Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
“Your son?” I ask, needlessly.
“Yep. You came down the day he got patched in as Road Captain.”
I turn the page and see a couple. They don’t look familiar, but there’s still something about them that calls to me. One is a huge black man, staring at a redhead as if she owns his whole world. There’s so much love between the two of them it literally jumps off the picture and hits you with the emotion. I can almost feel a connection to them, but it’s all fuzzy. I strain to remember something … anything.
“That’s your parents. Bull and Skye.”
I nod. I stare at them again. “I obviously take after my mother, I guess.” I don’t really see any of me in my father. They’re happy—deliriously so. I try hard, but no memory or anything pops up.
Devil laughs. “I hope you’re not going by the color of your skin, because your little sister looks just like your mother, but she has Bull’s attitude and stubbornness. She’s more like him than any of you.” I make a humming noise, but don’t reply. “Anyway, Bull is actually your stepfather—not that he’d thank me or anyone else for saying that. Hell, he’d probably beat the shit out of anyone that referred to him as that. Truth is, you were his son from the first moment he began seeing your mother. He adopted you and made it official later on.” I don’t acknowledge that. I think I’m on overload at this point. I stare at the last picture. It’s a photo of three men. I look back at Devil. “That’s Dragon, the president of your club, Diesel, the president of mine, and the dark-haired one on the end is Crusher. He’s our vice president. He started with your chapter, but moved to Tennessee years ago and took over the same role with our club.”
“Did the pictures help at all?” Cooper asks, but I shake my head no.
“Not really.”
“You can’t still expect me not to let them know you’re alive. These people are grieving you, Breaker. I might be accused of being an asshole, but if you let them keep hurting, you’re worse than that.”
“I’m not ready yet. I need a few more weeks. I don’t think I could handle meeting them. They want their son back and right now, that’s not who I am.”
“So, what? You’re just going to stay away forever, letting them hurt? That’s pretty fucking selfish, if you ask me.”
“Not forever. I just need some time. A couple weeks maybe. I need to get back to Indy’s and talk with her. There are things the two of us need to work out. When I get ready to talk to them, I want her to be with me.”
“Indy?” he asks, and I find my first genuine smile of the day.
“She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s my woman,” I announce, making Cooper laugh.
Devil grins. “Is she going to agree?”
“It may take some talking, but eventually, I’ll get her to accept it,” I joke.
“I’ll sit on this information for a couple more weeks, then. If you haven’t told them by Thanksgiving, I will, though. That’s all I can give you. To be honest, I shouldn’t agree at all—”
“Devil—” I start, but he holds up his hand, stopping me.
“I’ve been through shit in my life. I might have kept my memories, but I lost a lot of myself just the same. I pushed away the ones who loved me the most. I understand it. Take a little time to let Indy help you heal enough to take the next step. I’m telling you that once you let her in, your life will always be sweet, even with the shit life throws at you.”
“I can amen to that. Iva has saved my life more than once.”
I grunt, saying nothing as I hand Devil’s wallet back to him. “Can you tell me more about my family and friends?” I ask, knowing that the more information I have, the easier it will be to face them when the time comes.
“That I can do. I’ll also tell you why you were shot and what’s going on there. Your club took care of the threat, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to know everything that has happened.”
“I’d like that,” I admit. “I want to make sure that Indy and her daughter are protected above anything else.”
“They’re safe. I’ll tell you more, but first, let’s order up some grub. I’m hungry, and the special here today is meatloaf.”
“Sounds good,” I lie. What I really want to do is hop in Cooper’s truck and head back to Indy. Still, I know she’s going to have a lot of her own questions, so I need all the information I can gather to talk about with her.
Cooper motions the waitress over and I take a deep breath. Today was step one to regaining my life back. I have a long way to go, but I’m closer to having Indy standing beside me and that’s the one thing I want more than anything else.