Page 105 of Blade

Rachel and Ryder were my family. Micah used to be until he died.

I looked up from my lap and observed my mother. Conifer Washington Sawyer. Connie is what she went by. She always hated her name, but with a mother like Willow, what had she expected?

I chuckled to myself when I thought about how Grams would always call her by her full name. ‘I gave you that name for a reason Conifer, I intend to use it.’That’s what she told her constantly.

She sat beside me, stiff as a board. No emotion, just like at my grandfather’s funeral. The woman would never need Botox because her face hadn’t shown any emotion to cause wrinkles. No laughing, no crying. There was anger and disappointment though, and I couldn’t forget judgement.

I heard the rumble of the bikes.

They led the hearse carrying Grams to her last resting place. The men climbed from their bikes and walked to the back of the long car.

I watched with unshed tears as the men my Grams so dearly loved carried her to the graveside.

King and Blade were in the front, followed by Gunner and Colt, then Ghost and Jingles, and Jack and Cash bringing up the rear. Matching dark jeans and black T-shirts, and their Silver Shadows cuts proudly displayed on their backs. All wearing sunglasses to hide the emotion I knew they were fighting.

They loved my Grams.

“I can’t believe you let them even attend her funeral, let alone be a part of it. What must the town think of this?” my mother sneered in my ear so only I could hear her.

“I didn’tletthem do anything, Mother. Grams made all the arrangements herself and asked each of those men, whom she had the utmost respect for personally, if they would carry her home.”

I did not want to deal with her bullshit today.

Yup, apparently I cursed now.

Just another thing Micah broke in me.

My stepbrother Michael put his arm around me as the guys laid my grandmother above her plot. I loved Michael. I couldn’t love him more if he had been my biological brother. He was the one thing my mother had ever given me that meant something.

I leaned into him as the Shadows filed in to stand behind us after King laid something over her casket.

I heard the telltale growl and closed my eyes just before the words hit.

“If you want to keep that fucking arm, remove it from my woman.”

I sat up straight and turned to look at Blade over my shoulder.

“Not the time, brother.”

I smiled up at King and mouthedThank you.He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. As much as I flipped back and forth when first meeting these men, I realized that they all held a special place in my life and in my heart, even the asshole glaring at me once again.

I turned around and tapped Michael’s thigh. The growl started again, and I told my stepbrother.

“Thank you, I love you, but I don’t want the neanderthal behind me to cause a scene.”

He smiled at me, then looked back at Blade. “I think I can take him.”

I heard Jack bark out a laugh.

Michael was a big guy, an inch or two shorter than Blade, but built like a linebacker. Women went crazy over him. He was insanely handsome.

Too bad for them.

They weren’t his type. Nope, not a single one of them. Blade didn’t know that though. He also didn’t know Michael was my brother.

My mother turned to glare at the eight large men that would terrify most women and chastised them, “Show some respect.”

Then turned back around, her shoulders stiff, like her personality, before they could say anything back.

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