She had a husband, if the photo on the mantel was any indication. Divorced women usually didn’t keep photos of their ex around. Not unless they were still stuck on them.
Even without the husband, she had two daughters that he knew of. A family.
Probably a good life.
She wouldn’t want to get involved with anyone who could disturb that good life.
So, yeah, he needed to forget the way she looked, the way she smelled and her soft touch on his arm.
He couldn’t go there. It was best if he kept his sex life simple.
Easy exchanged the Mason jar with the joint in Shade’s hand. He took a sip, while Easy sucked a deep lungful of pot and held it for what seemed like forever. But then Easy was a smoker, unlike Shade.
Shade hated cigarettes, but then, he had a reason.
The moonshine seared his gut and warmed his blood.
“That him?” Easy asked, jerking his chin at the cardboard box that had held the ashes of the former hillbilly.
Shade grunted his answer and took another sip.
“Need to burn that box,” Easy said. Something Shade already knew.
He’d done it before. He’d do it again. He had a system now.
He didn’t bring them all off the mountain, only when he could. Sometimes he dragged them deep into the woods and buried them under leaves and branches until the animals could get to it.
Like the coyotes. Rodents and vultures. Whatever creatures would enjoy an easy meal. Whatever they didn’t eat, the worms and maggots would.
Eventually the Shirley would go back to the Earth, where they came from.
Still too many to go...
He was also worried they’d bring in more. From Ohio. Or wherever. He had no idea how extensive the Guardians of Freedom were. They probably had clusters all around the country like the KKK, another clan that needed to be wiped clean from the Earth.
He was leaving the current clan leader for last. If he took that guy out first, they would just replace him. So, he decided to leave the head of the snake intact and chop away at the body, working from the tail up.
“Fuck,” he muttered as a slender figure worked her way through the dark to where he and Easy sat.
Easy glanced in the direction he was looking, then clapped him on the back. “Someone’s out huntin’ tonight.”
“They all were. Why I came out here.”
Easy let out an easy laugh. “The more you resist, the harder they work you, brother. Just give ‘em a little and they’ll go away.”
He tried that and it didn’t work.
He was not like his brothers who needed to get their rocks off just about every night in one way or another.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like sex. He did. It also wasn’t like he needed it to mean anything. He didn’t. Usually it was just mindless motion. A primal itch needing to be occasionally scratched.
But there never had been a woman in his life he’d wanted to hang onto for the long haul. Not like his brothers who had found their ol’ ladies.
Even if he was looking, he wouldn’t be looking in The Barn. He had a bit of a thing about sticking his dick where another man’s cum might be lurking. Though, for the most part, he was pretty sure his brothers wrapped it up tight when it came to the sweet butts. Or at least, he hoped to fuck they did.
Wraps were one thing Trip made sure stayed in stock in the bunkhouse. And a lot of them. Before meeting Cassie, Judge had always used his own. For whatever reason. Some of the other guys did, too.
Brandy, whose momma named her after the color of her hair, stopped in front of the two of them, with a tilt to her head and hands planted on her slender hips. “Why are you guys hiding out here in the dark?”
“Nobody’s fuckin’ hidin’, sweetheart,” Easy said, the smoke from the premium Kush rolling out of his mouth. “Just chillin’.”
Brandy’s head swiveled back and forth between him and Easy.
Yeah, she was on the hunt to fill her cunt.
“I know how to help you relax a little more.”
Easy grinned. “Yeah? How?”
“However you want, baby,” she answered, dropping her voice an octave lower in an attempt to make it husky and her more tempting.
Chelle’s voice had that natural huskiness to it. She didn’t have to force it. She also didn’t have to force his attention. It had been stuck on her from the second he saw her.
“What are you drinking, Shade?” Brandy snagged the Mason jar out of his hand and took a big gulp before he could stop her. She coughed and shuddered. “Yuck! That tastes like apple-flavored turpentine.”
Easy threw his head back and laughed. “It’ll put hair on your chest.” He grabbed the jar from her and took another swig.