CUL-DE-SAC (On The Edge Book 1) (44 page)

EPILOGUE

Three days later, Catalina was utterly
consumed in admiring a sparring session between Xan and Noah… through her lens.
She tried to pace herself and take only the most intriguing shots, capture the
best angles, but she felt like a starved woman placed in front of a buffet.

There was literally no bad angle and no bad
picture when she was depicting Xan.

Yes, she realized she might not be the least
biased person in the world, but she deserved some leniency in the light of the recent
events.

Facing Xan’s past, her grandmother, and
Tony on top of that, took a heavy toll on both of them, but she wanted to
believe the hardest part was behind them. She didn’t dare say it out loud
because life had a funny way of taking such statements as a challenge. And they
could use some time without any dare coming their way, she decided.

She raised her Canon for what felt like the
hundredth time, feeling as if she were having a workout of her own.

She took another picture when Xan was
telling Dragon that learning to accept the fact of being beat up every now and
then would make it much easier on him when it actually happened.

She tried to stay on the sidelines and not
intrude as much as possible because she understood Noah was having a hard time
getting back in the saddle after his last fight ended so catastrophically for
him.

Catalina knew that it was a lesson Xan had
learned intimately more than once himself. Acceptance was the last word she
would use in order to describe her warrior when she first met him, yet now she
could clearly see it in him.

Acceptance along with a strong mind, she
thought.

He wasn’t the kind of man to give up after
a rough day; he made promises to keep them, not to use them as a springboard
for creating excuses. He held himself accountable and persevered through the
obstacles that were trying to stop him from reaching his goals.

But he wasn’t the only one who had changed,
she decided, taking a few more shots.

She had stepped so far out of her comfort
zone since that night at the club where she took his first picture that she
could barely recognize herself.

The very same club that was shut down now
and its owner was facing very serious charges.

She sat next to Xan in Gabriel’s office
while her friend was taking their statement. His every word when he was
describing the events of the last twelve years of his life was forever etched
into her heart like shards of glass. And he was not the only one who had been
lured into joining the club under similar circumstances. Noah had a similar
experience and Cat could bet more fighters would step out of shadows to tell
their stories.

She understood Xan’s forced stay in the
club better than she would have liked. Catalina knew how it felt when someone
did all in their power to root out even the slightest indication of
independence, stifle every bit of freedom a person would gain.

A cage was a cage, no matter if it might
look gilded on the outside just like hers did.

Yet Xan didn’t allow any of it to warp him:
not his father’s sociopathic behavior, not Tony Boden’s ill-understanding of
ways in which loyalty was built.

Maybe her friendship with Gabriel Mercer
was never going to be the same as before, but she knew he was a man of his word
and she could count on him. No matter what the future brought, she would never
forget he crossed the lines for them, allowing Xan to get his things from the
club so he wouldn’t get mixed up with all that went down after that. It was the
best gift he could have ever offered them.

Yes, she could count on him while so many
others would turn their back on her in the blink of an eye. Some of them
already did, she thought, remembering Chloé and even Florence.

‘Their loss’
, she recalled
Xan’s words.

Was it surprising she was madly in love
with him? She smiled to herself, pushing the shutter of her camera time after
time.

They all had their inner demons trying to
hold them back on a day-to-day basis, but now she knew that having someone who
fought next to her made everything more bearable.
“Hey Cat.” She lowered her Canon to smile at Kelton when he called out her
name.
“You are not joining them today?” She asked curiously.

“Not today; watching is sometimes more
educational than participating.” There was laughter in his voice and she looked
at him questioningly.
“How come?”
“Take you and your love affair with this camera for example.” He chuckled while
she frowned. “I would have never imagined a photographer could make love
through the lens of her tool of trade. See?
Educational
.” He grinned at
her and she blushed.
“Don’t let Xan hear you; he is already full of himself,” she teased.
“I wonder why that might be.” He smirked making her laugh.
“Flirting with my woman again?” Xan wiped his face with a white towel, walking
toward them.
“She’s so cute, I can’t stop myself,” Kel said and she rolled her eyes.
“Can’t blame you.” The look he sent her couldn’t be considered anything other
than wicked.

He bent his head to brush his lips across
her mouth.
“Have I told you that I love you today?” It was funny how he guarded himself
against the words and feelings before her, Xan thought.

However, it only made him appreciate more
what he had now. Cul-de-sac had elicited plenty of emotions in him and most
were of a bad kind, but he could never really hate the place since it also
brought Catalina into his life.

No, he wouldn’t change even one single
thing from his past if it meant altering the present with her.
“I love you too.” Her lips were smiling and pliant under his when he pulled her
toward the locker room.
“They are starting again,” Dragon complained. “I didn’t even get a chance to
ask her if I am going to make at least one of those pictures.”
“There might be a very slight chance, but I wouldn’t count on it much,” Kel
chuckled, looking after the couple.

THE END

Footnotes

1.
   
(MMA) Mixed martial
arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and
grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, from a variety of other
combat sports and martial arts.

2.
   
(adj) Anything that
is perceived as "upscale" from a blue-collar point of view. 'Bougie'
(pronounced boo'-she) is a hacked truncation of the word Bourgeoisie, which
refers to the middle-class in Europe, but refers to a more affluent class level
in the United States.