Page 100 of Freeing Souls

Noah approaches me and rests his hands on my shoulders. “You take care of those boys, okay?”

“I always will,” I tell him fiercely.

“Fuck. Are you sure about this?” he rasps, his blue eyes glossing over as he stares me down with pinched brows.

“Yes,” I whisper, holding his eyes.

He nods once and takes a deep breath before he wraps his arms around me. “I’m not going to get fucking emotional.”

“Okay,” I laugh, wiping my tears away as we pull apart.

“I did the best I could with them,” he tells me.

“You gave them a safe place to land when their own homes weren’t good enough, but now it’s time for you to give yourself a chance to just live for you.”

“If only I knew how to do that.” He chuckles, glancing away.

“I don’t think any of us know what we’re doing. But I think as long as we’re happy, that’s all that matters.”

“Ready?” Ryker grins at me from his bike.

I strap my helmet on. “I would be if I knew where we were going.” The guys are being quiet about where exactly we’re going. Now that it has been announced that we’re leaving soon, they wanted to take a ride but won’t tell me where to.

“You’ll find out soon enough, baby girl,” Cade says.

Starting up my dad’s Harley, the guys start their bikes up as well, and we all take off, with Grayson and Cayden in the front and Ryker and me behind.

Letting go and trusting my men, I enjoy the ride as we take the curvy back roads with beautiful scenery. Large trees line the sides of the roads, and every so often, you get a small gap between them where you can see the coast. The sun is bright, and the wind feels perfect against me as we go from North Carolina to Virginia.

A while later, we enter Virginia Beach and pull into the driveway of Brielle’s beautiful white, two story beach house. The front has minimal windows, which works because the backside, which faces the beach, has floor to ceiling ones. Plants line either side of the driveway, and as we park in front of the two car garage, I glance around at the neighboring houses. It seems quiet and peaceful. Even when I was here, you didn’t hear much. There’s no one across the street, it’s just trees, and each house on the side with the beach is spread out enough that you can’t hear your neighbors. Shutting our bikes off, I take my helmet off and glance at the guys. “What are we doing here?” I furrow my brows.

“This is our home—if you want it to be,” Grayson says.

“What?” I ask, confused as we all get off our bikes and head up to the door. Grayson pulls out a set of keys and opens the door. I’ve always loved Brielle’s house, but it’s not ours…

“I talked to Brielle, and she doesn’t want to sell this one, even though they are moving to Jacksonville. She said we could live here as long as we wanted, until we make a choice for what we want to do and where,” Grayson explains, taking my hand in his. “I know this is all scary, and you are still feeling weird about us leaving with you. This would give us a space of our ownsomewhere away from Jacksonville but still close enough to visit whenever we want.”

“Virginia Beach is a good place for us to settle if you want to, baby girl.”

“This is… It’s perfect,” I laugh, even as tears stream down my cheeks.

“Well then, welcome home. Soonish. We are going to have to help Brielle move out and then we’ll move in and all the other shit,” Ryker says.

After we spend a few hours at the house, walking on the beach and talking about what we might want to do at the house and around town, we decide to head back to the club so we can spend some time with everyone before the moving process begins.

My heart feels lighter than it ever has as we head back to Jacksonville. This is what I wanted and needed. Now, I can focus on finding myself and building relationships with each of my guys outside of constant shit happening to us.

When we get home and walk inside the club, we are met with silence. “Where is everyone?” Ryker asks as we walk into the kitchen and glance around.

“Outside?” Grayson questions.

The second we all step outside, everyone yells, “Surprise!”

My eyes widen as Colton steps forward. “One last family BBQ before you all move away.”

Tears well up in my eyes, but I blink them away and smile as Brielle comes up to me, giving me a big hug. “I can’t believe I’m moving here finally, and you are going to leave to go to my own home.” She chuckles, but her eyes become glossy.

“I know. I want to stay, but–”

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