Page 4 of Dark As Coal

I might be damaged and used goods, which was the only thought I learned to never voice to Piney again after he sat me down at his kitchen table and ranted and raved for three straight hours.

I wasn’t damaged. Nor was I used goods. No, what I was, was an angel sent to earth to shine so brightly that people needed to wear ten pairs of sunglasses just so they could look at me.

But even though I thought that about myself, except for the angel part, I saw what taking money from people did to a person. Boy, did I see it, and I had vowed that I wouldn’t be like my mother.

No matter what life threw at me.

He sighed, “I know. I know. Second, if you want to be able to make your own way and have your own shit, we got something called club girls. You sign on for three years, you’ve got a roof over your head, and food on the table, and we cover all expenses for your education. And I want you to know, had our tech guy look into shit. Proud of you. Saw that you took college courses at the library, with a little help from the club, and in a year, you can be a teacher. So, think about what grade you wanna teach.”

Even though I didn’t know what a club girl was, he had me at making my own way and having my own shit.

Now, I know what you’re thinking; why would a girl who had been through what I had could ever dream of being a club girl?

Simple, once Piney explained to me what a club girl was, he had gotten on the phone with the President of Zagan MC, and they brokered a deal.

I was going to be the only club girl who had the right to tell the brothers no.

And if they disrespected it, the President was going to give them the beating of their life.

It was later in the day when someone knocked on the door.

That was also the day I met Asher, the President of Zagan MC.

And it was also the day that the biggest man I had ever seen walked in behind Asher.

And I kid you not, the big man hunched his shoulders to make himself look smaller. He knew. He knew what had happened to me, and he had made sure that he showed me he wouldn’t harm me.

Yes, he showed me that.

I learned a long time ago that actions speak louder than words.

And… it was that afternoon I felt down to my marrow that I had met the most important person in my life. The person that had the name Coal stitched onto his leather kutte.

He was the someone I would fall for the very first time he smiled at me.

That smile… it was a lady killer.

And the first time I heard his laugh, granted it had taken me seven months to hear it, and longer for other people, that was when he pulled my heart from my chest, and placed it in his body, firmly inside of his own heart.

Shaking my head out of my thoughts, I held up another number, and the day really began.

Chapter 1

Coal

Walking down the steps of the clubhouse, I was silent on my feet.

Everyone else sounded like a herd of elephants was going down them, but not me.

After everything I’ve been through, you learn to be silent on your feet.

But alas, I didn’t want to end up with my head in a bottle for the rest of the day, so I tossed those thoughts out of my head.

I’ve been sober for three years.

And I don’t plan on going down that dark path.

Not when I knew that if she ever saw that part of me, the light in her eyes that I strived to protect… would diminish.

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