Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Busted
I'm not defined by my chair.
My life is my club.
I know what it is to knock on death's door. Yet, I stand firm in the land of the living. I have no time for games and no patience for indecision.
I am Wesson "Busted" Vaughn.
I'm a man on a mission to save her from herself.
Emmalee
I'm absolutely lost.
My entire world is turned upside down. I don't know how to feel, what to think, or who to trust anymore.
I am Emmalee Van Etten.
I have nothing left to give and nothing to lose.
Lightening doesn't strike the same place twice, so they say. When her world crumbles and she can't run anymore, he's her only safe place to fall. They must let go of the past in order to learn to enjoy the ride.
Wesson
I learned a long time ago to take the hand life deals me and make the best of it. Until the day I had to sit back while my brother saved the woman I love. I have never felt restricted even though I live life in a wheelchair... except in that moment when she needed me most.
I have never felt less of a man than the day she walked away. She's shattered me into a million pieces. Now I have to figure out what comes next and how to keep her safe from the danger she doesn't know she's in.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
WESSON
The Tail of the Dragon, Deals Gap, North Carolina.
The air in the space is thick today or maybe it’s just the tension in my head. Whatever the case may be, this doesn’t feel like I once expected it to. Maybe it’s one of those great mysteries in life where I’ve built this up so much in mind it will never reach my expectations.
There aren’t as many times now that things are such an ‘in the face’ moment of what my accident cost me. Not like in the beginning.
When I first woke up in the hospital and Boomer told me the extent of my injuries … every single task was raw. It was a constant reminder of all that would never be once again. I fight the natural instinct to dwell even now when I know my realities far too well.
Today though, the differences exist in every second of the passing time.
This isn’t how it is supposed to be.
At all.
While everyone shares in the jubilee of the ride, I find myself longing. If I had my legs, I would be on my bike. I would hug every curve and feel the shit from top to toe. To ride is to live, to breathe, to fucking feel deep, it’s like nothing a person can ever experience again. It’s not an adrenaline rush, it is existing in a way where every inch of the body experiences.
Kick, my brother,Colton(his actual name), he will feel that vibration. He will have every inch of his body and every part of his mind engaged in the ride before him. To be one with his bike and the pavement, Kick will have the full ride.
When we were kids, we dreamed about this day. The day we would have the same cut as our dad, Nathan “Boomer” Vaughn. After everything Boomer and the Hellions gave Colt and me, it’s more than an honor to join the brotherhood. They are family in the ways that count. They are the family we never imagined having. Family isn’t blood. It’s loyalty, trust, and commitment to each other.
This is not at all what I thought today would be.
I will not get the real experience.
Never again.
No invention, no improved technology, nothing can bring my limbs back. There isn’t a single thing anyone can do to give me back what life took from me that day. Everyone says be grateful I’m alive … some days I am and some days I wish the accident was my last day. It’s hard to explain. Unless someone has experienced the struggles I have, I don’t think it’s fair to judge.
Laying in the bed with my eyes staring up to the popcorn ceiling of the run-down hotel, my mind is stuck. This void of in between. What should have been versus what is.
All of this is familiar and different at the same time. This hotel, a place I’ve stayed many times before is the same. Hell, I’ve probably slept in this very room at some point in time. The feeling in the pit of my stomach is very different.
This is a Hellions rite-of-passage. This is the day where I take the ride, I’ve been waiting my entire life for.
Except it’s not at all like I dreamed it would be.
Closing my eyes, I can pretend. Here in this room, alone, I can feel my legs. I am whole once again. No more ghost pains of limbs that are long gone. Right here, right now, I can be the man I was before. If I just shut out the world around me and let myself go back, I can be put back together in my mind.
I still remember. Vividly actually. For whatever reason, my mind refuses to let go of what is no longer my world. More times than I care to admit, I go back to before, reliving the memories of when my legs carried me through every ride.
The machine under me.
The power.
The vibration.
Every twist of the throttle pressing harder, faster, as the pavement glides under me. Sliding my foot under the clutch to click into the next gear, I press on. The tires roll smoothly as my body takes in every sensation. The wind hits my face as I breathe deep. The sun kisses my skin as I inhale the air around me.
This is peace.
All the shit I’ve done, none of it matters. I am man and machine. The wide-open road is a freedom like no other. The lives I have taken in the name of serving my country can’t haunt me. The shit that was my childhood doesn’t hang over my head. Everything goes into a neat little box where my thoughts no longer invade and overtake me. No, on my Harley, it’s just me and the curves in the road. The sun rays shine down on me dancing over my exposed flesh. The heat is a reminder I can feel. So much of my life has to be pushed down. I have to compartmentalize to survive. Emotions have no place in war. The more I twist the throttle, the faster the beast under me goes, and the harder the wind hits my cheeks. It’s a reminder I breathe. I made it out of another mission, another jump I came back from.