6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Griffin’s Beach Lex
“ L ex, my dad’s here!” Margaret calls from the front door. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Lex asks.
Normally, she doesn’t have interaction with Zane when it’s time for him to pick up his daughter because he’s gone a bit off the deep end since Lane died. As much as he hates his sister, he seems to have no problem with her picking up the slack for his lack of parenting.
“Oh, no,” Lex says as she takes in the sight of her brother. “Margaret, stay inside.”
“He’s drunk, isn’t he?”
She wishes she could tell the young girl no. The fact is, he’s drunk more than sober these days, and he rode here on his motorcycle to take her home. “Stay inside, sweetheart.”
Lucas walks out from the hallways and narrows his eyes. “Lex, is everything okay?”
“Can you ask Noah to stay inside with Calla? And stay with Margaret for a minute while I talk to Zane.”
“Uh oh,” he says and calls to Noah from the sliding door as Lex steps onto the porch.
The alcohol permeates from Zane from over five feet away, and she shakes her head. Until now, she hasn’t said much about how he chooses to parent, but she has to step in here.
“You can’t take her like this.”
“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Zane shouts, his words slurring into one by the end of the sentence. “First, you kill my wife. Now, you’re telling me I can’t take my own fucking daughter home? Anything else you want to demand?”
Lane making Lex her medical power of attorney when she opted out of cancer treatments was the worst mistake Lex ever agreed to.
Her brother has never loved her, and this is just another reason he has to hold her existence against her.
He’ll never see it for anything other than his wife died because Lex let her.
“You’re drunk, Zane. You’re drunk, and you’re on your bike. You’re going to get yourself killed, and you’re going to take Margaret with you. Could you really live with that?”
“Can I live with that? You mean, like how you killed her mother?”
“Think what you want, but you will not put your daughter in harm’s way. I’ll drive her to your house. I’ll drive you both, and when you sober up, you can come back to get your bike.”
He closes the space between them and lowers his face to hers. The stench from his breath makes her stomach roil. “You don’t get to make any more decisions about my family, bitch.”
“You aren’t taking your daughter like this. You’ll have to go through me to get to her, and I don’t think you realize how off-balance you are right now.”
“Fuck you!” he shouts, spitting in her face. “You’re nothing but a fucking bitch who should have never been born. My father was weak when he knocked up that whore you call your mother.”
It’s easier to just nod her head rather than fight back. She’d normally back down to his verbal insults to end it quicker, but she will let him take Margaret like this over her dead body.
“You know, he should’ve pushed her down the fucking stairs when she told him she was pregnant with you. Killed both of you just like you killed Lane. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if your mother killed mine just to get to my dad.”
If he wasn’t drunk, Lex would knock him flat on his ass, but there’s no reasoning with him right now. The words sting as much as they always have, but she can’t let her emotions get the better of her. And showing them will only push him further.
“Stop it!” Margaret screams from inside the house. “Go home, Dad! Just leave!”
“You’re coming home with me, kid. Get your shit and get out here. Now!” Zane shouts.
“No,” Lex says. “Margaret, stay inside. You’re not leaving with him. Not when he’s like this.”
His eyes blaze with more hatred than she’s ever in seen in them before, and she almost gasps as he says, “I’ll fucking kill you!”
The eerie tone strikes a fear she’s never had with him before, and Lucas runs outside. “Get away from her!”
“Lucas, go inside,” Lex says, her worry shifting from herself to her son.
Zane winds back and punches Lucas, knocking him to the ground the moment he steps beside Lex. Seeing red, she pushes Zane so hard, he trips over a tree stump and hits his head on the ground six feet away.
“Don’t you ever touch him!” she screams. “Lay a hand on him ever again, and I will make sure the spot next to Lane gets filled, you got that?”
“He’s just another fucking stray you took in,” Zane says, laughing as he stands. He rubs his head where it bounced on the ground. “They’re a dime a dozen around here. Your own family wishes you were dead, so you have to create your own to love you.”
Looking at Lucas, she sees a split lip but otherwise no other injuries. “Are you okay, baby?”
“I’m fine.”
His voice shakes, and she hates that another man in his life, albeit distantly in his life, hit him. “Zane, we’re done. I’m here for Margaret, but as far as I’m concerned, we’re both only children and not family. You don’t get to come to my house and hit my kids. He’s not a stray. He’s my son.”
Laughing, Zane surprises her as he walks over and backhands her. “You took everything from me!” he screams. “Everything!”
She falls to the ground, cursing herself for not being more on-guard. With his state of intoxication, she underestimated him by assuming his reflexes would be slower. But she’s ready when he winds up and kicks her.
Grabbing his leg, she rolls, tripping him onto the ground. His face scrapes the edge of the sidewalk, cutting his cheek. “I took nothing from you. You’re just too damn stupid to see what’s right in front of you. Your daughter needs you, Zane. Man up for once in your life.”
“Man up? Really?”
“Lane would be embarrassed to see you like this. Look at your daughter. Margaret is scared, and if your wife was alive to witness you like this, she’d leave and never look back.”
The punch comes as another surprise, and she lands on the grass with a loud thud, knocking the wind out of her. “I will do whatever the fuck I want! You get no say in a damn thing in my life anymore!”
He might actually kill me. I can’t let them see this. Breathe, Lex. Air in and out. You can do it. Fucking breathe.
“Leave her alone!” Lucas screams as another punch hits her. “Stop it!”
Zane lifts himself, and she doesn’t remember him on the ground with her.
It’s a strange thing to focus on, and she wishes she’d paid better attention when his steel toe boot hits her ribs, rolling her further into the yard.
A familiar crack and shooting pain in her side would make her cry out if she could take a damn breath.
The exhaust of at least one motorcycle fills the air, and she kicks Zane after seeing him smack Lucas again, this time in the eye. Lucas falls to the ground with a groan, and she prays Colt’s come home.
Zane’s heavy weight sits on her chest as his large hands grip her throat. “You killed her, and now I’m going to kill you.”
Clawing, pushing, kicking. Everything she can think of to get away, she does. There are no rocks or any sort of weapon she can use to hit him with to get him off of her, and the world begins to fade to black.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Colt’s voice shouts, but it sounds far away. “Motherfucker!”
She’s yanked to her side as Zane’s tackled to the ground beside her, and Lex cries out as she gasps for air, her ribs shooting in pain while her lungs burn.
Punch after punch, Lex just watches her husband beat on her brother while she tries to catch her breath. Lucas runs to her, fear in his eyes, and she pulls herself up to sit when Ky pulls Colt from Zane.
“If you kill him, you’ll be in more trouble than he is,” Ky shouts.
“He fucking choked my wife and hit my son!”
Looking at Lucas, Lex gently touches his face. “You’re bleeding, baby.”
Tears fill his eyes. “You, too,” he says and touches her face back. “I heard the crack.”
“I’m okay.” She hopes she sounds convincing because the last thing she feels right now is okay. “I’m tougher than I look. Promise.”
Another bike pulls into the driveway, and she rolls her eyes to see VP hopping off and running towards Zane on the ground. “What the fuck happened?”
“He tried to kill my mom,” Lucas says. “Knocked me around when I tried to stop him.”
“He’s fucking lucky Ky came with me, otherwise you’d be burying your fucking son,” Colt spits out and walks to Lex. “Are you okay, baby?”
Okay? Is she okay? Hell no, she’s not okay, but she can’t share that in front of Lucas.
“What are you doing here?” Lex asks as she shifts and touches her ribs. Yep, fucking cracked.
“Margaret called.”
“Noah called me,” Colt says, helping Lex to her feet. “Fucking glad he did.”
Zane pushes his father away. “She’s trying to stop me from taking my daughter home! That bitch needs to be taught a fucking lesson.”
“You’re fucking drunk!” Ky shouts. “I can smell you from here, and you think it’s a good idea to take anyone, including yourself, on a motorcycle? Is your plan to kill your entire family?”
“Lose your wife because your sister killed her, and then come talk to me about drinking,” he says, staggering to his bike. “Fuck all of you. Keep her. Keep her since you’re so goddamn scared that I’ll be just like Lex and kill one of the only people who means anything to me.”
“That’s not what happened,” VP says, but there’s no conviction in her father’s tone. Ever since the funeral, he’s been handling Zane with kid gloves again.
Flipping them off, he climbs on his bike and takes off, nearly wiping out at the end of the street.
If only…
“He tried to kill her,” Colt says. “Something needs to be done about your son.”
“He would’ve stopped,” he says. “He would have stopped before he went too far.”
“He wanted to take his daughter on the bike with him when he can’t even walk in a straight line. And that’s the least of the terrible decisions he’s made today. What makes you believe he has any control over anything?” Ky asks.
Her father looks taken aback that he’s being questioned, and Lex just shakes her head. When it comes to her and Zane, VP will always back Zane. He’ll become so delusional that he’ll rewrite history to fit his narrative. Turn a blind eye.
Part of her would defend herself to VP. To point out he’s only a father to one of them, but she’s come to realize lately that it’s no use. He will only ever see Zane in a positive light.
“Yeah, he would’ve stopped,” she says. “When I stopped breathing.”
“Lex—”
“What are you doing here, VP?” she asks. “Just coming because Margaret called?”
It’s been a long while since she called him Dad . It’s been back and forth over the years, and she’s back to distancing herself. If he doesn’t want to act like her father then she’s not going to act like his daughter.
“That, and I wanted to give you the good news.”
“What good news?” Ky asks.
He actually smiles like she didn’t almost just die at the hands of his son. “Your mom and me are getting hitched.”
Blinking, she stares at him. Did she really just hear him say that her parents are getting married.
“Um… Is your goal in life to make Zane actually explode? He told me ten minutes ago he wished you would’ve killed Mom when she was pregnant with me, so how do you think he’s going to react when you tell him you’re marrying her? ”
VP waves a hand in the air. “He was just blowing off some steam. Drunken ramblings.”
“Blowing off some steam…” she says and looks at Colt and Ky. “Yeah, that’s a rose-colored glasses way to see this, I suppose.”
“Ky, you’re going to want to get VP off my fucking property before I make Zane an orphan,” Colt growls. “I’m about thirty seconds away from bashing his face into the concrete of my driveway.”
“Yeah, I gotta admit, leaving’s in your best interest,” Ky says. “Even I want to bash your face into something.”
Looking confused and hurt, VP takes a step back. “I thought you’d be happy for us, Lex.”
“I’m pretty sure I have a concussion and am dreaming this right now. That or he’s gone fully insane,” Lex says. “This is the worst possible time for you and Mom to get married.”
“She’ll be disappointed to hear you said that,” he says and walks to his bike. “Just like I am.”
She snorts, wincing as the pain shoots up her side. “Yeah, that’s me. The disappointment of the family.”