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I know I may be safe right now. I also know that I’m facing nearly twenty hours of travel to get to where I’m going, including more than a dozen stops and two bus changes.
I’m left thinking that Quincy was right as the bus pulls away from the gas station. I also know that getting to New Mexico is not even half of the risks I have to take in order to start living my own life the way I want to.
I close my eyes, doing my best to rest, but sleep doesn’t come.
There are so many things still up in the air. Even though my trip to the Cerberus clubhouse is the first leg of my journey, it’s far from the last. I’m just hoping that the man who was once my brother’s best friend remembers who I am. It’s not like he’s shown his face in the eleven years since he got my brother killed.
Chapter 6
Legacy
“It’s weird, right?”
“Not really,” I say, lifting a bottle of water to my lips.
“He put that kid in danger,” Stormy mutters, his opinion clear in his tone. “Twice.”
“That is Sunshine and Bishop’s business.”
He grunts in disapproval.
Thankfully, he remains silent as Ryder, Sunshine’s little boy, opens up his present from his dad.
“Superman, nice,” Stormy praises.
The next gift the kid opens is a small stack of books. It’s clear the type of young man Sunshine is raising when he thanks Bishop for the books even though he’s not as interested in them as he is in the gift from his biological father.
Little Jamie, Hound’s oldest son, grins when Ryder hands him a book with a blue truck on the front.
Stormy places his drink on a side table before stepping in front of me. “And for the other birthday boy.”
I stare at the envelope in his hands. It’s innocuous as most things go, but the glint in his eyes tells me what’s inside is anything but.
“We said appropriate gifts only,” Hound warns, clearly getting the same vibe.
A wave of whispers goes around the room. The light in the room glints off of the golden envelope as he shoves it into my hands. Clearly others are in the know right now, and it makes me feel even more apprehensive.
I take the envelope, figuring that making a bigger deal out of this right now would only make it worse. Pulling open the flap, I see the logo for Hale-ish, the Denver sex club some of the folks from the club like to go to occasionally.
I’ve heard rumors that Hound and his wife Gigi go there sometimes. That’s why he must’ve said what he said.
My only saving grace when people stare at me expectantly is the additional gift card inside. I pull it out and hold it up.
“It’s a gift card to that new steak place out on the highway,” I say, displaying it while shoving the other envelope into the back pocket of my jeans.
I glare at Stormy, wanting to ring his fucking neck. But getting violent in front of the kids would be frowned upon.
“We ate there last week,” Ryder says with a wide grin. “The nuggets are delicious.”
I look to him, grateful that a lot of the attention is off of me.
I almost laugh when he looks from the book in little Jamie’s lap and back at me. I can practically see the wheels turning in his head before he speaks.
“Do you like trucks?”
Laughter fills the room, my own cheeks tugging up into a smile.
I turn back to Stormy, seconds away from wrapping my hands around his throat for putting me on the spot, but then I freeze, the steakhouse gift card falling from my fingertips.
“Devyn?” I ask, feeling as if I’m seeing a ghost.
This past week leading up to my birthday has been a weird one for me. I know it has a lot to do with it being the first one I’ve celebrated since Vaughn’s death where I wasn’t still in the military. It’s the first one celebrated as a member of Cerberus. The two of us were always supposed to end up here.
My recent trip down memory lane included finding Devyn on social media when the search for her parents didn’t produce any results.
I wouldn’t recognize the young lady standing in front of me otherwise.
I knew when I scrolled through her social media a couple days ago that she’d grown from the sad little girl I last saw at Vaughn’s funeral into a beautiful young woman. I couldn’t really consolidate the two of them.
Even now with her standing across the room, it’s as if I conjured her from some dark place inside of me that needed some form of proof that it’s okay to be happy with the life I’ve been allowed.
But maybe she’s here for another reason. Maybe she’s here for vengeance, a form of retaliation for her brother’s death. It wouldn’t be unheard of for a family to hyperfocus on revenge and to instill that same need for vengeance in their only living child.
