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It was as if God had swallowed up the gift He had let me borrow for a while.
Spit dripped from my mouth as I bent over, held my wounded gut, and yelled, “Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!”
By the time Harleys roared toward me, I was stumbling around, hitting my chest, trying to get air into my lungs that had ceased to work. “Eeeeelle!”
Mouth gaping, I turned to the strongest man in my life. “Pops…” I tripped to the side. “She…” I stumbled forward. “He…” My feet kept trying to take proper steps, but I had forgotten how to walk. “How…” I looked up to the sky again, but now I was seeing stars. Moving ones. “El—” I couldn’t even finish saying her name now. Without her with me, her name on my tongue was like acid.
Pops stood there, staring, as if realizing history was repeating itself.
I never wanted to feel the pain he felt after losing my mother. I purposely stayed single to avoid such a deadly path of the heart, but those damn green eyes had dug their way into my chest and cracked it wide open.
Now I stood there, everything in me utterly exposed.
My shattering soul cried out, “Daaaaad!”
Pops’ body slammed to mine.
His menacing arms wrapped around and held me as I screamed, “Help meeeee!”
Mad fury vibrated off him, but his words shot out like fire. “Vice.”
From over Pops’ shoulder, I saw Vice rapidly talking into his cell, pacing, but came running when his Prez demanded it.
Embrace as thick as his love for me, Pops snarled, “Vice, call them in. And I mean them fucking all. Every Goddamn one of my men. Even the Wolves.”
Wolves were Redemption Ryders. Diesel’s motorcycle club.
The relationship between Pops and these two brothers was deep, long, and unbreakable. If Pops called for Diesel, that fucker would come barreling in with bullets flying and ask questions later. Why they had separate clubs, well, that’s a story for them to tell.
If it weren’t for Elle, I would have stopped Pops. Diesel had just recovered a long-lost son. He didn’t deserve to be pulled away from such a monumental event in his life, but Elle had already been elevated to Old Lady status, in the Original Steel Stallions Chapter. That meant Lorenzo had just stirred a hornet’s nest that wouldn’t settle until their queen had been returned.
Have you ever stared at yourself in the mirror and wondered how much you even like what you see? Like whom you’ve become? Was I worth her sacrifice?
I hated that I wasn’t sure.
The reflection in the bathroom mirror was full of self-doubt.
If anyone was ever going to give their all for me, ever again, I was going to be damn sure I was worth it. This whole time, I’d been insisting to Elle that she needed to realize her truth—that she was worth the fight—yet I hadn’t done the same… for me.
It was time that I did.
Every step I took, from this moment forward, was going to be out of respect for life and free choice.
Choice…
I respected Elle’s decision but needed to give her the freedom to choose freely again.
I stared at myself in the mirror.
We had made our way to a sister chapter of the Steel Stallions. We were hidden away in a swampy area in Mississippi where only locals dared tread and Stallions cherished. No one spoke to me after I parked my bike. The President of this chapter silently escorted me to a room that looked like the one-story motels we had been staying in for days now.
Appropriate.
The row of rooms made me feel closer to Elle.
I stared at my reflection… then picked up the clippers.
Like a religious person wanting to repent and have his sins forgiven, I clicked on the power and lifted the sheers to the front of my long hair. The first swipe was freeing as my blond lengths fell to the countertop.
