Read Raine Falling (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club) for Free Online Page B

medals for that?” I asked.
    “They sure do, honey. The thing I learned most about courage is that it’s something brave people call upon when they are so scared to do a thing they can barely breathe, but they do it anyway because it’s just the right thing to do.”
    “Does anyone ever get tired of being brave, Prosper?” I put my tiny hand in his.
    He squeezed it gently and said, “ Sure they do, Little Darlin’. People get tired of being brave all the time.”
    “What happens then, Prosper?” I was looking at him, the weight of the world on my shoulders.
    I heard something catch in the back of his throat. He had to clear it before he went on. “Why, they call on someone who has some brave left over. That’s what they do, honey.”
    “Prosper?”
    “Yes, Raine?”
    “Do you have any brave left over?”
    “Little Darlin’, just so happens that I been saving up a bunch of brave just for you.”
    I thought about this for a while.
    “So, Prosper?”
    “Yeah, Raine?”
    “You got this?”
    He brought the back of his hand up to his eye.
    “Yeah, Darlin’. I got this.”
    I’m not sure how long we stayed at the cabin by the lake with Prosper and Pinky because little ones measure time differently. But I knew it was good time. Claire and I flourished. We had plenty to eat and there were always homemade cookies. Sometimes there were people wearing the leather letter jackets, same as before. Same as before, I would sleep tight with Claire next to me, keeping her safe from the shadows thrown on the wall.
    Prosper bought me several harmonicas in different keys and continued my earlier lessons on the art of playing the harp. The best part of all was, sometimes at night, I would sit curled up at his feet, and he would teach me to sing harmony.
    Our father had first come to see us about two weeks after we were there. Prosper met him at the end of the driveway, and they talked for a long time before he came up. Claire ran to his arms, and he held her tight. I stayed back, watching. When he reached for me, I put my little hand into Prosper’s. In that moment I saw a look of such unbearable pain cross my father’s face, I knew that he loved me. He started coming more often after that, and the dark shadows started to leave his face. When I watched my father watch Claire, I knew that he saw her.
    Right after that first visit, Prosper took me by the hand and led me to a wooden bench in the back of the yard. He sat real close to me with his hands planted on his thighs. His eyes looked into mine.
    “Raine, what I have to say here is pretty important. Fair to say, it will be the most important thing you’re ever going to hear. So I need you to listen to me real close and to remember. Now I’m going to help you do that, but you have to help too. Can you do that for me, Raine? Can you listen real close and remember what I tell you?”
    “Yes, Prosper. I do solemnly swear it.”
    He smiled at that.
    “Raine, I’m gonna help your daddy get where he needs to be. Me and him, why, we had a long talk and we’re going to do whatever that takes. That’s our job. When he does that and when I think . . . when I know he is ready to be the daddy that you and Claire deserve, you’ll be going back home with him. When you’re back home, he is with you, cooking and cleaning and doing all those things that the good daddies do. That’s his job. You good with that, Raine?”
    “I’m good with that, Prosper.”
    “Now in the beginning and a long time after that, I’m going to be checking and making sure that everything happens the way it should be happening. But I won’t be doing it in a way you can see.”
    He took my small hands in his and held them tight.
    “That won’t be me not wanting to see you and Claire. That will be me stepping back and letting your daddy be the man I know he is. It’s important to me that you understand that, Raine.”
    “I understand.”
    His hands were getting sweaty. He let go of mine to reach