Chapter 16

You make me happy when skies are gray. And when they’re not gray. Even when they’re green…which means a tornado’s coming. Which typically isn’t something to be happy about.

-Ruthie to Sterling

Ruthie

“The next of kin is listed as this address. Are you Cormac Austin’s brothers?” The state trooper had asked.

Garrison and Sterling nodded.

“I’m Garrison, and this is Sterling,” Garrison said, introducing himself.

They’d both answered the door together.

I’d heard it, as had Sterling, and I shouldn’t have been surprised that Sterling went out of the room.

But as I listened to the seriousness of the trooper’s voice, I was glad he did.

“Yes, we’re his brothers” Sterling answered.

“Parents?” The trooper asked.

Garrison shook his head. “No we’re all each other has.”

The trooper nodded, then looked down at his hands before he looked back up at the two men in front of him.

I could see him from where I was standing behind the two of them.

The couch was in front of me, and the moment the words left his mouth, I clutched onto the sofa with both hands.

“Cormac Austin died at the Louisiana/Texas border. Since his next of kin were on my side, I’m the one to deliver the news. At one eighteen this morning, he was hit head on by a semi-truck when Cormac attempted to avoid a stalled car in the roadway. He was killed on impact,” the trooper said.

My knees gave out at the pure devastation that was roaring through my body.

Oh, my God.

“No,” somebody moaned.

It could’ve been me.

Garrison.

Sterling.

I didn’t know.

What I did know was that Sterling was about to fucking lose it.

I knew that with one look at his taut body.

The way he held himself.

The way his body rocked back and forth.

I turned to the bedroom, going straight to where I’d seen Sterling plug his phone into the wall earlier when we’d come into the room.

Then immediately pulled up the first person on his call list.

Loki.

I tapped his name and hit send, closing my eyes as I listened to Garrison’s shocked voice come to me from the living room.

Sterling’s voice wasn’t heard, but I knew…I knew he needed his family right now.

And they would come.

“Hello?” A grumpy voice answered.

“Loki,” I gasped in a tear filled voice. “I need you to come back over. I need you and anyone else you can get. Sterling’s about to lose it. Cormac’s dead.”

“Be there in five.”

Then he hung up.

I dropped the phone and ran back into the living room to see the door closing behind the trooper.

Garrison looked white as a ghost.

Sterling didn’t look anything.

He was just blank.

Which didn’t last for long when he stalked past me and into the room, returning moments later with his cut on over his bare skin, and the key to his motorcycle in his hand.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Out.”

I stopped him by putting my back to the door, blocking it.

Although I knew it wouldn’t work very well, and that he could get past me easily, he stopped.

Mostly for my benefit, I was sure, but I couldn’t let him leave.

Not like this.

Not in this state of mind.

“Where are you going?” I asked again.

“To a bar. I need to get drunk,” he said stiffly.

I raised a brow at him. “Do you think that’ll help right now? Look at Garrison. Do you think he needs you to go drinking when he needs you?”

Sterling stared blankly at me.

Garrison snorted. “I can take care of myself; actually, a drink sounds pretty fucking amazing right now.”

With that he disappeared into his room that was off the living room, and returned moments later with a t-shirt on and his feet rammed into boots sloppily.

Sterling never moved, staring at me like he didn’t even know me.

I just knew this was a horrible idea.

A really bad, no good one.

These two didn’t need to go get drunk.

They could get drunk here…but not out where they could potentially ruin their lives…ruin someone else’s lives.

Then Sterling started towards me, and I knew instantly he wasn’t going to stop.

I moved out of the way, knowing if I stayed there he’d just move me…or plow right through me.

But then only seconds after the door was yanked open by Sterling, I heard the blissful sound of pipes.

Multiple ones.

Coming up to Garrison’s house fast.

I closed my eyes in relief as first Loki, then Trance, followed shortly by Sebastian pulled up into the front of Garrison’s house.

“Fuck,” Sterling hissed. “Motherfuck!”

I visibly cringed when Sterling turned his now very pissed off eyes to me.

My body slid behind Garrison’s porch post, and I hid my face so Sterling could no longer see me directly.

The light from the porch wasn’t on, and the streetlight only did so much.

Which meant he couldn’t see my tear filled eyes at what that look had done to me.

God.

This was horrible.

More bikes pulled up, and I finally felt it was okay to go into the house, knowing that they wouldn’t let him do anything stupid.

My feet took me into the kitchen where I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and took it into the bedroom that Garrison had given the two of us to sleep in.

I fell face first into the comforter, then cried my little heart out until I felt the bed dip.

I turned my tear filled eyes to see Sawyer standing there, with Lily behind her.

“Hey,” I croaked.