Page 27 of Dark As Coal

And haunt them indeed.

It will haunt the nightmares and chase them away.

Chapter 6

Adeline

Just as I sliced the top of the tomato off for the burgers that we were grilling out later in the day, while the boys were in church when I heard, “Adeline, can I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure! Shoot,” I told Angelyn with a small smile, not wanting to deal with her. Dealing with Angelyn was like talking to a toddler. Sure, I was a kindergarten teacher, but she was a whole hell of a lot worse.

I mean how many times have we had this same conversation?

How many times has she seen how Coal, and I are?

“So… I know the ins and outs of being a club girl, but umm… how do you land just one member?” I froze at her question.

What the hell? I, along with all of the other girls, have had this discussion about her after watching her for a few weeks but I didn’t think she could be that stupid to come right out and ask that question, “Umm, a club girl doesn’t just land a member. It doesn’t work like that.”

She scoffed, she freaking scoffed, “It did for Gabby. And the way Coal is with you, it’s worked for you.”

“Honestly, I don’t know how to answer that question. I mean everyone becomes a club girl for reasons all their own. The reason I became one is different from Gabby’s, Sutton’s, and even Lizette’s, none of us came into this hoping that we would land a brother. And if that is the reason you became a club girl, then you came into this for the wrong reason.”

“That’s not what… whatever… look, I want to know how Gabby landed Pipe, how you landed Coal, and how Sutton landed Irish. The other girls know that Coal only fucks you and nobody else. And as for Irish, well he only fucks Sutton unless there is a certain woman here but still. How are y’all doing it?”

She wasn’t going to let the matter go, and I didn’t know how to get through to her.

And I knew this to be a fact when not even three days later, Angelyn started up a-fucking-gain.

“How come none of the other men get near you?” Angelyn asked.

I felt the other girls looking at her, and they looked at me and all at once they shrugged.

“Does it not seem odd, and quite frankly unfair?” She asked the room.

Stella resumed her chopping of the peppers, while she said, “Honestly, not really. Coal’s the Icer for this club for a reason. You want to see what will happen should another man go after the only woman he allows to even get near him?”

Stella paused, and then said, “And another fact, Gabby didn’t land Pipe. Pipe chased after Gabby. As for Coal and Adeline, when one person completes the other, then it needs no label. And Sutton hasn’t landed Irish. Even though she loves him, he takes her for freaking granted.”

Honestly, I didn’t even understand it fully.

And I wouldn’t know until later about a conversation that took place while I had been in the hospital after giving Piney one of my kidneys.

Asher

(Three Years Ago)

“Wanna tell me why it’s hands off of Adeline?” Whit asked me.

I looked at him, then took in the faces of all the brothers and realized they all felt the same way.

I sighed, then looked at Piney, seeing that look in his eyes, knowing what it meant.

That he knew Coal would take care of Adeline, and no one on this planet would do it better than him.

We both knew that.

And we knew that after neither of us had heard the man speak in all the time, we’ve known him, but we did in that hospital room.

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