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Despite her jumbled nerves and heavy insides, Cassie laughed. Leave it to Copper to scold her before taking her to a club memorial service for her husband. Since it came from a place of love, she stepped up to him and gave him a hug. He’d been a son to Viper as much as he was a president or a brother. “I heard your truck pull up. I knew it was you. I’m not stupid, Copper. I know we still have to watch out for the Chrome Disciples even though you got the one who blew up the diner.” She couldn’t say, “got the one who killed Viper.” The words wouldn’t come.
His response was a low-pitched grunt. Exactly what she’d expect from him.
The oddest thing about Viper’s death was how much of her life remained the same despite the fact that everything had changed. She almost laughed out loud. The thought barely made sense, but everyone around her was the same person they were ten days ago. A little sadder maybe, but the same. They went to work, took care of business, loved their families. The world turned in exactly the same direction in the same amount of time. The sun rose, set, and warmed the earth. Yet Cassie felt she was an entirely different person than she was ten days ago.
Maybe a more accurate description was that she was half a person now.
“How are you?” Copper asked, holding her tight. “And none of that bullshit I know you’ve been giving everyone else. Don’t even think about telling me you’re fine.”
She smiled against his massive chest. Leave it to Copper to give it to her straight. She sighed. Might as well give it back to him straight. “My head hurts. It has for days. But it’s nothing compared to the ache I can’t get out of my chest.”
Copper didn’t respond, just held her closer.
“I’m sad, lonely, and a little scared. You always hear people saying they don’t know how to go on without someone, the person they loved so much. It’s not true,” she said while he still hugged her. “I know how to do it. I know how to get up in the morning by myself. I know how to take care of my house, pay the bills, make it through the day. I know how to go to bed alone each night. I just don’t want to.”
Copper tensed and she realized how her words might sound.
“I don’t mean that I don’t want to live, Copper. All I meant is that I want Viper here with me. I just…” She shrugged against him, fighting tears. “I just want him with me. It’s just that simple. I want him and he’s gone, so I’m sad. Tremendously sad.”
It felt as though her heart weighed five hundred pounds.
Copper relaxed. “Makes sense, Cas.”
He wouldn’t wax on about life, love, and death. That wasn’t Copper’s way. But he and the club would take care of Cassie for the rest of her life. She’d never want for family or love. And that was far more important to her than him being able to spout flowery words that didn’t mean much anyway.
“You ready to go?”
Cassie nodded. “Just gonna grab my bag.”
After a quick trip to the bathroom to fix the eye makeup already smudging, she grabbed her purse off her bed and followed Copper out to his truck. For the first half of the twenty-minute trip, they rode in silence until Copper finally said. “You know, one time, a good few years ago, he told me the story of how you two met.”
“He did?” She turned her head to watch him as he made a right onto a winding mountain road. They never really spoke of how they met with others. The story could have had a very different ending and Cassie still felt the old anxiety whenever she thought of it. But now, she was curious what Viper had told his friend and president.
“Yep,” Copper said, eyes on the road ahead. “Always wondered if he’d exaggerated how he and Sarge saved you.”
With a laugh Cassie relaxed into the heated seat of Copper’s giant pickup. “Well then, I guess you better fill me in on what he told you.”
CHAPTER FIVE
1982 - WASHINGTON
“You solid with the plan?” Sarge asked as they sat astride their idling bikes.
Viper stared straight ahead at the quiet shack. Light from a television screen flickered through the window of the front room. Other than that, the place might as well have been deserted.
Legs had been back on watchdog duty for the past six hours. Viper and Sarge were set to relieve him for the remainder of the night. Their orders were to keep the girl alive and a virgin, but they’d been given the green light to “play a little” as Fox had said. Long as she went to her buyer with an intact pussy and bruise free, they were good to go.
