Guardian Angels ✔

Prologue

"I miss you, little brother..."

Alex sat against the headstone, her thin T-shirt doing little to fight off the chill emanating from the cold surface. She looked up, hoping he was looking down on her. The sky was blue, with clusters of clouds here and there. They were so far away – yet still closer than he was.

"I really did it." She chuckled quietly. "Mila calls me crazy, but all I need to do now, to remember your grin is to look into the mirror. It is much more than I could manage before all of this madness. You would have loved this."

Alex ran her hand over her head. She still had to get used to the feel of her new hair ‒ short-cropped hair on the left side, with only a few locks of her dark blonde hair remaining on the right.

"I dunno what shitty things your friends got caught up in, but most of them have been sent to prison. Fourteen months of jail time. They got less than half of the manpower now, so the garage could use a couple more hands. I got my motorcycle license by the way, and I bought a Harley. I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to prospect." She twisted the ring around her thumb."Even though I know their answers will never satisfy me, it has been hard to keep myself from worming information out of them. Nobody knew you like I did; even if you count all those months we'd been apart."

She blinked away a tear. "Fuck, this is hard," she cursed to herself.

She hadn't had the chance to visit the grave of her brother often, and maybe it would have been better if she hadn't done it today either, but it would be the last time she would be able to. If a Son were to see her here, in front of this particular grave, it would have only raised unwelcomed questions.

With a grunt, she stood up. Over the past few months, she had done a lot of strength training, but her muscles still felt sore after her first day of work. "No one suspects anything, brother. All those hours with the speech therapist haven't been in vain either." She chuckled. "I've even been shaving my chin for weeks now, hoping the skin will become a little rougher. And that tight synthetic rubber top seems to be hiding my tits..." Out of reflex, she rubbed her chest. "Well, let's just say I'm happy that I don't have a D cup, but I will feel relieved when I'm home again, if you know what I mean." She shook her head. Once more she glanced at the name of her little brother that was carved into the headstone. "This is some crazy shit, bro. But I'm doing this for you, I'm afraid I'll break otherwise. That I will turn out to be a coward, just like mom. You'd never forgive me." She pressed the fingertips of her index and middle finger against her lips and laid them on the stone. "Love you."

"I miss you, little brother..."