Page 83 of Caution to the Wind

“You call me Henning one more time, I’ll keep you from Cleo. I don’t give a damn that she wants you. She’s survived for near on a decade without you. She can do it again,” I threatened darkly.

She didn’t know I wasn’t certain I had the heart to see the threat through, and I was grateful.

A long sigh, just louder than the cold breeze rushin’ through the long grass. “Old Dragon and I settled in Vancouver’s Chinatown a while back. I see Jiang around sometimes. It’s unavoidable.”

My gut said she was lyin’ somehow, but I was already done with bein’ out in the moonlit dark with her alone, so I didn’t push it.

“I find out you got more to do with him than that, you won’t like it,” I warned.

Another weary sigh. “You know,Axe-Man, I never thought I’d see you again, but when I did think about our reunion, it didn’t involve you threatening me so much.”

“You must have a poor imagination.”

A little mockin’ grin curved her lips before she nodded, pushin’ away from the railin’ to finally face me. She looked at my right ear instead of up into my eyes, and for some reason, it irritated me. I wanted to wrench her little chin up and force her gaze on mine.

My short nails dug into my palms and broke the skin, but I didn’t loosen them.

“We’ve got eight years of secrets between us and zero trust. I get you want a brother here when I’m with Cleo. I can even pretend it doesn’t kill me to think you might wonder if I’ll hurt her or put her in danger. But if you remember anything about me, remember this…”

Her eyes flashed up to me then, slicing through me like an obsidian blade. “I’d die for her just as happily as I’d die for you. No amount of time will ever change that. And no amount of hate.”

Without another word, she bowed to me a little in mock servitude and then ambled down the stairs to the Kawasaki Ninja parked nearly out of sight under a flat bit of land between trees. I watched as she plunked on the black helmet, swung a nimble leg high over the seat of the bike, and settled onto it with the ease of a long-time rider.

The engine revved. Nothin’ like the sweet growl of a Harley, but somethin’ else that still resonated in my biker-lovin’ heart. When she peeled around in the gravel lot, she did it with flair, stones sprayin’ out behind her in a wide arch, rainin’ down on the edge of the porch stairs with littleclinks. I watched the glow of her tail lights ’til they disappeared down the tree-lined drive.

When the door opened behind me, I wasn’t surprised, but I still braced. Harleigh Rose was only gettin’ more and more like her dad the older she got, and I knew her comment would cut near to the quick as Mei’s last, darin’ glare.

“A present from Lion,” she murmured as she stepped up beside me, knockin’ the side of a half-full glass tumbler into my arm. “Looked like you might need a glass.”

I snorted but accepted the glass and knocked back a long swig of the smooth whiskey. “Try the entire bottle.”

“You say the word, we’ll kick that girl outta town,” she offered easily.

A little of the burn in my chest eased off ’cause I knew they would. The whole fuckin’ club would ride out en masse to drag Mei kickin’ and screamin’ out of Entrance. The fantasy made me grin.

“But you won’t say it,” she noted, cuppin’ her elbow in one hand and her own glass of whiskey in the other. “You’ll let her invade your space and your peace just because Cleo needs her.”

“Hey,” she said, half laugh, shrugging a little when I glared at her. “I get you, Axe-Man. I don’t even disagree with your decision. I’ll just say…be careful. Eight years is a long time for someone to change a whole lot in good ways and bad.”

“I don’t give a fuck how she’s changed. I’ll avoid her, and she’ll avoid me.”

“Mmm,” she hummed. “In my experience, ghosts haunt us even when we leave the place they died. Sometimes there’s no exorcising them.”

“I’m not payin’ for your dime store wisdom,” I grunted.

She laughed but got the hint, leanin’ into my side just a little before goin’ quiet. Sippin’ good whiskey with a girl I considered somethin’ like a niece to me was just the peace I needed after the chaos of Mei whipped through my ordered life. I hadn’t been alone a single night since Seth had taken Cleo, a brother or their old lady or their kids always rotatin’ through our house with food, with drink, and with a fuck ton’ve comfort. For the thousandth fuckin’ time in the past five years since I’d transferred to the Entrance chapter of The Fallen, I felt grateful for the gift of them I wasn’t sure I’d ever find a way to deserve.

AXE-MAN

Entrance was nothin’like Calgary. It was a small but growin’ town that had the kinda charm you’d see in a fuckin’ Hallmark movie or a children’s book. Main Street was a seven-block stretch of heritage buildings in brick or various revival styles painted in pastels or earth tones intermingled with stretches of green spaces and parks. It was late March, the snow recedin’ from everywhere but the mountaintops, and the blossoms were already peekin’ out on the cherry trees, pink buds frosted by the cold mornin’ air.

It was fuckin’ idyllic, and I didn’t take it for granted even for a second.

For a kid who’d grown up with nothin’ in a trailer park outside of Fort McMurray, I’d always appreciate the beauty of British Columbia and this town we’d made our home.

It was the people, too.

The brother, Wrath, who owned Box n’ Burn and worked out with me every mornin’ for ninety minutes before headin’ across the street to Stella’s Diner or down the road to Honeybear Café & Bakery for a coffee and a sandwich, both places filled with patrons who greeted me with a grin or an up nod.