Page 14 of Shadow

“No. She asked me to meet her at the clubhouse. It’s a big delivery, and she said she was going to need the brothers’help. Is that okay?”

Fuck no!

Nodding, I said nothing as I took the turnoff for Lawton.

I didn’t bother asking Hope where the clubhouse was.

I knew exactly where it was.

Intimately.

Every detail of the cell I was in came rushing back as the surrounding view slowly began to fade.

Within minutes, I pulled into the Diamondback compound. Parking near the clubhouse, I cut the engine. Gripping the wheel hard, I took several long deep breaths, trying hard to calm the rising voices in my head. The closer I got to the clubhouse, the more apparent they became. Nothing worked to quiet them. Not even the stupid meditation crap my therapist back in Tennessee suggested. When I spotted Kansas walking out of the clubhouse, I felt as if my world came crashing down around me as the voices rushed forward and darkness surrounded me.

I couldn’t breathe.

They were everywhere.

The sinister voices laughed, mocked and threatened to do to me what I did to them. Every one of them rushed forward, their faces nothing but withered leather skin over bones. Some decaying right before my eyes. I clung to the steering wheel as I tried to tune out the macabre visions in my head.

I didn’t hear Hope get out of the truck.

“Shadow, I need you to take a deep breath.”

A dark fog surrounded me. The voices mocked me, knowing I was about to join them. I tried to focus on something, anything, to make them disappear. My heart thumped furiously in my chest as my grip tightened on the wheel. The only thing grounding me to the present.

“Shit, Monk, get over here!”

“What’s wrong with my brother!?”

“Kali, get Hope inside,” a familiar voice said, breaking through the darkness. “Breathe, Shadow. That’s it, man. Take another deep breath for me.”

Slowly, the fog faded, and the voices receded.

Blinking a few times, I loosened my grip on the steering wheel only to watch it fall into my lap. Picking it up, I tried to understand.

Why wasn’t the wheel attached to the truck?

“It’s alright, Shadow. I’ll get Judd to install a new one before you leave.”

Turning to the familiar voice, I stared in confusion as Kansas’ face came into focus.

“Kansas?”

The President of the Diamondback M.C. sighed, leaning against the open driver’s side door. “Jesus,fuck, Shadow. Way to make an entrance.”

Sliding out of the cab of the truck, I looked around for my sister. “Where’s Hope?”

Lighting a cigarette, Kansas replied, “Inside. You better now?”

“Yeah.”

“Come inside. We need to talk.”

Standing where I was, I looked at the front door of the clubhouse and shook my head. “I didn’t know the delivery was here. If I had known, I wouldn’t have come.”

Kansas quirked his head at me before blowing smoke away from me. I watched as the light gray smoke floated away until it disappeared entirely, seeing club brothers slowly walk out of the garages, to see what was going on.

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