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Jude – 12 yro rescued by Shade, Shade & Chelle’s adopted son

Silvia Stevens – Sig’s mother, Razor’s former ol’ lady

Tammy Davis – Trip’s mother, Buck’s former ol’ lady

Bebe Dietrich – Cage & Rook’s mother, Dutch’s former ol’ lady

Clyde Davis – Buck’s father, Trip & Sig’s grandfather, deceased

Lizzy/Billie/Angel/Amber/Crystal/Brandy – Sweet butts

Max Bryson – Chief of Police – Manning Grove PD, Bryson brother

Marc Bryson – Corporal – Manning Grove PD, Bryson brother

Matt Bryson – Officer – Manning Grove PD, Bryson brother

Ada Grove PD, Bryson’s cousin, Teddy’s husband

Leah Bryson – Officer – Manning Grove PD, Marc’s wife

To Grove PD

Teddy Sullivan – Owner Manes on Main, Adam Bryson’s husband

Amanda Bryson – Max’s wife, owner Boneyard Bakery

Carly Bryson – Matt’s wife, OB/GYN doctor

Levi Bryson – Adopted son of Matt & Carly Bryson (birth mother: Autumn)

Prologue

For I have sinned

He hated it

Hated her

Hated them

All of them Every last one

He hated kneeling

He hated praying

He hated the endless drone of their voices

He even hated the ten wooden chairs that formed a circle around him

In those chairs sat his mother and nine other women from their church When the women had entered the room, they refused to look at him and his mother demanded he keep his eyes lowered to the open book in his hand

Why?

Because Michael was a sinner

His spine, from his tailbone to the top of his neck, felt ready to splinter

The skin on his bare knees was about to split open fro on the stack of wooden rulers

Hisperfectly still so the bible balanced on his head wouldn’t tumble to the floor

His arood book” open in his hands

He wasn’t allowed to es

His e but not one word escaped His eyes didn’t need to focus on the tiny print on the orn pages because he had been forced to read the bible so e by heart

Not that this particular scriptureto him It didn’t

Because he was a sinner

He was born one

He would die one

And in between, he planned on living a life full of sin

Keeping his head tipped down to hide it, one corner of his upper lip pulled up into a sneer

He would remain in the center of that circle surrounded by these women and their monotone voices until the elder, the one who looked like a walking corpse, decided he had atoned for his latest transgression

In the et ten lashes If he stood without peret twenty If he told them all to fuck off, he had no idea how many lashes he’d be blessed with, but a bar of soap would be forced into his mouth, and he’d be locked in his room without supper To think about his inexcusable actions, he would have to sit in a wooden chair with his hands in his lap, his feet flat on the floor while he continued to pray and ask for forgiveness until his father came home