Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73311 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
My eyes were drawn to how someone else opened the back door, allowing Tank to jump up inside of the back with the coffin, and I nearly lost it right then and there.
Tank lay down on the side, his head resting on his paws, as he protected his master one last time on his final ride home.
“Oh, Jesus,” I whispered brokenly. “I need to go. Do you mind?”
Aaron didn’t answer.
Instead he curled his fingers around my hip tighter, letting me know without words that I wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Shit!
I bit my lip, my heart racing.
I couldn’t do this.
I really couldn’t do this.
Doing this, around these people, was not a good idea.
I didn’t know any of them.
And I was an ugly crier.
That’d been why I didn’t go in the first place.
I didn’t have to know the man that died.
All it took for me to cry was a thought, a whisper of something sad, and I was in full blown hysterics.
Aaron didn’t let me go, though.
He kept me pulled tight to his body, despite both of us sweating in the hundred-degree afternoon sun.
My face was pressed against his leather vest, sweat slickening both my face and his vest.
Just when I’d started to push away, he let me go, but only long enough to allow us to move apart.
It was like some silent signal had been given.
Police started to march toward the sea of cars. Bikers mounted bikes.
And almost as one, every single motor in the entire football parking lot started up, surrounding us with a deafening roar.
Then the emergency lights started up, blinding in their intensity.
“Come on,” Aaron urged me toward his bike.
He mounted it and held his hand out for me to hop on, and I did, all the while tears were pouring down my face.
The men surrounding us were the last to mount, but I realized moments later that it didn’t matter. We were going to take the lead.
Every time I looked behind us on the way to the cemetery where Stone was being buried, my breath would clog in my throat.
There was a line of cars, and when I say line, I really meant a line.
The line was so long, that I wasn’t sure I could see the end of it.
Then there were the people on the overpasses.
We only passed three, but there were so many people, some with flags, others with signs, that I was sure they had to be blocking traffic.
The thing was that nobody cared.
Every single one of the cars we passed pulled over.
And they waited. And waited. And waited some more.
They likely waited for over fifty minutes, if I had to guess.
It took us over an hour to go fifteen miles.
And by the time we pulled up in the parking lot of the cemetery, I was a freakin’ mess.
I hadn’t enjoyed the ride—my first ride ever on a motorcycle—because my mind was too focused on what was directly behind me.
Sadly, that was only the beginning.
By the time the funeral was over, I was a frazzled mess.
The good thing, though, was that I wasn’t the only frazzled mess.
Everyone was.
Everyone cried.
Police. Firefighters. Bikers.
Men, women and children of all ages. It made no difference.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the entire area.
And when the first scoop of dirt hit the top of the coffin, my heart officially broke.
Mei fell to her knees.
Tank began to whimper loudly.
Memphis broke down.
And I realized two things.
One, no one ever thought much about the lives of the people behind the badge.
Sure, they felt bad that the officer had lost his life, but did they mourn with the family who lost that officer? Did they realize that he was a dad who kissed his children’s skinned knees or that he had a wife who teased him for having to always have his back to the wall to face all threats?
No. Nobody thought about that.
The other thing I realized was that I wanted to change my life. I wanted to live life to my fullest potential. I wanted to have a partner in life, kids, my own family. I wanted the house with the white picket fence. I wanted all of that, the whole shebang.
I wanted to have what Stone had.
I wanted someone to cry over me if I were to die.
Sure, my mom and siblings would.
But seeing Stone’s family—bikers and police friends included—lose their battles with their emotions, I realized that I wasn’t loved like that.
Not yet.
But I would make a difference in this life, and hopefully when I was done living my life, I’d be remembered and missed by my people like Stone was by his.
With so much love and devotion that it filled an entire football stadium.
Chapter 9
Throw me to the wolves, and I’ll return leading the whole goddamned pack.
-Fact of Life
Aaron
“Thanks for taking care of him,” I told her. “I’m kind of scared to go look at my place.”