“Well, as long as you’re here, guess I’ll stay.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. This chapter’s got some good brothers in it. I think I fit right in.”
I laugh at that. “Shack, you don’t fit in anywhere.”
He gives me a goofy grin and lifts his longneck. “Here’s to having a brother who sees through all my bullshit.”
I clink my bottle to his. “Amen.”
“Like I said…” His eyes follow a woman walking through the clubhouse. “The scenery around here is real pretty.”
I shake my head. “Once a dog, always a dog.”
“Ruff.”
He gets up and follows her to the jukebox.
“Just make sure she’s not some brother’s ol’ lady, Shack,” I call after him, then sip my beer and make a plan. I figure I’ll give it until midnight, then head into town.
CHAPTER FIVE
Maggie—
I stare at the ceiling, like it’ll give me answers to the million questions in my head.
Sully is here, in Durango of all places. And a member of a motorcycle club—and not just any old lightweight club. The Royal Bastards were about as badass as he could get.
When my brothers showed up in town last year, I was so pissed off. The last thing I wanted them to do was find me, but I knew right away what my mistake had been.
I’d broken down and called my father on his birthday last year.
I’d kept in touch with my girlfriend, Piper, and she’d let me know he wasn’t well. Her father had heard from the bartender down at Lucky’s that my father had contracted liver cancer.
When I called him, he denied it. Said he was fine, and those busybodies needed to mind their own business. We’d talked for half an hour. He asked where I was and if I was okay, but never once asked why I left.
He sounded tired, and I realized he really was sick.
I asked if he wanted me to come home, but he said that wasn’t necessary. The boys were taking good care of the place. I gave him my address in case of an emergency.
Two months later, my brothers showed up.
My father had died the month before. The house was mortgaged to the hilt, and the bank foreclosed.
With my father gone, business at the repair shop dried up, so they packed up and headed out here, having found my address in Daddy’s desk.
I wasn’t happy about it, but I’d adjusted. Just when I thought things were evening out in my life, in walks the one man I’ve never forgotten.
So many nights I lay awake, wondering where Sully was and if he was doing well. He ripped my heart out when he left. He didn’t just leave town. He leftme.
I’d felt so abandoned. He’d been a lifeline for me, and it had taken years for me to get over losing him in my life. And now that he was here in Durango, my biggest fear was that he had the power to tear my heart out again.
When he didn’t speak a word to me today, it was like ripping open an old wound. Things between us felt so unfinished, but maybe that was just me. Maybe I’d been way more attached to him than he had been to me. After all, I’d been his friends’ pain-in-the-ass little sister for so long.
In truth, we really didn’t know each other anymore. He and I were completely different people now. And with him in a motorcycle club, it was obvious we had nothing in common anymore.
He surely wasn’t my knight in shining armor now. With that cut on his back, he was about as far from it as he could get.
