Page 22 of Ethan's Sky

“Skyler’s gone, Ethan.”

“Gone? What do you mean gone? Gone where? Like Emily gone?” My heart stutters in my chest. Images of her lying on the ground beaten and bruised, brutally assaulted and lifeless flash through my mind like a movie reel and my knees give out. I slide down the wall, my ass hitting the floor. My chest feels like a three-hundred-pound weight is trying to crush the life out of me. My head is throbbing, my heart is pounding.I can’t fucking breathe.

“Nobody knows, sweetheart.” She sniffles. The sound of a tissue crumpling against the phone and her deep inhale mingle together.

“I don’t understand.”

“When the ambulance and police arrived on scene, Skyler was nowhere to be found. Before coming to see me, Sherriff Dawson drove by her house to question her about the incident. George said she was gone. He had come home from working a late shift and found her room a mess. Her closet was half empty and she’d taken a few pictures and things of her mother’s from her drawers, but that was it. He has Gabe and his men out looking for her.”

“Did they track her phone? Maybe whoever did this took her.” She wouldn’t just leave me. I know she wouldn’t leave me to face this alone. My head feels foggy, a haze rendering me speechless. There’s a sound like a drum beating loudly in my ears, pulsing, and pounding with the erratic beat of my own heart as panic begins to set in.

“She left her phone and her purse at the house. Wherever she is…” she says, her voice a soft whisper. “I’m sorry, baby. I know how much you love her, but I don’t believe Skyler’s ever coming back.”

Gabe had his men out searching for what seemed like years but was only a couple of days. I thought Skyler was dead, until a week after her disappearance, only days before we were finally going to get to bury Emily, George told me she’d called to tell him she was safe and wouldn’t be coming home to Oak Ridge ever again. She couldn’t handle being in place where every memory held so much pain and loss.

I hit rock bottom after that.

Everyone turned out to bury Emily. The Kings stood at my back. All of them there for us. The entire town embraced my mother and me in our darkest hours. Everyone, except Skyler.

She left me.

“You all right, man?”

I take a long pull from the bottle and shake my head. “I don’t know how to answer your question. I understand George was a friend and Ghost’s family. I understand the logistics, butfuck.”Slamming the half empty bottle on the table, I jump to my feet and pace, scrubbing my hands through my hair, grasping for some semblance of peace. I’m unable to stop the rage I feel clawing at my chest. The anguish and heartache Skyler’s leaving caused clouding my vision, constricting my breath. “It’s fucking Skyler! How the hell am I supposed to begood?” I shout, unable to contain it anymore.

My Sunshine.

Hawk’s eyes meet mine, a subtle nod his only reaction to my outburst. He must realize where my thoughts have taken me. He was there. He knows what I went through. How hard I fought to get my shit back together after my sister’s death. I was a fucking wreck. Drinking myself stupid. Fighting anyone and everyone just to be able to feel the pain when my fists connected to flesh and bone. I needed to feel, anything.Pain seemed to be the only thing that penetrated past my drunkenness. A reminder. I was still here.

Alive, and alone.

I would’ve been okay if Skyler would’ve been there with me.

Sky had always been my anchor.

When I was a senior in high school, Skyler and Emily were only a year behind. For four years, I cleaned the floors and locker rooms at Knockouts gym, paying for my fighting lessons, all while helping watch over Emily and trying to graduate. Mom was working two jobs trying to keep a roof over our head, and all she asked of me was to stay out of trouble and be my sister’s keeper.

Skyler and Emily were tight, so naturally, she spent a lot of time over at our house. I got to know her over the years. At first, she was like another sister. Your run of the mill pain in the ass teenage brat. But then I started to really take notice of her. She was only acting the part of a brat because Emily was.

Skyler was shy by nature. She didn’t like conflict, easily allowing Emily to always have her way. Skyler was about books and learning. She was always the smart one. She rarely sassed anyone, except me. I seemed to bring it out in her, and I secretly loved that I could.

She tutored me through Algebra 2 my Senior year. She was a great listener when I was struggling to keep my wits about me every time, I lost a match or got suspended because I punched some asshole who thought he could grope my sister. There was only one suspension. I learned my lesson quick. I beat their ass off campus from there on out. And she was still there to listen to me rant about the same old bullshit. Skyler was the glue holding me together when my life felt like it was spinning out of my control.

But the night Emily died, my anchor cut me loose, and my life spiraled into an epic cluster fuck of my own creation.

Over the next few months after Emily’s funeral, my Aunt Madalyn sold my mother’s house and moved her to a new home in North Carolina with her, and I moved into an apartment over Knockouts Gym.

My sister was dead.

My mother had left town.

And my Sunshine disappeared.

Everyone I loved left me.

The way I felt, my heart slamming into my ribs when I saw her beautiful face, here, in the clubhouse after all this time. Without a word. No letter. No phone call. Nothing. And then she shows up. My brothers surrounding her. Taking up forher.Not me.Their brother.To say I’m pissed is a gross understatement.

I draw in several deep breaths. I’m struggling to get past the lump in my throat, forcing air into my lungs, trying but unsuccessful at getting a hold on my anger.

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