Read Online Unruly by Ronnie Douglas - Free Book Online Page A

extra words or noise. It was a trait of his that I’d adopted years ago, and I found myself slipping into silence more with him and Killer than anyone else. Most of the bikers were noisy bastards, and my mother managed to speak even when she was technically silent. Echo’s silence was comforting. The only other biker I’d met who seemed able to just be in silence was Alamo.
    Finally Echo nodded at me and said, “I always thought one of the boys would snap you up. They both missed out.”
    â€œThank you, but . . . I wasn’t what either Killer or Noah needed, and they aren’t what I need.”
    Echo sighed. “I would’ve liked you to be with one of them. They’re good men, and you’ve grown into a good woman. Roger would’ve been proud.”
    My throat tightened a bit at the mention of my father, but I only repeated, “Thank you.”
    â€œHe wouldn’t like that you stopped singing, though. You ought to start singing again, but I suspect it’ll happen sooner or later, won’t it?” Echo lifted that one brow inquiringly again, and I knew without his having to say it aloud that he knew that I’d been singing in Memphis. “A man who can get you to sing might not be someone Roger would dislike, either.”
    â€œIt was the anniversary of Daddy’s death. I missed him extra, and . . .”
    â€œSo you had Alamo carry you to Memphis to sing.”
    I nodded. Aside from my one afternoon in Memphis, my car was the closest to a public place where I sang. Sometimes I sang at home, but Mama was an unholy terror about it. We’d had the Talk about what a career I could have if I’d “use my God-given talent” one too many time years ago. These days, it was one of the few surefire ways for us to end up in a fight.
    â€œNo shame in that, Ellen. Miss Bitty would prefer you to sing here. She misses Roger’s singing too.” Echo held my gaze, and I suddenly felt like a recalcitrant child again. It wasn’t anywhere near the first time he’d made me feel that way.
    Usually Uncle Karl and my mama handled discipline, but when Noah, Killer, and I had all three ended up in a brawl with some drunks one Friday night a couple years back, Echo had been the one to take us to task that night— after Uncle Karl had read the boys out and Mama had done the same with me. That was the night Echo went into a long, patient, level-voiced explanation about our responsibility to the town. Wolves had an obligation to protect their territory and their subjects. The citizens of Williamsville might not consider themselves subjects of the Wolves and I might not be a Wolf, but as far as Echo was concerned, that was how things were. None of us had argued.
    And I wasn’t arguing today.
    â€œI know she misses him,” I told Echo. “I know she likes my singing, too. I just . . . I don’t want to sell a record, or even know if I could. I want to design clothes.”
    Echo gave me the sort of look that made me feel like I was missing the most obvious thing in the world and said, “Is there some rule I don’t know about that says you can’t do both?”
    I grinned, both in relief that he’d spoken lightly and because I liked being teased by him. “There are things you don’t know?”
    He laughed. “You only get away with that sass because your mama’d lay into me if I growled at you for it like the boys got.”
    I mock-shuddered, instead of pointing out that I’d never truly sass him. “I’d have taken your growls over Mama’s groundings any day of the week.”
    â€œI don’t know any clothes people, but you know I have ties over Memphis way and in Nashville if you decide to sing more often,” Echo said blandly.
    â€œYes, sir.”
    He laughed again, and I was grateful that I’d been able to cheer him a little bit. He patted my shoulder in what