Page 229 of Come Back to Me

“Paulie was supposed to take over for Razer.” It’s that voice from amid the crowd again. “We weren’t supposed to remain on this path. We were supposed to...”

“Some of us lost a brother that day. Dana lost her man.”

“You’re Dana?” Cody blurts, his hands fisting at his sides.

A woman steps out from the mass of leather-clad bikers and she’s absolutely stunning. Like Geena Davis had a brunette baby with Sandra Bullock and then Charlie Hunnam got involved to make her all SOA. “H-He talked about me?”

One of the bikers tugs her under their arm into a consoling embrace.

“Both Paulie and Ricky did. All the damn time. They were—” I notice Cody’s shoulders sink, but my mind’s wrapped around the ‘they.’ I figured Paulie was gay but… “He was excited about coming back to you. Hewantedto come back to you.”

Dana turns her face away, but not before I see tear tracks rolling down her cheeks.

Filch, his jaw working, steps up to Cody. “I don’t appreciate being ordered around by pigs, enjoy it even less when they shove a fucking gun in my throat, but Paulie liked you.

“Of course, he didn’t know you were about to stink of pork rinds, but for him, we’ll leave Amy alone.” His finger prods Cody’s chest. “Make sure she doesn’t find her way back to us.”

“Where is Razer?” Cody repeats, but his cell starts ringing, which earns a bunch of chuckles as the bikers step back and away.

“Somewhere easy to find,” Filch promises, but as the majority of the bikers light it out of the clearing, he points a finger at me. “She can keep her mouth shut too, I take it?”

“She’s with me.”

“She’d better be.” He strides over to his bike, and as he settles on the seat then kicks the stand up, he rumbles, “I’d hate for what happened to Razer to happen to her.”

Cody storms forward at the threat, but Filch’s already roaring off into the distance.

When his cell continues ringing, he ignores it because the only biker remaining is Dana. Somehow, how alone she is is all the more poignant, knowing what I do now.

Her broken heart in her eyes, she rasps, “They really talked about me?”

“Yeah.”

“Where I’m from, you don’t always know if what a man says is what a man means.”

“You know Paulie was different. Ricky, too.”

“His father was still Razer.” She licks her lips. “I loved them both.”

“They loved you. I know Ricky told you, but dipshit didn’t. I got sick of hearing about how perfect your eyes were. Told him that he should be telling you that, not me, but he...”

“That was Paulie. When we lost Ricky, I didn’t think things could get much worse.” Her throat bobs. “Then, Paulie died too.”

“I’m so sorry, Dana.”

“I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.” She swipes at her eyes. “Filch is only a temporary Prez. There’s going to be a struggle for the top. What he promised, another Prez might not honor.”

Cody shrugs. “Your weed on my ranch was destroyed. We’re going to fuck with your bar, whether it’s the liquor license or on a fire safety charge. There’s no reason for the MC to darken the town’s doors anymore.”

“Maybe not, butno one ever said that MCs made any sense.”

“Paulie would have wanted more for you.”

“Then he shouldn’t have died and left me to fend for myself.”

Heart in my mouth, I watch as they nod at one another, a respect that’s founded in men they both cared for, and then she takes off too, dust kicking up around her as she leaves us alone.

At that, I push the door open and jump down from Everest then round the front of the truck to hurl myself at him. “OH MY GOD!” I scream, holding him tight. “You did not do that!”

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