Page 5 of Her Brother's Keeper

“My cell’s on the back, and I mean it, if you need help with anything here around the house, a fix or whatever, I’m pretty sure me or one of my brothers will know how to do it. Hopefully, that takes a little more of the pressure off.” I flicked my gaze from the card in my hand up to his face and he winked at me, pulling his glove back on.

“I really don’t know what to say,” I said. I’d already said thank you, but all of this went so far beyond a mere ‘thank you’ and he was right, knowing I could reach out if something went nuts in the house reallydidtake some of the fear of living in the house alone, just me and Sage.

Even when my father was near the end, he was still a comforting presence to me. I was doing everything before, but he was still the adult, you know? Still smart, still the planner and thinking ahead for just about every eventuality. He’d tried so hard to hold on until I was eighteen, which was just three months away, but when he realized he couldn’t, he’d signed the paperwork readily while he was still alive, emancipating me. As far as the courts were concerned, I was a legal adult and capable of caring for Sage.

We’d still been supplied a state social worker with the Department of Children’s Health Services to oversee that I could and would take care of Sage but even there I’d been lucky. Pamela Swanson had been working with me for a while and she’d become a good ally. Raising an eleven-year-old boy who was angry and hurt and just didn’tunderstandwhat was at stake was harder than you could imagine.

“I mean it, Maren. Call me if you need anything,” Nox murmured and I shuddered, coming up out of my deep, dark, thoughts like a swimmer coming up for air. I stared, wide-eyed while my brain tried to catch up.

“Y’know, Maren’s a pretty name,” Dragon remarked, before tipping three fingers to the red bandana covering his forehead like he was tipping a hat and stepping back out my front door. I smiled and gave a nod to accept the compliment he’d given me. Nox followed his president back out the door.

“Thank you all, so much!” I called out to the large group and another cheer went up before the roar of motorcycles being kicked to life drowned them out. Sage stood next to me grinning and I put an arm around his shoulders. He shrugged me off with an annoyed glare and I sighed inwardly.

I watched Nox and his brothers ride off, his sisters paired off and riding on the bikes behind the other men, and wondered even more about them all. I was still confused. I mean, bikers were outlaws weren’t they? Thieves and drug dealers and almost like modern day asphalt pirates…

I looked down at the envelope of money in my hand and closed the front door saying to my brother, “Sage, go eat your dinner before it gets cold.”

“No way! I want to open some of these.”

“No, you can wait until Christmas.”

“Yeah, but Dad is dead, who is gonna stop me? You?”

I arched an eyebrow at my brother and counted to ten inside my head, “Sage, he was my father, too. Now go eat your dinner before it gets cold. We’re sticking to family tradition. This Christmas is no different from any others. One on Christmas eve, the rest on Christmas morning.”

Sage rolled his eyes and my temper frayed even further. I crossed my arms, pulling my cardigan closer around me. The door standing open for as long as it had, had sufficiently chilled the house and I couldn’t afford to turn up the heat. Or at least I couldn’t a minute ago.You’re still going to have to make the money in the envelope stretch as far as possible.I told myself.

Out loud I said, “Roll your eyes at me again, Sage, see what it gets you.”

He gave me a dirty look, “You’re notMom,Maren,” he sniped at me but he was moving in the direction of the kitchen now.

““You’re right, I’m not, but I am all you’ve got a little brother. We’re all each other has left,” I murmured, but I was talking to myself; Sage was already sitting at the kitchen counter eating his soup. I shoved the envelope in my back pocket and considered the business card again, turning it over.

I mean it. Anything.It read, and below that, was his cell phone number as promised. The fresh ache of the loss of our dad throbbed anew in the center of my chest. I wanted so badly not to feel so alone like I did, to have someone that I could talk to about this who was grown up enough tounderstand.

None of my classmates did, and for that, I was more than a little jealous. Gone were my days where the worst thing I had to worry about was what outfit I was going to wear to the Friday night football game. Hello, days of being responsible for a terminally ill parent and obstinate preteen brother. Except I would give anything tostillbe responsible for terminally ill dad, rather than simply responsible for everything that came after.

His funeral had already been carried out, but I still needed to pick up his urn from the funeral home. The handwritten text on the back of the business card blurred as my eyes welled up with tears. I slid it into my back pocket with the envelope and stared at the gifts piled on the sheets and blankets on the couch.

I’d been sleeping down here almost the full last three months of dad’s life. I had my bedroom upstairs, but the first night, after my father had died, when I’d tried to sleep in it, I couldn’t bring myself to. I’d tossed and turned and had eventually wound up back down here. I’d lain awake wondering if I’d ever meet the strange and wonderful biker who’d been so kind when that woman had been soawfuland now here he was been and gone, delivering more kindness when all I could do was despair over the fact that I couldn’t give my brother a Christmas this year.

I wondered briefly if my dad had a hand in that from wherever he was now, the words Nox had uttered about answering a call sticking with me.

“It’s not fair, you know?” Sage demanded, calling from the kitchen.

“What’s not?” I called back.

“You making me come in here and eat before my food got cold but you’re still in there.”

“You’re right, I’m coming,” I called with a sigh, wiping the tears out from under my eyes with my middle fingers.

I took a fortifying breath and went to eat with my little brother who I knew was only acting out lately because he was hurting. He did that, a mean little shit one minute, the next he had to be in whatever room I was, just so he didn’t feel lonely. I had to be patient. I had to be strong. I had to be kind. Most importantly, I had to be everything our mom was not. I had to just hold on andbe here, no matter how hard it got, because I couldn’t leave Sage all alone.

Chapter 3

Nox

Bzzt! Bzzt!

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