Page 44 of Come Back to Me

“You one of them perverts?”

“You’re Paulie’s sister.”

Her eyes widen. Whatever she’d expected me to say, it wasn’t that. “P-Paulie?” she stutters. “You knew my brother?”

“Knew him really well.”

The kid’s brow furrows. “You’re Cody?”

A soft huff that masquerades as laughter escapes me. “The fucker talked about me, huh?”

She shuffles forward, an eager zeal from one grieving person to another linking us, arcing through the space and uniting us in a way I never anticipated when I pointed my car in this direction this morning. “He loved you. Said you were like his brother.”

The words have me closing my eyes and the breath that whooshes from me is loaded with despair.

I half-expect some pig-hating rhetoric to come from the kid, seeing as I know who her father is, but she rasps, “Yeah. I feel like that some days too.”

“Lost a lot of brothers over the years. None ever hit me as hard as his loss. I fucking saw...” I jab my finger at my temple. “See it on repeat some nights.”

“Y-You saw it?”

I nod. ”Probably shouldn’t tell a civilian that, but you’re Amy.”

“You remember my name?”

“Of course I do. I know he hated leaving you with the MC. Know that he was thinking of retiring soon because he didn’t like you being on your own anymore.” I eye the ‘Property of’ cut she’s wearing. “Know he wouldn’t have wanted you wearing that.”

The kid’s throat bobs. “Dad...”

“I get it. Dads are the worst, aren’t they?”

She sputters out a laugh. “I guess they are. At least my dad didn’t get caught for murder like yours.”

“That’s a low blow.”

“After everything Paulie said, I never figured you’d become a pig. He said you hated the rules and only followed them so you could fly. Said you were the best in your unit. That it was an honor to serve with you.”

“I’d have said the same thing about him.” I tug my hat off. “Smelling of bacon wasn’t what I imagined for myself either, butI needed to come home and I needed to feel useful.” Especially after some jacked-up disorder fucked with my brain chemistry and paralyzed my arm.

I’m not a religious man, but if there was a sign to retire, then that was it.

“What made you leave?”

“Injuries, well, they pushed me along, but I looked into retirement after Paulie died. I haven’t gotten over his death,” I admit, a truth I didn’t utter to the shrink at the hospital but that Mike’s managed to drag out of me.

Amy’s mouth quivers. “I’m sorry, but also, I’m really glad you haven’t forgotten him. Some days, I think I’m the only one around here who remembers. Dad never?—”

Her words fade, but the hurt is as real and as raw as ever. “I wish I could have been the one to bring the news.”

“I get it. Rules.”

I nod. “Speaking of, I need to talk to your dad.”

“He won’t make time for you. You might as well tell me and he’ll ignore it regardless.”

I snicker at her honesty. “The noise.”

“Warned him it’d piss people off.”

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