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“Well, whoever killed him made sure it was done good ’nd proper, ’cause ain’t no comin’ back from the dead.

Kane been dead since Kage was five months old, and not havin’ his father affected him.

There were things he didn’t understand, that I couldn’t teach him.

Stuff only a man would know. I didn’t want you to raise him.

I wanted Kane, to raise his one and only son!

I know you hated him, Daddy, but he was excited about his baby comin’ into the world, and he doted on the child so much after he was born. ”

“Well, don’t you wear those rose colored glasses well? That man couldn’t even bother with a pack of diapers and a bottle! Isn’t this just rich?” he scoffed.

“I saw that man cry when he held Kage for the first time. Kane ain’t never shed a tear…

not even when his own mama died. And who knows?

He may have walked on the straight and narrow path if he’d had the chance!

He was cut down before he could spread his wings.

And yeah, maybe he did some bad stuff, Daddy, but we were young, okay?

Kids do stupid stuff. Y’all have a lot in common, so don’t throw stones. ”

“Oh, bullshit!” Grandpa scoffed. “He was White trash, and happy to stay that way! You were young. He was old enough to know better. He was also unreasonable, just like my grandson, the child you birthed into the world and that turned around and tried to fucking kill me. TRASH! BOTH OF ’EM.

His bloodline is tainted. Just like all the men you let slide into your bed…

the bed that I pay for!” He heard his daughter sigh on the other end.

“You haven’t had to work a day in your life, Sarah.

Silver spoon in your mouth, and you chose to lay down with lowlifes!

You could’ve been a lawyer! A teacher! Anything!

Instead, you chose to chase bad men. You know what they say.

Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas. I pay for that mortgage, that Lexus in your driveway, that—”

“Daddy, I’ve had ’bout a damn ’nuff.” He heard her puffing on a cigarette.

“Now I love you… you know I do, but I’m sick of this.

You’ve been takin’ your anger at my son out on me since he was thirteen.

Kept threatening to cut me off if I didn’t jump when you told me to.

I did that for a number of years, but now I’m all burnt out, man.

Problem is, my son is just as stubborn as you, and you can’t stomach it.

You can call me to lecture me about how you foot my bills, ’bout the men I choose, or to talk shit about my boy to me until the cows come home.

Go on right ahead. I’ll be your punchin’ bag, but it won’t change anything, now will it? ”

He took another gulp of the brandy—his anger climbing inside of him like a vine growing at lightning speed.

Sarah was one of his favorite children, and she knew it.

He allowed her to get away with far more than most of the others.

She’d always been consistent, but lately, he’d noticed a different side to her, and he didn’t like it.

“Me and ya mama spoiled you too much,” he grumbled. “You ain’t raise that boy right. Let him run around the streets doin’ terrible things. Kage had a lot of potential. He was smart, but a strange child. Very strange…That’s all your fault, too.”

“He wasn’t strange. He just didn’t care what folks thought about him, is all.”

“No. That boy was weird as hell, and out of his fucking mind from an early age. The way he’d skulk around…

lookin’ at folks from down a hall, or around a door.

Just watchin’, like some wolf. He was always tall for his age, and scared the shit out of folks.

I’d catch him smilin’ when bad things would happen. And he was cruel.”

“That ain’t true and you know it. Kage isn’t cruel. He’s always been compassionate, especially to those that are strugglin’.”

“Then you don’t know your son. He likes to cause pain.” He pursed his lips. “He’s always been violent, and attracted to the macabre.”

“Minus the macabre part, that description sounds like you, Daddy. Sounds like you a whole stinkin’ lot…” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s, ‘Tuesdays Gone’ started to play.

“You should’ve never let him grow up next to that cemetery and funeral home. You let the devil in your house, girl. All of those spirits! Feasting on his young soul!”

“So, first, it was his father that was to blame. Bad genes, right? His dead father was the problem. Then it was me because I chose the wrong daddy, and I’m spoiled, and I let him run the streets, as you say.

And now it was the cemetery and torn down funeral home, too, to be charged with the culpability.

Demons and the devil are the reason he is the way he is.

The darkness of the world consumed him. It’s to blame.

Wayward ugly spirits eatin’ my boy alive.

Daddy, you make me so damn tired.” She sighed.

“You act like you don’t even believe in things like that most of the time, anyway.

Guess you only believe in ghosts, spirit guides and the like when it suits the story that you want to spin.

All of what you just said is wrong. All of it. Every bit of it.”

“It’s not wrong. I’ve lived longer than you.

I’ve seen things. You have no idea what’s going on in the world.

The real world. Not the one you think you see with those damn wicked cards and crystals.

Kage hates people, so he hides away from the world, just like you did as a kid, and continues to do now. ”

“Well, that ain’t true, either, Daddy, but more importantly, did you ever stop and think, like, even consider that that is just who he is?

You’ve got problems acceptin’ folks for who they are if they don’t meet your expectations, and that’s nobody’s cross to bear but your own.

A few of my brothers and sisters aren’t even talkin’ to you on account of what happened between you and my nephews, Lennox and Roman.

You won’t let them boys be! Speakin’ of Roman, you’re in no position to judge nobody.

Daddy, that was low! I heard about what you did. ”

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

“That’s my damn brother, Daddy… Reeves ain’t sunshine and rainbows, he’s a tarantula riding a tornado, but he damn sure didn’t deserve that . You had that man in the prison nearly kill him! Your own son!”

“Don’t you go lecturin’ me about things you know nothin’ about!

Tellin’ me what someone did and didn’t deserve!

I saved you from abusive men on more than one occasion!

I bailed your ass outta jail for fighting another woman over your latest slimeball of the week!

I’ve set you up pretty so you can live in your little pretend world, runnin’ around with biker boy racketeers that wear crap-stained, tore up shirts and are covered in a bunch of skin graffiti they got in prison. Thinkin’ they’re tough shit!”

“That sure is a big, high horse you got there, Daddy! Riding high, I see, to look down on us stupid peasants. At one time in your life, you were the riffraff, too!”

“BUT I TURNED MY LIFE AROUND! I CHANGED! I didn’t sit in it and stew, and be happy about my misfortunes.

I did something about it, damn it. You don’t get where I am in life by being a sloth, lazy, or playin’ fair.

This ain’t Fantasy Island or some afterschool special.

I’ve worked hard, and you damn sure don’t stay in this position by rollin’ over and just taking it.

I PROTECT MINE! THE BLOOD! Kage either respects the blood, or he spills it. THE CHOICE IS HIS!”

“That isn’t a fair choice, Daddy. He told you ‘no!’ You done went out there on his property, burnin’ down his shit, takin’ his shit, ruining his shit, shooting holes in his shit, and killin’ shit, too.

You’re the reason I gotta practically show up in body armor just to visit my son.

After you sent your men after him and his cousins, nabbed them up for that meeting at your house, things have never been the same.

He don’t trust nobody on his land at all now, and the last go ’round y’all had caused him to buy enough cameras to dole out to every tourist in New York damn City! ”

“If he has more security, it’s because he’s a target of his own making. Your fuckin’ lunatic son is Charles Manson, Albert Fish, and Ed Gein combined.”

“Now you’re just being dramatic.” She chuckled.

“Am I? That motherfucker skinned two of my men who were still breathing, Sarah. Skinned them alive!”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Because you don’t wanna believe it! You live in La-La-Land! He did it, I tell ya. He put ’em in coolers and set them near my gotdamn compound, then drove off like big whoopty fuckin’ do! Now let me tell you something, little lady: that was uncalled for.”

“Daddy, you’re one of the king players in the southern mafia,” she stated dryly.

“I know damn well you aren’t actin’ as if violence is not in your nature, and you’re so appalled by what you think my child has done.

” She tsked. “I’ve seen you beat a man to death with your cane, and when I asked you why, you smiled and said, ‘Because it’s Tuesday. ’”

“I’m a diplomat first. Violence is used when necessary. From the beginning of the existence of mankind, violence has indeed been necessary. Like when every other man that has entered your life decides that you need to be knocked around, for starters.”

“I haven’t had—”