It was her forgiveness I was after.
“You alright?”
“No,” I sternly stated. “Go get some rest. You’re gonna fuckin’ need it.”
Diesel had been my wingman throughout this entire fucking manhunt. I know the endless, sleepless nights had finally run its toll. On both of us.
“You gonna tell Noah?”
I shrugged. “Don’t know if I can trust Noah.” Especially after what I saw tonight.
“He’s still your brother, Creed. I know it don’t seem like it now, but he is. He’s just hurtin’. Been through a lot these last few years.”
“No shit. So have I.”
“It’s different. You were born into this life. It’s all you’ve ever known and cuz of that, you sheltered your baby brothers the best you could. Not just Noah but Luke, too. Noah didn’t see the reality of our world until the day you got on that goddamn bus, leaving one fight to battle another. He had to step up and become a man. You were fuckin’ born one.”
I took a deep breath, taking in his words, guzzling the bottle now. It was more than half empty by the time I was done.
“I’ll be by tomorrow, Creed. Gotta figure out a fuckin’ game plan.”
I hung up. Leaning back in my chair, taking the last few swigs of whiskey. Trying to focus my attention on the waves of the ocean and not the fucking hurricane that ripped through my heart, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake.
By the time I was finished drowning my fucking sorrows, it was late into the night. I stumbled to my feet realizing I was a lot more drunk than I’d thought. Chucking the empty bottle to the water, going back inside to pass the fuck out. Hoping in my drunken state, my gun wouldn’t accidentally meet Noah's fucking balls. Grateful as fuck that my room was on the opposite end of the house, not wanting to hear any more bullshit with them throughout the night.
I staggered into my room, shutting the door behind me. Abruptly stopping dead in my tracks when I saw Mia sitting on the edge of my bed, staring blankly at the inside of my cut that was in her grasp. I blinked a few times, thinking I was imagining things through my drunken haze. Rationalizing it was probably wishful fucking thinking. There was no way she’d be on my bed, in my room, this late at night.
She peered up at me, wide-eyed like she’d just seen a fucking ghost. At that point, I might as well have been one. She didn’t see me anymore, eyeing me up and down, taking in the state I was in. I instantly sobered up some, realizing she really was fucking there. Causing me to lean against the door, folding my arms over my chest.
“What the fuck are you doin’ in here?” I rasped harsher than I intended. “Shouldn’t you be in my brother’s bed? You seemed pretty fuckin’ cozy in there before.”
She winced and didn’t even try to hide it.
“What do ya want, Mia?”
Her stare fell to my cut in her hands, peering intently at the inside again. “Were these the patches you were talking about?”
“No.”
We locked eyes.
“Those are the ones you gave me. At one time they meant somethin’, I guess now they’re all fuckin’ bullshit.”
Her mouth parted. “I gave you all these?”
I nodded. “Every single one ya see on the inside.”
“You stitched them in your cut?” She ran her fingers over each one like she was trying to pull some recognition from them.
“From the first one you ever gave me till the last one. I just added to it every time you handed me more.”
“Why?” She looked up, confused.
“So I could have you close to me everywhere I went.”
“Did I know this before? That you had these on here?”
“No.”
She bowed her head again, and it was then I noticed she was wearing nothing but Noah’s shirt. Stabbing me in the heart a little bit more.
“Creed—”
“Asked you a question. Expectin’ a fuckin’ answer. What are you doin’ on my bed?” My patience was running very fucking thin.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t sleep, and I went into the kitchen to get some water... I just... I mean... I ended up here.”
“Un-fucking-believable,” I breathed out, pissed that she was playing these games with me. When she obviously made her choice. I pushed off the door and was over to her in three strides. “Do you think I’m that fuckin’ stupid? What, Mia? Did you come in here cuz baby brother didn’t fuck you right? Need a real man’s cock inside you? Funny, cuz I never pegged you for bein’ a whore.”
She gasped. Her eyes widened and her breathing hitched, winded by my response. She didn’t falter, standing, throwing my cut on the bed, and leaving without saying another word.
I grabbed her arm before she could even take a step. “Truth hurts, don’t it, baby?”
“Let go of me.” She used the momentum of my hold to swing back around and slap me across the face. “You don’t get to talk to me like that! Ever!”
I touched the side of my face, feeling the sting from her hand. Cocking my head to the side, I spewed, “What, babe? You gonna let him fuck you in the ass, too?”
She raised her hand to slap me again, but I caught it mid-air. “I let you hit me, once... It won’t happen again.”
She jerked back. Trying to break free from my hold, but it was useless to fight. I wouldn’t let her go. “Fuck you! You asshole!”
“Are you shittin’ me? I have done nothin’ but protect you and fuckin’ love you, Mia! And this is how you repay me? By fuckin’ my brother! Do you remember anything I said to you at prom? What I fuckin’ gave you? What? Did you think I was just goin’ to sit by and give you my goddamn blessin’? Waitin’ for you while you fuck my brother? Jesus Christ, you want me to hate you?”
“No! Of course not... I’m sorry, okay? I don’t remember you! I don’t remember our—”
“Bullshit! You wouldn’t be in my room, on my bed, in my fuckin’ face right now, givin’ me shit, if that were true.”
She frantically shook her head. “That’s not fair.”
“You wanna know what’s not fair, sweetheart? The fact I just saw you ridin’ my brother’s cock while you were gettin’ off!”
Her chest heaved. “I didn’t know you were here. I would have never—”
“You would have never what? Fucked him? Fallin’ for him? Let him make love to you? Please, Mia, tell me what you would have never done.”
“I love him,” she simply stated as if it meant everything when it meant absolutely nothing to me.
Finally making me realize I’d been fighting a war I never had a chance of winning.
“Yeah?” I let her go. “Well, you fuckin’ loved me, too. Since you were nine-years-old.” I nodded to the door. “Go. Be with my brother. You love him, yeah? Then go be in his bed. Go lay in his arms. Let him kiss you. Touch you. Tell you you’re his... And try not to think of me the next time he does it. Unless you want me to put my hands on you and remind you who ya really fuckin’ belong to.”
She slowly backed away, looking at me one last time before she turned and left. And it took everything inside me not to go after her.
Knowing in my heart.
We ended here.
I called in church.
Except this meeting wouldn’t include any of the brothers. It would be just my father, myself, and the fucking truth. It took Diesel and me a few days to get our shit in order and line everything up for doomsday. He made sure no other brothers would be present at the clubhouse for the whole day other than us. The last thing we needed was any distractions, interruptions, or retaliations. This was between my father and me.
Had nothing to do with club business.
After this there would be no second chances, no do-overs, no going back.
It was now or never.
I didn’t realize until the next day that my ma not being home actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Not from the bullshit I witnessed, which would haunt me forever, but from me saving her a wo
rld of pain. Making me realize that she didn’t need to know the truth. She’d been through enough and had already moved on with her life. It wouldn’t have been fair to drag her into something that, for the most part, had nothing to do with her.
At the end of the day this would be my burden and my burden alone to bear.
The doors opened to the clubhouse conference room just after twelve-thirty in the afternoon, and in walked the fucking Prez. Talking on his cell phone, not paying any mind to where he was and what was going on around him, until he abruptly stopped. His boots crossing the threshold, seeing it was just me filling the large space between us.
Sitting at the head of the table.
In his fucking seat.
He quickly ended his call, narrowing his eyes at me, questioning, “The fuck is goin’ on?”
I nodded to the seat on the other end of the rectangular table, ordering him to sit down. He understood my silent demand, closing the door behind him. Cautiously stepping further into the room to take a seat. Each of his steps were cool and calculated, heading straight for the chair that was parallel to mine. His eyes never wavered from my stare as he sat down like he was told.
I was shocked by the fact that he actually listened. Grabbing the gavel, I hit the table three times, announcing church was now in session.
“You scared?”
“Of you?” he challenged, grinning.
“Of the fuckin’ truth.”
“What truth would that be, son?”
“The truth of how fucked up you really are.”
He maliciously smiled, arching an eyebrow. “Like father, like son.”
Slowly and deliberately, I shook my head no. “I ain’t anythin’ like you, motherfucker.”
He leaned back into his chair, placing his boots up on the wood table with a loud, hard thud. “That what you think? You’re exactly like me. You kill for what you believe in. You protect what’s fuckin’ yours. You take shit from no one, includin’ me. You’re a fuckin’ Jameson, through and fuckin’ through.”
“Is that right?” I countered, nodding my head.
“Fuck yeah it is.”
I didn’t waver, demanding, “We need to have a word.” I never took my eyes off of him as I grabbed the files that were sitting on my lap. His eyes immediately went to the manila folders in my grasp. “You want ‘em?” I taunted, holding them up in the air. “Or should I make you fuckin’ beg for them.”
“Fuck you! I don’t know what you’re tryin’ to pull, but how ‘bout you cut the pussyfootin’ bullshit, and just tell me why the fuck I’m here.”
I dropped the folders on the table, sliding them across the polished surface. They stopped right in front of him. “I ain’t got a fuckin’ death wish like you do.”
He jerked back, confused by my declaration. Waiting a few seconds before opening the first file. The one I placed right on top, just for him.
“I gotta know. Did ya really think I wouldn’t have figured it out? I just wanna know how fuckin’ stupid you really think I am?”
His eyes were glued to the first photo. The realization of what I knew immediately seized over his face. “Where ya get this?” he asked, looking me dead in the eyes.
“In your extensive music collection. Never thought you were the classical music type, Pops.”
“Creed, it ain’t what it fuckin’ looks like.”
“A picture is worth a thousand words, so are all those fuckin’ documents. So, I’m gonna ask you again... did ya think I wouldn’t have fuckin’ figured it out? But by all means, keep goin’, Prez, there’s a ton of incriminatin’ evidence, exactly like the contents of that folder. The last envelope, though... that’s the one that really fucks with me.”
He took in my words, slowly spreading the photos and documents out on the table in front of him. Taking in each and every picture with no remorse or guilt present on his face. I sat back, watching, waiting for a reaction, even though I shouldn’t have. I knew he was a heartless bastard, a fucking prick, but I slightly hoped that maybe somewhere deep inside of him, there truly was a man with an underlying conscience.
His face stayed stagnant, proving my suspicions. He really was just a fucking monster.
He grabbed the last document with a photograph clipped to it, the one I had been losing sleep over. The one photo that Martinez really wanted me to have was the one I’d been waiting for my old man to see.
The same one I wanted to fucking kill him for.
“How long?”
He peered up at me through the slits of his eyes, conscious of the fact that he finally had been caught. His moment of truth, probably the first one in his miserable fucking life. There were no more bullshit lies he could spew, the truth was held blatantly in his goddamn hand for me to see.
Angling his chin up in defiance, he snarled, “From the moment she came runnin’ into her momma’s restaurant, wearin’ pigtails and a fuckin’ pink baby doll dress.”
“You sick fuck!” I slammed my fists on the hard wood, sending my chair flying out from under my body. It took everything in me to restrain the urge to take him the fuck out, right then and there.
He chuckled, eyeing me up and down. “I get a lot more money for little girls than I do for women. She was such a cute fuckin’ baby girl. You would know, Creed, she’s been followin’ you around since the day I wanted to fuckin’ take her. Do you remember that day? You were standin’ out front with her. If it wasn’t for her overprotective fuckin’ father, it would have been done already. It didn’t help that her uncle is the fuckin’ detective that’s been on our ass for years.” He shrugged, throwing the document and photo back on the table. “So, I had to let it go. Until the moment she stepped foot on this compound and spread her legs for your fuckin’ brother. Comin’ back six weeks later sayin’ she was knocked the fuck up. She’s nothin’ but a two-bit fuckin’ whore! I bet you it wasn’t even his fuckin’ kid. But...” He deviously smiled, big and wide. “A pretty young girl and a newborn baby,” he paused, shaking his head, “now, that’s some serious fuckin’ bank.”
“You motherf—”
He pounded his hand on the table, standing. Pointing at me. “I was doin’ it for you! And for your fuckin’ brother! Look what she’s done to you! To the both of you! Makin’ you lose sight of what is really fuckin’ important! This goddamn club!” he roared, walking over to me. Getting right up in my face. “What was next, huh?! You tell me that your leavin’, too? Turnin’ your back on your brothers?! On your fuckin’ colors?! Goin’ to make a nice life for yourself? Get a house with a fence and a fuckin’ dog?! How was that goin’ to work, huh? You get to fuck her on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and your baby brother gets her all the other days?”
I lunged at him, grabbing him by the throat. Slamming his back into the wall as hard as I could. Knocking the wind out of him, causing a loud gasp of air to escape his mouth.
“How many girls, you piece of shit?! How many fuckin’ girls have you trafficked?!” I let go of his throat just enough to where he could speak.
He sucked in the air that I was brutally taken away from him, looking me right in the eyes. He stated, “Too many to fuckin’ count.”
“So, it was all a setup? The shootouts?” I gritted through a clenched jaw, wanting to choke him the fuck out.
“Yes. Except the first one that took place here, at the clubhouse... that wasn’t for Mia,” he paused, letting his words sink in. “That was for Autumn. Your other fuckin’ whore.”
My eyes widened, jerking back, never expecting him to say that.
“You had to play fuckin’ hero, and Marcus couldn’t grab her. You remember him, right? Sinner’s Rejoice were never the threat per se, they were workin’ for me. Takin’ little girls from their beds at night, snatchin’ more at the fuckin’ store. All. For. Me. But it don’t matter, you ended up killin’ Autumn before they could go to New York and fuckin’ collect her! It’s safe to say that one is on you.”
I cocked my arm back, shouting, “
You son of a bitch!” clocking in him the face, not once but four times before he even got the last word out, sending his body to the ground with blood gushing from his nose.
He laughed, spitting up crimson onto the ground, trying to hold up his head, pinching his nose. “I didn’t think you’d figure out I had Mia so fuckin’ fast after the shootout at your ma’s! They were almost here! If it weren’t for her bleedin’ the fuck out, and the stupid motherfuckers that Sinner’s hired haulin’ ass too fuckin’ quick, she would have been fuckin’ collected!” he chuckled, leaning his back up against the wall. Wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. “So, I had to wait again... it didn’t take long until you fucked up! Shoulda never took her outside, who knew you were such a pussy, makin’ her a fuckin’ picnic. I gotta say, though... havin’ her lose her bastard of a baby and memory, now that’s been fuckin’ fun to watch!”
“You were the fuckin’ traitor!” I kicked him in the stomach as hard as I could. He immediately peeled over to his side. “That’s why you suggested the safe house! This has been your obsession all along! You sick motherfucker! I will make you pay for that! Do you hear me?! That was your fuckin’ grandbaby, you piece of fuckin’ shit!” I kicked him two more times.
My chest heaved, and my eyes burned. All I saw was fucking red. Rage couldn’t even come close to describing how I felt in that moment. It took over every last fiber of my being.
“For what?! To make me loyal to you?! That’s what this is about! All you want is for me to live and breathe this fuckin’ club! Well, I hate this fuckin’ club!” I shouted, kicking him three more times.
He groaned, clenching his stomach. Coughing up blood from the blows I was delivering with my boot.
“Get up! Get up, motherfucker, before I fuckin’ kill you!”
“Creed, I—”
The double doors to the conference room suddenly flew open, bringing our attention over to him. The man I’d been waiting for, showed up just in the nick of time before I ended my father’s life. His stare went from me to Pops and back to me again, quickly taking in the scene unfolding in front of his eyes.