Page 94 of Bound by Wreckage

It’s damn hard being the strong one in asituation like this. One that is ripping your wife in two and making your babies cry. It’s my job to keep them together and whole.

But there are times like this when my chest constricts and heart pounds that I feel.

Everything.

The hurt, pain, loss, devastation, anger…. All of the emotions that I try to keep bottled up around my wife and kids to make things easier on them.

I let out my anger on Torrance, but it still didn’t bring Dagger back.

Now, all I feel is loss and sorrow.

My best friend is gone. My father-in-law. The best fucking man I ever knew, ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Wetness falls from my eyes and I bat it away quickly, pulling my shit together.

“Dammit, Dagger. All this estrogen is gonna kill me ‘round here.At least with the two of us we balanced it out a bit. Fuckin’ miss you, buddy. No day will ever be the same.”

The sliding glass door opens, and I swipe my face clean as my wife, Tanner, steps outside. “You okay, baby?” she asks.

“Yeah.”

She comes to sit on my lap, and I hold her tight to me.

I’ll protect all of them until my dying breath, Dagger. This, I swear to you.

Extras

Tanner

Everywhere hurtslike I’ve been in a fight with a heavyweight champion, and I can’t get up off the mat. Laying there bleeding, just waiting for all the pain to go away. Except that can’t happen because this is my reality.

My dad’s time was cut too short. I’d only had twenty-five years with him, and it wasn't longenough. A hundred years wouldn’t be long enough.

As I lay curled in my husband’s strong arms, his pain rolls off of him in thunderous waves, each one a little rougher than the next. There’s nothing I can do for him. Rhys is a proud man, and I’ve learned over the years not to pry with the heavy stuff.

Because he shuts down.

I want to help him get through this, but truth is—Idon’t know how because I can’t.

I want one more hug. One more scratch of his beard against my face. One more joke about how much older Rhys is from me. One more hug for him to give my girls. One more kiss to give my mother. One more everything.

Loss is a terrible thing. It eats you up and spits you out. It tears at the fiber of who you are as an individual on this planet, and makesyou realize how small you are in it.

It’s an endless wave of the unknown.

It just makes me love my family more. Tell them and cherish every memory I have with them. Because in the end—all you have are memories.

Extras

Rylynn

My mouth tastesof cotton and head throbs. Too much booze will do that to a woman, especiallywhen she loses someone she loves. My head is normally screwed on pretty tight, but tonight, I had to let loose. I had to get it out because it’d been bottled up and waiting to explode, tearing me apart.

Nothing tears me apart. Nothing.

At least, that’s what I thought.

The cool air hits my skin, and I look down noting my naked body. Then last night hits me, and I check outthe bed.

Crow lays next to me, sheet at his waist and face turned the other way. Fuck me.

Guess if you’re gonna fuck up, may as well go big or go home.

I did.

Fucking the president of a chapter of the Ravage MC is a huge mistake, and the first time I slept with a brother. And it had to be him.

Fuck me.