Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Well…not privacy…just not me.
And that didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would.
But I did make a phone call.
“Hello?” The man on the other end of the line answered.
“Hey,” I said. “This is Sawyer.”
“I know,” the man said impatiently.
I looked at the phone to make sure I’d called who I thought I’d called, and was surprised to find that I did.
“Umm,” I said, hesitating now that he’d answered so tersely. “Your dad’s at a cemetery drinking a beer with a tombstone. Should I be worried?”
There was silence on the other end for a very long time before Sebastian finally cleared his throat.
“Which cemetery?” He asked finally.
I looked up at the sign I was standing under and said, “Bayou Road.”
His swift inhalation was audible over the phone line, and I started to worry.
“Should I go check on him?” I asked anxiously.
“No. Leave him alone. We’ll be there.”
I didn’t get a chance to ask who ‘we’ was, because he’d hung up on me before I could say anything otherwise.
It was another twenty minutes of me sitting on the hood of my car, staring up at the streetlight that was trying to decide if it wanted to turn on or not, when I heard them.
It sounded like hundreds of motorcycles, but was more like ten.
I sat up and looked behind me to where I could hear the noise coming from, and smiled when I saw six men.
They pulled up behind me, each of them wearing much the same as I’d seen Silas put on before leaving the house.
“Hey,” Sebastian said.
“Hey,” I replied back.
He gave me a long look. “What are you doing here?”
I blinked. “I, uhhh….followed him.”
“You followed him?”
That came from the big man.
Kettle this time.
“He’s not going to just let you follow him,” Trance said.
I shrugged. “Maybe he didn’t see me.”
The blonde one, Loki, with the scary scar across his throat snorted, bringing my attention to him.
Him I didn’t know as well yet, but I could tell he was laughing at me.
“What?” I asked.
He smiled, showing off a row of straight, white teeth.
“Nothing. Just find it funny that you think he didn’t know you were following him,” the man explained.
I shrugged. “Well, he hasn’t said anything, and I’ve been here for forty minutes now. I would think I’d at least get a glare or a ‘fuck off’ from him had he known I was here.”
That earned me a couple of hard stares, but it was that of his son that caught me by surprise.
“Why do I feel like I’m not getting the entire truth from you?” He asked. “Where’d you pick him up at if you were following him?”
I couldn’t very well say ‘your father’s house’ to him. I wasn’t sure who knew that I was staying at Silas’ house. They knew we were in a “relationship” of sorts, but not that I was living with him.
Not that there was much of a relationship.
We fucked.
That was about the gist of it.
“Well, I gotta go. See y’all later,” I said, scooting off the hood and rounding the car.
I dropped into the seat and was happy that they moved out of my way without me having to tell them to.
Waving at the six of them, I pulled back onto the dirt road, did a three point turn, and started back the same way I came, my shadow of prospects following in my wake.
I was happy that Silas wouldn’t be alone.
I only wished we had the type of relationship where we could talk about what was going on with each other, because I’d love to know that he was okay.
***
Silas
“Your girls’ are doing great,” I told Tunnel. “Your little one is starting school soon. Only daycare, but school nonetheless.”
I took another sip of my beer, aware of the eyes that were on me from the top of the hill.
She hadn’t been very inconspicuous as she followed me.
She was good, yes. But not trained. And not good enough to fool my seasoned eyes.
But she stayed far away, and for that I was thankful.
This was the time I used to chill out.
I tried to come out here every Friday night, rain or shine, and share a beer with Tunnel Morrison, the man that I couldn’t prevent from dying.
That marked eight brothers that I’d lost since I’d come in as the president of The Dixie Wardens MC, and this one hurt ten times more than all the rest.
Tunnel had been young.
Too young.
And he’d left a wife and small child behind.
Although it’d been a little over two years since it’d happened, it still felt just as raw now as it did then.
Mostly because it was my fault.
I should’ve done something…figured out that little shit head of a girl had had a hand in it all.
But I hadn’t…and it’d cost me.
It’d cost me a very good friend and a hole in my heart.
It hurt every single time to see Tunnel’s wife and kid without him.
To see how badly they were struggling.
When I’d started to come here, it’d been because I needed the solace and peace that this certain piece of history gave me.
To have a beer with a friend.
But then I’d kept coming.
And nobody knew.
Well, nobody had known.
Now, that silly woman who didn’t know how to leave well enough alone had followed me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of them caught on.
Hearing the telltale scream of Sawyer’s car starting up, and the belts screeching all the way down the road, I finally took a deep breath, thankful that she’d left me to my demons.
I had a lot of fuckin’ demons.
So many that it was hard to breathe sometimes.
Sawyer was slowly helping me defeat them.
One by one, until I could breathe deeply once again…and sleep all the way through the night.
Grass crunching had me turning around to see Kettle, Sebastian, Loki, Trance, Torren, and Cleo walking towards me. I heard them pull up, but I wasn’t sure that they would come down here with me.
I sighed in annoyance.
“You know, I’ve been doing this for months now, and one call from my woman has all of y’all running out here like you have a right to be here…and drinking my beer. Perfect.”