Road made a noise and Bones looked up, realizing he hadn’t listened to the answer he’d requested. “My apologizes.” He swallowed and corrected himself. “Apologies. What did Gunny say?”
“You were good friends with Watcher,” Road Runner commented, and Bones tipped his head to one side, nodding slowly. “Did you know his sister?” A headshake, because he hadn’t met Watcher until after he’d left the military, back when he was in the Outriders. Back before the world changed. “Fury has Gunny looking into some odd accidents in Kentucky, and turns out Watcher’s sister was one of the oddnesses. She died in a single car accident. Everyone thought it was suicide, because of…shit that happened to her when she was little.”
Road’s pause was odd, and Bones noted that so he could question it in a moment. For now, he allowed the man to continue speaking unimpeded.
“Now it’s looking like it wasn’t what they thought. Duck’s woman, Brenda, her parents were killed in a single car accident. She survived, but the circumstances around her survival are murky. Gunny’s finding it harder to zero in on that one, there’s some mystery about how she even lived. But there’s a pattern of deaths in that area of the country that does not feel right.”
“Why are you…?” Bones took a breath. “What does this mean to you?”
Road took a breath, and Bones braced for his next words. “Things line up with Morgan’s time in that part of the country, boss.”
Bones shook his head, still not sure what this meant. “Shooter’s been in and out of Kentucky for decades. I’m not sure—”
“Not Shooter,” Road Runner interrupted him. “Justice Morgan. Mason’s step-dad.”
***
Juanita
Juanita stared up into the darkness. She’d been awake for hours, knew from the glow slipping in around the curtains the sun would be rising soon. One of their roosters shared her knowledge, and crowed, his cracked voice pulling a weak smile to her tear-smeared face. Watcher insisted they have chickens, claimed he enjoyed the noisy things. The door to the bedroom opened silently, letting in light from the hallway, and she held her position. I refuse. Soft footfalls against the floor signaled the entrance she’d been dreading. Spider.
She’d been napping when she felt it, a pain in her chest that pulled her awake, sweating and gasping for breath. Heart pounding, she’d listened, but there was nothing more than the TV in the living room. As she sat upright, the ache spread, becoming agony swarming along her bones and she’d instinctively crawled to Watcher’s side of the bed, pulling his pillow to her body to help blunt the pain. His scent on the soft surface of the pillow had soothed her, a forest musk which never left him, melding with the metallic smell of a thousand road trips, musky and male, and him.
Throat tight, she’d been trying to fight tears, wanting to call out to Spider to pull him away from the television show, desperate for anything to distract her from the pain, when she’d heard his phone ring. The bright sound cut off quickly, and she’d strained for anything that would tell her what was going on. Bending to bury her face in the pillow when her hands lifted to cover her ears, trying and failing to block out the sounds of his grief. Sobs and cries that tore at her, leaving furrows of anguish behind.
Coward, she’d taunted herself, and still remained behind her closed door. Feigning sleep the dozen times he’d checked on her, leaving them to each fight their demons alone. The hour came and went when she would have expected Watcher to return, the clock on the nightstand uncaring of the order she tried to impose on it with her mind.
Now her time was up, gone was the solitary space she’d carved out by her refusal to admit what she already knew. The edge of the mattress depressed near her hip, and she slowly turned to face Spider, seeing news on his features she didn’t know she could survive. Outside a rumble grew and grew until she could pick out individual exhausts from the mix of what sounded like hundreds of motorcycles. Not the one she needed, though. No matter how she listened, how she searched, that belling rumble her ears were tuned to failed to appear.
And still
“How many did we lose?” The question came through the phone and he sucked in a steadying breath, not surprised when the question was snapped again, the man on the phone impatient for knowledge he didn’t want to impart. “How many, dammit?”
“Too many.”
The end (of this story)
THANK YOU FOR READING Watcher!
This is Book #9 in a series. Throughout this series we’ve been introduced to so many wonderful characters. People who live in my head in a way that makes them seem real in many aspects. I hope you fell in love with Watcher and his Juanita, and will continue in this saga along with me. Next up will be Bones’ story, fraught with love and loss, and love.
MUSIC PLAYLISTS
I put together playlists of music both mentioned in the book, and used during writing and editing. Want a peek into the mind of me? Be sure of your decision, it’s not always normal here!
Playlist: bit.ly/watcher-playlist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raised in the south, MariaLisa deMora learned about the magic of books at an early age. Every summer, she would spend hours in the Upshur County library, devouring stacks of books in every genre. She still reads voraciously, and always has a few books going in paperback, hardback, on devices! On music, she says, “I love music of nearly any kind—jazz, country, rock, alt rock, metal, classical, bluegrass, rap, gangstergrass, hip hop—you name the type, I probably listen to it.
“I can often be seen dancing through the house in the early mornings. But what I really, REALLY love is live music. My favorite way to experience live music is seeing bands in small, dive bars [read: small, intimate venues]. If said bar [venue] has a good selection of premium tequila, then that’s a definite plus! Oh, and since I’m a hand gal, drummers are my thing—yeah, Paul and Alex—you know who you are!”
ADDITIONAL SERIES AND BOOKS
Please note each book is part of a series, for the most part featuring characters from additional books in the series. If the books in a series are read out of order, you’ll twig to spoilers for the other books, so going back to read the skipped titles won’t have the same angsty reveals.
It is strongly recommended they be read in order.
Rebel Wayfarers MC series:
Mica, book #1
Slate, book #2
Bear, book #3
Jase, book #4
Gunny, book #5
Mason, book #6
Hoss, book #7
Duck, book #8
Watcher, book #9
Bones, book #10 (2017)
Fury, book #11 (2017)
Cassie, book #12 (2018)
Occupy Yourself band series:
Born Into Trouble, book #1
Grace In Motion, book #2 (2017)
What They Say, book #3 (TBD)
Neither This, Nor That series:
This Is The Route Of Twisted Pain, book #1
Treading The Traitor’s Path Out Bad, book #2 (TBD)
More information available at mldemora.com.
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