Page 9 of Iron Fist

“Goddamnit,” I spit. “He’s as gossipy as an old lady. Jesus Christ.”

“So it’s true?” Matthias gapes. “You’re fuckin’ married, bro?”

“How the hell did that happen?” Rourke, our VP asks.

“And how the hell have you never mentioned her before now?” Mal adds. “Shit, she must have some fine-ass pussy to get Rogue to put a ring on it,”

“It’s just a piece of paper,” I retort. “Just like it says you’re a male on your birth certificate. It don’t mean anything.”

Loud guffaws erupt around the table.

“If it doesn’t mean anything, why the hell you so mad, brother?” Rourke chuckles.

“Hey, if you’re not really married, I’d hit that,” Mal says.

“Back off, Mal,” I warn.

“Huh. So it ain’t just a piece of paper after all.”

“Feast on my testicles, you asshole.”

I do my best to change the subject A-S-A-fucking-P. Luckily, ordering a couple bottles of booze for the table and a round of shot glasses does the trick. Pretty soon, the conversation shifts to other shit: bikes, sports, construction on the new clubhouse. The shots go down my throat, one after the other.

But they don’t quite keep my mind from drifting back to Brody and Aurora. The two people we used to be.

She may be going by a different name now, but I doubt she’s changed much. Once a cheating bitch, always a cheating bitch.

We might still be legally married, but that doesn’t mean shit. We never got around to filing divorce papers. After we broke up, I did everything in my power to just erase her from my mind. Forget she ever even existed. And somewhere along the line, she left town, and that was that.

Not that it has mattered much. Legal is one thing, but real is another. And our marriage hasn’t been real in a long damn time. Not like it ever was, anyway. Even though I thought it was at the time.

Aurora was never who I thought she was, anyway.

I sure as shit ain’t that dumb shit Brody anymore, either. That kid believed in love. In forever.

That kid is long gone.

4

RORY

“Princess.”

I wipe the tears roughly from my eyes as I stumble out onto the sidewalk, almost bumping into a couple on their way into the bar.

Brody said the word with such hatred in his eyes. I knew he despised me back then, but I guess… well, I guess I hoped maybe some of his anger would have gone away over the years.

Not that I ever expected to see him here. Not that I ever hoped we could repair what broke between us. But still, I admit that whenever I thought about him over the years, I couldn’t stand thinking that he was still out there in the world thinking bad things about me.

I told myself time is supposed to heal all wounds. But I guess it doesn’t. Because seeing him today, the scars feel as fresh as they were the day I left Ironwood.

I can’t believe he’s joined a biker club. It makes me wonder what else has happened to Brody in the years since I last saw him. I knew about the existence of the Lords of Carnage, but only by name. My father told me an outlaw motorcycle club had established a foothold in town. On the rare occasions I spoke to him on the phone, he mentioned it more than once. But I had no idea that Brody had joined the club. Or that now he’s known as Rogue. Dad must not, either. It seems like something he would have mentioned. He would have enjoyed the chance to say I told you so about my high-school sweetheart turning into a criminal.

Princess. It’s a nickname Brody used to call me back when we first knew each other. That first day I met him, when I told him what my name was, he laughed and said, “Aurora, huh? Like the princess fromSleeping Beauty?”

I was shocked that a seventeen-year-old boy would make that association. “How doyouknow about Princess Aurora?” I asked, gaping at him.

Brody just shrugged. “I have a little cousin. She’s crazy about Disney shit. I had to take her trick-or-treating a couple years ago, and she was all about her Princess Aurora costume.”

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