The Retaliation You Deliver by Tracy Lorraine

Epilogue

Macie

Six months later…

The noise of the crowd around me rattles my bones as I watch Leon and the rest of the Panthers run out onto the field. He might be surrounded by the entire team, but he is the only one I see. Even with his helmet on, I can picture the fierce, determined set of his face, his dark eyes as he focuses on the first game of the season and how he, Luca and Kane are going to ensure they start off on a win.

My hands clap together until the skin begins to burn and I shout at the top of my lungs, cheering the man on as he scans the crowd looking for me.

It’s the first football game I’ve ever attended. Or at least one I can remember, I know I went to Dad’s as a baby but I was too young.

I know the second he finds me because a strong bolt of electricity shoots through me.

Pausing my clapping, I press my fingers to my lips and blow him a kiss, wishing him good luck.

“Girl, you have him so whipped, it’s almost painful to watch,” Ella says from behind me, clearly watching the two of us.

“Yeah,” I breathe, although she’s got no chance of hearing it.

Peyton and Letty stand on either side of me, both clapping and screaming for their guys. Beside Peyton is Kayden who’s literally bouncing in his seat with excitement as he watches his two most favorite people in the world on the field before us. Next to him is Libby.

Feeling my stare, she glances over and smiles.

After spending sixty days in the rehab facility, she’s managed to restart her life and was able to begin being a mother to her little boy.

She’s made it look so easy, but I’m not naïve enough to believe that’s the reality. I can only imagine how hard it’s been for her. But thanks to Leon, Luca and Maddie, she’s now got a purpose.

Understandably, Libby refused to accept any of the money Brett Dunn left behind after his fateful night with the hooker. But after a lot of discussion and back and forth, she finally agreed to accept a job as a manager of The Locker Room.

At first, I thought it was crazy allowing an ex-addict to run a bar. But I’m happy to say that I was wrong because it seems that Libby had really found her feet.

The bar is no longer a seedy sports bar but a sophisticated—as sophisticated as it can get— gentleman’s club. Libby takes pride in the fact that she’s helping women who are at their lowest and supporting them in turning their lives around. She works with counsellors and therapists she met while she was in the facility and is really making a difference.

She’s working with Maddie to make the same change in a couple of the other locations that Brett had spread over the country.

By some small miracle, both Brett and Richard’s deaths and the weeks that followed went very smoothly, seeing as both were suspicious as hell. It seemed that everyone else believed that Brett Dunn had finally caved to the pressures of celebrity life and dived head first into smack and pussy. And as for Richard, once Leon and I embarked on our mission to destroy his memory and football legacy with the truth, everyone was more than glad the man was no longer able to taunt the young lives he was once entrusted with.

Leon was terrified to release his story, but after only hours of us putting it out into the media, more stories started coming, until almost every day another young man would come forward to tell his story.

It was shocking, but incredible that these men are able to finally put their terrifying past behind them knowing that they’re not alone in what they suffered.

Now, my dream of being able to help kids who sadly will still be forced to suffer something similar is closer than ever.

I’ve got the money, and we’re busy getting all our plans together for when I graduate.

Thoughts of the future are equally as exciting as they are terrifying.

This year is Leon’s last at MKU, he’ll enter the draft in the spring and head off to better things. I know that won’t be the end of us, we’re barely at the beginning, but I can’t imagine being here without him. A huge part of me wonders if I won’t, if the second he signs for a team, if I’ll decide to follow him and transfer wherever he goes.

I came here to be closer to Mom, to live her legacy, but what I’ve found is so much better than trying to recreate the past, I’ve found a future that I never could have imagined.

Leon is everything I said I never wanted but everything I never knew I needed, and I never even want to consider my life without him.

I meant every word of what I said to him that day in the Miami beach house. I love every side of him. Sometimes I even miss the dark side which seems to come out less and less these days. Having that inside version of Leon is thrilling in ways I never knew existed, and sometimes it’s exactly what I need.

“Right,” a deep voice booms from behind us, dragging me from my thoughts. “Let’s get this party started.

Turning around, I find Devin with his arms out wide and an even bigger smirk on his face.

Behind him are his brothers, and right at the back are Reid, Alana, JD and Mav.

“Oh God, here we go,” Letty mutters loud enough to ensure he hears.

“Pipe down, Mrs. Legend. I know you really love me. Don’t try to deny it.”

Letty rolls her eyes and shakes her head. Her and Kane aren’t married and don’t plan to be for quite a while but even still Devin insists on calling her by his last name, mostly just to piss her off. Letty has told me before that things between her and Devin haven’t always been smooth sailing and while she might be more than happy to put it all behind them, he makes it his mission to ensure she remembers the beef they had.

“Guys,” she says, ignoring him. “This is Libby, Peyton’s sister.

“Oh, hey,” Ezra mutters, barely sparing her a glance in favor of a girl in the row in front of him.

Ellis is slightly more polite before Devin finally drags his attention back to us from a couple of the jersey chasers who are loitering around.

The second Devin and Libby’s eyes connect I swear to God I feel the sparks of electricity shoot straight down my spine.

“You two know each other.” It’s not a question. It doesn’t need to be, the answer is obvious.

Devin pulls his mask back into place, his easy, cocky smirk returning as he walks over to Libby and throws his arm around her shoulders.

“Oh, we go way back. Right, Lib? Got into all kinds of shit together.”

I glance at Libby to find her face pale and her eyes wide.

“Put her down, Dev,” Reid instructs, walking up to us. “Macie, how’s it going?” he asks when his eyes find me.

“It’s good, thank you.”

“Our boys ready to kill it down there?” he asks our group, but while he might distract most of us, my eyes are still darting between Devin and Libby.

The dealer and the ex-addict. If that doesn’t have disaster written all over it, I don’t know what does.

I have no idea how long I watch the two of them try to ignore each other while clearly being painfully aware of the other’s presence but eventually it’s Reid who once again distracts me.

“He looks like he’s ready to take on the world,” he says, forcing my eyes back to the field where Leon’s standing with Kane.

“He is… thanks to you.”

“Nah,” he mutters. “I might have helped get rid of the trash, but I’m pretty sure that’s everything to do with you.”

It turned out that Reid had orchestrated the entire situation around Richard’s demise, along with Ellis and Alana without Leon knowing. Neither of us know why he went to such effort to wipe him off the face of the Earth, but I do know that both of us will be forever grateful.

With him gone, it’s like I can breathe a little easier.

His estate has been sold, everything he owned is gone, and his fortune is now sitting untouched in a high interest account, growing for when I’m ready to hit go on my foundation in a few years.

“They’re going to kill it this year,” I say as they get ready to start.

“With you three behind them, they haven’t really got a choice.”

“What’s the deal with Devin and Libby?” I ask, although I regret it the second the question falls from my lips because Reid might be a lot of things but I don’t get the impression he’s a gossip.

“Probably best you don’t ask.” The crowd around us roars as the game begins so I don’t entirely catch his next words, but I swear to God it sounds something like, “you should probably be thanking them too.”

The excitement from the game stops me asking what he meant by that, or even if that’s what he said, but I can’t deny that it gets my head spinning.

I alternate between watching the game—which the Panthers win by a mile—and keeping an eye on Libby and Devin.

They ended up at either end of our group but that doesn’t mean I miss either of them looking at the other, both of them sitting tight with tension pulling their bodies.

Leaning into Peyton, I whisper. “What’s the deal with Libby and Devin?”

Her jaw ticks at my question, telling me that I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

“I have no idea,” she grinds out. “But she needs to stay the hell away from the likes of him.”

* * *

Letty, Peyton and I are practically bouncing on the balls of our feet as we wait, surrounded by a massive crowd of fans, for our guys to exit the locker room.

When they do, I wince with the volume of the cheer that erupts around me. It’s infectious and I find myself shouting along with them as some of the team come out, although it takes a few more minutes before the three we’re waiting on emerge dressed in smart suits and wearing matching accomplished smiles.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing the three of them this happy,” Letty says before bolting toward Kane and jumping into his arms.

Two seconds later, Luca finds Peyton in the crowd and also takes off, leaving me alone and wondering where Leon went.

My eyes scan the crowd but I come up empty.

He was just right there, where can he have—

A warm, rough pair of hands cover my eyes from behind as a hard body presses against my back.

“My lucky charm,” he breathes in my ear before allowing me to turn and catching me when I jump into his arms.

“You killed it out there. I’m so proud of you,” I manage to get out before his lips crash down on mine.

“I love you,” he breathes against my lips. “And I loved knowing you were watching me.”

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” I confess. I’m already dreading the upcoming away games that are going to be too far away for me to go to. I can already see myself glued to my laptop as I watch him.

For someone who never wanted anything to do with football, one game into the season and I’m a freaking addict. Although, I’m not sure if I’m more addicted to the game or just one certain player.

Releasing me, he drops one more kiss to the tip of my nose.

“Are you ready to celebrate?” I ask, knowing that they’ve all planned a massive first game of the season party at Colt and the guys’ new house.

It was only a few weeks after we buried both Brett and Richard that Leon and Luca sat both Peyton and I down and told us that they were kicking the rest of the guys out of the house and wanted the two of us to move in with them.

Just like the rest of my relationship with Leon, I jumped in with two feet immediately, more than happy not to have to leave him a few nights a week to sleep alone in my old dorm room. Peyton took a little more convincing because she didn’t want to leave Kayden.

For a few weeks she continued to go back and forth but eventually she realized that there was only one place she really wanted to be.

They’ve moved down to the first floor while we’ve kept the top.

It works perfectly for now, although I can’t help but wonder what happens after they graduate and where that’ll leave me, but I’m trying to push all of that down because all I really want to do is focus on the here and now.

“I can’t fucking wait.”

Taking my hand, he mostly ignores the crowd who are calling his name.

He signs a couple of jerseys that are thrust at him while I stand watching in disbelief that the man who’s refusing to release my hand belongs to me.

All these people here might want a little piece of him, but I know without doubt that I’m the only person who really knows him.

After a few minutes we finally break free from the crowd and head toward his car.

“Would you be mad if we didn’t party tonight?” he asks once everything gets a little quieter.

“Of course not. I’m happy to do whatever you want to.”

Pushing me back against his car, he runs his nose along the line of my jaw.

“You’re wearing my jersey, there’s only one thing I want to do.”

“Winning turn you on, Dunn?” I ask with a smirk.

“No, baby. That’s all you,” he admits, grinding his hardness against my belly. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

“Oh?”

He reaches behind him and pulls a set of keys from his pocket.

“What’s that?”

“Down for a trip to Miami?”

“That for the beach house?” I ask, excitement building in my belly.

We’ve been back to that place no less than four times since our first visit the day we officially restarted our lives, and I still can’t get enough.

“It’s no longer the beach house, Red.”

My heart thunders against my ribs as my mind races at a mile a minute.

He leans in, whispering in my ear.

“Now, it’s our beach house.”

“You didn’t?” I gasp in shock.

“I did. So now, no matter where life takes us, how hard things get. We can always go back to where it all began and remember that it’s just you and me, baby.”

“You and me, baby,” I repeat, pulling him tighter into my body and brushing my lips against his. “Forever.”

Are you ready for a new series?

Knight’s Ridge Empire is coming soon.

You can grab the FREE prequel,

WICKED SUMMER KNIGHT NOW.

Book #1, WICKED KNIGHT is coming 21st October 2021

The series is a dark mafia high school bully romance and is a spin-off of both my Rosewood High and Rebel Ink series.