Page 27 of Brake's Intent

Fuck.

I jerk my chin up and stare at him as I ask, “What’s up?”

“Nothing, Wren here is clinging to me and demanding her uncle Brake, but I can’t find him, and he’s not answering his phone. You wouldn’t know where he is, do you?”

“Well, I’m not Uncle Brake but I guess you can call me Uncle Law,” I say, looking at the little girl. “And Aunt Faye is getting ready to go to the hospital.” I lift my gaze to Tyres and watch him carefully. “Angelina pulled some strings to get her an interview. As for where Brake is, I figured you might know the answer to that question. He’s been all but gone all week.”

Tyres sighs and sets Wren on her feet. She wobbles on her little feet and holds her arms up for me to lift her as her dad watches, his features blank.

“What?” I ask.

Tyres shakes his head and reaches up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Brake’s not been around all week?”

“Comes in, crashes, and leaves before either Faye or myself are up,” I answer.

“Damnit,” he grumbles and reaches into his pocket to pull his phone out. He messes with the screen for a moment before pulling it up to his ear. “Brake, swear to god, if you are where I think you are I’m beating the shit out of you.”

At his words, my gut tightens, and I don’t like it one bit. “What the hell’s going on?”

Tyres meets my gaze before dropping his eyes down to take in his daughter in my arms. “It’s not something I can explain,” he says, holding his arms out. “Here, let me take her. You go get ready, meet me out front in ten minutes, and tell Faye she’s gonna want to come along for this as well.”

An uneasy feeling washes over me, and I want nothing more than to demand answers, but something tells me Tyres won’t give them. I also have the assumption whatever it is, it’s best he show rather than tell.

Once Tyres has Wren, I head to get Faye from the room. She steps from the room just as I’m about to open the door.

“Is everything okay?” she asks, her eyes assessing me.

“Don’t know. Need you to come with me.”

“Brake?” Her bottom lip trembles.

“Yeah.” It’s all I can do to answer her, but I won’t lie. “Tyres said to meet him out front in ten minutes, so we better get out there.”

Faye sucks in a breath and nods as she takes my hand.

Within moments of getting outside, Tyres joins us along with Chains, Breaker, and Ryder. At the sight of them and the warring expressions on their faces, I grow more alert. “Someone going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Do you know what today is?” Tyres asks.

“No,” Faye and I say at the same time.

“It’s our birthday.” Tyres grimaces, and Faye gasps.

I glance at down at her to see her eyes wide with horror and it confuses me.

“What?” I demand, not liking any of this.

“Let’s just go. You’ll see for yourself.” This time it’s Ryder, and from the grave tone of his voice, I know not to argue . . . no matter the fact I want to know what the fuck is going on with Brake.

Nodding, I follow, holding Faye’s hand. They surprise me by not getting on their bikes but rather heading around the side of the clubhouse to the boathouse. Instead of going into the building, they climb onto one of the airboats sitting off to the side under an awning.

Without a word, I help Faye onto the damn boat and join her. Seconds later, we’re backing up onto the water and then flying forward, the wind rushing by in a whirlwind.All I can keep thinking about is what the significance of Brake’s and Tyres’s birthday means. Faye seems to have figured it out, but I don’t remember. For that matter, I didn’t even realize today was his birthday at all.

Then again, birthdays stopped being special to me a long time ago. I try not to think about it, but I guess the past wants to come forward in many ways. It was my mom’s birthday, the last time I saw her or my siblings. Our father was driving and they were hit by a semi-truck. The driver lost control, jackknifed, and the trailer came spinning around, cutting the top of the car off . . . with the roof gone, it took all of them with it. I was left alone that day and knew there was nothing significant about a birthday and pushed all thoughts of the idea out of my mind. The only importance of it is for identification purposes.

I’ve never told anyone this and don’t intend to. Not if I can help it.

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