“Do you want to tell me why there is a hole in our bedroom wall upstairs?” Ryker didn’t sound upset. He sounded concerned. Punching walls was his thing, not mine, and looking down at my swollen knuckles, I now understood why I never adopted self-mutilation or home demolition as a coping mechanism. Nope, I stuck myself in the middle of a war zone and figured if I made it out, then that was the way it was supposed to be. I took the fatalistic attitude.

“Got some bad news for me and some good news for you.” I leaned against the bike he was working on. “Looks like I’m staying.”

Ryker jumped up and pulled me into his arms. “That’s great.” It was funny how one man’s joy could become another’s misery. “What changed your mind?”

“Nothing changed my mind. The Army changed its mind. Seems I have a lung problem that won’t get better if I stay in the desert, and I’m not becoming a desk jockey, so I’m out.” I couldn’t believe how painful admitting that felt. I’d been burned and stabbed and beaten to within an inch of my life and shrugged it off, but letting go of the Army eviscerated me.

Ryker stepped back and looked at me. “I’m so sorry.” His words held remorse, but his face held the expression of a man overjoyed.

This garage. This town. It had taken the lives of my parents, and I felt like it was coming after me next.

“Can I borrow your car? I need to clear my head, and I think a drive would do me good.”

“I can do better than my old Subaru. It’s a nice day. I’ve got a bike here that needs a test drive. You want to take it for a spin?”

I looked down at the cherry red Harley and nodded. The wind in my hair and the town at my back sounded pretty damn good.

Ryker handed me the key and stood back. “Now that you’re staying, do you want to keep looking for Decker?” He walked to a wall where he pulled an older photo from a tack. Sitting under the old oak tree out front were Ryker, Ana, and me holding Decker. It was taken on Easter Sunday, just before everything went to shit.

I stared at the picture and wondered if we could have it all again. I wasn’t sure. Hell, I wasn’t sure about anything anymore, but it wasn’t fair to Ryker to give up. “Have the detective keep looking,” I said and handed him the photo, “but I don’t want to know about it unless he comes back with something solid.” I climbed on the bike and started it. Over the idling engine, I yelled, “I can’t take any more disappointment!”

A twist of the throttle made the bike growl. It had been a long time since I had a motorcycle beneath me. There weren’t a lot of Harley-Davidson bikes sitting around in Kandahar Province.

I shifted it into gear and took off. The road rushed beneath me. The wind beat against my face and body. I leaned back and let the bike take me where it wanted.

Just as I was getting a feel for it and the road, I saw the flashing lights behind me. I pulled over and waited for the officer to approach.

“You got a license for that bike?” The officer walked toward me, and once he was in front of me, he widened his eyes. “Silas?”

I looked at his nametag. “Sheriff Stuart. Junior?”

“The very same, except I don’t go by Junior. Makes me feel like a kid.” He walked around the bike. “Yours?”

“Nope, and I don’t have a motorcycle license. I was just taking it out on a test drive.” I pulled my license and military ID out of my wallet.

He took them from my hand, and after giving them a cursory look, he handed them back. “You back for a while?”

I looked past the man who had spent years terrorizing my brother and wondered how we’d gotten to this place. “I’m back for a bit. You gonna write me a ticket or what?”

The sheriff chuckled. “You want a ticket?”

I shrugged. “Not particularly, but you got to do what you got to do.”

“If you stay, you should apply for a job at the sheriff’s department.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “Can you imagine the town of Fury with an officer named Savage?”

The sheriff adjusted his hat. “Stranger things have happened. Look at your brother and me. Who would have thought we’d become friends?” He turned and walked to his car. Before he climbed in, he called over, “Take it easy on that bike.”

The sheriff made a U-turn and headed back to Fury. I climbed back on the bike and drove the opposite direction.

Fifteen miles out of town, I came upon a broken-down car with a blonde waving her hands in the air. I whipped the bike around and went to help. I had no idea what I would do with the rest of my life, but I knew what I’d be doing for the next few minutes and that was a start.

I might have been an asshole to some, but when it came to women and children, I was a downright knight in fucking shining armor. Maybe it was because I’d seen so much abuse in my life, or maybe it was because by the time I was six years old, my mother had already taught me to be the right kind of man when it came to the fairer sex. I had limited memories, but I remember my mother telling me to treat a woman like she was a prize.

As I neared at a slower speed, I recognized the girl as the waitress from the diner. I parked the bike next to her blue Honda Civic and climbed off.

“Hannah, right?”

“That’s me, and you’re Silas.”

“You got it.” I looked at the opened hood on her car. “What’s going on?”

In blue jeans, a pink fuzzy sweater, and boots, Hannah wasn’t dressed for work. She looked more like she was heading out on a date. Her hair was down, her makeup on, but that chip she seemed to carry on her shoulder was still in place.

“Well,” she began, “since your brother isn’t single anymore, I have to branch out. I have a lunch date with a guy in Pine Creek.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and looked at her car. “I was just driving along and hit a giant pothole. There was this big bang, and I pulled over to see what it was. Once I turned off my car, I couldn’t get it started again. Can you help?”

I wasn't the mechanic in the family—that was Ryker—but I looked under the hood for something obvious. When I saw the battery cable off the terminal, I knew why her car wouldn’t start.

“Have you met this guy before, or is it a blind date?” It wasn’t any of my business, but I spent eight years hanging out with men, and they could be total dicks. Despite Hannah’s obsession with my brother, she seemed like a nice girl, and I didn’t want to see her get used.

“Blind date, but I’m sure it will be fine. He’s the mayor’s son.” She gave me a smug look. “There aren’t many single men under fifty in town. I got excited to meet you, but you’re not single either.”

I tightened down the cable and shut the hood. “Of course, I am.” I smiled at her.

“Yeah. Sure, you are.” She climbed inside her car, and it started right away.

“Be safe on your date,” I called as she pulled away. I looked at the tail end of her car as it disappeared up the road and wondered what the hell she’d meant by that.

I climbed back on the Harley and took off, but Hannah’s words played in my head, and Grace’s face was the one I saw each time I blinked. Could I ever be what she needed? I considered Blue, and my heart raced. Being with Grace excited me. Being something to Blue terrified me. To open my heart would mean risking it. Hadn’t I lost enough?

A few minutes later, I found myself stopping in a park next to a white SUV. I looked out to find the sexy redhead I’d been thinking about sitting on a blanket in front of the lake. Her head moved back and forth as if she was in deep conversation, but the only one around was Blue, and he didn’t seem to answer back.