Page 63 of Freeing Souls

Axe set up a path to take us through all of Jacksonville and out towards some of Rage’s favorite spots: a lookout, a restaurant right outside of town he apparently loved, and so much more.

We ride for a few hours until we end at our final stop.

My dad’s resting place. A place I never thought I would be. A place where a piece of my heart will forever stay now.

As we pull into the cemetery in Jacksonville, everyone begins to park and demount their bikes while I sit on mine for a few more minutes, feeling numb.

“Harley?” Ryker questions as he, Cade, and Grayson approach me.

They each touch me in some way, and I take my helmet off before leaning onto Grayson, who stands the closest to me. “How are you feeling after that?” he asks.

“Like I never want to do it again,” I whisper, glancing up at him.

“I know, beautiful,” he says gently as he holds my face in his hands, pressing his lips against mine. It’s a small, chaste kiss, and his hands never stray from my cheeks, making it clear Cade told them what happened.

Embarrassment creeps in, and I can feel my face heating. I climb off the bike and gesture towards the hearse where the others from the club are all waiting while everyone else who came on the ride with us has headed over to the grave site to wait for us.

The driver of the hearse circles the vehicle, and after a quick nod from Colton, he opens the back door and steps to the side. The ranking officers immediately form lines on each side—Colton and Axe on one side, Blade, Stone, and Nerds on the other. They all have serious frowns on their faces, but I can see the pain on each of them. Their shoulders are tense, eyes staring straight ahead, trying to disassociate, they are having to carry their brother, president, closest friend, to his grave and it hits me hard in this moment that I am glad I did what I had to do to make sure that this could happen.

They lift the casket and begin carrying it towards the grave site. I follow directly behind, my three men flanking me as we all take one last walk with my dad, Gabriel St. James.

Even more people have arrived, people who weren’t a part of the ride: Vance and his men, the other MCs that have been around helping us, and–and some of the victims we have saved.

A small gasp leaves my lips, and I glance at the guys. Grayson snags my hand and smiles gently. “When the news spread, the ones who could wanted to come to pay their respects to the man who helped save them all.”

The ranking officers set the casket down on the rug beside the open grave, and we all take our seats, other than Colton, who steps up to the front.

Clearing his throat, he begins speaking, and there is no trying to stop the tears as he says goodbye to his best friend. This is so much more than me losing my dad—this is a huge loss for this community. I wish my dad could see how many people are here just for him, how many lives he affected. I will proudly tell the world he was my dad and carry his last name forever.

“Thank you for comin’ today.” He takes a breath, “After this, we will have a large celebration back at our club and I would like all of you to join. To make this short, I just wanna say that losing my President, brother, and closest friend, is something that I will carry with me the rest of my life.”

He pauses and glances over at the casket. “I will honor your name and carry on the club how you wanted. I will protect our family with all I am and I will proudly walk in your footsteps for the rest of my time. Love you, brother.”

Colton takes his seat, and the man who is running this whole show asks if anyone else would like to say a few words. I blink to clear my eyes, and as the urge to stand up and speak hits, I find myself unable to move.

I feel raw and open in ways I never have before.

Ryker squeezes my thigh once and stands. He walks a few feet to stand at the front and runs his eyes over everyone before they land on me. He smiles sadly and then exhales.

“If you don’t know–which, shame on you, you definitely should know me–I’m Ryker Anderson.” Everyone chuckles softly. “I didn’t come to the club until I was a young, dumb pre-teen when my best friend's older brother took me in and saved me from some really bad decisions that I don’t regret.” He grins widely.

“Rage was the first to put me in my place when I came to the club. I thought I hated him, but I know now I respected him and admire the man he was. He was who I would like to be as I grow up, and we all know I still have a lot of that to do.”

I glance at Grayson who shakes his head, but still smiles at Ryker’s antics.

“Rage taught me what true family was. Family doesn’t have to be blood. Family is whatever you make it. He gave me mine and so much more. He gave me the loves of my life.” He winks at Grayson and me. “Yes,loves,Rage didn’t just accept and help raise me alongside Noah, he did the same for Cayden and Grayson. The three of us were given chances to have new beginnings after life brought down hell for us as young kids.”

Keeping his eyes on the three of us, he says, “Rage gave the three of us what we only could have dreamed of. Then, he gave us more by his fiery redhead daughter storming her way in and flipping all our lives upside down. She changed us even more and that never would have been possible without her father, Rage. After everything we have gone through, Rage was still the one to come to me when I needed him. He was the one who told me if I loved two people and I knew they loved me back than I was really fucking lucky, and if I didn’t grab what was right in front of me and never let go of it, he would kick my ass.”

Chuckling, I watch as his eyes mist over, and he glances at the casket. I clutch Grayson and Cayden as tears fall down my cheeks as he speaks to my dad.

“I will love and care for them for the rest of my life. My two loves, Harley and Grayson and my brother boyfriend, Cayden. They will always be my priority, and I will make you proud as I honor them and you for the rest of my life. Losing you is earth shattering for our club. There’s going to be a lot of trial and error as we find our way without you, but I swear, I, we, have your daughter until the end of our days.”

Fighting back tears, Ryker returns to his seat, and I lean over and place a kiss on his cheek. “I love you.”

He grins at me even with tears in his eyes. “I love you, my little flame.”

Grayson grips Ryker’s arm, his eyes wide, in shock with a mix of love and lust. “You just told basically everyone in Jacksonville you are with me.”

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