Taming Coyote - E.C. Land Page 0,26

life.”

Closing my eyes, I sit there in silence for a while, trying to block everything out.

“You know it was supposed to be you and me against the world. Damnit Chase, who am I gonna ask about what to do? I have my brothers with the club, but I need my brother from another mother.”

“Brother, he’s always gonna be your brother.” I jerk my head up to find Shadow standing there.

“What are you doing here?” I demand but I shouldn’t be surprised he’s here.

“No one rides alone. Remember. We ride through hell to get to the other side. Well we can’t do that unless we’re a unit,” he shrugs.

“The other week you said you knew how I was feeling, what did you mean?” I ask.

Sighing, Shadow dropped his head, sat down next to me and leaned against Chase’s headstone.

“No one knows this, but I had a little brother, fourteen months younger than me. In high school we’d all been out partying, he was in the truck with me. I hadn’t had but two beers the entire night and he was plastered. So were the other two people in the back seat. I was driving us back home and a deer ran out in front of us. I’d swerved to miss it and ended up in a ditch. It wasn’t deep so if we’d pushed together, we’d have gotten it out easily. Well in the process of doing this Daniel moved toward the driver’s side door so he could climb in and put the gears in neutral. Instead of climbing in he’d stumbled backwards right as a car came flying around the curve. It was like slow motion yet happened so fuckin’ quick. He was gone before he hit the ground.”

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“Yeah, you can say that. I blame myself for what happened to him. I have to focus on everything else in order to keep from becoming murderous. That night was the first time I ever took a life and that was because I’d bashed the fucker’s head into the steering wheel repeatedly for taking my baby brother from me,” Shadow all but spits the last part out.

“I’m sorry, brother.” I know he doesn’t want or need apologies, but he’s got it anyway.

“Look, Coyote, I don’t tell people this shit because I don’t want to talk about it. I hate dredging up that fucked up night. But you need to hear this. We all have something or someone we’ve lost. Pain is in us all and that woman you claimed is hurting. More than you think. You leaving the way you did didn’t help the situation. I heard what she said just as much as you did. She thinks she’s not good enough for anyone and you storming out the way you did, proves her point.”

“Bullshit, I left because if I didn’t, I’d have destroyed the clubhouse and I didn’t want her to see the anger. I’m fucked up, Shadow. I mean fucked up,” I say.

“Yeah, we all are. It’s only a matter of how you handle being fucked up,” Shadow shrugs at the advice he’s dishing out.

“When did you become the all-knowing wise one?” I grin.

“Not the wise one, just the shadow that sees all without the emotions intact,” he grumbles, brushing a hand through his hair.

Shaking my head at my brother, I don’t respond to him instead I look up to the sky. “Do you think she has what it takes to tame what’s inside me?” I ask.

“Brother, that woman has more balls than most other women. She took a beating and didn’t give up your son’s location. I think she’s got it in her to tame the beast that’s inside you,” Shadow rasps.

Nodding my head, I close my eyes and send a thank you. Because for some reason, I swear Chase was here and those were the words he’d have said.

Chapter Fifteen

Tinsley

Talk about foot in mouth.

Of course, he’d leave after overhearing something like that. I mean who wouldn’t, it just goes to show how damaged I am.

No man wants to claim someone who can't fight off an attacker.

“He’s just pissed right now, sweetheart, give him a little bit to calm down,” Blaze says as he puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes it reassuringly. Stoney moves around him to Rachel’s side and helps her up.

I stare at the two of them seeing the way she leans into him when he’s near and how he seems to gravitate to her. They are perfect for each other the way