Dale and Lucy’s adopted daughter, so to speak.”

I nodded as I looked at Shiloh who had her mouth open, “He speaks? He speaks more than one word?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, “I know. I guess I’m special.”

“Yeah, this shit is crazy. Brother rarely even talks to me when I put ink on him.” I looked to see a man at least a few years older than Knox. His hair was cut and it was close to his scalp. He had green eyes and ink all up his exposed arms.

He turned to Shiloh as he said, “I’ll be tied up.”

I also saw a kutte on him as well that was just like Knox’s, only his had Tennessee on the bottom rocker instead of Carolina.

I also noticed that the woman seemed to have a crush on the much older man. That was going to be a fireworks kind of show.

We followed the man whose name I still didn’t know.

The moment we walked inside his studio, Knox turned to me and said, “Fiona, this is Clutch.” He tapped his crows on his arm.

Nodding, I looked at Clutch. “Your work is awesome.”

“Thanks darlin’. So what ink are we doing?”

“Piece I spoke to you about.” Clutch nodded.

Then he turned to me, “And you?”

I grabbed my phone as I pulled up the Apache symbol for love. “I want this over this area right here.”

He took on the design, “Anything else?”

Looking up at Knox, I noticed that his face had softened, he brought his hand up and rubbed at the area where he had bit me. “You're mine, right?”

I saw his throat as he swallowed, when he nodded I turned to Clutch and said, “I want the initials, KSM, to be in one of the arrows.”

I sat down as Clutch did my ink first and I fucking loved it. When it was finished and Clutch had placed a sheet of plastic wrap over it, Knox placed a kiss on it, and then he shrugged off his kutte, handed it to me, and then he pulled off his t-shirt.

I was curious to see what design he was getting and when I looked at it before Clutch placed the stencil on his chest over his heart, I gasped.

It was two crows, the wings were touching, and one of them had a king’s crown on its head and the other had a queen's crown over it. I looked closer and saw that the design spelled out my name.

Standing there in fascination at the tattoo, I never imagined that this was what he had in mind. He had this all planned out.

As we were walking out Clutch said, “Wrath MC looks good on you.” I tossed a smile over my shoulder.

“Looks good on you too.” Knox growled, and I couldn’t help myself.

“Hey Clutch?”

“Yeah darlin’?

“I love your tattoos, does that one on your arm expand to other places?” Knox spun me around and pinned me to the wall.

“Sweetheart…” He growled.

Smiling, I stood up on my tiptoes as I kissed the underside of his jaw right under his beard. “You have nothing to worry about.”

Stepping out from under his arm I walked over to Shiloh to see her eyes on Clutch.

How much do we owe him?”

“Nothing.” Clutch said as he walked up behind me.

After we said our goodbyes, since it was so late, I climbed in Knox’s lap as he drove us home. Luckily, we weren’t pulled over.

The moment we got back to Clearwater we headed home. And in the driveway, we broke in my new truck.

Two days later I was sitting on Knox’s lap while a fire was going. It was growing colder in the months, and being up here in the mountains, it was even cooler. We had already consumed hamburgers and hot dogs. Drinks were steadily flowing.

Kida sat by my feet, and I had to turn down everyone’s question if I would ever breed him and if they could get one of his puppies.

When everyone started to head inside due to the fire going out, I got ready to stand to do the same, until Knox squeezed my waist with his arm.

I turned in his lap to look at him.

He brought his other hand up to press his fingers to my pulse and to cover my tattoo.

“Knox, what is it?” I was getting worried.

He looked at me as he asked in a whisper, “You love me?”

I looked at him as I stared deep into his eyes. “Yes Knox.”

“Words.” He demanded.

I smiled as I bent and placed a soft kiss on his lips, murmuring, “I love you.”

When I pulled away his eyes had been closed, and then he opened them. I could see concern and uncertainty in them.

“I’m shit with words Fi. But all I know is that I want you through thick and thin. You’re the very air I breathe. I was spiraling down into a dark abyss the day I met you. You're my one treasure in life. The one thing that is all mine. Give me you for eternity. Marry me?”

I had to know something first, “If I ask you something, will you be honest with me?”

The uncertainty filled his eyes completely, when he moved to turn his head, I grabbed it with both of my hands and I rubbed his jaw. “Do you love me?”

When Knox didn’t say anything, only stared into my eyes, I saw a lone tear come out of the corner of his eye. I leaned forward and kissed it away. The moment I leaned back I heard the words that I had longed to hear. “Yes Fi. I love you."

I didn’t try to wipe the tears that trailed down my cheeks, “You’re not shit with words, honey. Yes, a thousand times yes!”

As he placed a square-cut diamond that was set in a rose gold band on my ring finger I threw my arms around his shoulders, pressed my face in his neck as I let all of the tears flow freely.

“Sweetheart… you’re killing me.” I heard him say in that gravelly voice that I loved so much.

“I’m just so happy,” I muttered through my tears.

His only reaction was to chuckle.

“Hey what’s going on?” I heard Novalie ask as she must have stepped back outside to see what was keeping us.

Unable to reply, I pulled my hand from the side of his neck and showed off my ring.

With Novalie’s gasp, I smiled through my tears, then placed my hand back on the side of his neck.

The next day while the men worked on the bikes the women talked about my engagement and how we were going to get married. I was surprised that they had almost everything planned in under fifteen minutes however, I wanted what Knox would want.

And I knew that he would only want it to be just us.

“Thank y’all for trying to help but I’ll talk to Knox, see what he wants first.” The ole’ ladies simply smiled and none of them were bothered but what I had told them.

Within a minute after I told them that we were talking about what they had achieved and what they wished they could change.

Marley looked at me as she asked, “What’s your greatest accomplishment in life?”

Softly I replied, “Giving myself to Knox.”

And like the ever-present shadow he was, he walked up behind me, leaned in, kissed the side of my neck, and murmured, “Glad you did honey.”

Then he laid something in my lap. I looked down at the white box, then tilted my head back.

After he kissed me he whispered, “Love you.”

“Love you back.”

I watched his fine ass as he walked into the clubhouse for church.

The moment the doors closed I opened the box, curious to see what was in there. And then I pulled away the tissue paper, I gasped.

Grinning like a kid at Christmas, I pulled out my property kutte.

“Woohoo!” Filled the air as all of the women congratulated me. Standing, I put it on and loved the softness of it. I bowed then spun around. The name said Property of Knox on the back above the club's logo of Lucifer and below that it had said Carolina.

“When do you want to get married?” I asked him as we sat on the porch swing the very next morning before I had to be at work, drinking our morning coffee.

“Don’t want a big wedding sweetheart.” He told me. “Long as you're there, don’t care.”

Biting my bottom lip I asked him, “Take me to Vegas?”

And that was how two days later I was married by Elvis to Knox Stephen McCord.

As I laid in his arms while I listened to his deep breathing, I ran my hand over the tattoo that he had inked over his heart. The rain was pounding down on the metal tin roof.

I couldn’t help but stare at my ring and at the wedding band that was on his ring finger.

Had I known that this was where I would have ended up all those years ago, the only thing I would have changed was meeting Knox a hell of a lot sooner.