Cocky Secrets (Cocker Brothers #29)

23. Sage

TWENTY-THREE

Sage

T raining has done more than help make the time go quickly until my date. I’ve got a newfound, growing confidence in myself, my body. It’s crazy because the thing about getting stronger is, at first you feel weak. But then a shift happens. The exercises become less difficult. Today I was able to do a third rep of pushups when yesterday I collapsed at the second. Even though I’m sore, it’s like my muscles were hoping, waiting, for me to use them.

After the final pushup I laugh, “I did it!” and crawl up to sitting on the training mats in our backyard, sunlight blanketing me, adrenaline chasing away the shadows of nightmares I’ve been having.

Sofia Sol stands above me with a look of approval. “Feels good?”

“Feels great. Hard, but great.”

She calls over to the ring, “Atlas, Sean, get out of there. I want to bring Sage in for palm strikes.”

Sean lowers his boxing gloves, “When are you finally gonna start calling me Diesel?”

Soph gives me a look, and I shrug because in my mind he’s still Sean , too. The biker name he earned has never stuck for me. She cuts him a cocky glance. “I guess never.”

Celia tells her husband, “I call you Diesel, baby,” rising up from where she was sitting on the grass, watching everyone. Waiting for her turn.

“I know you do,” he winks at her.

She jumps in the ring and throws a punch at him. He deflects it, laughing and grabbing her, flipping her around and kissing the back of her neck. “You wanna fight me?”

“You know I do,” Celia murmurs.

Atlas grumbles, “Get out of the ring. It’s Sage’s turn.”

“You too, Atlas,” Sofia Sol calls over, grabbing a pair of boxing mitts from a pile stored in the weatherproof cupboard beside our back porch.

My brother shakes his head once and firmly. “I’m going to train her today. You don’t get all the glory, Soph.”

Sofia Sol laughs with a twinkle of mischief. “Fight me for it, Atlas.”

“No,” he flatly replies, adding, “I call blood.”

She frowns. “Not fair. She may not be my blood, but Sage is still my chosen sister.”

“She’s my blood. My true sister. I call blood. I’m training her today. You’ve had enough fun.”

Soph sighs, “Fine,” tossing the mitts to him where they fall on the ring’s mat as Atlas throws his boxing gloves into the cupboard from where he stands. They join the pile succinctly and precisely, as if he walked over and placed them there.

From the direction of the garage where they were changing oil on their Harleys, Luke and Dad stroll up in jeans and greasy white T-shirts, both squinting against the sun and searching the training area to surmise what we’ve been up to. I climb into the ring as Atlas puts on the mitts Soph tossed. He announces to our brother and father, “I’m gonna train Sage now.”

Luke cocks an eyebrow. “She ready for that?”

“I’ll be gentle.”

“Yeah right.”

I straighten my back, ready for trouble. “Let’s do this.”

“Hold up your palm,” Atlas says, smacking it when I do. “See this bone here. Powerful. And less likely to break than your fingers can. You strike someone with this and?—”

“Did you hear what my babies are gonna do?!” Denita shouts as she barges out the screen door, heading for Dad. “Honey Badger, did you know?”

“What’re you talkin’ about, Denita?”

“Shay and Mylar just got accepted into some program in Spain where they’re supposed to work on some farm in exchange for free room and food!”

We all change our stances, shifting every part of our focus to Denita. Her husband comes outside, followed by their twins. “Honey Badger, did you know,” Scythe asks.

“Why would we have told him first?” Shay argues.

Denita whips around and screams, “Jett Cocker! Where the hell are you?”

Melody, Mom and Carmen walk onto the back porch, Melody muttering, “Jett and Luna rode into town to get groceries an hour ago.”

“Did any of you know?” Scythe asks. Tonk Sr. hearing the commotion, walks around the house, grease on his white tank top, probably from doing the same thing as Dad and Luke. “How about you, Tonk?”

“Know what?”

Scythe fills him in, “Shay and Mylar aren’t going to be Ciphers. After all that training, they wanna be farmers!”

Denita covers her face with her hands. “Spain is too far away!” She bursts into tears.

Carmen embraces her. “It really is far.”

Celia calls over to her mom, “That’s not helping.”

Carmen throws her a look like don’t mess with me, causing Celia to throw up her hands and turn away.

Shay starts to explain, “You guys, we went on that mission and it just didn’t feel right…”

Scythe barks at his daughter, “It was too easy for you!”

Denita cries, “I should’ve let them go beat up The Spiders with you.”

Mylar argues, “Mom, that wouldn’t have changed our minds. We don’t want to beat up anyone.”

“Then why did you spend all of that time training?”

Shay cuts in, “If you don’t try something, you don’t know if you like it or not.”

We all go silent.

Hard to argue with a simple truth.

I knew about what the girls were planning, but I didn’t think they’d already applied, so I’m a little stunned, too. The thought of them leaving hits everyone hard. I can feel it in the air — we’re already predicting the emptiness their absence will cause. Especially for Denita.

The porch door swings open and out walks Jett and Luna. “What’s everyone doing out here?”

Denita cries out, “Did you know my girls are moving to Spain, Jett Cocker?!”

He shifts his weight, drags a hand through his salty blonde hair, fully aware that his last name is only called out by Denita when she’s really pissed off. “This is the first I’m hearing of it.”

Scythe steps forward, his huge hulking body tense. “Our girls apply for some room and food job all the way in some rural part of Spain?!” He barks at his twins, “This isn’t rural enough for you?”

“It’s Europe, Dad!” Mylar insists, as if that means something to these bikers who live and breathe what they do.

Shay expands on it, in an effort to help everyone understand, “We get weekends off and can go in to the cities from there. We’ll learn Spanish and become bilingual! Six months at this job and then we travel to another one, another country. There’s so much to see in the world!”

Jett narrows his eyes. “We trained you to be Ciphers.”

Scythe growls, “They don’t wanna be Ciphers now that they got a taste.”

“It’s not for us,” Shay whispers.

Mylar says with trepidation, “We don’t want to fight bad guys all the time.”

Jett straightens his back, exchanges a look with Luna before addressing the twins. “What we do is more than honorable. We save people who can’t save themselves. Do you know how many lives we’ve impacted with what The Ciphers do?”

Shay sighs, “We know the stories, and they’re… wonderful. But Dad, Mom, they’re too hardcore for us. We want to travel and see the world.”

Mylar adds, “And get paid to do it. Most people have to pay a lot of money to go to Europe. We’re working for our keep!”

Dad surprises me by confessing, “We were going to retire soon.”

Mom’s eyes go wide. “What?”

Luna explains, “Not just yet, but in the coming years, soon. The younger generation is just Luke and Atlas, Sofia Sol and Celia. Sean.” He rolls his eyes. “Diesel,” Luna corrects herself, adding, “With Shay and Mylar that made seven. That’s a good number for The Ciphers.”

Jett stretches his stance wider. “Now it’s just five.”

Sofia Sol focuses on her father, chin high as she says, “We’re a strong five.”

Jett counters, “Seven is better.”

“You were only five before I was born.”

“No, we were seven. Me. Honey Badger. Tonk. Scythe. Scratch. Fuse. Then your mother joined us. And we had Ciphers from the Midwest driving in sometimes back then.”

Soph lowers her anger, walks away from the group. “Great.”

Shay and Mylar look to me, helpless. I raise my voice so all can hear me. “You raise your children to be happy, right? Giving the twins a chance to travel and follow their hearts is the right thing to do. Especially because, they might hate it. Then they’ll come back. But if they love it…then they get to do what many people never do, spend their time on this planet doing what they love. And if you don’t let them, they’ll resent it forever.”

Denita wipes her cheeks with indignation. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to let them go! I’m just mad that they’re going!” She whirls around and storms past Jett and Luna for inside. Shay and Mylar chase her in, “Mom, you’re going to let us go?”

Scythe drags his hand down his face, and Tonk Sr. steps up to throw his arm around his friend’s shoulder. “When Tonk Jr. left I think I took it harder than Carmen did.”

“You did not!” Carmen mutters before sighing, “Kids grow up so fast. I’m just lucky Celia stayed here with us.” She looks around. “Speaking of children, where are the little ones?”

Celia jogs her chin toward our neighbor. “We brought them to Alice’s to play with her dogs today since we were training Sage. Yesterday the kids kept interrupting. Hard to focus.”

“Well, my advice?” Carmen replies with her eyebrows raised. “Go get them back here and spend every second you can with them, because before you know it they’re grown and leaving.” She heads inside, “I’m going to give Tonk Jr. a call, see how he and Stacy are.”

Luna’s voice is heavy as she announces, “We’ve got groceries melting,” and follows Carmen inside. Melody follows them to help.

Our mom grazes a grateful glance across Luke, Atlas and finally, me. “Makes a mother remember how lucky she is to have you all still here with me. Sage, at least if you marry Bear you’ll live in town where I can visit you anytime I like. I’m going to help them make lunch.” She shakes her head and disappears.

I look at Dad, his teeth grating in his helplessness to make the mood better, help his friends. The family. The club. He goes inside, grunts, “This sucks.”

Scythe and Tonk Sr. are far out in the backyard now, talking to each other in voices too far for us to hear.

Just us of the next generation are left, and training went sour.

Sofia Sol says with zero enthusiasm, “Guess we should grab lunch.”

Atlas starts taking off his mitts, and Luke heads up the porch steps, aiming for inside.

Celia and Sean are about to follow when I snap, “No way! Do we give up when things get rough?”

Luke pauses with his hand on the doorknob, a frown piercing his brow. “Nope.”

“Then train me!”

Atlas grins, slides his mitts into place, and holds them up. “You ready to learn how to kick ass?”

The others flank the ring, watching as I lower my head, hold up my fists and give him a devilish smile. “So ready.”

With the next gen cheering me on, I train to become the badass I’ve never been. And when Dad sticks his head outside and says, “Enough training for one day! She’s barely standing!” the six of us head in for showers and lunch.

Sofia Sol throws her arm over my exhausted shoulder. “You have a date tonight, right?”

Atlas laughs, “Good luck with that!”