Page 78 of Lost Soul

“The autopsy will discover it, he’ll know soon enough.”

“Doc’s got a connection down at the mortuary, we have the paperwork, but an autopsy was never done. It couldn’t have been, or it would have been found that cause of death wasn’t suicide,” Jessie explains, scrubbing his face with his hand, like he’s ashamed of what he’s telling me.

“Someone’s got to tell him,” I whisper, Skid has to know, Carly would have wanted him to.

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” Jessie stands up and turns his back to me, squeezing the ledge of the wooden rails in his fists and looking out on the lake as he thinks.

“How can I tell him he lost a fuckin’ kid as well as a wife?” His boot slams hard into the wood.

“Fuckin’ Bastards,” he huffs, and then I remember something.

“Maybe Carly could tell him herself,” I stand up, throwing the blanket off my shoulders and leaving Jessie confused. I rush to my laptop. Taking a seat at the table and powering it up.

Jessie follows me inside and watches over my shoulder as I click onto the cd drive and a file begins to load. I sit back on the chair and take hold of the hand Jessie’s placed on my shoulder.

Pain digs like tiny shards of glass into my heart when Carly's face appears on the screen. Her perfectly structured cheekbones risen up by the widest smile.

“What is this?” Jessie asks, and I ssshh him, leaving it to Carly to explain.

“Suprissseee. It’s not Scarface…” her sweet, excited voice comes out of the speakers. “But it’s not like you don’t know how that turns out.” She rolls her eyes.

“You're probably looking at me now like I’ve completely lost it, and I’ll be hiding behind a cushion, because, well… no one likes the sound of their own voice. So, I guess I should tell you what this is all about.” Her eyes blink and she looks a little shy before she continues.

“Skid, the moment you first stepped inside that health hazard diner I used to work at, I knew you were who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. It’s a true story. I told Patsy when you left that I was gonna marry you.

Do you remember the first thing you ever said to me?

You asked me to smile.

I was having the shittiest day and didn’t feel like smiling, ‘come on,’ you said, ‘I’ll bet that face is even prettier wearing a smile.’” Carly attempts to make her voice low like Skid’s, and I can’t help smiling at the screen.

“I gave in, and I smiled because who wouldn’t? The totally hot biker who’d been coming in every day for two weeks straight, just called me pretty. When I gave you your check, you told me that if I were yours, you’d give me a reason to smile every day for the rest of my life.

I took that chance, and as it turns out, you were right.

You’ve made me smile every day since. You have the biggest heart Skid, so big and full of love that I feel kinda selfish taking it all for myself.” Tears fill her eyes, as the smile on her face spreads even further.

“You’re gonna be a Daddy.” She laughs and cries at the same time. Her hand covering her mouth as if she’s hearing the news for the first time herself.

“And you’re gonna be so great. Our kid is gonna be the luckiest kid in the world because you’re gonna be there every day making us smile and…” Her speech is interrupted by a loud bang in the background that takes her attention away from the screen and towards the door.

“Oh… hey.” Her bright smile quickly morphs to a fake one, and her voice feigns enthusiasm.

“Skid will be back soon,” she tells whoever is standing just out of view of the camera, and I detect the sound of panic starting in her throat.

“Where is it?” a low rasp comes from behind the screen, and I feel Jessie’s hand tighten on my shoulder. This voice belongs to the person that’s killed her, and if the dreadful intuition I feel is accurate. The whole thing has been caught on camera.

Carly stands up from the chair, walking towards the voice and disappearing from the screen.

“Where’s what?” I hear her ask the intruder.

“Don’t play clueless fuckin’ bitch with me. You know what I mean.” The silence that follows seems to go on for ages, and fumbles and shuffles can be heard for a while until a loud sound cracks in the background and Carly stumbles back into view. She backs up against the living room wall holding her left cheek in her hand, and we both lean forward when the tall figure moves into view and looms over her.

“Fuck,” Jessie whispers when the face of the man comes into full view. I know the face too. I’ve seen it before, and it doesn’t belong to a Bastard. This man is a Dirty Soul. One of their own.

Tobias Saunders’ face is full of evil as he wraps his hand around Carly’s throat and pins her to the wall she cowers against. She tries to fight back, kicking her legs and clawing at his wrists, gasping for air against his grip.

“Skid always did land on his feet.” Tobias laughs, watching as she struggles and fights to unwrap his fingers from her neck. “The perfect fuckin’ brother, the perfect fuckin’ son, lucky cunt even found himself the perfect bitch to worship the fuckin’ ground he walks on too.” He pushes his face tight into hers, and with a grunt so loud even the laptop microphone picks it up, he slides his tongue over her cheek. “You ever wonder if you picked the wrong brother, sweet cheeks?”

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