Page 54 of A Brother's Secret

“Think nothing of it,” Hope said. “I’m just disappointed I didn’t get to really kick someone’s ass. I feel like I am getting all kinds of rusty.”

“Heh, you want I’ll be your Huckleberry,” Cutter offered and she gave her mate a savagegrin.

“You’re on, always ends up us fuckin’ anyway.”

“Too true, tootrue!”

There was laughter and I said, “Say goodbye to Galahad and Charity forme?”

“Of course,” Marlinsaid.

“We’re going to miss you!” Faith came in for another hug and I hugged her back tightly. You would think Hope and I would have gotten along like a house on fire but I honestly think were a touch too much alike. Faith and I, though? We’d damn near become best friends over mystay.

“You all will have to meander up north for a stay,” Kyle said and Cutter said, “Sounds like a fine idea! Been a minute since we’ve taken a club ride. We’ll see about settin’ somethin’ up in the near future.”

“Sounds good,” Kyle shook hands with him and we turned for his 4Runner.

“Y’all drive safe, now!”

He took off his jacket and cut and laid it across my lap with a wink, before shutting me into the passenger seat and then came around to the front. A weight I hadn’t realized rode me lifted from my shoulders as we headed out oftown.

“Homeward bound,” he declared and I smiled nodding.

“So where is home?” I asked.

“Well, for tonight, it’s at the club. The boys and the ol’ ladies are dying to see you, meet you for real and roll out the welcome mat properly. We’ll stay in my club room, and tomorrow we’ll head on over to the house.”

“Your house?” I asked.

“No, baby… the house… I kept it foryou.”

“Wait, the house you grew up in, as in your folk's place?”

“Ah, yeah…”

I leaned back in my seat, a little stunned, my fingertips absently petting the patches on hisvest.

“Can’t we go straight there?” I asked, suddenly eager.

He laughed, “Tomorrow, babe. I promise we’ll get you all moved in tomorrow.”

I nodded and turned to face out the window, my fingers suddenly itching for my tarot cards in my messenger bag in the back cargoarea.

We drove in silence for a couple of hours, and I appreciated that he let me think. At the next rest stop, he pulled off and asked, “Do you think you can drive for a couple of hours?”

“I don’t have a driver’s license, I never got one. Just a fake ID asLexi.”

He pulled into one of the spaces in front of the rest stop facilities and turned his head to look at me, eyes a little bit wide, and then flipped through the folds of leather in my lap. He pulled out a thin stack of cards, all rubber-banded together, and handed them to me. On top was a Kentucky driver’s license with my photo. With trembling fingers, I moved the blue rubber band aside to reveal my name… my realname.

Junix, AmaliaRose

It had all the right information, hair black, eyes brown, but the address… I looked up at Kyle and asked, “Your folk’s place?”

“Our place,” he amended.

“Is thisreal?”

He nodded, “Keep going.”

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