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“It was the one thing we had in common,” Miriam laughed. “He loved to cook and experiment with food, and so did I. We decided that when the kids left the nest, we would start up a burger shack together… and amazingly, we did.”
I nodded. “That’s quite the love story.”
“It’s beautiful when you hear it in a couple of sentences, but we’ve had our rough patches, too. We separated for a couple of months when the kids were really young, but we always found our way back to each other.”
“Why do you think you did when so many other couples don’t?” I asked.
“Because we tried harder,” Miriam replied. “And we loved harder too. No relationship comes easy, Zack; you’ve got to fight for it if the person you’re with is worth fighting for.”
I nodded, wondering if my mother would have given me the same advice had she been here. I decided she would have. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said.
“Good,” Miriam nodded. “Gregory, bring Zack’s order up please.”
I shook my head at her. “Have you been holding out on me?”
“You wouldn’t have stayed to chat if you’d gotten your order right away.”
I laughed and got to my feet as Gregory came out with my order. “Thanks, Miriam,” I said sincerely.
“Anytime,” she winked at me.
I left the shack, stowed the food safely away, and then headed home on the back of my Harley. I had wanted to surprise Mila with her favorite burger from the shack, and I was counting on a quiet night in her bedroom. The boys would be around today, and even though most of them knew what was happening, we didn’t like to parade it around. No one really knew what the deal was between us anyway… least of all Mila and me.
I was coming up on the clubhouse when I heard a commotion that set me on edge. There were voices raised in anger, and I could see smoke erupting from behind the walls of the house. I sped up and whizzed in through the open gates. All the boys were out, and everyone looked a little worse for the wear.
I jumped off my motorbike and ran up to Lonny, who was bleeding from the face. “What the fuck happened? Where the hell is the smoke coming from?”
“Those motherfuckers hijacked us,” Lonny said, turning around to face us. “They set fire to the garage, and when we came out to investigate, they attacked.”
“What… who?” I demanded furiously.
“The guys you always said was behind it,” Lonny said, clearly regretting ever having doubted me. “The Knights. We managed to knock one of them off his motorbike as they made their getaway.”
The boys came up around me, and I realized that everyone was a litt
le scuffed up. I took a quick survey, and I felt my body grow cold.
“Someone’s missing—”
“Devon got shot in the arm,” Bones replied. “Red and Andy took him to the hospital. They had guns, and they caught us by surprise. We weren’t prepared for that.”
No one was addressing the one thing that was screaming over and over again in my head. “Where is Mila?” I nearly yelled.
All of the men refused to make eye contact with me. “They got her,” Lonny said when no one else spoke up. “They came for her… she came out with the rest of us when the fire started and…”
“Fuck!” I screamed.
“Devon got shot trying to save her…”
“Fuck!” I screamed again.
I turned around, found the closest thing I could punch, and sent my fist reeling into a thin tree that we were standing next to. I was breathing heavily, but I knew I couldn’t afford to lose it now. I turned back to the boys.
“You said you got one of them,” I said, through gritted teeth.
“He’s in the house,” Lonny told me. “Four of the boys are keeping a close watch on him. He got shot in the crossfire.”
“Take me to him,” I said, as I started walking towards the house.
