Page 28 of Dark As Coal

I opened my mouth, knowing that Coal was getting information out of a child trafficker in his shed, therefore, he wouldn’t be here for this particular conversation, “Any of you ever heard Coal speak?”

I watched their faces, some of them looked confused, some of them looked wary, but all of them shook their heads in the negative.

“Piney and I have. One time. One time when he first laid eyes on Adeline,” I told them.

Priest was the first to ask, “When did he first lay eyes on Adeline?”

“Three days ago, in the hospital. She’s the one who donated Piney his kidney.”

It didn’t take a person with the highest level of education to interpret the looks on all the men’s faces.

Respect.

She just earned that in spades.

Piney looked around the room then and addressed the silent questions, “There are a few reasons why she’s off-limits. The biggest one, she’s not afraid of Coal. The next one, she donated her kidney to me on the day she turned eighteen.”

“There’s more to it. I know it.” That came from Rome.

“The man that Piney beat to an inch of his life a few years ago… the reason behind it,” I didn’t have to say another word.

I nodded when I saw they all got it and then warned, “But this fact goes into your ears and stays in your brains, never to be fucking spoken of. I fucking mean it.”

They all listened with their full attention.

“They released Piney later in the day, they held Adeline another day because she had a bad reaction to the anesthesia after Coal and I had met her. What we didn’t know, that was until Piney asked me to ride with him so he could drop a bag of clothes off for Adeline, was that Coal didn’t leave when we did.”

I swallowed for the next words.

“Imagine our surprise to find out that Adeline had a nightmare, and further imagine our surprise when we caught sight of none other than Coal lying beside her in bed and holding her, running his hand through her hair and singing softly to her.”

They all knew.

Every last one of them.

Coal didn’t allow anyone to touch him. No. One.

But he let her.

Rome

I got it. I fucking got it.

I understood it.

Because for the woman that had hold of my heart, just like I could see that Adeline had hold of Coals, even when he says he has no heart.

And I knew that I would be whatever that woman needed from me.

No matter how hard it would be for me, I would fucking do it.

For her.

Trigger

Was I jealous of Coal?

You’re damn right I was.

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