Page 27 of Ethan's Sky

“You okay, sweetheart?” Blake asks, his meaty hand grabbing my elbow to steady me.

It’ll get easier,I tell myself, but I know I’m lying. It’s everyone’s way to comfort those who have suffered loss, but the truth is it never gets easier. Time just passes and people either forget or move on.

I stand straighter, releasing my arm from Blake’s grip. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long time. It’s going to take some getting used to, coming here, and knowing they’re both gone. You know?”

Blake nods but doesn’t speak.

I take a seat on the couch, grabbing Mama’s Afghan, wrapping it over my shoulders. It’s not cold by any means, but I need the comfort. I sit in silence and allow myself to breathe as reality starts to edge its way into my thoughts.

They’re gone and I’m alone. This is what it’s going to be from now on.

I know logically, I’m not really alone. Ghost, Cash, Eli, the club. They’ll inevitably invade my life because it’s what they think my daddy wanted. They see his asking them to protect me as far more than just keeping me alive. But it’s not the same as havingsomeone.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my uncle, but he lives his life for his club. Although I’m grateful for all the club has done for Daddy and me, I can’t see myself being a part of their lives. I don’t think my heart could take being around Ethan all the time. My heart is barely taped together as it is. Seeing him at the clubhouse reopened old wounds and tore open a few new ones.

Maybe I should sell the house and leave town again. Start somewhere fresh where no one knows me. It sucked doing it the first time, but it’s got to be easier the second time around, right?

I’ll miss Eli, Cash, and the rest when they go back to Mountain Heights, but I know they have their own lives to get back to. And if I know Cash, he’ll make excuses to come down to visit often. Sherrie being one of those excuses. Even more reason to move somewhere else.

I saw the hurt in Ethan’s eyes when his brothers took to my defense. I don’t want to be the wedge dividing them. Gabe’s men have known me my whole life. The girl they watched grow up and cared for when her mama went to heaven. But their loyalty lies with Ethan, even if it didn’t seem like it today. He wears their patch.

But Eli’s men took me on as someone they were meant to protect no matter the cost. And until the order changes, it’s what they’ll do.

My relationship with Eli’s club is different. They’re like a group of guys in high school. The ones who know they’re good-looking and can be cocky, but they’re funny and sweet and protective if they consider you one of their own. When I came to them, I was broken, bruised, and defeated. A scared little girl who had everything stripped away from her and felt like she couldn’t do anything for herself.

They proved me wrong.

They taught me to fight. Not just to save my life, but to save myself, and who I’ve become. Walker taught me how to use a gun and a knife, and how to disarm someone else. They took turns teaching me how to protect myself in any situation so I would never again be taken off guard.

I will never let anyone take anything from me again.

To Eli’s men, Iamone of their own.

I expect it will change once they leave and I don’t see them as much. They won’t be responsible for me anymore. Out of sight out of mind and all.

It’s funny how different the two chapters seem to me.

Ghost used to be their road captain. He stepped down from his role a few years after mama died. He laid his bike down while making a run for the club. His bike was totaled, and his left leg injured badly enough it left him unable to ride like he used to. When I asked what happened, I was given the usual,it’s club business, darlin’spiel. He still rides around town on his Fat Boy, but it’s too painful for him to go on long runs. Ethan is Road Captain now.

Caleb was the club president back then. He stepped down a few months before my mother died. I don’t know the whole story. I was too young when it happened, and too distracted by my mother’s illness to be privy to anything more than rumors and speculation. I do know it had something to do with the loss of three of Caleb’s family members. His brother, his daughter-in-law, and his granddaughter.

There have been a lot of different versions of the stories over the years about what happened to all of them. Typical town gossip.The only story always told the same, is how Caleb’s brother, Jonah was killed in a robbery at their gun shop.

A few months after Jonah’s death, Maggie, Caleb’s daughter-in-law, and her baby girl were killed in a car accident on Old Miller Mine Road. Her story is the one with several versions floating around. Some say she was leaving her husband, Gabe, and crashed on her way out of town. Something about being tired of slumming it with a biker and wanting to run back home to her parents and her inheritance.

When I saw Gabe and his wife, they seemed happy. He adored Maggie and their little girl from what I could tell. He was constantly hugging them and kissing their heads. They were almost always together at family functions. I find it hard to believe Maggie would’ve left him, but I was a kid occupied with watching my mama fade away. I guess it’s not hard to think I could’ve missed what was happening around me.

Others in town said she was run off the road by a rival MC.

Ghost never told me which version was the truth. Like most things involving the Kings, Maggie’s death wasclub business. I respected the fact Gabe wanted to keep the details of his family’s death to himself. I didn’t like talking about Mama’s sickness and her passing either.

Gabe is Caleb’s youngest son. He took over as President just after Jonah’s death. In fact, most of the older officers stepped down about the same time. Whispers around town said they all stepped down to protect the younger members from any blowback when they decided on their retaliation, but those were just rumors.

Oak Ridge isn’t a small town per se, but it’s small enough where people like to gossip and air out each other’s dirty laundry. Liz told me it was simply just time for the next generation to step up and take over. Since she’s not one I know to bullshit, I took her word over anyone else’s.

Apparently, the whole town is still full of gossip and rumors.

It’s the only way Ethan could have his facts so screwed up about me and his sister’s death.

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