Remember Me (Defiant MC) (34 page)

Gray winked.  “I’ll take care of some light housekeeping before you get there.” 

Maddox saw Gaby glance at him questioningly but Maddox only waved to Gray and watched him ride down the road.  Until Maddox could find a house, the three of them would have to squeeze into his trailer.  He had quietly asked Gray to please dispose of the rather pornographic decorating scheme adorning his place.  He didn’t want Gabriela and Miguel to see it.  The man who had glibly papered his walls with that shit wouldn’t be coming home.  Gray had laughed but didn’t bust his balls about it.

“Well?” said Gabriela.  She and Miguel waited at the end of the gravel driveway.  Maddox retrieved two small ceramic containers
from the back of the UHaul and joined them.  The weather was pleasant enough for the hike.  Gaby held tightly to Mad’s hand as they watched Miguel soberly make his way to a place he had come to know well. 

Maddox had figured it would look exactly the same as it had last time.  He was right.  This was a place which didn’t change much. 

“Hello boys,” he greeted the graves, bending over briefly to touch the one which had always held his fascination. 

“
Brother,
” it read.  One word of sad remembrance. 

Maddox looked out toward the Scorpion Mountains.  It was a beautiful spot.  His father and brother would think so.  He opened up the containers and poured them out simultaneously while Miguel and Gaby watched. 

“Goodbye,” he whispered as the ashes settled.  He found the old safe still in the cave.  Maddox chose to leave it there, placing the urns inside of it. 

Gabriela hugged her son as the boy sobbed.  Maddox wrapped them both in his arms and felt a fierce surge of protective love.  Never again would he be without Gabriela de Campo.  When he’d kissed her ten years ago he’d known he found the right girl.  He should have told her that then. They’d taken a long time to find their way back to each other but everything was finally as it ought to be.  Maddox glanced down at Miguel and placed a strong hand on the boy’s back.  There was his flesh and blood.  There was hope for the future.  The McLeod’s
and the de Campo’s weren’t finished yet, not by a long shot.

Maddox kept his arms around his family as they left the cemetery.  There was nothing else holding them there.  Maddox had sworn the next time he left Contention City would be the last time. 

An urge seized Maddox, similar to the one which had coursed through him the first time he’d stood in the cemetery with Gabriela.  It was a powerful mix of emotion which he couldn’t quite place, as if it were born from the stew of whatever human experience had once occurred on that spot.  He caught Gaby by surprise when he abruptly bent over and kissed her with full and deep passion.  She responded just as ardently before stepping back and staring at him with a flushed smile. 

“Why did you do that?”

Maddox shrugged and took her hand.  “Just had to.”  He pulled her close and whispered in her ear.  “I’m gonna do that and more.  Every day.” 

Her eyes were full of teasin
g laughter as she looked up.

“You’re mighty generous, da
rlin’,” she said and Maddox understood that she was reminding him of their history. 

And their future.
   

There was once a boom town called Contention City. 
However, it sprang into existence around a silver mine rather than a gold mine and it was located in a different region of modern day Arizona.  There is a town near the fabled Hassayampa River, but it is called Wickenburg and really bears no resemblance to the fictional version of Contention City depicted in ‘Remember Me’.  It is, however, a lovely sightseeing destination if you should find yourself in the Phoenix area.

I dearly love to hear from readers so please feel free to contact me at:

[email protected]

I also happily accept friend requests on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/cora.brent.3

Also by Cora Brent:

Promise Me (Defiant MC)

Promise Talbot needs to escape.
Forced into a polygamous marriage to a sadistic man, she grabs a desperate opportunity to flee his clutches.
And falls into the world of the Defiant Motorcycle Club.
Grayson Mercado seethes with the injustice of a long imprisonment for a crime he did not commit. Finally free, he is trying to make a life among his new Defiant brothers. Everything changes when a battered young woman approaches him, begging for help.
Promise and Grayson couldn't be more different.
But the collision of passion and danger will spark a love written in their fates.
This epic romance spans a reclusive cult community in northern Arizona to the stark landscape of the Mojave Desert.

Reckless Point

Angela Durant always chafed under the limitations of Cross Point Village, her fading New England hometown. After getting out and finding success in the Boston business world, she had become used to taking the safe roads in life.
Until now.
Jolted when her boyfriend betrays her for something skinner in humiliating fashion, Angela retreats to Cross Point for a long summer weekend.
That’s where she connects with Marco, the biker bad boy from high school yesteryear.
Sexy, volatile and utterly uninterested in playing anything ‘safe’, Marco is intent on getting curvy Angela to loosen her inhibitions.
But reckless desire has consequences.
And what began as casual lust can turn deep and complicated.
There, in the heart of everything she always wanted to escape, Angela might find the life she never knew she’d always been searching for…