Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 459(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“Shovel.” Sam nodded.
“Yeah, after he fucked your eye up.” Silas shook his head.
The eye in question must’ve been when Sam was pushed by Silas’ second in command when he was just a young boy. The man had pushed him so hard that he’d fallen and cut his eye open on a motorcycle’s chrome wheels, barely missing his eye by a matter of millimeters.
“I was done following orders that were sent from The Agency. Those men were mine, and I’d do with them what I damn well pleased. The club was very important to me, but you more so. Shovel was the last boy left over that wanted everything to go back to the old ways. We weren’t making the same money, but it was also nothing to sneeze at either. He was pissed at everything I represented. It was the worst mistake of his life taking his anger out for me on you. Your mom left the last time, and I decided it was probably for the best that she stay gone. Maybe she’d get a better life without my fucked-up-ness leaking over onto her. Lettie didn’t last much longer either. I didn’t have to keep up appearances any longer, and she didn’t like the new me.” Silas told him, eyes closed.
“You still love her.” Sam stated the obvious.
“Burns everyday.” Silas answered simply.
“You beat her.” Sam accused.
Silas’ eyes snapped open and he was off the couch before anyone could even blink. The man was quick. Even hurt he had the speed of a striking snake. Sam stayed seated, but barely, when Silas’ crowded his space. Which was hard for Sam to do, but he managed it.
“Never,” Silas emphasized that with a pointed finger in Sam’s face. “Never, did I beat that woman.”
“She used to have bruises. Rope burns. Marks. Someone did something to her.” Sam hissed.
“I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, son.” Silas said, shaking his head.
He didn’t either. The confusion on his face was evident. Either he didn’t do it, or he didn’t remember doing it.
“It only happened on the times you brought her back home after she ran with me. You’d punish her, and the next day she’d be fucked up again. Planning on the next time for us to leave.”
A small smile came over Silas’ face before he covered it with the blank mask.
“I don’t know that I need to get into logistics with you about your mother, but answer me this. Tell me it’s never crossed your mind to tie your woman to your bed. To spank her. To let her know she’s yours and nobody else’s? To let everybody else know, too. You may not have expressed it, but I bet it’s crossed your mind before, hasn’t it?”
I, for one, knew that feeling. It’d been growing a lot over the past few months, but ever since this afternoon with Shiloh, I had this raw need inside of me to make sure she knew she was mine. To make sure that everyone else knew it too. It was a burning need that I’d never experienced before.
Cheyenne snickered from the corner before she smothered it with her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and filled with mirth. I just knew that if Ember were to have been here, they’d be going at it like little girls. Giggling and carrying on.
Sam’s eyebrows pinched together in thought, and then spread wide as realization dawned. “That’s...that’s just fucking sick.”
“Well, it was all consensual. I loved that woman with everything I possessed.”
“You could’ve shown it better.” Sam muttered.
“If I’d have shown you better...or her better... you’d be fucking dead. I gave up everything I loved so everyone could have a better home. I don’t know a single fucking one of my kids as I should. Have you ever tried treating someone you love with every single cell in your body, as if they meant nothing to you? To see the betrayal? To know that you’ll never know your goddamn grandchildren. It eats my guts every day to know I let you slip through my fingers. To know that the man you became, one I am proud of more than anything, wasn’t that way because of me. Not that the anonymity did your sister any good.”
The lasts words out of Silas’ mouth were muttered under his breath. Obviously he hadn’t meant for us to hear him, but we did.
“What do you mean?” Sam thundered.
Silas’ lips thinned, and he didn’t say anything.
“Was this the abduction James said something about? What happened?” Sam demanded.
“Quiet.” Silas hissed. The threat was more than evident, which was enough to snap Sam’s mouth shut with an audible snap.
Silence followed his command. So much of it that you could hear the movie playing in the family room. Shiloh and Janie talking about what they were doing for dinner. Obviously, that was enough to make Silas sure that Shiloh wouldn’t overhear what he was about to impart.
“I was sloppy. I loved that little girl more than anything. I made the mistake of taking her out for ice cream on her sixth birthday, and it cost that girl everything. I was jumped by a man that recognized me. How, I don’t know. I wasn’t wearing my cut. I was in a brand new truck. I didn’t even go to town. It was just a fucking fluke to have a member from a rival club at the Tobacco Junction across from the Dairy Queen. They knocked me out when I was getting the goddamn ice cream and she was playing on the playground. When I woke up, she was gone. I didn’t find her again for two more days. She wasn’t the same, and never has been since. From there, I just distanced myself, and never gave anyone any attention, too scared that something like that would happen again if I did.”
“That’s why she has nightmares and night terrors?” Sam asked brokenly.
“Yeah,” he said nodding his head. “She doesn’t remember much from those two days, and I thank God that she doesn’t. She wasn’t in good shape. No bones were broken, and she wasn’t violated, but I have a feeling that they tortured her in other ways. Although, I’ll never know for sure. There was no one left alive when I was done.”