Page 100 of Anchored to the Storm

Having recently started learning about awareness and security, driving down Noma’s road, I now understood why her home was on a dirt road. Dirt roads aren’t as inviting to strangers. When I was younger, I found this lonely and inconvenient because I wanted to hang with friends. Living on an isolated road only compounded that loneliness.

Styx gestured to the woods on both sides of the road. “You own all of this.”

Now, as a ‘someday president’, I smirked because we had no neighbors. No witnesses to what would be done to the pastor. “I don’t want his blood in her house.”

As if hungry to punish or angry at the thought of tainting Noma’s little pink palace, Styx gripped the steering wheel. “Shed has been prepared for him.”

I delivered one pleased nod.

Styx backed the vehicle to the side of the house. I was anxious to get to the violence but also to go inside and relive my memories of Noma. Getting out of the SUV, I was near the tree. I went to it, touching the Found carving.

“We take the money under your feet this time.”

I sharply inhaled because this money was being saved for a special day. “And her?”

Disturbing Noma’s gravesite would seem sacrilegious to some, I suppose, but leaving her behind was never going to happen. The alphas in Styx and I were going to have that woman near and under our care.

“That’s the plan.”

Noticing the pastor being dragged from the vehicle and toward the shed, I praised, “Aren’t you handin’ out gifts like candy today?”

Ruffling my hair, he repeated past words of mine. “Stop trying to make me feel better.”

Avenger waltzed up. “Don’t get too stab happy without me. Sugar just called about her contact. I thought it best we talk in person.” He hooked his chin toward a motorcycle.

A brow lifted high, I asked, “Who is Sugar?”

Styx snarled. “This asshole breaking rules.” He told Avenger, “Go on. Head on a swivel.”

As Avenger drove off in a hurry for some ‘sugar’, Letti approached us. “Boss Man, he’s secure. Before we get started on soon-to-be-dickless, I’d love some grub. Starving.”

Cocky joined us. “Dude, preach.”

Styx balked. “Sugar and dinner? What kind of damn operation we runnin’?”

Inside, Letti, Cocky, and Peacemaker were bragging about Styx’s cooking skills. I didn’t believe them. “But I’ve been fed pizza and frozen dinners.”

Letti agreed, “Yeah, he can get lazy, but here? It’s been on again!”

After pulling a big bowl from the refrigerator that they must have plugged back in, he set it on the table. “Voilà! The best meatballs and spaghetti you will ever have.”

That made me laugh as I sat down at the kitchen table. “Says someone who’s clearly never had Noma’s.”

Cocky sat down after handing out bowls to fill. His chair squeaked under the pressure of a big man. “Who the hell do you think taught her?”

My sight snapped to Styx at the kitchen sink, where she stood so many times, who wouldn’t look at me.

No way.

He shrugged. “She liked Italian.”

I now stared at the bowl, daring to believe I could taste her specialty again. “When I had to leave, I took all her frozen meals with me to the Weathers’, believing I’d never have her food again.”

Letti filled my bowl. “As Healer said, all connected. Even to those who we thought we lost. Never gone.”

A bowl was placed in front of me. Trying not to go into shock, I asked, “Who is Healer?”

Styx grinned. “They think that should be Gage’s road name.”