Page 6 of Shadow

That was until I couldn’t ignore the truth any longer.

While Mom stayed away from the club, my father loved everything about club life, especially the abundance of club pussy the Golden Skulls offered. One cut slut in particular caught my dad’s fancy and, though my dad believed in the sanctity of marriage, he refused to give up Shirley Owens and proceeded to have four daughters with the woman. During those years, Dad divided his time between Mom and Shirley until one day, Shirley and my sisters were gone.

At the time, I believed that my brothers and I had no clue why dad would move Shirley and the girls away from the club. We all knew Dad loved Shirley, and he doted on those girls. I loved them too, spending some of my teen years with them.

Looking back, I could chalk that up to my innocence and naivety that nothing horrible would ever infect my family.

Boy was I wrong.

I didn’t know it at the time, but one of my brothers knew exactly why Shirley and my sisters vanished, and because of him, I lost a good portion of my family. I tried asking Dad several times but was told to leave it alone. When the truth finally came out, a rage I never knew existed rose deep from within me and settled, taking root. My idyllic family was the shit nightmares came from, all because of one brother, who should have been institutionalized instead of roaming free, went unpunished.

As for Mom, well, she never got over the fact that Dad broke the marriage covenant and turned to the church once again for solace. She died a bitter woman, cursing dad on her deathbed. As for dad, well, he went out as most would suspect those living the club life.

In a hail of bullets.

In the end, it was just me and Balthazar. Malachi finally received his just reward at the hand of Balthazar’s woman, Ari.

Fucker got off too easy if you ask me, but dead was dead, right?

Seeing the turnoff up ahead, I slowed my speed.

I didn’t know why I was checking up on them.

I knew they were fine.

Balthazar and I ensured that, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I needed to see them for myself one more time.

While Shirley still lived in Phoenix, Arizona with my youngest sister, Joy, the older three all lived near Wichita Falls, Texas, moving in together when they started a small herbal business that made candles, lotions and other girly shit from beeswax and other herbs and crap. Charity tried explaining it to me once, but as much as I loved my sister, it went in one ear and out the other.

My sisters, Faith, Hope and Charity, owned a small five-acre spread on the outskirts of Wichita Falls. A nice, clean area. The girls picked a decent place to live. What I liked most about where they lived was that my sisters were less than ten minutes from the nearest police station. I still hated that they lived alone out in the middle of nowhere, but they were close to help if needed.

Seeing the sign for their farm, I turned left and slowly rolled down the dirt road, until the small barn like house came into view.

Parking my bike, I cut the engine when Hope walked out of the house, smiling. “Zeke!”

A beautiful girl, my sister, Hope, wasthe spitting image of her mother. Long golden-brown hair, pretty green eyes with sun-kissed skin. Hope was a looker for sure.

Hell, all my sisters were.

Dressed in a flowery peach summer dress and cowboy boots, Hope walked down the front steps towards me.

Grinning, I got off my bike as my sister walked over to me and gave me a hug. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her tight to me, thanking the good Lord she was alive, safe and happy. It was a hard pill to swallow, knowing my brother, our brother, did horrible, unspeakable things to her.

Yet, Faith and Hope survived.

I guess in the end that was all that mattered.

Still, there were times I wished I could bring Malachi back to life, so I could kill him all over again.

“You’re not wearing your cut?” Hope noticed when she released me.

“Yeah. I left the club.”

“Everything okay?”

“It doesn’t matter now. Where are Faith and Charity?”

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