Page 4 of Her Brother's Keeper

“I… I don’t understand,” I stuttered.

“Take it,” he urged gently and I did, reaching out with trembling fingers. It was full of money. I looked up at him and the shock must have been visible on my face because some of the men and women behind him started to laugh and a couple of the other men gave each other high fives.

I was numb with stunned disbelief, I blinked up at him and said again, “I don’t understand.”

“Well, sweetheart, all you need to understand is that you made an impression on our boy, Nox, here; and he asked us all to help, and so we did.”

I let my gaze drift from the man from my checkout line at work to the man who had spoken. He was much shorter than Nox, who was taller than me by a head, although where Nox was slim, this man was wider with an impressive breadth of shoulders. He was also Hispanic, his coal dark eyes sparkling with good feeling, the gray in his beard and the crow’s feet fanning out from those dark eyes placing him at quite a bit older than my strange benefactor… maybe a good thirty years or more older.

“How did you know where I lived?” I asked and the older man gave me a crooked grin.

“We have our ways,” he said and held out his hand. “I’m Dragon, the president of this here chapter.”

“Maren, Maren Tracy,” I said giving his gloved hand a light shake, “I honestly don’t know what to say, um… I uh… would you like to come in?” I asked, which didn’t feel like therightthing to say to a bunch of bikers, but it did feel like the right thing to say to anyone who had just handed you an envelope full of money saying ‘Merry Christmas’ on your doorstep on the eve before Christmas Eve.

“Nox and I would love to.” The older man, Dragon, said before turning back and calling out, “All o’ you fuckers make a line and start passing it forward!”

I blinked, but a cheer went up, and the next thing I knew, wrapped gifts were being passed forward and I was staring at Nox who had this ghost of a mischievous smile on his face.

“I don’t understand…” I uttered again and he put a gloved hand on my shoulder, smiled, and said to me, “You don’t have to, just let us do something nice for you and the boy,” he said jerking his chin in Sage’s direction who was exclaiming over the packages invading our living room.

I looked over to the empty hospice bed that was supposed to be picked up two days after Christmas and felt my eyes well up.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, and Nox smiled even bigger.

“Because I think you may have forgotten there’s good people in the world and that good things happen too.”

I stared up at him and I think this is what people meant when they said someone was shocked because it was like I couldn’t move and I couldn’t speak. I was just speechless, and so incredibly numbed by everything that had happened to us lately.

“Thank you,” I murmured watching the bed and couch fill up in the small space, figuring that the last thing I wanted to do was say ‘no’ when I’d had no hope of getting Sageanythingfor Christmas this year. Just seeing him lit up andsmilingwas worth it.

“Hey, it’s okay. You know, a lot of us get it,” Nox said, low and sympathetic as I dashed at the tears gathering on my lashes. I didn’t want to cry, but how could I not?

“I don’t know why you would do this for me, I mean you don’t even know me!”

“Tell you the truth, I don’t know either, but that’s okay, too. Sometimes people are put in your path for a reason, it’s just on you if you answer the call or not.”

He confounded me, confused me, and at the same time, delighted me with the smile he’d put on my brother’s face. I stared at him with gratitude and hugged him tightly like I had in the store.

“Thank you, so, so, much. I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it, but maybe I can, thanks to you.”

He patted my shoulder awkwardly and chuckled, “Maybe here’s to the start of a new friendship,” he said and I pulled back to see him eyeing my brother, Sage, who was looking at all of the leather-clad men with adoration.

I didn’t quite know what to think right that minute about that, but I couldn’t deny that it sounded appealing. I was curious about this guy.

“I’m sorry, I just finished fixing us lunch, and I want Sage to eat it before it gets cold,” I said giving my head a little shake, trying to wake up from this dream that wasn’t a dream at all, but totally real… “I um, I could try to fix enough for everyone, it’s just grilled cheese and tomato soup…”

“Thank you kindly,” Dragon said, smiling brightly, “but we’ve got to ride before it snows again.”

“Oh, I completely understand, I really don’t know how to thank all of you.”

“It’s no problem,” Nox said and he pulled off one his gloves to fish in the sideways slanted outside pocket on his jacket beneath the leather vest that he wore over it. He pulled out a business card and handed it to me.

“You call if you need anything,” he murmured. “Okay?”

I looked down at the card,Landon Fisher LMPwas written on it, and it was just a plain white business card, with blocked blue letters on it. I didn’t know what an LMP was, but I could Google it and the business name on the upper left-hand corner.

“Okay,” I agreed and nodded.

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