Marie's Path

Chapter 7

Brandon Henshaw rode his motorcycle along the backroads outside of town. He needed to get away from everyone, he needed the isolation. He felt like he's been in hell the past four months. The small park he rode to looked deserted as he pulled in.  

Parking next to a picnic table, he shut the bike off. He sat for a minute looking out across a lake before getting off his bike. Going over to the picnic table, he sat on the top with his feet on the bench. He leaned down with his elbows resting on his thighs, his head in his hands.

He was still so angry at Kayli, but at the same time his heart ached. They had tried, all of them, to accept Blake Coaltar because it's what she needed. But in the end, it didn't work. Blake wasn't one of them and he never would be. They should have listened to Kevin, he had warned them. Now look at them, his team, his brothers were lost. They'd been honest with her and sat her down, telling her everything.They poured their hearts out to her. Each one of them telling her how they felt. There were tears, but in the end she refused to give Blake up. Since he wasn't on their team it made all the difference. Choices, they all had a choice and she chose Blake. 

Brandon thought back to that day four months ago when he and his brother's all came to the realisation that it wasn't going to work.

"Look, you have to face it." Kevin looked each one of them in the eye. "She isn't a team player. She hates the academy, doesn't trust them, so by extension doesn't trust us."

Axel scoffed at Kevin. "That's enough.You've never liked her, I get that. But you agreed to accept her into our family. She's one of us now."

"Is she?" Kevin peered over the coffee table at Axel. "And are you going to keep making excuses for her everytime she drags this team into something we have no business doing?" He tried to soften his voice and reason with his brothers. " She isn't Academy material. You all know that. She's too headstrong and she doesn't trust. And now with Coaltar around all the time, every time we do anything for the Academy, it has the potential to be compromised. We've already broken too many rules because of her."

"Family first, Kevin." Brandon had been quiet until now. "We've all accepted Mindy, she's your family and all the glitches have worked out between her and all of us. It takes time, you know that."

" Yeah, it all worked out because I told Mindy everything about us and the Academy. I trusted her with the knowledge of who we are and what we do. She considered all the ramifications there were with being with me. And after a lot of thought, she trusted me and chose us. She was fine with Kayli and the relationship you all had with her. Family is a choice, Brandon." Kevin fired back putting emphasis on the word is. "Can you honestly say Kayli chose family when she won't let go of Blake? Do each of you really love her enough to share her with him? Forever? Or do you think with time she'll choose you? Because I can tell you right now, that will never happen.This whole situation is hurting the team.You all know that, and you better admit it before it tears us all apart.This is nothing like the Anderson team. Or even the Blackbourne team, and they're even younger! " Kevin rubbed his hand over his short hair irritated that everything has reached this point.

Marc lifted his head. He'd been quiet this whole time. "He's right. I care about Kayli a lot. But can I say I really love her? I just don't know. But I do know that everytime she leaves with Blake, I wonder if this is the time she stays with him for good. I don't want to live like this."

"We all agreed to this because of the way we feel about her. Are you saying you're done? You don't love her enough? Are all of you certain we gave it enough time? Tried hard enough?" Axel asked, his eyes darkening when nobody spoke up. "Well this worked out great didn't it?" His eyes went around the room, searching into the face of each of his team. Axel grunted rubbing his face." I don't want to give her up. But I always said I'd do anything for the benefit our team, that I wouldn't let anything come between us. And I won't this time either. But it fucking hurts." Axel crossed his arms sitting back against the couch. He had a pained expression on his usually stoic face.