Page 21 of Finally, Our Forever

I nod and ask, “The whole team wants in?”

He sits up straighter, smiling, knowing he’s got me. “Yeah, Cutter, Anderson, and Spader were an easy sell, but I had to talk to Owens and Donovan a few times before they agreed. They all want you in, though. Said they want the whole team or it won’t work. I agree.”

“Kings, man, it sounds good, but where were you thinking of opening this operation? I have roots here. Mac—shit.” Dragging my hands down my face, I take a deep breath.

“Have you seen your girl, Atwood?”

Shaking my head, I tell him the news my mom told me about her after I got home. “She’s married, has a baby.”

He stares at me for a beat. “You think she’s happy?” he asks the same question that’s been running through my mind for months now. I shrug my shoulders.

Looking around at the people in the bar, I say, “I don’t know. I always thought it was me and her. I know I screwed things up when I left, but I always thought that when I came home, we would be able to start what has always been between us. Maci is mine, man. She’s everything. So now I can’t have her… Fuck, I don’t know.”

“Look, I’ve never had that connection with a woman before, but I don’t think that story is finished,” Kingston says, and I nod.

“Tennessee is a good location to travel from. Anderson and Cutter are from this area as well. We all agreed we want to open up shop here.”

“Well, alright then. I guess we have some things to figure out.”

The rest of the night, we discuss the logistics of how we are going to get the firm started. Kings moved to town a few weeks later, and the other guys came soon after. It was good to have them around again. I finally started feeling normal—my version of normal, anyway. We found ten acres of land for sale in the mountains, and got busy planning our compound. We pooled our resources, but most of the backing came from Kingston. He had a trust fund that hadn’t been touched for reasons he never explained. We built Panthera Security and Protection within six months of breaking ground on the property. It was complete with a building, a gun range, tactical course, and a helicopter launch pad. The entire property was surrounded by a high electric fence. It’s a sweet setup that I’m more than proud to call ours.

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