Page 2 of Healing His Darkness
“Look this is just a short ride to get away for a while, visit my dad, and…” I hesitated to tell him the truth.
“And get away from the Cupid vomit.” Kam came sauntering up behind Stonewall finishing my sentence. The woman was a perfect ten in my book, all curves and sex appeal, and all Stonewall’s. She rubbed up against his body as he wrapped his arms around her. Damn he was a lucky sonofabitch.
“Exactly! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m out of here.” I reached for the handle of the door, but Kam’s voice stopped me.
“I have a feeling this ride might just be exactly what you are looking for.” What the fuck did she mean? I wasn’t leaving to look for anything, well except for peace and quiet. Stonewall and I both gave her a quizzical look.
“What is that supposed to mean? Do you know something I don’t?” I knew she didn’t have the sight but maybe she’d talked to someone who had.
“I don’t know anything for certain, but from personal experience the more you run from something the more it follows you. Running won’t solve your problems, it might even give you new ones you aren’t prepared to deal with on your own.” Maybe she was right; maybe running wasn’t the solution to my problem. All I knew was if I stayed, I was going to say or do something that would hurt one or more of my friends. I couldn’t live with myself doing something like that. No, leaving was definitely my best option.
“Is that woman's intuition, or are you just sad to see me go?” I winked at her.
“Tired of the big guy already?” I saw Stonewall grab Kam as she stepped toward me hissing. And that right there was why I needed to leave, because my bitterness was going to hurt my friends. They deserved to enjoy their happiness, for as long as it lasted, not have me reminding them constantly that it’s fleeting.
“Dude I know you’re hurting, or angry, or something, so I’ll excuse your asshole ways for now. But come back to us, I don’t know better, maybe less angry. You need to get all of that out of your system man, it’s poisoning you.” Stonewall was right, and for a guy who thought he was big and dumb he was deep.
“Yeah, or something.” I kicked my boot against the floor, staring at the floor.
“Look, I’m a jackass and I’m sorry. I’ll call y’all next week with an update.” And before anyone else could stop me I bolted out the door.
Making my way over to my ‘57 Panhead, she was my pride and joy, the only woman I’d ever need in my life. She was rebuilt completely using as many original parts as I could get my hands on. She was beautiful with her turquoise and white paint job, solo seat, and loud-ass pipes. She was a dream come true. Even if she was a hardtail and it would take longer to get to Oklahoma, every bumpy ass mile was worth it. Dad wanted to see her now that her rebuild was complete, no way would I ever tell my dad no.
He was my fucking rock when I was growing up. After mom died, he changed jobs, it paid less but he was able to be home with me more. He never missed a football game, a music performance, or an awards ceremony. So, when he asked for something there was no way I’d ever tell him no. Therefore, sore ass and long trip here I come ready or not.
2
GEORGE
“Dom, get your ass in gear or you’ll be late for school and I’ll be late for work.” I swear my brother purposely tried to make me late every damn day.
“Oh, come on George, it’s not like your boss is going to fire you.” He yelled through his shirt as he pulled it on over his head, stomping down the stairs. I was amazed those stairs had survived as long as they had. With three gorilla shifting teenage boys and one full-grown male gorilla shifter constantly stomping down them, they must be reinforced with steel.
“It doesn’t matter if Dad won’t fire me, the fact is I’m supposed to be at work in ten minutes and I still have to drop you off at school.” I threw back at him; I knew Dad would never fire me. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was I hated being late and he knew it.
“Well, if Dad would buy me my own car, I wouldn’t have to get rides from you.” He growled out as he stuffed his face with some kind of breakfast bar. At eighteen, he was my youngest brother, but he already stood over six feet towering over my five-foot six frame. He was a linebacker for the local football team and had all the muscles to prove it.
“You know there isn’t money for you to get a car right now. So, it’s me or you hoof it to school. Aren’t I the better option?” The truth was we were barely keeping our heads above water, even though Dad owned the bar we worked at, and it was all my fault.
It’s the same old story, girl meets boy, girl falls in love, boy loans money to Dad for improvements on his bar, boy cheats on girl, girl breaks up with boy, boy changes the loan terms. Which leads us to why I’ll never fall in love again, especially not to a loan shark. In my defense, I didn’t know he was a loan shark, I thought he was just a businessman. He wore nice suits, had a nice car, said all the right things, and gave me expensive gifts. What eighteen-year-old girl could say no to that kind of man?
We were together for two year; Dad never liked him. Somehow I convinced Dad to let Rodney loan him money for the improvements we needed to make on the bar. When I found Rodney cheating on me and broke it off, he immediately demanded repayment of the loan, tripled of the original amount was for. He called it interest; I called it he was being an asshole, either way we were screwed.
“Hey, don’t sweat it sis, I know we can’t afford a car for me yet.” Dom knew I blamed myself for our family’s situation. “I wish Dad would just let us take care of Rodney another way.”
“Dominik Crenshaw, you stay away from Rodney you hear me.” My heart rate kicked up thinking about Dom confronting Rodney.
“He’s dangerous Dom, please just let me and Dad handle it.” This really meant Dad would handle it, because he refused to let me handle anything when it came to Rodney.
Oh, I might have been naive when we began our relationship, but after we broke up, I took a good hard look at him. If I had known about everything, he had his hand in I would never have dated him. But I was young, he was twenty-six, handsome, and said all the right things. I ignored a lot thinking I was in love, and that he loved me in return.
Then he showed me his true colors when I caught him banging some chick out behind the bar while I was working one night. I’d went to take the trash out and there they were, his pants down around his ankles, her ass in his hands, and grunting like fucking pigs. When he turned around and saw me, he didn’t even look remorseful, like it didn’t even matter to him. I remember feeling like someone kicked me in my stomach, then nothing but pure anger.
“Hey, I won’t mess with him and his little goons.” He raised his hands in surrender, backing out the front door with his backpack slung over one shoulder.
“Although I think me, Dad, Brody, and Cole could take out their whole operation without much work on our part.” He mumbled as we got in my truck.
“Yeah well, then whoever he worked for would come looking for us. He has connections to bad people Dom.” I needed him to understand, not to put himself in danger.
