Broken Promise (Men of Severn #1)

Prologue

Six Years Ago

Wesley Blake

The rain comes down in sheets as they lower the dark cherry casket into the ground. My heart is broken, and my soul feels like it has been torn in half and I know this is the worst pain I will feel until the day I must bury one of my blood brothers.

Tommy is gone.

My best friend is dead.

Brain cancer ravaged him and now he is at peace. Or at least that is what the pastor will have us believe. But I’m alone. The person who has been by my side since before I could remember is being lowered into the ground and I’m not quite sure how I will cope with this latest version of normal. We all knew it was coming but that doesn’t make the loss any easier to manage.

My gaze is torn from the coffin as it disappears from view beneath the dark earth and I scan the people standing in the cemetery, umbrellas protecting them from the worst of the elements. The weather is miserable, just like I am.

And then I see her.

Karmen.

Standing alone in the rain, her features vacant as she stands in the downpour, staring at her feet. I know she’s crying by the way her body is shaking.

In a few long strides I have her pulled against my chest, not caring who is watching. This girl grew up in front of me and is probably the only person who understands the pain I am feeling. Tommy is—was—her older brother, her only brother. Right now, she isn’t a sixteen-year-old girl, she isn’t the pest that always followed us around. In this moment, she is my soul mate. Our pain bonds us together for the rest of our lives. Both of us broken beyond repair.

We breathe each other’s pain and silently share our heartache in the downpour. I hold her until the wracking sobs calm and the casket has been covered with dirt. Long after everyone has left, we are standing alone in the cemetery with the rain beating down on us, soaking us to the bone.

“What now?” she asks softly, and I wish I had the answers but there aren’t any words to heal the wounds no one will ever see.

“We live,” the words fall unbidden from my lips. “We seize life and conquer our fears. We chase our dreams, and we push the limits. And every time we achieve something, beat someone, or have a major life moment, we smile and know that Tommy is looking down on us.”

“I like that.” She smiles sadly as she steps away from me. “Living my life for me but for him as well.”

I nod, choked up, unable to speak.

“I’ll see you around,” she says turning to walk away.

Catching her wrist, I wait for her to face me again. “I’m here for you.”

“Thanks, Wesley. But you’ll move on and forget about me now that Tommy is gone.”

“You’re family, Karmen. I swore to Tommy that I would take care of you.”

“That’s a nice idea,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “But I won’t keep you to that promise. You should be able to live your best life as well.” And then she walks away from me, leaving me alone in the rain beside my best friend’s grave.

She doesn’t know me as well as she thinks she does. I will be there whenever she needs me, I will be there to fill the shoes of the brother she lost, and there isn’t a single person on God’s green earth that can stop me.

I made a promise and I fully intend to keep it.