by Jessie Cooke
Coyote’s eyes landed on the very first photograph in line on the wall. It was in black and white, but if you looked closely enough, you could still see that his eyes were unlike anyone else’s.
“Hey, Coyote.” Coyote turned toward the voice and had to quickly correct himself. Doc Marshall’s eyes were looking at him, but not from Doc’s face.
“Dax, I’m sorry I missed you last night, we got in late. You remember Colleen?” Dax Marshall was almost the spitting image of his father…but Coyote could see Dallas there, especially in his smile. His heart still ached when he thought about her. He’d never stopped loving her. He felt guilty about that for a lot of years. But one thing he had learned was that there were different kinds of love, and different levels of it. His love for Dallas had been on a level all its own.
“Of course,” Dax said, taking Colleen’s hand first. “Thank you for coming.” He shook Coyote’s hand then and Coyote, not caring what anyone thought, pulled the boy in for a hug. He knew that an almost twenty-two-year-old Dax would object to being called a boy. But Coyote could vividly remember the day he drove his mother to the hospital to give birth to him. It seemed like only yesterday. Dax stiffened slightly, but he hugged Coyote back. Coyote let him go and said:
“I’m sorry. This is just…surreal, I guess.”
Dax nodded. “Yeah, it is for all of us. The SUVs are outside and ready to go, if y’all want to catch a ride. Otherwise, you can ride out with those of us who are riding.” Coyote looked at the mass of bodies behind Dax. He doubted that a single man who had ridden with the one they were going to bury would dare step into an SUV on a day like today. He looked at Colleen and with her powers of perception, she smiled and said:
“I’ll ride in one of the SUVs and see you there.”
Coyote smiled and kissed her cheek. He looked back up at Dax as she left and said, “You have no idea how much I loved him.”
Dax smiled and said, “You loved him enough that although you wanted his old lady, you never did anything about that. He banished you to the middle of nowhere and you loved him so much that you built an empire…in his name. You loved him so much that you drove my mother to the hospital the day she gave birth to me. I think if I shook this building and all the men who loved and were loyal to my father fell out…you would be on top.”
One of the tears Coyote had been holding back slid out of his eye and began to roll slowly down his cheek. He brought his hand up to wipe it away and he said, “Fuck, Dax…what are we going to do without him?”
Dax looked around the room again, letting his eyes linger on the photos on the wall, and said, “He’ll always be there for men like you and me, Coyote. Any time we want to give up, or we want to settle, he’ll be there, mentally kicking our ass. Anytime I think I’ve just had it…that I’m done…I picture his face when I was five years old and he made me slide down a water slide. I was terrified, but to this day I can’t remember a better feeling than facing that fear and watching the pride on his face as I did. That’s what Doc Marshall was all about. Fears exist…we have to face them, if not for ourselves, then for him and all he did for us. We better get going.”
Coyote nodded. He followed Dax and the crowd of bikers out the door of the Skulls clubhouse. They all stood on ceremony as Dax climbed on the back of Doc’s Harley for one last ride. After the memorial service, it would be retired to the meeting room and another part of Doc Marshall would live forever, in infamy.
Read Coyote’s story next. Click Here!
Latest Updates
Visit my website to see all my books…
www.jessiecooke.com
Check me out Facebook to see what’s coming next…
www.facebook.com/AuthorJSCooke
Books by Jessie Cooke
SKULLS MC Romance
Dax: (Southside Skulls 1)
Cody: (Southside Skulls 2)
Gunner: (Southside Skulls 3)
Zack: (Southside Skulls 4)
Levi: (Southside Skulls 5)
Kat: (Southside Skulls 6)
Hunter: (Southside Skulls 7)
Garrett: (Southside Skulls 8)
Wheelie: (Southside Skulls 9)
Jigsaw/Rusty: (Southside Skulls 10)
Chopper: (Southside Skulls 11)
Ryder: (Southside Skulls 12)
Wolf 1: (Westside Skulls 1)
Wolf 2: (Westside Skulls 2)
Bruf: (Westside Skulls 3)
Ash: (Westside Skulls 4)
Sledge: (Westside Skulls 5)
Maz: (Westside Skulls 6)
Doc: (Skulls The Early Years 1)
Coyote: (Skulls The Early Years 2)
Beck: (Westside Skulls 7)
Rise of the Phoenix: (Phoenix Skulls 1)
Jace: (Phoenix Skulls 2)
Finn: (Phoenix Skulls 3)
Tse: (Skulls The Early Years 3)
AJ: (Phoenix Skulls 4)
Hawk: (Skulls The Early Years 4)
Lion: (Southside Skulls 13)
Collin: (Phoenix Skulls 5)
Coming Soon…
30 - Boots: (Phoenix Skulls 6)
31 - Crimson: (Southside Skulls 14)
Bad Boys Series
Jake: (The Lion)
Brock: (The Rock)
Jagger: (The Musician)
Kyle: (The Rock Star)
Blake: (The Cowboy)
Billionaire Romance COLLECTIONS
Just like Grey: Series ONE Complete Collection
Just like Grey: Series TWO Complete Collection
Coming Soon…
3 - Just like Grey: Series THREE Complete Collection
Copyright © 2019 by Jessie Cooke
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
License.
This book is available exclusively on Amazon.com. If you found this book for free or from a site other than Amazon.com country specific website it means the author was not compensated and you have likely obtained the book through an unapproved distribution channel.
Acknowledgements
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and events are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
