Page 29 of Biker's Property

“Who is she?”

“I didn’t tell you for a reason. It’s safer that way.”

“Does she know what happened to Coleton?”

Brinley gives Joslin a deep,penetrating look. We have the same eyes and I imagine Joslin becomes immediately weak because she nods.

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll look after her,” Brinley says, turning her suspicions onto me. “I have to protect her from you as much as I have to protect her from anyone else.”

“Thank you, Brinley.”

She rolls her eyes and takes Joslin close to her until my brother arrives. Hunter rides up quietly with his lights off like a creep, so I don’t notice him until he walks through the door. The last time I saw him, he didn’t have this much of a beard. He looks older with a beard, which makes me feel better about looking like such an old man after prison. I have more gray hair than him. The older we get, the more our different lives shape our bodies and I no longer feel like Hunter and I are the same… I never envied folks that have to go through life alone. We’re not just brothers. We share DNA down to the last cell. We have the same damn mind…

When he looks at me, it’s a true reflection of who I could be. He’s a father now and completely responsible for his family. I hate to see him looking at me like an ex-convict screw up who can’t even stay off the bottle. We communicate silently without saying anything as he glances around at the Flying J cameras, silently assessing the security as if I wouldn’t have known prior to bringing Joslin here.

He nods and I nod back. We don’t always need to exchange words to get our point across. It’s easier for us to communicate with nods and looks. I sense how he feels before he does sometimes.

Brinley pokes Joslin in the side to draw her attention away from the reality television show fight occuring on the gas station television and towards the entrance. When Joslin looks at him, an instant pulse of anger surges through me. It’s easier now than ever for Hunter to see himself as being me… but better. I don’t want Joslin falling for him. Or eventhinkingabout him.

He doesn’t seem to notice Joslin yet. His eyes wander over my clothes and to the bulge in my breast pocket. He can be such a judgmental dick.I can tell he’s looking for my flask and so fucking what? It’s there and it’s filled with a mix of whiskey and some other random ass mix of hard liquor that I can’t even remember. I’m doing just fine.

Even if I don’t have any desire to stop drinking, I admire Hunter’s sobriety. The time he spent wrapping his mind around quitting, I was in prison witnessing shit that only makes me want to drink more every time I close my eyes. Hunter slowly stops looking me up and down.

“Brinley,” he says while barely opening his mouth. She nods at him and smiles, because almost everyone who doesn’t give a fuck about me absolutely loves Hunter. My twin brother turns his gaze back to me, coating me with pure judgment only Hunter feels entitled to have about my life. He spotted the bulge from my flask, so he has all this shit figured out.

“You’re drunk and you look like shit,” he says. “What the fuck happened?”

I should just be happy he showed up without asking too many questions, I know.

Before I can answer,Hunter’s gaze snaps away from mine and lands on Joslin, who stares at my brother like he’s a demon apparition. I hate that his eyes find her so quickly, although it shouldn’t surprise me. Hunter can’t help himself but put his eyes on what’s mine.

When we were younger, Hunter couldn’t help sticking his fingers in every honey pot I set my eyes on. How many women did he just have to have? Four? Five? I lost count. Stopped caring.

But you bet your ass I care about him putting his eyes on Joslin.

I quickly step between them so he doesn’t get any ideas but Joslin’s defiant ass pops out the other side of me.

“Who’s that?” Hunter asks.

“Brinley, take Joslin into the backroom,”I say firmly to them. “I need to talk to my brother.”

She doesn’t bother fightingmy instructions, which I greatly appreciate. This isn’t something I view as up for discussion. Once Brinley disappears with Joslin into the stock room, Hunter stops acting like the strong silent type.

“Where the fuck did you get that woman and why does Wyatt sound like a mess about some desert execution. What the hell is going on?”

“I found her in the desert. She witnessed a gang of Neo-nazis beheading six of ours.”

There is so much communication Idon’thave to do with Hunter. It makes everything much easier. He doesn’t have to ask if I’m telling the truth and I don’t have to sugar coat where I found Joslin or what happened.

“Which six?”

“It’s bad,” I tell him. “Jotham. Jairus. Coleton. Christian.”

“Shaw?”

“Yes.”

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