Dark As Coal

Chapter 6

Adeline

Just as I sliced the top of the tomato off for the burgers that we were grilling out later in the day, while the boys were in church when I heard, “Adeline, can I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure! Shoot,” I told Angelyn with a small smile, not wanting to deal with her. Dealing with Angelyn was like talking to a toddler. Sure, I was a kindergarten teacher, but she was a whole hell of a lot worse.

I mean how many times have we had this same conversation?

How many times has she seen how Coal, and I are?

“So… I know the ins and outs of being a club girl, but umm… how do you land just one member?” I froze at her question.

What the hell? I, along with all of the other girls, have had this discussion about her after watching her for a few weeks but I didn’t think she could be that stupid to come right out and ask that question, “Umm, a club girl doesn’t just land a member. It doesn’t work like that.”

She scoffed, she freaking scoffed, “It did for Gabby. And the way Coal is with you, it’s worked for you.”

“Honestly, I don’t know how to answer that question. I mean everyone becomes a club girl for reasons all their own. The reason I became one is different from Gabby’s, Sutton’s, and even Lizette’s, none of us came into this hoping that we would land a brother. And if that is the reason you became a club girl, then you came into this for the wrong reason.”

“That’s not what… whatever… look, I want to know how Gabby landed Pipe, how you landed Coal, and how Sutton landed Irish. The other girls know that Coal only fucks you and nobody else. And as for Irish, well he only fucks Sutton unless there is a certain woman here but still. How are y’all doing it?”

She wasn’t going to let the matter go, and I didn’t know how to get through to her.

And I knew this to be a fact when not even three days later, Angelyn started up a-fucking-gain.

“How come none of the other men get near you?” Angelyn asked.

I felt the other girls looking at her, and they looked at me and all at once they shrugged.

“Does it not seem odd, and quite frankly unfair?” She asked the room.

Stella resumed her chopping of the peppers, while she said, “Honestly, not really. Coal’s the Icer for this club for a reason. You want to see what will happen should another man go after the only woman he allows to even get near him?”

Stella paused, and then said, “And another fact, Gabby didn’t land Pipe. Pipe chased after Gabby. As for Coal and Adeline, when one person completes the other, then it needs no label. And Sutton hasn’t landed Irish. Even though she loves him, he takes her for freaking granted.”

Honestly, I didn’t even understand it fully.

And I wouldn’t know until later about a conversation that took place while I had been in the hospital after giving Piney one of my kidneys.

Asher

(Three Years Ago)

“Wanna tell me why it’s hands off of Adeline?” Whit asked me.

I looked at him, then took in the faces of all the brothers and realized they all felt the same way.

I sighed, then looked at Piney, seeing that look in his eyes, knowing what it meant.

That he knew Coal would take care of Adeline, and no one on this planet would do it better than him.

We both knew that.

And we knew that after neither of us had heard the man speak in all the time, we’ve known him, but we did in that hospital room.

I opened my mouth, knowing that Coal was getting information out of a child trafficker in his shed, therefore, he wouldn’t be here for this particular conversation, “Any of you ever heard Coal speak?”

I watched their faces, some of them looked confused, some of them looked wary, but all of them shook their heads in the negative.

“Piney and I have. One time. One time when he first laid eyes on Adeline,” I told them.

Priest was the first to ask, “When did he first lay eyes on Adeline?”

“Three days ago, in the hospital. She’s the one who donated Piney his kidney.”

It didn’t take a person with the highest level of education to interpret the looks on all the men’s faces.

Respect.

She just earned that in spades.

Piney looked around the room then and addressed the silent questions, “There are a few reasons why she’s off-limits. The biggest one, she’s not afraid of Coal. The next one, she donated her kidney to me on the day she turned eighteen.”

“There’s more to it. I know it.” That came from Rome.

“The man that Piney beat to an inch of his life a few years ago… the reason behind it,” I didn’t have to say another word.

I nodded when I saw they all got it and then warned, “But this fact goes into your ears and stays in your brains, never to be fucking spoken of. I fucking mean it.”

They all listened with their full attention.

“They released Piney later in the day, they held Adeline another day because she had a bad reaction to the anesthesia after Coal and I had met her. What we didn’t know, that was until Piney asked me to ride with him so he could drop a bag of clothes off for Adeline, was that Coal didn’t leave when we did.”

I swallowed for the next words.

“Imagine our surprise to find out that Adeline had a nightmare, and further imagine our surprise when we caught sight of none other than Coal lying beside her in bed and holding her, running his hand through her hair and singing softly to her.”

They all knew.

Every last one of them.

Coal didn’t allow anyone to touch him. No. One.

But he let her.

Rome

I got it. I fucking got it.

I understood it.

Because for the woman that had hold of my heart, just like I could see that Adeline had hold of Coals, even when he says he has no heart.

And I knew that I would be whatever that woman needed from me.

No matter how hard it would be for me, I would fucking do it.

For her.

Trigger

Was I jealous of Coal?

You’re damn right I was.

Adeline was a fucking dream.

She was sweet.

She was shy.

But the moment she trusted, she let it all out.

And nothing.

And I mean nothing could compare to that woman’s body.

Everyone has a type.

You either like long hair, short hair, or no hair.

You either like a woman with melons and a great ass.

Or you were a fine lover of all thing’s woman.

But any man, I don’t care how much they lie to themselves in the mirror.

Every man will fall head over fucking pipes for a woman with soft hair, hair so long that you can wrap it around your fist while she sucks you off. Sucks you off as she looks up at you from an amazing pair of eyes that have no match.

Sucks you off with that perfect cupid bow mouth.

Makes you come, and then you lift the small body, flip her on her knees, place your hands on her perfect hips, and then pound into her tight body.

Yeah, I needed to stop.

I liked my face to look just like it does.

And if Coal ever learned of the thoughts, I was having… I shivered involuntarily.

Priest

I was happy for my brother.

So fucking happy I could scream it from the rooftops.

If there was any brother that deserved to be happy it was either Asher… or it was Coal.

Stoney

No one else had seen it, yet, but I did.

When someone has gone through the kind of things that Adeline had, it causes a darker part of you to be made known.

And I knew I’d seen it.

The world better watch out if anyone ever thought to hurt Coal.

Irish

Why was I taking the woman that has been there for me for granted?

And as many times as I had asked myself that singular question.

I just keep fucking doing it.

Whit

I joined the club because it was a band of brothers and no ol’ ladies.

But Gabby changed that.

Now, I knew that Adeline was going to change that.

Furthermore, if Irish pulled his head out of his ass, he would be doing that with Sutton.

And… well… if Asher could get something right in his life, then he would be making the person that we all knew held his heart, finally fucking his.

And… I had a feeling that the moment I met the one, then I would be one of them, but until that day happened, I was going to keep on living my best life.