Rogue (Rogue Angels MC #1)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

Ten years ago

Rogue

The Santa Ana winds are blowing strongly today, making my skin itch and my soul prickle. Anything can happen when these winds blow. Anything already has.

The hot, dry wind is making even the tall cypress trees bordering this small cemetery nervous. They’re whispering as they shake and sway, urgency in their swashing. Urgency to feel rain, to be still, to get away. But they can’t. They’re rooted to the soil here. As am I.

The funeral’s been over for hours, but I can’t leave. Once I do, it’ll be over for good. Over forever. At some point between the priest saying his words and the lowering of Angel’s coffin into the hole in the ground that idea got stuck in my head and I can’t shake it. Complete nonsense though it is. Angel will always be with me. I will never leave her behind.

She lived fast but she didn’t die that way.

Anything can happen when the Santa Ana winds blow. I can ride out and find Ghost, the man who took her from me. I can cut him up the way he cut her… until there won’t be much left of him to bury. Just like he did to Angel.

I could burn his body, let the hot wind make the flames even hotter, make the fire burn bright. Until he’s erased from the earth. Until no one remembers him.

With no backup, with no friends, alone, I can do it. I will do it.

And after it is done, I will join Angel in the cold ground where no wind blows. Where no trees whisper. Where there is no light.

I should’ve insisted she be cremated. Then I could take her with me on this last ride. But her mother is Catholic and she hasn’t stopped crying since Angel died.

If I had her with me, we could walk together into the funeral pyre I will build for Ghost.

I have a lock of her hair in my breast pocket and her gold crucifix hanging next to mine around my neck. That will have to do.

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

Angel and Rogue, together forever.

Taken away by the winds.