Stayed away, time apart, and love decayed.

"I want to reach out." Maverick admitted, "I know we should act like nothing ever happened, but I can't just forget everything that easily."

King sighed, "We talked about this. We put their lives in danger if we introduce them to our world. You know damn well that once people find out that we have a weakness, we're fucked."

"I fucking know," Maverick spoke, anger lacing his voice. "Stop reminding me! I can't be selfish, I know. I know what happens if I want them back in my life and the thought of one of them dying hurts, but not having them in my life hurts so much. So... fucking much."

The pair stayed quiet for a bit, every time the conversation went back to Jessie or Alex, it always ended like this.

"I went to see them." Maverick finally spoke up, "When we first got out and I told you I needed to get some family drama sorted, I saw them."

The air felt more tense, "You saw them, like together? How?"

"Yeah," Maverick nodded his head, "I remembered Jessie telling me about what he would do when he got out, where he would go and the things he would see. So, I went there and I saw them."

King took a deep breath. "And what happened?"

"Alex and Jessie were together and they both seem to be very happy." Maverick explained, "I saw them laughing and kissing. They looked so happy and in love, I think they moved on from us. They must have forgotten about us."

The last statement stung the pair, even though that's what they wanted. They wanted the two to find happiness, to enjoy their lives and to not be alone. The last thing King or Maverick ever wanted was for Alex and Jessie to wait on them, to stop living their lives and constantly be waiting on the pair to return to them.

King let out a sigh, "That's good to know. It's best if we all move on."

"We still have each other and that's good enough." Maverick replied and King nodded.

Alex and Jessie deserved happiness after all the chaos and pain the pair brought into their lives.

It took a while for King and Maverick to finally return to their old gang house. It took even longer for them to finally start work again.

The pain felt like it was never going to end and rather than keep focusing on it, they decided to fully embrace their lifestyle.

Maverick became more prone to violence and outbursts. He was more ruthless than ever and even the people that worked for him were scared of him. Although his anger was never misplaced on his team, they were always more scared when he was involved, due to the fact he could easily kill a man with his own hands.

King was completely stone and rarely ever showed any emotion on his face. He instead just seemed rather cold and distant. His words were like venom and laced with anger.

Due to the pair being almost unstoppable, they were a powerhouse and a danger to anyone who tried to cross them.

Although, they still hadn't given themselves enough space to fully recover from everything that happened in prison and it was even harder to accept the fact they did fall in love. Despite the fact that they would never admit it, for if they did it would all become real.

In the end, times keep going, the heart still beats, and love keeps growing.

Maverick and King were still unable to overtake Fred's gang. As it turns out, Fred was smart enough to prepare his team for when King and Maverick got out.

If it wasn't for Fred being the rat he was. The pair wouldn't have even ended up in jail, but they couldn't even take down the empire the rat built with the help of King's estranged brother.

All they wanted was revenge, but it seemed to not be that easy. Fred had already considered the repercussions of being a snitch and taken more focus to protect his ass.

King had spent months trying to get to Fred, Maverick right behind him, but Fred knew that he couldn't risk anything and wasn't falling for any of the trips the two set up. It was a game of cat and mouse and the mouse was a little bitch boy who was too scared to face the consequences of his actions.

It left the two unable to determine what type of measurements to take and how they were going to bring Fred down.

Of course when they were talking about plans and ideas, one of their team members asked them about the hitman that made a name for themselves in the black market. King and Maverick at first thought the idea was stupid, but considering that Fred would expect them to do something, they needed a different approach.

After some debate over the idea, King agreed, "We just have to find a way to contact the hitman."

And that's how the pair ended up accidentally finding the two people their hearts kept aching for.