Page 80 of Jackass

“Sammy worked a lot of hours. She was supporting not only herself and Charlie, but Carrie, too. Sammy believed, since Carrie gave up everything to help hide them and was watching Charlie while Sammy worked, it was the least she could do.”

“Sounds like Samantha would make an amazing old lady, don’t you, Blade?” King pointed out.

“Loyalty, selflessness, family, determination…” Ghost ticked off on his fingers, the traits we all wanted in our women.

I looked over at Blade.

“Brother, I can’t say it enough. I’m sorry. I misjudged Sam, and when her divorce is final, I will be the first to vote for her.”

“I appreciate that, brother.”

Before I could say more, my phone rang. Jingles’ name flashed on my screen, and my heart sank. I looked around the table at my brothers. Taking a deep breath, I answered my phone.

“What’s happened?”

Chapter Nineteen

Jingles

As a patched member of the Silver Shadows MC for the last twelve years, I had done a lot of shit. The mother chapter in Arkansas was a one percenter club. They had their fingers in a lot of illegal pies.

I cut my teeth on that shit.

King petitioned to start another chapter because a few of us were tired of living with our heads on a swivel. We had to always keep our eyes looking behind our back and the backs of our brothers.

The constant fear of being hauled in for something we did, and even some things we didn’t do, was exhausting.

We wanted an easier life.

We would do without some of thefiner things in lifeif it meant we could breathe. Most of the Nebraska club was younger. Getting picked up for a ten-to-fifteen-year stint meant you would miss out on the best years of your life.

None of us wanted that.

So King chose his officers, and we moved on. We all had a chunk saved from the shit we had been involved in, and we pooled it together to get started. Blade found us the perfect place to set up shop.

Diamond Creek, Nebraska, was quiet, unpopulated, and most of all, it had become home. Even more than Arkansas ever was.

I wasn’t a native of Arkansas. New York City was where I called home until I was nineteen years old. I walked away from my family, my girl, my future, and never looked back.

I couldn’t even remember how I ended up in Arkansas. Once I met the Shadows, I knew I was where I belonged. I neverbelonged in New York. The people, the noise, the money. None of it appealed to me.

So, when I caught my girlfriend in bed with my older brother, I found something better.

I learned a lot from the Shadows in Arkansas. They taught me how to fight. They taught me how to steal. Most importantly, they taught me what family really meant.

Family was there for you. No matter what. Family had your back. That was how I found myself where I was right now. Following my brother’s woman to work and back.

This wasn’t the most exciting job, but I was the best person for it. Most people would think the Shadows taught me how to hide. How to slink around without being noticed.

No, the people who raised me taught me that.

I refused to call them my family. Family didn’t treat you the way they did. Family didn’t see you as just a pawn to be used to further their own agenda and their own path into what they considered greatness.

I learned at an early age to not let anyone see or hear me. My childhood home was enormous. A mansion, by most standards, located outside of New York City. Yet, it was a shack by my parents’ standards.

My mother sat on the seat of any charity that would allow her in. She wanted to be a socialite. They made her a gopher. The women of New York’s social scene used my mother to do the things they didn’t want to do.

She ate it up as acceptance.