Sage's Surrender

by Joy Blood

  Sage

  The ride to Vin and Ellie’s is short and cold. It’s early morning and the sun hasn’t quite started to warm the earth yet, but the bite is welcome, giving me a slight distraction from how bad my head is pounding.

  When we pull up to Vin and Ellie’s, I see Jake and Kimi’s vehicle parked out front. I stop to let Brook off and almost leave her there without a word. But when she turns to look at me, I know I need to go in. I nod and get off my bike to follow her inside. As soon as I cross the threshold, the vibe of death hits me. A piece of the club is missing, a brother gone. Husband taken away from his new wife too early and children left without a father, unable to mend the wounds they all carry. The normal sound of kids running and screaming throughout the house is gone. I walk into the living room where Kimi sits with her one-year-old daughter, Ella, clutched in her arms. Across from her is Ellie holding Grace. Jake and Vin both see me and start my way, while Brook walks over to Grace. When Grace looks up at her, I think she might change her mind and bolt, but Brook drops to her knees, buries her face in Grace’s lap, and lets out the most painful sound I have ever heard. It sends a shard through my heart, but seeing her go to Grace makes my chest swell just a little bit. They need each other right now, and I’m damn glad I brought her home.

  “Shit is unbelievable. Didn’t think he would go out like that. No fuckin’ way,” Vin says when we make our way outside, away from the women.

  “Good man,” Jake offers, clutching his bottled water tight in his grip. The crinkle of plastic twisting gnaws at my headache.

  “I’ll come get her if need be, but I think she should stay. Grace needs her here. And whether Brook will admit it or not, being here for Grace is what she needs too,” I tell Vin, who nods in agreement.

  “Gotta find who did this,” Jake grits out. “Reek is goin’ over everything he can find.”

  “From that day? Any ATMs around the area? Maybe traffic cams?”

  Jake shrugs. “Lookin’.”

  “I’ll take care of his girls. Gin took care of Ellie when she needed it most. It’s the least I can do,” Vin says. I remember when we all rode up to Ellie’s place in town. Meek little thing who didn’t know us from Adam, but still got on the back of Gin’s bike and let him bring her to the clubhouse. Back before the shitstorm that was Avil Cantrell came to the club.

  “Know you will, brother.” I clasp my hand on Vin’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze before heading to my bike. Even though he’s not a patched member, he’s still very much a member of our Hell’s Rider family—him, Ellie, and their two kids.

  I nod to Jake before he follows Vin back inside, then fire up my bike, taking an extra long time to get back to the clubhouse, needing the cold wind to wipe away the hangover still lingering—and the memory of Brook’s face when I answered my door this morning.

  Nineteen

  Brook

  “Now, this one is our best seller,” the funeral director says, pointing out another box to bury Gin in. This one is a bold chrome looking one and feels like it’s smacking me in the face. I told Grace Jason and I would take care of the funeral arrangements, but right now, staring down at the fitted white linen pillows that will eventually encase a body, I can’t remember why I suggested we take on the task.

  “Yeah. I think this one is good. It’s chromed out like his bike. What do you think, sis?” I hear Jason beside me, but I’m still looking down at the empty box, picturing Gin’s lifeless body inside. “Brook?” he says, pulling me from my morbid thoughts.

  “Yeah?”

  “What do you think of this one?” Jason points down at the coffin.

  “Yeah.” I nod my head. “Just like his bike,” I repeat his earlier words. “How about the headstones? Do you have displays for them?” I ask, ready to leave the empty display boxes.

  “Of course. Have you settled on—?” the director stops when Jason’s phone starts ringing.

  “Hang on a sec. It’s Rock.” Jason swipes across the screen and steps away to answer the call. I resist the urge to roll my eyes and start walking away from the director who tries to ask his question about the coffin again, but I pay his muffled words no mind. It’s like I’m in a fishbowl, my face pressed against the glass, trying to see out, but I can’t. The glass is supposed to be clear, but it’s frosted over.

  My eyes focus in on the plastic display near the register filled with brochures ranging from florists to places to find hearses when Jason’s voice breaks through my fog. “Guess we won’t be needing that coffin.”

  “What do you mean? What the hell are we going to bury him in?” I ask, maybe a little too loud. I wince when Jason bunches his brows together.

  “He’s being cremated,” Jason says, and I balk. Gone is the bowl, smashed to pieces on the floor. Back is the contempt for this club and their meddling.

  “Are you kidding me? Who approved that? Did he talk to Grace?”

  “No. Just something the club decided,” he states, and my anger grows.

  “Absolutely not. There is no way they are going to burn his body!” I storm out of the funeral parlor, not caring if Jason is following. When I woke up this morning, I was happy to find my little red car sitting in the driveway of Vin and Ellie’s house, but now I have to tell myself not to drive like a maniac all the way to the clubhouse. My pause behind the wheel gives Jason enough time to open the door and get in, but he doesn’t say a word as I take off out of the parking lot.

  The ride goes by fast, my anger bubbling to the surface when I pull up and park out front. I get all kinds of stares and strange looks as I storm my way through the clubhouse and right to where I know Rock’s office is. “Brook,” Rock says, as if he was expecting me. By the glance behind me to my brother, I’m betting Rock got the tip off from him.

  “You cannot cremate him,” I start through clenched teeth, trying to keep my temper in check. It isn’t going to work, though. I already know it when he starts talking.

  “It isn’t—”

  “No. Don’t tell me it isn’t my decision. The man had half his face burned off, and you want to cremate him! That is bullshit!” I yell, not giving two shits how loud I’m being.

  “Brook!”

  I hear him before I see him. Sage right behind me and getting closer.

  “I got her, Pres,” Sage says, clasping a hand around my arm to pull me out of the office, but I snatch it away and turn around to give him a glare.

  “This is wrong. Gin shouldn’t be burned to a fucking crisp. Into a pile of ashes. It’s just not right. We can’t say goodbye to him like that. It’s not right!” My last words crack, and I feel my body start to give out.

  “I’m sorry, Brook. I get where you’re coming from. Believe me, I do. But it isn’t up to you. It’s a club decision. One that was already made and carried out this morning. I appreciate you and Jason trying to help out Grace with the arrangements, but we’ve got all of it,” Rock says.

  Tears pile up in my eyes before pouring down like a rolling river, and I rip myself from Sage, who’s trying his best to keep me from plummeting to the floor. Squaring my shoulders, I wipe the tears from my eyes and look directly at Rock. “I hate you. And I hate the fucking club. I will never forgive this.” I flick my stare to Sage before pushing past him and storming from the clubhouse, dead set on never coming back.

  Twenty

  Sage

  The fury in her eyes was enough to scorch my soul. But the way she came to Gin’s defense squeezes at my chest. She cared about how to lay Gin to rest. It wasn’t just because she wanted to put him in the ground and be done with it. She didn’t want her dad to be burned like he had been when he was alive. “Poor kid,” Rock says, going back behind his desk to sit down. “Fucking hated doing that to her.”

  “What’s done is done. She’ll come around,” I say, not knowing whether it’s true or not.

  “Maybe. Until then, keep an eye on her. I still don’t want her hightailing it back to California.” I nod at his instruction. “And find out
why the fuck no one was with them. Vin should have known better than to let the two of them go off into town on their own. Jay is a good shot, but with his arm out, I’d rather not take the chance of them being without.”

  “Will do. I’ll follow them back to Vin’s,” I say, then head outside to my bike, just catching the trail of dust Brook left behind.

  It doesn’t take long to catch up to her and Jay as they drive back to Vin’s. I park behind them and kill my engine. She doesn’t even throw me a glance as she parks the little red car and takes off into the house. “That was intense,” Jay says, coming up to me.

  “For sure. I’m glad her heart was in the right place, though.”

  “She has to come to terms with a lot of shit. Not sure she’ll let herself, though. She’s as stubborn as Dad is. Was. Fuck, I can’t believe he’s gone.”

  “You and me both, Jay. Take care of your sister, yeah? And do me a damn favor?”

  He nods, looking me over.

  “Don’t leave this fucking house without someone with you. Make sure to fucking hell she doesn’t either. She even tries, you tie her to the bed and give me a call.”

  “You got it. Coming in?”

  I nod and slide off my bike, following him inside the once bed and breakfast home. The two-story house is old as fuck, but Ellie fell in love with it I guess. Vin fixed it up for her, and now they have enough rooms to house their family and then some.

  “Sage. Sorry. I was out in the shop with Anthony and came back to find her gone. By the time I called Rock, he said you guys had it covered.”

  “It’s all good,” I say, shaking my head in reassurance. “Jay and I got it covered. If she starts screaming, it’s because Jay tied her up.” I let out a chuckle and try not to let the mental image of Brook tied up get me fucking hard. But it doesn’t happen. My mind brings her right to my bed and plants her ass down, arms tied up over her head as she lays on her stomach completely fucking naked, and her ass red from my palm. My hand starts to tingle at the thought.

  “Sage?” Vin’s voice breaks into my thoughts. Shit, I hadn’t even heard him talking.

  “Yeah?”

  “You want coffee?”

  Fucking shit. “I’ll have some. Thanks.”

  “Rock tell you to watch over her still?” I nod, taking a sip of the hot coffee. “Does he know?”

  “Know what?”

  “How you feel about her?” The fuck?

  “Come again? The fuck are you trying to say, V?”

  “Not trying to say a thing. Just caught the way you looked at her yesterday.” He holds up his hands in defense, but still has a cocky ass grin on his face. “Same way I saw him lookin’ at Grace. Like she was the only fucking woman on this earth. Never had that sparkle to him until her—not even with Brit. The man had it bad, and I believe you do too,” he states, pissing me off.

  “Listen. I don’t know what the fuck you saw, V, but that girl is a fucking kid. I’m almost the same age as her old man. I ain’t fuckin’ looking at her with no goddamn twinkle,” I grit out between clenched teeth, then stand from the table when my eyes catch a streak of blonde hair in the doorway to the living room. Just fucking great. “Thanks for the coffee,” I grumble before stomping out of the house, pissed off that Vin just might be fucking right.

  Twenty-One

  Brook

  His words echo in my ears as I flop down onto the bed I slept in last night. That girl is a fucking kid. That’s all Sage will ever see me as. I’m not sure why they were even talking about me, but it doesn’t matter. Sage made his feelings about me perfectly clear. I could go on and on about how age is only a number, but it isn’t—not to him—and it wouldn’t be for anyone else. When I look at him, I don’t see a forty-two-year-old man. I just see Sage. I see someone who, despite my belligerence, held me when I broke down about Gin—more than once. A man who, no matter how much I may say I hate him, I deeply care for.

  I drift off to sleep, but it’s interrupted by my phone going off. I bring the cracked screen to my face to see who it is when Cary’s face pops up. I swipe across, thankful the crack isn’t where I need to drag my thumb, and make a quick mental note to get a new phone. “Hey, Cary.”

  “Brook! Thank god I got ahold of you. They are here taking all your stuff!” he says, and I jolt upright.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Your apartment. There are a bunch of movers here packing your things and putting them into a truck.” You have got to be fucking kidding me. “I asked them what they were going to do with it, but they told me to mind my own business.”

  “Can I call you back? I need to check something,” I tell him, then hang up without waiting for him to answer and take off out of the room, ready to jump into the first vehicle and storm into the clubhouse for the second time today.

  “Whoa, sis. Where are you headed?” Jason stops me when I’m almost to the door. As if he was ready and waiting for me to leave.

  “I need to talk to Sage. Someone is packing up my apartment and I have a feeling he’s behind it.”

  “I can’t let you leave the house. Under strict instructions to keep you here, by any means necessary,” my little brother states, folding his arms over his chest. God, he’s the spitting image of Gin. Give him a beard instead of the struggling few hairs he has trying to grow on his jaw and I would think I was looking at the ghost of my departed father. It only angers me further, bringing me back to the day Gin and I had our argument, only he let me leave. Jason won’t, of that I’m sure.

  “You have got to be kidding me! Fine. Give me his number,” I snap. He pulls his phone from his pocket and thumbs through it, then hands it over.

  “Ringing,” he says as I take it from his hand. I wait for only two rings before Sage answers.

  “She already trying to make a break for it?” he asks, making me bristle.

  “Did you send people to my apartment to pack up my things?” I all but growl into the phone.

  “I did. I didn’t think it was necessary for you to get evicted and lose all your shit. I’m having it brought here and packed into a unit. When you get settled—”

  “You have no right! I will not be staying here!”

  “Kid,” he barks out over the line, “you will be here for a while longer. Might as well accept that. For now, sit your ass tight and quit being a little shit. Got it?” he asks, but doesn’t wait for an answer before ending the call.

  “That fucking asshole.” I slap the phone to Jason’s chest and shoulder past him to go outside. “Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere,” I snap. “I just need some fresh air.”

  He nods, but doesn’t let me be. Instead, he waits until I go outside, then comes out to sit on the porch while I walk around outside, trying to get my frustrations out. Fucking Sage.

  Twenty-Two

  Sage

  With the frosty looks she keeps shooting my way, I know damn well she’s still pissed about the whole moving her things out of her apartment fiasco. That skinny prick from across the hall must have called and tipped her off. Fucking dunce.

  We had a short ceremony for Gin as we lowered his ashes into the ground in front of the headstone the club had made for him. Now, our graveyard has one more occupant—one more too many.

  We are all gathered in the clubhouse toasting to Gin and letting the night get away from us as the women pack up the kids to leave us brothers to mourn the loss of our own. Siberians and more Riders from Rhino fill the room as we all gather ‘round while Rock makes a speech.

  “Gin was a good man, good brother, good father, and a good husband. He had our backs through all his shit days and after. Let’s keep him in our thoughts, and his family in our prayers, and drink to our fallen brother tonight.” We all raise our glasses in the air for Gin and take back the shots of the alcohol of the same name. He fucking hated gin, but the reason for calling him Gin came from the drink. A flash of blonde hair heading out the front door pulls me from the memory of my once President and his names
ake. It takes me only seconds to catch up with her. “Why didn’t you go with them?” I snap when I step outside and find her alone.

  “I missed my ride I guess.” She shrugs and saunters away, pissing me off further.

  “Missed your ride my ass. They wouldn’t have left without you unless you told them to. The hell are you playing at, kid?” I reach out and grab her arm, hauling her away from the clubhouse and toward the back side of the garage, ready to start yelling at the girl if I have to.

  “I’m not playing at anything! Let me go!” she snaps, pulling her arm away, but I’ve had just enough to drink that I propel myself closer to her, bringing us both flush with the heavy metal of the building. “Sage, what are you doing?” Her breathing speeds up as I look down on her, wondering the same fucking thing.

  “I don’t know,” I say honestly, watching how her chest heaves under the thing that’s supposed to be a dress. It’s low, giving her knockout rack a display I saw half the men looking at tonight despite being at a fucking funeral for her old man. Then the length of it…fuck me. If the wind had been blowing any more than it had been today, everyone would have seen what she has underneath, and I would have had to put more people in that graveyard with Gin. “Your fucking dress is too short.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Her words come out in a whisper, barely audible, but I catch them.

  “It wouldn’t take much to find out what you have on under there. You even wearing panties?” I suppress a groan when she takes her bottom lip into her mouth. Then what she says next has me nearly coming in my fucking jeans like a fifteen-year-old.

  “Maybe you should find out for yourself.” The girl is playing with fire, and I can see it in her eyes—in the blaze that lingers there. Anger. Hate. Lust.

  I should back away, I should go back inside and drink to my fallen brother, her fucking father. But I don’t. Instead, my hands find their way to her thighs. She lets out a gasp when my calloused palms connect with her smooth as silk skin. Slow, so painfully fucking slow, I glide my way up her legs until they reach the fabric of her lacy panties. Further exploration of my hands find a thong, and my forehead falls to hers on a groan. “You should be running away from me right now.” My breath mingles with hers, and I bring my hips to her body, letting her feel how fucking hard I am for her.