Chapter 20 Sutton
SUTTON
I rode in the black SUV for what seemed like hours.
My shock and fear were getting the best of me, and I was having a hard time calculating just how far away we had driven.
The sun was still hanging heavily in the sky.
Which meant we hadn’t traveled for long.
It was still lunch time around here, which meant my father and his assholes weren’t too far outside of Redding this entire time.
It made me sick to think about. I snickered in anger.
I didn’t know what the hell possessed me to think I could actually get away from my father.
But it was time to end this bullshit once and for all.
I watched through the tinted windows as the desert passed us by, peppered with random circumstances of trees.
It was the oddest setting. The oddest layout of land I’d ever been to.
And yet, there was a beauty about it I wouldn’t trade for anything.
In that moment, I made up my mind. I’d never go back to Nevada.
I’d never go back to the life I had before all this.
California had captured me. Body, mind, and soul.
I’d die before I ever went home with my father.
Or home, in general.
We pulled off the road and into a dusty parking lot. I looked at the building, from the remnants of it, the damn thing looked to be an old rundown diner. I was honestly shocked there was an “open” sign illuminated in the window. Because the thing looked closed otherwise.
“Come on,” one of the men said brutely.
The SUV door flew open and I was dragged out of the car.
I cried out and squealed, trying to pull myself away from them.
I clung to my purse, wrapping it up in my arms while they frisked me.
The men groped my breasts a little too hard and squeezed my ass cheeks a little too much.
One of them knocked my legs apart and ran his hands way too far up my fucking thighs.
I felt them peeking down my shirt. One of them ran their fingers through my hair to pull my head back.
I ripped away from them, stumbling to the ground before I scrambled up.
“You guys think I’m really that much of an idiot to bring a damn gun to see my fucking father?” I asked.
The men grinned at me as one of them reached for me again. But I backed away once more.
“You guys touch me like that again, and I won’t kill him. But I’ll kill every last one of you if my father doesn’t first for touching his little girl like this,” I glowered.
And after they were done looking at one another, one of them grabbed my arm and hauled me to the front door of the diner.
“Let me go!” I exclaimed.
The door crashed open and they tossed me into the diner.
I stumbled against the bar, looking up to see an absolutely petrified attendant behind the counter.
The cook stared at me from the kitchen, with a knife gripped firmly in his hands.
No one needed to die. No one needed to get hurt.
I shook my head quickly at him, trying to convince him to stand down.
I had this. And if things went according to plan, the only person who would be injured was my father.
“Welcome, princess.”
My father’s voice hit my ears and I slowly panned my gaze over to him.
He sat there with a smile in the corner booth.
As far away from the front door as he could get.
The blinds in the place were drawn. No one could see in, and no one could see out.
I looked back at his guys that guarded the door, and one of them licked his lips.
I wanted to slice those damn things off his face with a knife.
“Father,” I said.
I slowly walked over to him and was promptly greeted with a cup of coffee. Her hands were shaking as she poured the drink, then she scurried off. My father passed me the creamer and sugar. As if we were having one of our infamous lunch outings.
“So, how have you been?” he asked.
“Do we really need the small talk?” I asked.
He snickered. “I suppose we don’t.”
I made up my coffee to give my hands something to do, then stirred the thick creamer around in the black liquid.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked.
“Of course. You can ask me anything,” my father said.
“Why did you have to kill all of them?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t kill all of them.”
“I mean, the crew. His crew. Why did you have to kill them? You could have chased them out of town.”
“Ah, well. Where’s the fun in that?”
His nonchalance toward the question made my stomach sick.
“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?” I asked.
He grinned as he sipped his coffee before he put the mug down.
“Not if you’re still of some use to me,” he said.
“Use to you?” I asked.
“Of course. You're my daughter. I’m assuming your loyalty is to the only ounce of family you’ve got left.”
“This is madness, Daddy. You don’t have to do this. Slaughtering entire families just to get to me isn’t going to solve anything. Your empire is back home. Not here. They don’t have to pay for my actions here.”
“Who says you’re the only one I’m after? You forget who I was tracking in the first place,” he said.
“So, you’re still going after Cage.”
“Of course. Not only is he not dead when he should be, but he defiled my daughter. Touched something that wasn’t his.
There aren’t many negotiations surrounding you that would go off without some complications once they learned you’d had your mouth around the cock of some rundown, leather-clad biker,” he said.
My jaw fell open. “What?”
“Sutton, you and I have a duty to this family. Your mother had a role to play in all this, and so do you. Just like everyone has their role to play. Even me,” he said.
“What—what role? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He sighed. “You’re my daughter. And my only child.
I can’t rightly pass on my empire to you.
The men would never listen to a woman in charge.
I was in the process of finding you a suitor.
Someone that I knew would treat you well in marriage, give you beautiful children, and enable me to have someone I trusted to pass my business to. So to speak.”
Was I really hearing what I thought I was hearing?
“But you always said—”
“Oh, Sutton. You’ve always been so headstrong.
So independent, just like your mother. But your mother fell into being taken care of just like I know you will.
With time. Eventually, your mother enjoyed not having the stress of financial worries and debts on her back.
Eventually, your mother enjoyed the role she played.
The dutiful wife. The faithful mother. The vixen in bed.
Your mother led a happy life. One I was in the process of carving out for you until I caught wind of your little affair with Cage. ”
“So, I was just some business deal to you. To secure an heir to your throne,” I said.
He shrugged. “Or as recompense for shutting up the feds. That almost happened once.”
“What!?” I exclaimed.
I heard guns drawn behind me, cocked and loaded. I whipped my head around and saw all of his men pointing guns at me. And not once did my father flinch. Holy shit, I’d gotten myself in way over my head. I’d walked into a scenario I was less than prepared for.
You still have to take him out, Sutton. No matter what it means for you.
“Settle down, princess. I’m sure we can work something out,” my father said.
I slowly eased myself back into my seat and gripped my coffee mug with my trembling hands.
“How long have you known about Cage and I?”
My father grinned. “A while. Two, three months. Now, it’s my turn to ask a question.”
“Yes?”
“How long have you been with him?”
I sighed. “Six months.”
I saw my father’s eye twitch. “And have you two—”
“No. We haven’t,” I said.
“You answered that a bit too quickly, princess.”
“I’m serious. We haven’t. He’s been an absolute gentleman.”
“I’m sure,” he said flatly.
“Daddy, you’d really like Cage,” I whispered.
“No, I don’t really think I would.”
“Why didn’t you say something if you knew?”
“Why else? I figured you being close with someone from the Night Outlaws would lead me to them sooner. And it did. So, thank you for that. You were instrumental in that night. Which I’m sure you already know about,” he said.
“Don’t say that,” I whispered.
“But you were. Had it not been for your relationship with Cage, it might’ve taken me three or four more months to orchestrate what I had.
Now, I had to admit, I was surprised when I did some digging and found out about the Dead Souls.
It was simple, really. I saw the way Cage was holding his father.
I saw the way his father’s mouth was running, even after we walked away from the scene.
I simply stuck around to hear what the man had to say for himself. ”
I felt tears crest my eyes. “You didn’t.”
“I really did, princess. And let me tell you, the Dead Souls have an incredible money laundering business. Didn’t take me long to figure that out.
A few well-placed phone calls really lined up the moon and the stars for me, if I do say so myself.
You and Cage, fleeing to the Dead Souls for help.
Me, tracking you down, taking everyone out before usurping their business for my own purposes.
I could really establish myself in this beautiful state.
And honestly, it is a beautiful state. Love the sun. ”
“Daddy stop this. Please,” I said.
Then, his hand darted out quicker than I could have ever imagined.
He wrapped it around my wrist and pulled me across the table, my breasts squashed against the corner of it.
Tears trickled down my cheeks. I cried out in pain.
And as he held me there with his coffee breath pulsing against my lips, he forced me to look into his eyes.
“You were just a pawn, Sutton. An obedient, ignorant little pawn. I own you, daughter of mine. There is nowhere you can go and nowhere you can hide where I won’t find you.
I’ve taken great measures to make sure you’re safe.
To preserve what is mine and preserve what will push my business forward.
Because everything I have done was to provide for you, you selfish bitch! ”
He tossed me backward and my back slammed into the hard seat. Dishes crashed in the kitchen and someone cried in the distance. I wrapped my arms around my chest, trying to ease the pain away as my breathing came in ragged pants.
Then, my eyes fell to my purse.
My father dies today.
And as I conjured a way to get that gun out of my purse, I came to peace with the sin I was about to commit.
A sin I’d never be able to wash away from my hands.