Rage by Kaylee Song Page A

that wasn’t true.
    “It’s not your fault.  It’s the fault of whoever killed him.  Not mine.  Not yours.  There was nothing we could do.  We can’t turn back the clocks and change it, Cullen.  We can’t do anything except mourn him.”
    “Oh, there’s something we can do.  We can get revenge.”
    I knew retribution was part of the cost of living in the club, but I didn’t want to see this turn into a war.  There’d been enough killing, and if it was caused by another group, there was going to be a lot more death when it was all over.
    I didn’t look at Sean’s death as something that should be repeated.  Revenge was just an excuse to dominate.
    But I couldn’t tell Cullen that.  I knew him too well.  Avenging my brother was the only thing that was keeping him going.  He would find Sean’s killer and dole out justice.  Or what he thought was justice.
    But would he survive in the end? And if he did, would he still be Cullen? Or just Rage? I understood that he was both.  Now.  Who would he be when this was over?
    “You do what you need to do to bring you peace.  I’ve got to find it my own way.” It was the only thing I could think to say.  I wasn’t expecting was what he did next.
    Without a word, he pulled me to him, his arms warm and strong around me.
    It was the first real touch I’d felt in a very long time.  People hugged me, but no one embraced me.  Not like that.  I couldn’t breathe.  I didn’t care.
    It was just like he used to hold me when we were together.  When we were kids.  Like were drowning and burning at once.  Holding onto each other for dear life.
    I did the only thing I could think of.  I clung to him and I let myself feel the fear and the burn and thrill.  I held on for dear life while we stole one another’s breath.
    And then I cried.  Right there in the middle of a dimly-lit parking lot against his shoulder while the river raged on.
    I thought he would back away, or say something.  Instead, he held me tight, and I felt like he might never let go. 
    It was exactly what I needed.

Layla
    I reached into the dirt and pulled the little weed out by the roots, shaking off the excess dirt and flinging it into the wheelbarrow behind me.
    A week of neglect was a lot of time for a garden, and weeds were popping up between the herbs and seedlings everywhere.  I grabbed them one at a time, concentrating all my energy on what I was doing.
    Maybe that was why I didn’t hear Cullen come up behind me.  He’d gone out for the afternoon, and I hadn’t cared where.  Or I told myself I didn’t care where.  It was more that I was so mad, no good could come of talking to him.
    I wasn’t angry anymore.  Now I was just tired. 
    “I meant to get to that,” Cullen muttered, his eyes watching me work to avoid mine.
    “I know you did,” I replied.  “But you’ve been really busy, and I’ve been… here.” I had been mostly crying, or in bed.  Never in my life had time passed so quickly and yet felt so slow.  Between the pain of grief and my quest to do nothing but sleep, I’d lost an entire week.  When I was awake it was miserable, so I opted for passing out.  Until this morning.
    This morning, I had gotten up, got myself a cup of coffee and looked out into the garden.  The mess had called me out of my cocoon of misery.  Got me doing something. 
    Kept me occupied.  I missed my brother.  I’d lost my freedom.  Didn’t mean I could cry forever.  I needed something to do.
    “We plant in it every year.  Sean liked to put in things that grew easily.  Zucchini, carrots, even wanted to put some raspberry bushes towards the back of the property.  A present for you.”
    My brother had known I’d love it.  When we were kids, we’d had a garden.  A shitty little thing, dirt poured into old kitty litter buckets, filled with a tomato plant each, and then a couple of herbs that grew well with them.  Donna’s idea.  Our mother...  She’d had other