Chapter 13
The midday sun finally broke through the heavy cloud cover, casting long, sharp shadows across the motel parking lot as Jax kicked the starter of his V-twin motorcycle. The engine roared to life, a deep, resonant rumble that shook the damp asphalt beneath their feet.
Leo stood beside the bike, wearing the oversized leather jacket that smelled of cedar and motor oil, the sleeves rolled up in thick cuffs around his small wrists. Jax reached down, swept the boy off his feet in one fluid motion, and swung him up onto the passenger saddle just behind the driver’s seat. He reached around Leo’s waist, adjusting the heavy belt loop grip, making sure the boy was locked in tight and secure.
“Hold on to me, Leo,” Jax shouted over the idling engine, leaning down so his voice carried past the chrome pipes. “No matter what.”
“I’m holding!” Leo yelled back, his small fists gripping the heavy leather of Jax’s vest with the strength of someone who had learned early on how easily things could be taken away.
Jax swung his own leg over the saddle, twisted the throttle slightly to test the response, and shifted the bike into first gear. He didn't look back at room twelve. He didn't need to. The past was laid to rest behind them, sealed in an envelope on a lawyer’s desk and a quiet room at the end of the hall.
With a smooth, deliberate release of the clutch, the heavy machine surged forward, leaving the crumbling gravel of the Sunrise Motel behind. They accelerated onto the access ramp, merging seamlessly into the steady flow of interstate traffic heading west toward the open desert highways of Nevada.
The wind rushed past them, cold and sharp, whipping Leo’s messy light brown hair around his forehead. For the first mile, the boy stiffened against the rush of speed, but as the highway stretched out before them like a ribbon of gray silk under the afternoon sun, he relaxed his grip just a fraction. He looked out over Jax’s broad shoulder, watching the white lines of the pavement blur beneath them, stretching toward a horizon that seemed to go on forever.
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Jax felt the steady, reassuring pressure of the boy’s chest against his back. For the first time in fifteen years, the highway didn't feel like an escape from something he feared. It felt like a path toward something he had finally earned.
The roar of the engine filled the space between them, drowning out the ghosts of the past, leaving only the rhythm of the road and the steady, unbreakable beat of a future they were building together, one mile at a time.
