over my face as all the blood drains from my brain. “I’m sorry, brother. I swear to you, I am. If I had any idea what my father was capable of, I would have taken a gun to him myself.”
Razor places a hand in the air. “It’s not your fault.”
“I knew he was following your mom. I overhead him talking about it with another member of the club. I should have done something. I should have stopped him from going out that day.”
“You couldn’t,” Razor says.
“I should have.”
“You were a teen,” Razor pushes as if that’s a good enough defense.
“And you were a kid,” I shout, and the guys surrounding us go quiet. “My flesh and blood took away your mom, and I’m to blame!”
Razor stares at me in that slow, calm way of his. “It’s not your fault.”
His words are like a hook to the head. For years, I’ve blamed myself, felt the guilt, felt the blood streaming through my fingers. I couldn’t look at my dad, and I couldn’t look at myself. How could I be related to someone so horrible?
So, I left, joined the Army and when I was honorably discharged due to my wounds, I came here to Snowflake and begged this club for forgiveness. Forgiveness they said I didn’t need because her death wasn’t on me. They took me in and gave me the chance to make it up to the son of my father’s victim. To watch over Razor because his mom was no longer on this earth to do so.
“I appreciate your looking out for me,” Razor says. “Being there for me at every turn, but I think it’s time you take a step back and focus on you.”
“You’re my brother.” I close my eyes to try to contain the emotion raging within me. “I’ll always have your back.”
“And I’ll always have yours, but I’m leaving next month, and you need to stay here.” His eyes flicker to Caroline, who thankfully is on the other side of the room and has no idea of the drama taking place near the bar.
I never thought twice about the prospect of packing up and leaving town with Razor. It’s what I’ve done: watch over this kid. A guardian angel he never knew he had—until now. “Are you telling me you’re too good for me now?”
He chuckles. “I’ve always been too good for you.”
I can’t help the short, bitter laugh.
“I’m living my life for me now,” Razor says, “and you need to live your life for you. I buried my mom’s ghost, and it’s time you do, too.”
“When did you get so wise?”
“I guess from the years of you talking at me.”
Smartass. Yet I bring the kid in for a hug that includes hard pats on the back. We let go and he shoves my shoulder. “It sucks that every time I come home I’m going to have to talk to my English teacher.”
I can only hope. “Go be young and not stupid, brother.”
He gives me one of his rare smiles and leaves.
A soft and gentle touch on my bicep and I turn my head to see Caroline gazing up at me. “Is that offer for a ride on your bike still available?”
For her? “Anytime.”
I take her hand, and we weave through the crowd so I can take the most beautiful woman on the planet on the ride of her life.
And They All Lived Happily Ever After:
A Pushing the Limits Novella
Chapter 29
Noah
My eyes snap open and my body jerks so abruptly that the bed shakes. After all that I’ve been through in life, I’ve acquired the ability to sleep through fistfights in school, screaming foster fathers, and even gunshots in the crazy neighborhood of the first apartment I shared with Isaiah. But where the harsh world couldn’t break my sleep patterns, the shadow of a three-year-old doing nothing more than staring at me can wake me from a deep sleep with the same dread I’d feel at a clown hovering over the bed with a machete.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” I sit up on my elbows and squint in the darkness to try to make out my son. All I see is his outline and the glint of light reflecting off the plastic eye of the stuffed rabbit held close to his chest.
“I used the bathroom.”
My foggy brain tries to weigh whether or not that means he needs a pull-up change.
“I didn’t pee in bed.”
And there’s the answer. He made it to the bathroom in the middle of the