The Fall of V (The Henchmen MC 13)

By the Christmases I didn't spend baking cookies with my mother.

By the sheer volume of times I considered giving up, giving in, going home.

You could even measure it by other things.

Newer things.

Like by the number of bruises I had accumulated over the course of each twelve-month period.

How many times I broke the little bones in my hands.

How many times I had to have something stitched.

How many new styles of fighting I learned.

How much skill I had managed to pack into that time.

Until one day, I did it.

I bested my teacher.

A feat never before accomplished.

One I never thought would occur.

But I did it.

And that meant one thing.

I had no idea what I might return to.

What hurt feelings there might be to be found.

What resentments I would have to bear.

What awkwardness I would have to endure as people grew without me.

What new faces and connections I would have to learn.

But regardless of all of that, it was time.

I was going back to Navesink Bank.