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Slowly, he looked back at me. He dipped his chin. “I’ll stay.”
My body began to shake. So grateful, I whispered, “Thank you.”
Letting me stay seated, but offering me much-needed support, he pulled my upper body to his stomach, next to Ev’s dangling legs. He promised me, “I’ll stay.” The blanket slipped from my shoulders and my arms wrapped urgently around his waist. He held the back of my head, keeping me to him, and repeated, “I’ll stay,” as red and blue flashing lights barreled down the driveway.
Coach was back, this time as Sheriff. A man who was going to be crushed by the tragic reality that his life would no longer have the honor of Charmaine Bryant living in it.
Deputies got out of cars to ask questions and deal with the situation, but not Coach. His headlights glowing behind him, he approached slowly, eyes inquisitive as he studied everything about me.
Then he stopped with a jolt.
His eyes raced to Liam, who gave a nod.
Coach looked off into the darkness to his left, where there were only trees. Due to his headlights, I saw him take a very deep breath, then look back at me. His approach was slow again, like he was worried the earth was about to swallow him whole.
In front of me, he took a knee. After taking another deep breath, he finally said, “Now you know life is sometimes not fair.”
I swallowed down bile because his truth was spot on. “Yes, sir.”
“That woman,” he choked before adding, “You were her everything.”
I could barely breathe. “Yes, sir.”
It was like witnessing the man bury all his pain to do his job right, in honor of my mother. “Now let’s find who dared enter your home.”
I growled, “Yes, sir,” so ready to let bullets ring into the night.
I told him every detail I could remember… I answered every question…
From squatting in front of me, Coach finally stood. I think the agony in his heart had him unsteady for a second, as he swayed slightly. Liam, not leaving my side, quickly grabbed Coach’s shoulder to steady him.
Maybe because I was so tired that my imagination played tricks on me, but as those two men stared at each other, much being said in the silence, a moth landed on Liam’s arm. It drew me in like a hidden message for only me to see. On the moth’s forewing, I saw the image of a dark knife…
To not be heard by others, Coach quietly asked Liam, “Could I have done anything differently?” He sounded… ruined. “To save her?”
As the moth lay on Liam’s arm, he solemnly replied, “Fate is fate. Even the hostile ones.”
Arriving at Steel Stallions’ clubhouse, I was still wrecked by Coach’s questioning. Not because he had asked me so many, but because he was visibly dying with each of my answers. Trying to hide his broken heart, he was a man attempting to dig himself out of a desert’s sinkhole.
Impossible.
Until that dreadful night, I didn’t know I could respect the man even more.
Now Liam was quickly guiding me through the clubhouse. I’d been there many times, but never as Lynx, or the kid who had just held his dying mother. Or the brother of Everleigh, who enemies wanted. No, not wanted, felt she belonged to.
Again, Liam was treated like a patched Stallion as he whisked me and my sister into a back bedroom—the one he slept in when in town. To say club brothers were on high alert would be like saying bikers don’t have tempers. Armed and pissed men were everywhere. None were idle. Demands were being given. Demands were being followed.
A club girl, Penny, was already in Liam’s room, changing the sheets. Her eyes were full of pity as soon as she saw me. Her expression then softened even more after observing Ev sleeping on Liam’s shoulder.
Thanking her, Liam nudged me toward the bathroom, then gently said, “Boy, get in the shower.”
While eyeing Penny, wondering if she was one of the club girls my mom claimed snickered behind her back, I corrected Liam, “It’s Lynx.”
Liam’s head tilted in warning. “I ain’t talkin’ to the biker you will be someday. I’m talking to the boy who is a son in my heart.”
That got my full attention and made my heart thump with gratitude. I’d just lost someone I was a son to. “Yes, sir.” I went into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.
As soon as I saw my reflection in the mirror, I understood Liam’s instructions.
