Page 26 of Brand
CHAPTER TEN
Brand
I’d been a mess all day. I left the shop early and headed to the garage. Knowing it was well after five, I knew the place would be closed for the day. The thought of working on my baby in peace and quiet was just the thing I needed.
I pulled my new girl up behind the garage to find one of the bay doors still open. Yes, new girl, because my Triumph was still too fucked up to ride. My nineteen eighty Triumph Bonneville T140E, to be exact. Yes, that was important to know. There were days I still cried about it. More so the story behind her than the actual fact that she was so messed up.
Rock music blared out of the space and I knew Ky was still in there. Sometimes when he got a new project, he wouldn’t be able to walk away come closing time, especially if it was something he was super excited about.
We greeted each other with jerked chin lifts. I didn’t need to say why I was there and he didn’t need to explain the fact that his brow was streaked with grease.
My bike was currently taking up the far corner of the shop. Since the last bay in the back was rarely used, it hadn’t been a problem. Things had been hectic and I hadn’t had the time that I wished I did to restore her.
I still remember that night like it happened yesterday. The night I legitimately saw my life flash before my eyes. That was the first time, but if I was being honest, it wasn’t the only one. That night set off a spark that lit the fuse to go after Savage and his MC.
I was glad the fucker was dead.
I wasn’t sorry the lives I’d taken to end him and I knew Ky and my fellow brothers would have said the same.
I had never truly seen evil until I’d met him.
But he was gone, and though we lost some good men, we were finally free.
“You never told me what happened to your bike,” Ky said as he continued to fiddle with something under the hood.
I let out a huffed laugh.
“You sure you want to hear this? I saw your face when I was in the hospital. I don’t know if you can handle hearing about my ass getting fucked up right along with this bike.”
The wince that flashed on his face wasn’t missed by me. Admit it or not, Ky was a close second to Chris on my list of favorite people. Ky sometimes liked to close himself off, but there were cracks in his armor that I had been lucky enough to see through. He had a soft spot deep inside of him. I had a feeling I was one of the few people he let in even a little.
My mind wandered back to the conversation I’d had with Chris. Had Ky been distant? He didn’t seem any different to me right now, but I had noticed he’d been spending more and more time alone—or at least not hanging out with me. Or Chris. Which was a red flag, because he had been right there practically every time Chris and I would hang out. Which I didn’t mind at all. I loved that we all got along so well.
I shrugged it off. Maybe he was going through something and wasn’t ready to talk about it. Or then again, like I’d thought before, maybe he had someone he was seeing and trying to keep it out of sight. Who the fuck knew? When he was ready, I was sure he’d tell me.
It was moments like this that let me know it didn’t have anything to do with me. He talked to me like normal and didn’t act any differently than he had before.
“I was hanging out with Chris. That was the night Savage took Allison. I heard the gunshots and the crash because Chris’ house in Moon Hill was across the street. Like an idiot, I took off on my bike after the SUV that had Allison in it.”
I went on to tell him how I’d been going way too fast to be considered safe. I saw it before it even happened—the driver had this look in his eyes that was all too telling. So telling that I read it in a flash in the rearview. If it hadn’t been for my dad and all that he’d taught me, I was sure I would have ended up dead, or at least fucked up to the point IwishedI was dead.
I was able to break a half of a second before he slammed on breaks. Not a lot of time, you would think, but for me, it was enough. I turned just enough to not run my tire up the back of the SUV. I managed to slow down enough that when I dove off my bike I had time to tuck before I hit the ground. It didn’t save me one hundred percent. I mean, I was messed up. I couldn’t walk without wincing. And I was pretty sure I’d passed out for a minute or two. I’d come around to Chris over me calling my name.
“Oh, I still remember the look on his face as he helped Patch dig gravel and shit out of my skin. I’d never seen someone so green. But that’s how I knew he’d always be a true friend and he’d always be in my life. Because he sat there through the whole thing and helped in any way that he could.”
“Hm,” Ky said as I remembered that night with a smile on my face.
Don’t get me wrong. That night sucked. In the top five for worst nights ever. But Chris being there helped make it bearable as well as made me tuck my embarrassment down enough to stand up and walk out of that room. Okay, more like limp. But I did it.
“There is definitely a deep friendship there,” he said, his arms moving quickly as he tightened something in the engine.
“Yeah,” I said turning my attention back to my bike. “I don’t know that I could live a life without him.”
And that was the truth. Best fucking friend I’d ever had.
“So your dad, huh? You two were close?” he asked.
“Hell, yeah. My dad was my idol, man. He raised me all on his own. He was a stunt driver for movies mostly and he taught me everything he knew, within reason. I mean I wasn’t going super fast when he taught me how to handle a bike in unlikely circumstances. But those rules still apply when you’re going an insane speed. Just glad I didn’t freeze up when the time came to use them.”
