He died in a war, being the hero he was born to be.
I’m here in our bed, nearly nine months pregnant with twins who willnevermeet their father. And Immy is with me because she’s been having nightmares since that terrible day two weeks ago. She climbs into bed with me when the thunder in her dreams sounds too much like the explosions that took her daddy away.
My stomach is clenching, remembering it all too clearly…
Standing in the clubhouse, Immy on my hip, watching the entrance with my heart in my throat. The brothers had been gone for hours on what was supposed to be a routine operation. But nothing about that night was routine.
LA Defiance had uncovered a Cartel network threatening the entire United States, and it needed to be taken down. Unfortunately, that network had seeped its talons into other states, and it meant that LA needed help. This Cartel takedown required a full Defiance initiative.
With the intense planning, the burden of what would happen if all Defiance chapters didn’t succeed in their missions, we knew the risks. I just didn’t fully comprehend the cost.
Those few hours, waiting for our men to come home, were the hardest of my life.
We knew this war was going to be big.
We knew this war was going to be brutal.
It never occurred to me that this one was going to completely fracture my life.
In the early hours of the morning, the heavy clubhouse doors swung open, brothers filing in one by one. Lani and I were impatiently waiting.
Grit came in battered and bloody, and my sister ran to her man. I smiled so wide as I continued to wait. Watching as Bayou came in, his face pale and drawn. City next, blood on his cut, his usual swagger completely absent. Hoodoo, Raid—all of them looking like they’d seen the end of the world.
Butno Hurricane.
I kept waiting, my eyes fixed on that doorway, expecting him to come through any second with that crooked grin and some ridiculous story about how he’d saved the day. Expecting him to sweep Immy into his arms and kiss me breathless like he always did when he came home from the fight of his life.
But the seconds stretched into an eternity, and when City and Bayou approached me, their faces grave and broken, I knew.
I knew before they said a single word.
“K-Kaia…” City’s voice cracked.
I didn’t let him finish.
I couldn’t.
The world tilted, and I felt myself falling. Immy’s frightened cries echoed as gravity claimed me.
Strong arms caught us both…
But they weren’t Hurricane’s arms.
They wouldneverbe Hurricane’s arms again.
“He promised me! He fucking promised!” I screamed.
The rest was a blur of voices, tears, and the terrible understanding that the man I loved more than breathing was gone.
Not just gone—obliterated.
Lost in an explosion that left nothing to bury, nothing to hold onto except memories and the two babies growing inside me who wouldneverknow their father’s laugh.
“Mama?” Immy’s voice pulls me back to the present. She’s sitting up now, her small hand resting on my enormous belly. “Babies coming today?”
Today.
The funeral.
