Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 107823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
With regret, he watched her move through the dark, her profile only a shadow of who she really was. Because she was so much more.
She cracked the door open slightly and paused like she always did. Waiting. Listening.
Making sure the unlit corridor was empty before slipping out.
He also waited. Also listened.
For the soft click of the door every time she left.
Chapter Two
“What’s in the box?” Easy asked as he stepped into the back area that held the furnaces.
His eyes automatically landed on Shade’s wrist, the one with the wide cuff circling it, effectively hiding one of many secrets in the man’s past.
Easy knew what was under the worn black leather. He wasn’t sure how many other people knew the truth besides Chelle, her girls and Jude. It was difficult to live in the same household and hide something like that. He couldn’t wear the cuff twenty-four-seven.
Shade could’ve easily kept it a secret from Easy, too. But one day curiosity got the best of him and Easy asked. He was surprised as fuck when the quiet man answered.
That confession was a huge step in bringing Shade and him closer. Once he showed Easy the horizontal scar across the inside of his wrist—proof of a time when his life had been so unbearable he wanted to end it—Shade began to share a few of the details of that life.
Easy didn’t know everything, but he knew enough.
He also knew the truth behind Shade talking slowly and why he chose his words carefully when he did. And the reason behind his speech improving after hooking up with Chelle.
His ol’ lady had done what no one in Shade’s past could do, taught Easy’s club brother to read. Proved that the man with the twisted, hidden past could manage his dyslexia to the point no one might ever know he struggled with it.
Easy had guessed early on, back when they first started working together at Tioga Pet Services, that Shade couldn’t read. He didn’t know why at the time, he just knew he couldn’t simply by being observant.
The first indicator being that Shade had always used the voice-to-text feature on his phone instead of typing out a message. He also used text-to-speech to read any incoming messages.
Or he used to. Now he could read them and even type them himself. He’d come a long fucking way since first joining the Fury.
Finding Chelle and the girls—now with Jude, all three were their kids—had changed the man completely.
Well, not completely. The man, both quiet and deadly, still did what he had to do when he was called upon to do it.
During their time working together at the crematorium, Easy had gotten closer to Shade more than any of his other club brothers. To the point they had become as close as blood brothers. Of course, without the sibling rivalry.
So, yeah, he felt honored when Shade began to tell Easy his secrets.
Again, not all, but enough.
After what Easy did hear, he was damn sure there were parts in Shade’s past he didn’t want to know. Not without adding to his own nightmares.
He couldn’t imagine how Shade slept with those kind of memories haunting him, but he could imagine that Shade’s mind had locked away some of the most awful ones.
Or at least, Easy hoped so.
“Ashes,” Shade answered about what was in the box.
“No shit, since that’s what we do here. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that bullshit. Whose ashes?”
“Nobody’s.”
Easy’s eyebrows stitched together. “Wanna explain?”
“What’s left of the burner phones. Finally gonna get a chance to go spread the ashes.”
“Not on the farm.”
“Not on the farm,” Shade echoed. “Gonna take a ride out to one of the Amish’s fields on my way home and spread them there. Think they’re already plowin’ for the season.”
“Probably.” Easy scraped his fingers along the wiry hairs on his jaw as he considered his fellow long-haired brother. “So, now that the Shirleys are dealt with once and for all… It’s time, brother. We can focus on what you need to do.”
Shade set the box down near the door leading from the large furnace area to the loading dock out back where their sleds were parked. “Yeah.”
Shade had been quiet lately about his search for his sperm donor. Most likely because of all the other shit going down with the club recently. He’d been reluctant to leave town and leave his family alone to go handle that last piece of business. Especially since they lived in town and not on the farm, making them more vulnerable to attacks from the Shirleys.
With that threat now gone, Shade was probably relieved as fuck.
“You find out anythin’ new?”
“Think I’m close,” Shade answered.
“How close? Got enough for us to see if whatever you found pans out?” Easy asked him.
“Think so.”
“Okay then...”
“Gotta come up with a story to tell Chelle.”