Page 38 of Hard Corps (Selected Sinners MC 7)

She shifted her eyes away from Ripp and once again met my gaze. “I went to that house party, the one I got in trouble for. And Greg Shook was grabbing me. He said I filled out young. He was being a dick. And Billy pushed him and told him to stop. But he didn’t stop - he kept saying stuff - suggestive stuff about me. Billy took him outside and beat him up, and then came in and apologized for Greg being a jerk. I remember his knuckles were all bloody. And he came here for dinner a few weeks later.”

I shifted my eyes toward Ripp.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“And he got married. And his wife had a kid while he was gone. And he never came back,” Katie said.

“Cunningham,” Mr. Ripton said.

A chill ran down my spine. There was no way.

Lance Corporal Cunningham.

Longhorns.

He was from Texas.

Mr. Ripton nodded his head. “I remember him. Big kid. Tall. Bug made a big deal of him kickin’ that Greg’s ass. Billy Cunningham. Yep. He was a nice kid.”

My body went numb. I stood from the table and stared at Mr. Ripton. “Billy Cunningham? Billy Ray Cunningham?”

“Yeah. That’s him. Billy Ray Cunningham,” Katie blurted.

“You went to school with Billy Ray Cunningham?” I asked.

The man had saved my life on a rooftop one day, killing an insurgent who would have shot me had he not stepped in between us.

“You alright, Bro?” Ripp asked.

I stared at Katie, recalling the events of the day on the rooftop. “Billy Ray Cunningham saved my life.”

I turned toward Ripp. I shared the story with him while his trial was preparing to start. I felt if he could understand the process I went through in dealing with death, he could deal with the death of the man who pulled the gun on him.

“I told you about him, on the roof. Remember?” I asked.

He nodded his head and stared.

“Hold on,” Katie said as she jumped from her chair.

“Excuse me,” she said as she ran from the room.

“What’s going on?” Ripp’s other sister asked.

Ripp’s mother shook her head as she glanced toward Manda. “Leave your sister alone, Manda, she’s been through a lot.”

Katie walked back into the room, holding a book in her hands. As she flipped through the pages, she glanced upward. “Here. Come here, Alec. Look at this.”

I walked around the table. As I stepped to Katie’s side, I inhaled the soft fragrance of her perfume. As my eyes focused on the page, goosebumps rose along my arms. Staring back at me, was Billy Ray Cunningham, the man who saved my life.

I swallowed heavily as I stared blankly at the page.

“That’s him. That’s Lance Corporal Cunningham,” I said with a nod.

“What happened? You said he saved you,” Katie asked.

Ripp’s father interrupted. “Bug!”

“I’m squared away, Sir. It’s all right,” I said.