Chapter Thirty-Six
Chasm
I stared at my little sister sitting in a chair at the end of the table in church. I tried to get her to stay with Morgan while I heard this kid out. I was a fair man. I’d give him time to explain before I fucking killed him.
Sullivan Prescott looked like my father. She had long brown hair the color of chestnuts, and blue eyes that sparkled. She was tall for her age. Five foot seven at sixteen.
Justin stood beside me as quiet as I was. Sullivan stared back at us, studying us, as if she was looking for the answer to a riddle no one wanted to tell her.
I sent a piercing look at Stephen. “You have two minutes to explain why you kidnapped my sister.”
“He didn’t kidnap me; I went with him.”
“How old are you?” I asked Stephen.
“Twenty-five, sir.”
I had to give him props; he looked me in the eye when he spoke. He didn’t cower in the face of my brother and me.
“Let me get this straight. You took off when Stone did and went in search of my little sister. A twenty-five-year-old man kidnapped a sixteen-year-old girl. Tell me why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head.”
Sullivan jumped up from her seat. “He didn’t kidnap me!” she shouted.
“Where have you been, Sullivan?” Justin asked.
She looked at Stephen, who nodded. “Hiding.”
“Why?” King asked. He’d come into church with us, he and Blade and Johnny. Popeye, Snoopy, and Hemlock were in the main room with Morgan’s family.
This didn’t involve any of them. This was Silver Shadows shit. This was Peterson shit.
“May I speak?” Stephen asked.
I nodded, and he stood up. He whispered something to Sullivan, and she sank down in her chair with a frown. She crossed her arms over her chest, and I bit my cheek trying not to smile.
I looked at Justin who was doing the same thing. He shook his head at her. She was obstinate and infuriating. There was no doubt she was a Peterson.
“When I chose to join this club, I thought I was joining a brotherhood. After the first six months, I realized what this was. A fucking cult.”
King bristled beside me but stayed quiet.
“Nothing was voted on. Nothing of importance anyway. The thing about being a prospect is that the brothers barely notice you’re there unless they want something done.
We became invisible for the most part, because Steele and Stone were doing their own thing.
They didn’t care what the brothers did or said, as long as the money kept rolling in. ”
I looked around the room and quickly realized the kid wasn’t far off. King had left, started another chapter, but the only true way out was death. So the men put up with the bullshit.
I should have come back sooner.
“One night, I was cleaning out a storeroom. The one next to Steele’s office. The walls aren’t as thick as people think.” Stephen grinned. “I heard him talking about Sullivan.”
“What did he say?”
Stephen took a deep breath. “He mentioned you, Chasm.” It didn’t escape my notice that he used my road name, rather than Prez. “He’d found out that Sullivan was your sister. But with you dead, there was no reason to use her. But they decided to keep tabs on her anyway.”
“Why?”
Stephen shrugged. “I guess, blackmail? Extortion maybe? You can get a man to do anything when you have someone he loves as collateral.”
“Did you hear him mention other names?”
“No, I stopped listening after I heard Sully’s name.”
“Why?”
He looked down at my little sister and smiled. “Because I knew who she was.” He looked back at me. “When shit started going down with the Death Dogs, I contacted her and told her to be ready. When word came that Steele was dead and Stone took off, I did too. I went straight to her.”
“And kidnapped her?”
“I didn’t fucking kidnap her,” he growled. “I got her out of danger. I packed her up and hid her.”
“What about her parents? They’re scared to death not knowing where she is.”
Sullivan snorted, and I narrowed my eyes at her. “What?” I asked. “They reported you missing.”
“When?” she asked.
I looked at B. He rubbed the back of his neck. “It wasn’t until we contacted them. They said she’d only been gone a day.”
“I picked her up three months ago. That’s how long she’s been missing.”
“How do you know her?” Blade asked.
“What?”
He leaned forward in his seat, his arms on the wooden table, and narrowed his eyes. “How do you know her?”
“That’s a damn good question,” I hissed.
“I was married to her sister.”
“You have a sister?” I asked, looking at Sullivan.
“I did. She was older than me. When she died, my parents forgot about me. It’s why they didn’t realize I was missing. After Kerrigan was born, my parents tried for years to have a baby with no luck. The way they tell it, one day I was dropped into their lap.”
“That motherfucker!” I snapped. I looked at my brother. “He was hiding her—why?”
“I don’t know,” Justin said as he studied Sullivan. He looked over at Stephen. “How did Kerrigan die?”
“Kerrigan Prescott-Dillinger died of a heart attack.” Omen looked up from his computer. “She was twenty-two years old. How the fuck does a twenty-two-year-old die from a heart attack?”
Stephen dropped his eyes to the table, and Sullivan reached over and grabbed his hand.
“She was pregnant and had undiagnosed hypertension, which led to pre-eclampsia,” Stephen’s voice lost all emotion. His words were clinical, as if he were a doctor speaking to a patient’s family.
“The baby?” I asked, my voice hoarse with the emotion Stephen’s was lacking.
He closed his eyes, and Sullivan answered, “He didn’t make it either.”
“Fuck,” I whispered to myself.
The room was quiet. Every man in here had to know how this was affecting me. King laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. A show of support.
“What took you so long to come here?” Smokey asked.
“I didn’t fucking trust any of you,” he said honestly. “But a week ago, I’d gotten word that Chasm was alive. Knowing how much Steele hated him, I had to trust that he would protect his sister.”
I still couldn’t speak. The possible complications that could still go wrong with Morgan and the baby had my tongue tied in knots.
“Of course we’ll protect her,” Justin said.
“So I’m staying here?” Sullivan asked.
“Yeah,” I rasped. “You’re staying here.”
“What about Stephen?” she asked. “I’m not staying without Stephen.” When I opened my mouth, she added, “Look, I don’t know you from fucking Adam.”
“Watch your fucking mouth,” I scolded, and she rolled her eyes at me.
“Stephen is my brother. The only family I have who gives a damn about me. I’m not staying with a bunch of strange men without him.”
I looked at Ambush. “What was he like as a prospect?”
Ambush sighed. “A damn good one. He was a month away from being patched in early.”
Stephen’s eyebrows disappeared in his hairline and Ambush snapped. “You weren’t as fucking invisible as you thought, Prospect.”
Stephen nodded.
“What about the rest of you?” I asked. “You were all here when he was. We can take a vote right now.”
“Aye,” Smokey said. Followed by Baltimore, Legacy, LA, until it came to Ambush.
He scratched his chin and eyed Stephen, who stared back at him. Confidence rolled off this kid, and I couldn’t help but think he would make a damn good brother. The way he’d gone after Sullivan, to protect her. To hide her.
“Aye,” Ambush finally agreed.
I slammed the gavel and said, “Looks like you got yourself a pardon, brother.”
“And a road name,” King said with a smile.
“And a road name,” I agreed. “Warden will get you a cut and the patches. It’s your responsibility to get them sewn on.”
Sullivan leaped from her chair and threw her arms around our newest brother. “I’ll sew them on for you. I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks, Sully,” Pardon said with a smile.
The relationship between them looked like any sibling relationship on the surface, but I’d still keep an eye on him and make sure he didn’t step out of line with my kid sister.
Trust was earned. Pardon had earned my respect for acting fast and protecting Sullivan. But that didn’t mean I trusted him. Not yet.
“Let’s get back out there,” I said, moving around the table.
One by one the men congratulated Pardon and welcomed Sullivan to the family. When Blade stepped up, he said “Dillinger, huh? Any relation?”
Pardon’s ear turned red at the tips and he nodded.
“No shit?” Psycho asked.
“He was my great-great-great-grandfather’s brother. At least that’s what I’ve been told my whole life. Records that far back aren’t always accurate.”
“That’s fucking cool man.”
“You didn’t ask him this shit when he was here?” Blade asked.
“Fuck, no. I barely remember his name being Stephen,” Psycho admitted.
I shook my head, because the kid was right. The prospects tended to be invisible unless we needed something. It was one more thing that needed to change.
“Sullivan, I want to introduce you to my old lady.”
“Okay,” she hesitated. I held my hand out, letting her go first, and when we entered the main room, my eyes immediately sought her out. Just like every fucking time she was near me.
“Morgan, baby, come here please.”
Morgan stood up and came over.
“This is my little sister, Sullivan.”
“You can call me Sully. Only my parents call me Sullivan.”
“Hi, Sully, I’m Morgan.”
Morgan looked up at me, her eyes filled with what looked like heartache. “You never told me you had a little sister.”
“I didn’t know, baby, until recently. I didn’t want to say anything until I found her.”
“You still could have told me.”
I should have bit my tongue, but instead I stuck my fucking foot in my mouth. “And you could have told me about your father,” I snapped.
Her back straightened and she nodded. “You’re right.” She looked at Sully and said, “It’s nice to meet you.” Then she turned away and walked down the hall.
“Son of a bitch,” I hissed.
“Isn’t an old lady like a wife?” Sully asked.
“Yeah.”
“So you just snapped at your wife?”
“Yup.”
“Dude, you are so dumb.”
“Don’t I fucking know it.” I stared down the hall until Morgan disappeared and then looked at my little sister. “You hungry?”
“Starving.”
“Let’s get you some food.”
“Chasm,” King called. “A word?”
I turned, and the look on King’s face had me worried. “Pardon!” The kid rushed over. “Both of you, eat,” I said, pointing to the buffet along the side of the room.
Once they moved away, King said, “I want to talk to you and Shame.”
I looked for my brother and when I caught his attention, I motioned for him to meet me back in church. I shut the door behind us and asked, “What’s up?”
“What are you planning to do about Sullivan?”
I looked from Justin to King, who were staring each other down.
“What do you mean? She’s staying here.”
“She’s sixteen.”
“So what?” I asked.
“There is a missing person’s report filed with the police in Indiana,” King pointed out.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
“We aren’t sending her back,” Justin said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“How?” King asked.
“That’s not your concern.”
“It is when my fucking club is housing a missing underage girl,” King growled.
“She’s my sister,” I reminded him.
“A sister you knew nothing about until recently.”
I knew he was right. This involved the club, so it involved him. I looked at my brother. “How are you going to fix it?”
My brother looked me in the eye and without missing a beat said, “Get rid of the report and pay off the parents.”
“Jesus Christ,” King cursed as I smiled. “I guess now I know why they call you Shame. You don’t fucking have any.”