Preacher (The Untouchables MC 5)

“Her?”

He nodded.

“My little sister, Callie. You might think it was weird for him to be attached to her, but Callie was special. She was very easy to love.”

He shook his head.

“I still think he would have married her. If she hadn’t . . .”

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

“It’s hard to talk about to this day. How stupid it was. How tragic. How it just . . .”

He opened his eyes, and the pain there took my breath away.

“A light went out in the world that day. It was so bright. She was . . .”

A wry smile twisted his features.

“Callie was just starting to look like a woman. She’d been a late bloomer. And Paul was a very serious boy. I wasn’t as interested in hanging around with a kid anymore. I was very intense about my studies. I wanted to talk about God, not dresses or whether Paul would take her to the Prom if she asked. So I left her behind at home that night.”

He exhaled and swam closer, his hands touching my legs. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to give me comfort or take some for himself. Either way, the connection I felt when we touched was palpable. He centered me in a way I hadn’t known I had missed.

And the story he was telling . . . I needed centering to hear it.

“But she followed us. I didn’t know. I think Paul might have, but I can’t be sure. Either way, we walked through a bad part of town. A part of town a pretty little thing like her should not have been in. Not that our part of town was much better. But our little row of blocks was residential. The people were poor, but they did their best to keep their houses neat. There were bars on the main drag. Bars and gambling and pimps and, well, you name it.”

I nodded, trying to picture it. It was before my time, of course. But I knew how rowdy things got when poverty and alcohol were combined.

“I wanted to see the other side of life. I condemned it back then, of course. I was young and arrogant, so sure of myself and my place in the world. I told Paul that these were the people we were meant to save. I had no idea I was about to become one of them.”

He told me to take a sip of the water again and had a bit himself. He dunked himself under the water again, submerging himself in the deepest part of the pool for a moment. I sensed that he needed time. He needed to take a breath before he told me what happened that night. Then he was back, his hands rubbing my feet again.

His eyes were clear, but the raw pain in them took my breath away. Preacher was always so strong. He’d never wavered once in all the time I had known him. He didn’t waver now.

“I was too far away. Ten feet. Fifteen. Maybe more. Everything happened so fast. There was a commotion behind us. I turned and saw some men tussling with a girl. One of the whores, I assumed. But it wasn’t. It was Callie. Paul realized before I did. He screamed her name and went running for her just as one of them tore her blouse open. The horror on her face, Cynthia. I’ll never forget it. She was so ashamed and scared. I was her big brother. I should have protected her. I ran. But it was too late. Paul was pulling them off her and she got free.”

He closed his eyes and opened them again. If I thought his eyes were full of pain before, I was wrong. Preacher’s emotions ran deep. His pain was a huge well of loss inside him. And he was showing me all of it.

“She stepped right into the path of a bus. It wasn’t going slow. It . . . she died instantly.”

“Oh, my God, Preacher,” I breathed.

“I hated those men. Who gave them the right to touch something so beautiful? So precious? Was it the drink? The drugs? As I held my sister’s body in the street, I realized that none of it mattered. Not one thing. I’d failed my sister. Surely, I would fail God as well. I hated myself so much in that moment. I realized that deep down, I was no better than the sinners. So I became one.”

I was quiet on the walk back to the cabin. So was he. But the warm, firm grip he kept on my hand kept me steady.

It felt like the earth had shifted. Everything about him made sense now. The wild recklessness that had a strong base underneath it. His devil may care attitude and loyalty. His kindness and his disillusionment with the rules and social niceties.