Page 68 of A New Era

“She’s at home. I’m headed there now.”

“You good? You’ve been losing your shit a lot lately.”

He rolls his neck, and I wait for him to speak. Pushing him won’t get me very far or any answers.

“It’s been different since we got home.”

“In what way?”

“I thought everything would go back to how it was but shit’s changed and I can’t help the feeling I’m gonna lose everything.”

“Brother, you ain’t gonna lose shit. This isn’t like you.”

“Yeah, I get that. But fuck, I can’t deal.”

“How about after the wedding, you go back with Luca? Stay in the city for a while, sort your head out.”

“I’ll think about it.”

I hold my fist out and he bumps his to mine. He rides out and I head home. I climb into bed with Holly, still awake, and pull her against me.

“Where have you been?” she asks.

“I paid our sheriff a visit.”

She groans and rolls around to face me. “You shouldn’t have done that. She’ll come for you even harder now.”

“If she’s got a death wish, she might. But she won’t. I’m more concerned about you. Are you okay?”

“I am now. I knew you’d get me out, but it was horrible. I don’t know how you did that every day for over a year.”

Nor do I sometimes when I think back on it. “It won’t ever happen again.”

“Leo,” she sighs. “Don’t make such promises. I know you’ll try to keep them, but you don’t know what the future holds. You won’t be at my side all the time.”

“That may be, but I can have brothers with you whenever you leave the club.”

“That’s not a life I want.”

“It’s the only life I can give you right now. It won’t be forever, but in order for me to be able to make a promise to you, this is the only way to keep it.”

She won’t be able to move without having someone beside her until I know where we stand with the sheriff.

* * *

Coffee in one hand and my pack of cigarettes in the other, I step outside to have my morning smoke on the front porch to find Dad’s already sitting there.

“You’re up early.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“So you came to my porch?”

“Fuckin’ built it, didn’t I?” he grunts. “Besides, I wanted to catch you before you left. I heard about Holly and the sheriff.”

“I sorted it and she’s okay.”

“I don’t doubt it, she’s been through a fuck ton worse. But how exactly did you sort it?”

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