Page 25 of Road to Absolution

CHAPTER 7

Tainted Futures For All

DELILAH

James Gunn Dalton… That was the new identity of the young man who had wrecked my world, possibly making me one of the most damaged souls in the history of twisted fates.

The worst part of it all was that Kenny was more beautiful than the most gracious spirit inside a human body. Giving and loyal to a blessed fault.

With an arm around my trembling shoulders, Viola walked me away from the emergency room bed that held Kenny— James Gunn Dalton. To learn he was alive, after believing I had sent his ashes down a river with a prayer for both him and me, my mind was trying desperately to comprehend how this was even possible.

As a wail of pain, one I recognized on many levels, echoed from behind me, I couldn’t stop myself from peering back.

Kenny was still in the bed, but his body was rigidly drawn up to a sitting position as he screamed to the ceiling. With his now older face contorted in torment, I knew it wasn’t his burnt hands causing him anguish.

It was his heart.

I understood. That heart was special… and misled.

He had hurt me long ago. And now again, by me learning he was alive.

Other Steel Stallions stood around him, clearly affected by his anguish.

I was affected, too.

My feet stopped moving.

The damaged part of me actually wanted to rush back to him and try, yet again, to hold together all of his broken pieces. An impossible task. I had already experienced it, repeatedly, and epically failed each time. Every piece of his tortured soul had slipped through my helpless fingers as if I had been trying to palm water while crossing a desert.

The biker woman, who had just begged me not to turn Kenny over to the police, was now leaning over the bed and him, holding him. Rivers of tears fell from unusual gray eyes that were staring at me, still begging. This time silently.

Before I walked away, she had given me a heartfelt plea, explaining that Kenny had built a life with her. He was her husband now, and they had two children. She promised I would never see him again. She also promised my husband would’ve died had Kenny not saved him: “My husband knew there would be grave repercussions for not following a direct order from a President,” her voice cracked, “but he refused to let Maverick die. For you, Delilah.”

Only moments before those powerful words hit me where intended, Maverick had flatlined on an emergency hospital bed of his own. On the other side of a glass wall, I watched as doctors worked ferociously until they brought him back…

Had Kenny not saved Maverick from the wreck, would the doctors even have had a chance to create that miracle? Had my abuser truly tried to right inconceivable wrongs?

As I stared at Kenny’s crying wife while she kissed his head affectionately, Viola tightened her arm around me because she understood how conflicted I was. She was one of the only two people on earth who knew what had happened between Kenny and me.

Diesel was the other.

That’s why he stepped to the side to block my view. He knew what torture it was to hear Kenny cry out for a mercy no one had properly offered… until he did; the President of a motorcycle club that was perfectly titled, Redemption Ryders.

Kenny needed redemption. Kenny deserved redemption.

I guess, so did I. I just didn’t know how to ask for it.

With barely the strength to speak, because I was in such a state of shock over my husband’s condition, and from learning Kenny was still alive, I weakly asked Diesel, “Is she good? That woman? To him?”

Because of me, every Ryder standing behind Viola and I had guilty shoulders that only hung heavier after my question.

Diesel struggled but swallowed a lump. He sucked on his lips before finally answering, “Justice. Her name is Justice.” He swallowed again. “Like you, she saved him.”

Giving me such credit didn’t quite resonate. I didn’t think I deserved it. Up until now, I believed I caused him to take his own life. The weight of such an unchangeable responsibility had been detrimental. I carried my accountability on a war field that was barren, leaving me to feel like I was the only one to ever know such guilt.

According to Art, my friend who caught me when I almost fainted after seeing Kenny alive, it was my wish that saved Kenny’s life. Redemption Ryders had simply tried to let Kenny be free like I had wanted him to be.

Diesel dared to look at his little sister. His blue eyes filled with regret. “I’m sorry. I thought I was doing right by her.”