One Last Rainy Day: The Legacy of a Prince

Tobias ignores their calls and texts for three weeks. Dom and Sean have no idea who told Tobias their secret, but it must have been someone in their inner circle. In the meantime, Dom and Sean have ceased contact with Cecelia, which makes them feel terrible. Finally, Tobias returns, demanding to know how they managed to deceive him for three months. After they tell their story, he sentences them to 10 months in exile, forbidding contact with Cecelia. Without telling them, Tobias has already met with her and told her who he is. Dom and Sean are forced to move out of the townhouse, and they don’t know where Tobias is sending them. Shortly before they’re to leave, Sean finds out that Cecelia is down the street at a festival alone, so he races there. Dom doesn’t go, but Cecelia follows Sean back to the house and begs Dom not to leave. She tells him that she loves him, and he is amazed that she now knows the truth about their deception and still loves him. He remembers Tobias’s warning, though, and says nothing. He chooses his brother and the club over her, and he’s sure he’ll regret it for the rest of his life.

Dom and Sean are sent to France, and six months later, Dom still thinks about Cecelia nonstop. They have “designated babysitters,” Julien and Albert, who are always with them. Julien has been Dom’s greatest ally, and his military training and education make him a good candidate for the club. Julien helps Dom gain intel he’s been seeking for years. He learns that, with Tobias’s help, an unscrupulous man called Antoine has built the largest club in France and amassed incredible power. Dom wants to liberate Tobias from Antoine, and Julien helps Dom make a plan. It breaks Dom’s heart to see the horrible people with whom Tobias surrounded himself because he was lonely. He is saddened by the reality that Tobias has never felt the kind of love Cecelia gave to Dom. He now believes that “Hell’s true definition is living out the wrong decision” (363), that he should have chosen Cecelia and given up the club.

Although Dom has only one week of exile left, he decides that he has to go to Cecelia. He uses Julien’s burner to call Tyler, telling Tyler to get him out now. Tyler says that Delphine hasn’t had a drop of alcohol in 11 months, and Dom realizes that she’s been able to change for the better because Tyler loves her and she loves him. Dom and Sean go home.

Dom and Sean go to Roman’s house and find Cecelia and Tobias together. Dom is crushed. Cecelia is shocked to see Dom and Sean. Dom lashes out at her but soon realizes that Tobias let Cecelia believe that he and Sean had left by choice. Dom can tell that Tobias has found his salvation in Cecelia, the same as Dom did, and Tobias chose her, put her above everything and everyone else. However, he drugs Cecelia and has her tattooed, claiming her without giving her any choice. Dom walks away from her sleeping form.

Dom now understands why people turn to drugs and alcohol to numb their pain. Sean doesn’t think he can forgive Tobias, and Dom says it’s Sean’s call if he wants to walk away from the club. Delphine’s cancer is back, stealing Tyler’s happiness. Dom curses the stars that have brought such tragedy to the group. They all sit around until Cecelia shows up in a rage. She holds up a gas can and pours it in a big puddle that prevents club members from accessing the door. She demands to know who is responsible for her tattoo. No one answers, so she strikes a lighter and drops it. Tobias calls, frantic because the Miami chapter is on its way to kill Roman, and she isn’t safe. Tobias shouts that Roman didn’t kill their parents, that he’s with Roman right now. Tobias says Roman’s always known that their club was trying to get to him. He tells Dom to do everything possible to protect Cecelia.

The Prologue is repeated at the beginning of this chapter. Dom follows Cecelia to Roman’s house, where Matteo—of the Miami club—waits. Tobias and Andre, from Miami, arrive, and Dom knows it is his fate to keep Cecelia safe, to avenge the innocents he’s sworn to avenge in the past. He tells Cecelia that her memory kept him going when he was away, and she begs him not to do what he’s obviously planning to do. Tobias orders Dom to stand down. Matteo shoots Dom, and he dies in Cecelia’s arms.

Denny vows to kill every person in that house without a tattoo, and gunfire rings out all around him and Tyler. They find Sean straddling one of the Miami guys, pounding his face before firing his gun at pointblank range. The other Miami guys try to run, and the birds take them down. Tyler brings news that four birds are dead. Tobias descends the staircase, carrying Dom’s body. Denny mourns his only friend.

The aftermath of Dom’s death is “excruciating,” and the club’s new reality is “surreal.” At the funeral, Tyler sees Sean’s contempt for Tobias and knows their relationship cannot be repaired. Tobias asks him where Cecelia is, and Tyler says she’s at school. Tobias speeds away, but Tyler is confident he’ll turn around by the time he hits the Georgia state line. Delphine mourns Dom like a son and cries in Tyler’s arms.

Russell spots a kid peeking at Dom’s funeral service from behind a tree. The kid looks sickly and dirty, and he tells Russell that Dom was the only person who cared for him. He begins to walk away, saying he doesn’t belong, and Russell asks if his name is Zach. It is, and Zach is shocked Dom told anyone about him. Russell says Zach is exactly where he’s supposed to be.

Sean recalls the first time he met Dom. Sean was riding his bike when he saw Dom sitting on the curb. He asked if Dom wanted to ride bikes, even offering Dom his bike, but Dom declined. When Sean started to walk away, Dom relented and got on; just then, Tobias called to him from the house. Sean asked Dom to meet him later, but Dom said Tobias wouldn’t let him, so Sean told him not to tell Tobias. Now, Sean talks to Dom’s grave. He feels completely lost.

For a year, Tyler worked on unlocking Dom’s laptop to no avail. He thinks about the time when Tobias was in the hospital, and Tyler spent a year trying to get him out of bed. Tobias acted like he was the only one suffering. Tyler was angry that Tobias had so little regard for his own life when Tyler had just watched Delphine pass away. Now, however, it is eight years after Dom’s death, and they still haven’t been able to get into that laptop. They followed Dom’s plan to take Antoine down, and Cecelia played a major role. They’ve figured out the first password—Always Brothers—but they can’t figure out the second. Tobias says he gave the laptop to Dom so Dom could work on the “list” of bad guys he wanted to kill when he got the go-ahead. It suddenly occurs to Tyler that Dom programmed Cecelia’s fingerprints in as well as Tobias’s, and they piece together the second password, which answers the question what is the raven’s natural enemy? The answer is the bald eagle. They realize Dom made it so that Tobias and Cecelia would have to be together to figure it out.

The videos and evidence they find are sickening, and they all finally understand the inhuman strength it must have taken Dom to bear this burden alone for so long. When Tobias snaps out of his initial explosion of fury, Tyler sees only vengeance in Tobias’s eyes.

Over the next two months, Tyler hears on the news about all the human traffickers, A-listers, military officials, and more who have been taken down by “the most methodical retribution plot in US history” (435). The FBI and CIA call it “vigilante justice.” Tyler still can’t get over how carefully Dom plotted and planned every detail to bring these monsters down. He goes to pick up Zach, who has just completed basic training, from the airport. They go to Dom’s grave, and Tyler sees Zach’s fresh ink; he is now Zach’s legal father. Tyler speaks to Dom’s grave, saying that he was the someone who did something.

The final chapter consists of a series of images, some clearly recognizable and others not. Sean said to Dom at his funeral, “I’m right behind you” (441). There’s a “battered heart pushing a ring on a new love’s finger,” and this suggests that Tobias and Cecelia should marry. There’s a “faithless man healed by a fatherless son” (441), which could refer to Tyler’s adoption of Zach, and the way Zach helped him heal after the loss of both Dom and Delphine. There’s Sean, saying, “I told you I’d give you my firstborn, but I gave him your name instead” (441). There are several newborns crying. There’s the “coronation of a queen” (442), which suggests Cecelia’s rising status in the club. There’s Tobias whispering to him, in French, that they’d always be brothers. And there’s Dom’s mother.