Chapter 49
Chapter
Forty-Nine
BASS
“ I fucking knew it,” I mutter under my breath, as I pace back and forth my father’s office. “You know what, I should have expected it. This whole ploy you created, it’s fucking predictable. Come tonight son and I promise you I’m done with you. Help me close this deal with The Cobras and you are free to live your life the way you choose. Honestly I can’t believe I was so fucking stupid.”
My father sits behind his desk, casually rustling through the large stacks of cash we just picked up from our drug deal with The Cobras MC down in Pleasant Hills. When my father called me earlier, then texted both Ace and I when I ignored his calls, it was to demand our attendance for a deal we first put into play six months ago. Back when I still followed his orders. The Cobras have been trying to venture out of their gun trade ever since the recent and continuous gun violence has been inching closer to town. The daily shootings are putting a damper on business, and it’s time they cool things down before the Feds show up and start stirring shit up trying to link their guns to all the shootings.
Which is why my father decided to bring them in deeper with the drugs they already sell but have always refused to produce. Without guns, Zeke needs a source of income to keep his club up and running, and my father bet on that. It’s why we went, why my father sold The Cobras half a mil worth of Devil's Kiss to cook.
Of course that wasn’t enough for my greedy father, not after the millions he lost from his business deal gone wrong with Kinsley’s father. The casino they both had invested money into fell through the moment I discovered Carlyle was fucking broke, spending all the money he was supposed to put forth for the casino on his own gambling vice. The irony is truly poetic.
However, that complicated things, but since Kane was there the day Beck and I presented the deal to Zeke, he seized the opportunity and jumped on board the deal Ace and I set up. He followed us down to Killian’s tonight, claiming to have taken the lead in the months we’ve been absent. He brought in another half a million dollars’ worth of his drug TranQ, totaling in a million-dollar deal Ace and I will see nothing of. Talk about irony.
Of course Kane also followed us back to my father’s estate and is currently perched behind him watching our exchange like it’s the most entertaining thing he’s ever witnessed.
“I warned you son, you turned your back on me, on this family. I’m simply showing you the consequences of your decision.” My father stands, walking around his desk to stand before me with a wad of cash in his hand. “I once told you a little tale, a story of when your grandfather gave me a second chance. This was yours, but you failed me son. However, I’m a good man, despite what you may believe. I’m willing to give you a third.”
My laughter echoes through the hollow walls of the room at his blatant narcissism. “Is that what you think I want?” I chuckle loudly. “You are not, in any sense of the word, a good man, but I at least used to believe you were a smart one. ”
His anger is visible in the way his body tightens, his eyes narrowing down to meet mine. “You underestimate me Sebastian, that isn’t smart. You think because you are my son, blood of my blood, that I won’t hesitate to end you. What good are you to me if you do nothing but embarrass our family legacy, dragging it through the mud as you cozy up with that whore.”
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I shout out, pouncing on him but his men who have been guarding the door like someone’s trying to break in instead of breaking out, pull me back just in time to spare him. Instead I spit at his feet, “Don’t you dare speak of her, Jade is worth more than you could ever imagine.”
“One hundred thousand,” he utters, handing me the stack of money in his hand.
“What the hell is this?” I sneer, not reaching out to take it.
His slate eyes watch me impassively, not an ounce of emotion in them. This is the monster who created me. The Victor Frankenstein to my hideous monster, and I'm Dr. Jeckle to his Mr. Hyde. “Your cut,” he states, as if it’s obvious. “Ace will receive the same. Though Jade was a bit more ambitious.”
I smack the cash out of his hand, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I had a nice little conversation with your whore at the hospital, right after she gave birth to my grandchildren. How are they by the way?”
“Stay the fuck away from my kids father, I am warning you,” I growl, pushing at his chest, but his men, well Kane’s soldiers step forward to grab me. However, my father surprises me, raising his hand to halt them.
“Don’t worry, those two are nothing of mine as I have no interest in them. I was already punished with you and then burdened with Stella. I’ve had my fair share of incompetence to last a lifetime.” He walks over to the bar, pouring himself a glass of bourbon. “But Jade on the other hand, was very eager to converse. She’s quite the negotiator. ”
“I don’t know what you're playing at but Jade told me you went there to scare her away, telling her the same old age bullshit about us not fitting well together because of our class levels and status. I don’t care about any of that father.”
“Oh but she didn’t tell you the best part. Five-hundred-thousand dollars. That was her price tag. To leave you, to leave those little bastards you fathered. Honestly, I didn’t think she’d go for it at first, thought I was going to have to do some serious threatening but she took it in stride. Took the check and said she’d do it the moment I decided it was time.”
“You’re pathetic father, Jade’s been by my side this entire time. Those two bastards are my children and they mean the world to her, to both of us.”
“Yes well why do you think I dragged you out today. Call her if you don’t believe me. She left, abandoned the children with Scarlett, and left.” Behind him a TV screen with four security camera screens, lights up showing Jade, standing beside a train station, a backpack hung over her shoulder. I know it’s fake, my baby would never leave me, but my father has managed to plant the seed of distrust in me. I wouldn’t question it, but it is her, and she’s wearing the Red Riding Hood cloak she had on today.
“That’s doctored, fake. I don’t know what you did or how you did it, but I don’t believe you.”
“If you don’t believe me, listen to this recording yourself.” He reaches into his pocket pulling out his phone.
Suddenly Jade’s voice comes on speaking with Scar and telling her about the money my father offered her. I listen to the recording, unbelieving but hearing the same story my father claims from her own lips.
I should have taken him up on his offer, I should have left when I had the chance.
And just like that the recording cuts off.
“That can’t… ”
“It was taken today, just moments before this footage actually. She’s left you Sebastian, she took the money and left. The same way your mother left, taking the money your grandfather offered her in exchange for abandoning you.”
There it is, his true intentions, the motivations that have driven him to do all of this. My mother. He hasn’t gotten over the fact that she took the money and left him, left us. His pride and ego took a major hit that day and his life’s purpose has been to show me what it feels like. Unfortunately for him, I stopped caring about the woman who gave birth to me when I was seven years old and he himself beat me to a pulp for wishing on my birthday candles she’d come back for me.
“You're a monster,” I mutter, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I quickly realize I have no signal. “Where the hell is Ace?”
“Oh son but so are you,” he answers.
“I may be a monster, but the difference is I’ve accepted that side of me, father. I’ve embraced it and learned from it. Do you know why I still call you my father even though you are not one to me?”
“Enlighten me, son,” he mutters, using the word as an insult.
I step forward crowding his space, still a good three inches taller than him. “Because I want to remind myself of everything I aspire to not become. A worthless father, a vile and demented man, a selfish monster. I will never be any of that.” His smile never once fathers, the evil twinkle in his eye more present now than I’ve ever seen. This is amusing to him because he doesn’t believe me. The one thing working against him, he’s never known me. Not the real me, never showed any interest in getting to know that side of me. All he wanted was the heir, the soldier, the second chance at redeeming his esteemed reputation.
He missed out on learning what I am capable of when I want something with every part of my being. And that’s exactly how much I want my little family.
“You have no idea what you will become if you choose to side with her,” he sneers, suddenly slightly uneasy when he realizes I’m not backing down.
“I will be there for my children in every shape, way, or form they need me. I will stand by Jade’s side through thick and thin. I’m not like you, and she is not like my mother,” I say, and the vengeful look in his eyes is proof I hit a nerve.
“They’re all the same son, it’s best you learn that now before you make the biggest mistake, turning your back on this family. I gave you everything, that whore will do nothing but destroy you,” he puts out, but I don’t let him finish.
“You gave me everything but what I really needed. A father. I’m warning you, stay the hell away from them.”
His sinister chuckle echoes in the room, “I’m afraid it’s too late.”
Just as the last word leaves his tongue, Ace comes barging in through the door looking fucking terrified. “We need to go now!” he shouts, clearly rattled by something.
“What is it?” I demand, unable to take any more surprises tonight.
“Bass,” he quietly mutters, a solemn expression taking over the fear. “It’s Jade.” Time stops fucking moving. My heart drops to my feet at the mention of her name. “She’s gone. They broke into the house and took her and the twins.” It feels as if my heart suddenly stops beating as my body silently cringes in excruciating pain. My airways constrict, lungs aching to breathe, and it’s as if I’m burning from the inside out as I replay what he's said in my head.
She’s gone. They broke into the house and took her and the twins.
She never left me, just like I knew she wouldn’t. Nonetheless, she’s still gone, and so are Onyx and Sapphire. My pride and joy. “Who Ace? Who the fuck took them?” I scream off the top of my lungs. His eyes suddenly go wide, looking directly behind me.
“They did,” he says, pointing behind me to where my father stands, smirking wickedly. However, what shocks me the most, is the scowl on Kane Dalton’s face. “Skeet and his men.”
Son of a bitch.
“You fucking kidnapped them!” I shout, pouncing on Kane who stood up at the mention of his goons. His two men catch up to me but not before my fists goes flying into his jaw. “You kidnapped my girlfriend and my six-week-old twins! I’m going to fucking kill you.”
My mind is raging with murderous thoughts and uncontrollable fury. I will end this son of a bitch if he so much as lays a finger on any of them.
“I didn’t…”
“It had to have been you, Dalton. She didn’t want the money. She turned you down so you had to take matters into your own hands. It’s the only explanation.” My voice is frantic at this point, like an out of body experience, I’m on the outside looking in.
“I warned you son,” my father smugly says, distracting me from tearing Kane Dalton apart. Of course it was my father, surely taking matters into his own hands. How did I even for a second doubt it?
Ace interrupts my father and I, clearly shaken up as he explains. “Roman stopped by to check on the girls, he found the front window cracked, the door flung open, and Scarlett passed out on the floor. He was hit over the head and knocked out before he could get to her. Caeli,” his voice trembles in fear, cracking at the mention of his little girl. “She was crying at the top of her lungs. Luckily they’re both okay, but Scar managed to wake Roman up and she told him it was Skeet and some other guy that works with him.”
“Why the fuck didn’t they call us?!” I shout, ready to throw whatever I can get my hands on.
Walking toward me, he hands me his phone. “They have been, but my signal’s been all fucked, I just received this.” With trembling fingers I reach out and take it reading the message from Roman.
Roman: Ace we have a fucking problem. Those two fuckers that work for Dalton kidnapped Jade and the twins. You and Bass need to come back ASAP.
Roman: Ace what the fuck. Where are you guys? I’m calling and calling but nothing goes through.
Roman: Fuck Ace. You guys need to get here. It’s been over three hours. We need to find them.
Roman: I know where they are. Meet me at Torment in Galen Grove, it’s The Order’s Clubhouse.
After reading Roman’s last text I turn back toward Kane who’s watching me intently. He wears a look of confusion, or maybe he’s just perfected this look of innocence.
“I didn’t fucking take them,” he calls out, before I even get the chance to reprimand him. “Skeet isn’t on my payroll any longer. He hasn’t shown up to work in over a week. To be honest, I have a hit out on him. The only way to take out my number one hit man, is to put a bounty on his head.”
I laugh at his attempt to clear his name for any fault in the matter. He may not have sent out the order, but the psychopath worked for him. He’s the reason Skeet found Jade and became so fucking obsessed. “So what, you tell him to kidnap my family, figure whoever takes him out takes them out too. Makes it look like a robbery gone wrong.”
Now it’s Kane who laughs, running his hand through his short, tapered beard. “Don’t be naive, boy, looking for someone else to blame when the answer is blatantly clear. I have no part in this. I’m a monster Sebastian, but I don’t fuck with children. Besides, I was quite fond of your feisty little wolf.”
“You son of a… ”
“Enough!” My father shouts out, Kane and I both turning to find him slamming his glass of bourbon against the wall. “Jade is gone, it’s time you accept that.”
My heart breaks at his remark. “What have you done?” I mutter in a hushed tone.
“I did nothing, however I can’t say the same for that pair of idiots. Skeet was after all the one who offered to get her out of the way for me. Who knows what he has planned for your little toy before he disposes of her.”
I turn my anger on him, gripping him by the color of his perfectly ironed shirt, the men at Kane’s side not making a move to stop me. “If he hurts any one of them, I will fucking end you Stephan Silver. I will drag your ass down with me if it’s the last thing I do.”
The fucker has the nerve to smile.
“You’re wasting your time with him Sebastian,” Kane says, walking over to where I stand, my fist tight holding onto my father. The two men who pried me off of him now stand behind his back, all three of them glaring at Stephan before me. Kane steps forward, wrapping his hand around my fist, telling me to let go. I do, but am surprised when instead of walking away, Kane takes my place, his fist now tightly gripping onto my father.
“I knew you and Wesley were vile beings, believe me in my line of work I understand what that means. I am no better for all the shit I’ve done and continue to do, but even I draw the line at hurting my own blood.” He spits in my father’s face, lifting him by his neck before slamming him back against the wall. “Only the most depraved souls, the scum of the earth, harm children. I knew Wesley didn’t care about his underage girls, but you, I should have expected it.”
A look of fear, the first one I’ve ever seen cross my father’s eyes, flashes by before disappearing. “Oh Kane, you’ve gone soft,” he mocks. “The entire organization knows it. The Order isn’t what it used to be, what our ancestors had in mind when they created it, and everyone knows it’s because the President doesn’t have the balls to get his hands dirty.”
Rage flashes in Kane’s eyes, “I am more a man than you’ll ever be, because unlike you, I’ll do what it takes to make this right.”
Though as I stand here watching this uneventful “I’m done hearing the two of you talk about who’s the lesser of two evils. I’m going to find my girl and babies.” I rush out of the room, hearing my father yell something out at me, but I have no interest in stopping to see what he has to say.
Ace and I rush down the stairs and toward the front door of my father’s estate with only one goal in mind. To save my little pack, no matter the cost, no matter the consequences. I’m a feral beast, everyone better get the fuck out of my way.
We step out into the cold autumn night, the full moon illuminating our path, when a figure, no three, appears behind us.
Kane.
“I will help you Sebastian, I’ll take you to them,” he says, stepping behind us and reaching out for me.
I back away not wanting him anywhere near me. “Why the fuck would I trust you?”
“Because contrary to what you believe, I am not the one to blame. I would never hurt Jade, I actually like her. She never cowered down to me like the scared little girl your father claimed she was. Nor did she flutter her lashes at the luxuries I flaunted at her like your father claimed the gold-digging whore would do. She stood her ground, pushed back, and threatened me every chance she got. I don’t want to see her, nor your children come to harm. And that is exactly what will happen if we don’t get her away from Skeet.
“I know where they are. Roman told me. I don’t need you.”
“They’re not at Torment, that’s just a front. Honestly, we don’t even own the property. It was Wesley’s, and well, since he is Ace’s father, it technically belongs to him,” Kane says, motioning toward Ace who scowls at the mention of his biological father. “They’re at the docks down at the Galen Grove Port. That’s The Order's unofficial Clubhouse. I’ll drive you there, but you need to follow my lead. Skeet is dangerous and if we don’t play this out the right way, this night will be a fucking bloodbath.