Page 55 of A Brother's Secret

I blinked and moved the license aside to reveal a crisp, new, social security card with my real name and real social security number. I still had mine, and my real birth certificate, tucked into an envelope in my bag… but he didn’t knowthat.

Behind the social security card were two other cards, one was a debit card, the pin number taped to the back, Kyle’s birth month and day, and the other was an actual credit card, something I had never owned before with a credit limit that far exceeded any amount of money I could ever pay back in my lifetime.

“You did all this?” I asked, and he nodded solemnly.

“I did,” hesaid.

“How?” He smiled and it was a little bit devilish and a little bit mysterious.

“I have my ways. You can drive, right?”

“Yeah, I mean, I learned how and I drove on occasion as Lexi, but I didn’t really need to in the city. I took transit and stuff.”

He got out of the car and came around to my side, opening the door. I handed him his jacket and cut and he smiled atme.

“She’s all yours, you’re going to need her when we get back home. Things are too spread out for transit to be very effective for you. I have the bike, so that'll do until we get something youlike.”

I went around to the driver’s seat and got in a little numbly, stashing the new cards, complete with insurance in the cup holder.

“Try not to get pulled over, just keep going the way we’re going, wake me up when you start seeing signs…”

His voice buzzed a little, blurring as I scooted the seat forward and buckled my seatbelt. I nodded, catching what he was saying, but just flummoxed that he managed to get all of this together, that he thought to, before coming to getme.

“Mali, you okay?” he asked and I shuddered as if waking from a dream, but this dream wasreal.

“Yeah, yeah! I’m fine, I guess it’s just becoming real, you know? Like reallyreal.”

He smiled at me and leaned his seat all the way back, covering himself with his jacket.

“It’s as real as it gets, baby.”

I put the 4Runner in reverse, and carefully backed out of the space he’d pulled into. It’d been a while since I’d driven, but I wasn’t at all intimidated by the prospect. I was more intimidated by the real me being all over the documents in the cup holder between us. It was just so surreal.

A few hours later, we switched again and I ended up napping for a time. I woke to winding country highway and a limited view due to the creeping darkness.

“Hey, we’re almost there,” he said softly, voice velvet in the dark. I shuddered and sat up, pushing his jacket and vest down into my lap and sitting the seatup.

Around twenty minutes or so later, he got into the center lane turning left and steered us through a menacing, but open, iron gate. We traveled up a steep, newly blacktopped drive that ended up spilling into a gravel and dirt lot. He parked over in line with some other vehicles and killed the engine.

A bonfire was going somewhere behind the low cinderblock building, the shifting orange light bouncing off of the underside of the surrounding tree’s leaves ringing the property and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.

“It’s okay, everyone is looking forward to meetingyou.”

“I feel like I turned their lives upside down for a minute, I mean, one of you was shot, they all have families…”

“No one’s mad. No one’s upset. Mali, we’re a big family here and we do for each other, that’s how thingsare.”

I swallowed hard, nodding, popping the door open, the dome light startling me. I couldn’t ever remember being in a car nice enough to have a working one. Kyle got out and went around to the back to grab my messenger bag and the two reusable grocery totes of expanded summer wardrobe from Florida that the Kraken girls insist I take withme.

He shouldered everything and refused to let me carry anything, nudging me in the direction of the clubhouse’s front door. I steeled myself and walked across the lot, Kyle close on my heels, and dragged open the club’s frontdoor.

“There she is!” Trigger crowed and a rowdy cheer went up. I winced at the ear-splitting whistles and put up a hand, curling my fingers in a weak wave. An even weaker “Hi” escaped my lips and people rushed forward to greet me. It was more than a little overwhelming.

“Awright! Awright! Let the woman breathe!” Dragon boomed, and Kyle said close to my ear, “Be right back, going to put this stuff in myroom.”

I turned to tell him he wasn’t leaving me, not for one minute with all of these people but it was too late, I was being swept into hugs, handshakes, and introductions before I knew it. I swallowed hard and smiled nervously for half of them before I realized that this was like anything else and needed to be taken head on. I pulled myself up by the bootstraps, just in time for Kyle to rejoinme.

“Mali, this is my Sunshine girl, Ashton.” Trigger was all loving smiles, the way Kyle looked at me, and my respect went up for him a notch.

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