Epilogue One

Fury

Much later that same night...

"It's late, kid. Go home," I said, walking by Shame's office to find Pippen still working diligently on the ghost file mystery, and that's when it hit me.

It wasn't Shame's office anymore.

It was Pippen's now.

I wasn't ever going to get used to seeing Pippen in here. To me, the kid would always be the prospect. Technically, he was still kind of, but more. No longer a prospect but not yet a brother. The kid had five years of an internship to complete before he could receive his brand. The funny thing was, I knew the kid would do it. Pippen was a determined bastard. Smart as hell and, right now, very fucking valuable to the club, especially since Shame was gone.

"I'll finish this up then go," the kid promised, typing something into the computer.

Shaking my head, I walked into the office and took a good look around.

The place looked sterile.

Wiped clean. Minus a small box that sat in the corner.

There was nothing left of Shame.

Nothing to show that my brother was even here.

"What is that?" I asked, pointing to the box.

"Shame's personal effects. I didn't know what to do with them and I didn't want to throw them away. Was going to give them to Montana or Mercy, hoping they would have an idea."

Walking over to the box, I opened the lid and frowned as I picked up an old flip phone.

"Thought you said Shame's personal effects were in here?"

"I did. All I could find was that phone," the kid replied.

"You mean to tell me that all he had in here was this damn phone?"

"Yeah," the kid confirmed. "Thought it odd, too. All of you have pictures, personal mementos to show your likes, family, hobbies and interests but not Shame. When I cleaned out this office, that was all I found."

Flipping the phone open, I checked the contacts list to find none there. Frowning, I then checked the call log and saw that no one had called. It was odd because I knew that Shame always used his iPhone. Brother had that damn thing attached to his hip.

Why the fuck would he have an old, outdated flip phone?

"You run a diagnostic on this?"

"Yeah. Nothing came up."

"So, he never used it?"

"Not that I could tell. Those old phones are only good for one thing, Fury."

"Yeah, burner phones. But that begs the question, why would Shame have a burner phone?"

"I don't know. You want me to run some more tests?"

Shaking my head, I pocketed the phone and said, "No. By chance, did you find any relatives for Shame? Parents, siblings, a cousin? Did he have any family?"

"Montana told me not to. Just to consolidate his company and absorb it into the club."

Yeah. I remembered that part.

I understood the club had a lot on its plate, but we could have taken five fucking minutes for Shame. He was our fucking brother, after all.

Saying nothing more, I left Pippen to whatever it was he was doing.

It was late, and I was tired.

After the clusterfuck of a day, all I wanted to do was go home and see my girls.