6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Griffin's Beach Colt
L ex walks into the clubhouse, and Felicity whips around and glares at her with more anger than she had towards Ky. Considering what he's pretty sure Felicity found out, the hatred aimed at the blonde seems unfounded compared to what he saw with Ky. Even more, it's hard to believe these two once considered the other a best friend.
"That's not a good face. Guess that answers the question of how you feel about me moving back," Lex says.
"You're a shit friend!" Felicity shouts.
Shrugging, she just says, "Okay, sure."
"Fuck you!" she says and storms out.
Felicity tries to hit Lex's shoulder with her own as she stomps away, but Lex side steps her. "Well, okay, then."
That's not Lex. Not his Lex. Colt walks up to her, concerned, and places his hand on her shoulder. "Is everything okay with Lacey?"
"She's pregnant."
His stomach sinks with dread. "What?"
The last time Lacey was pregnant, Lex ended up with the scars on her forearms from a broken mirror being slashed into them while she tried to stop Lacey from ending her own life. The amount of blood in that bathroom looked like a horror movie set, and Colt will never forget it. Nothing good has come from Lacey getting knocked up.
"Yeah, you left before Psycho showed up. Scared the hell out of Hailey and Lucas. She left just a note, and you know Psycho. He found out about the baby five minutes after she told me. She's five months along, and it's healthy. She's healthy. But she's freaking out. Not that I can blame her."
"Holy shit."
VP walks up to them, his eyes narrowed. "Who the fuck are Hailey and Lucas?"
Closing her eyes, she sighs, something she's been doing a lot of lately. "Colt can explain that one. I need to talk to Jennings. Can we go into the Chapel?"
"After you," Jennings says and moves his hand in a you first motion.
Colt watches her walk into the Chapel with a man she swore she could never trust to tell him something she can't confide to Colt. It's a weird feeling. Mixed with what just happened with Felicity, he knows something has to be off. Something is very wrong, and he wishes she'd let him in and tell him what's going on.
"You know what that's about?" VP asks and sits at a table.
Diesel pulls Ky to the side, and Gavin makes his way back to the bar. Colt sits across from his father-in-law and shakes his head. "No idea."
He hates being left in the dark. Breaking down the door and bursting in on them to know what they're talking about seems both extreme and dramatic, no matter how much he may want to follow through with that plan. He'd give anything to know what's going on. Not because he feels entitled to anything, but because Lex will need help. Help she'll never ask for until she's broken and torn apart.
"You transferred back here without knowing why?" VP asks, pulling him from his worries.
Sighing, he just looks at the table. "I know Lex. And if she says we need to be here, especially after how great Summerville has been for us, I know it's important. When she's ready, she'll tell me."
"You have that much trust in her?"
"You don't?"
After everything Lex has done for the club, not to mention how much she's gone through because of the club, it's surprising anyone would question his trust, let alone his father-in-law. She's killed for them, been kidnapped multiple times because of them, had multiple hospital stays, lost a child, and she's saved them more times than he can count. Everyone should trust her as much as he does.
VP chuckles. "Fair."
"I'm worried about her," he admits, his voice low to keep from anyone else overhearing him vocalize his fears. He doesn't need anyone else joining in and making things difficult for her.
"Why?"
Leveling him with a glare, he nearly reaches across the table to slap his father-in-law across the face. "You know her almost as well as I do. She will run herself close to death before asking for help. And whatever this is has to be big. She said it's going to put her through hell and destroy her family. She'll think she can take this on herself, which she will for a while, but she'll sacrifice herself to do it unless someone else is there to help shoulder the burden. To force her to share the load she carries."
VP gives him a strange look, and Colt shifts uncomfortably. "You're different."
"Excuse me?"
Leaning back in the chair, he taps on the table. "The Colt I knew even two years ago would have hounded her for a reason. Thrown a fit and done whatever he could to get that information out of Lex. And not just for her, but for you. You're different now."
He nods and knows the older man speaks the truth. It borders on mortifying to know this man, his wife's father, has seen him at his worst. Him at his worst has done so many terrible things to Lex, and it's shameful to see how surprised the older man is that the bad parts of Colt aren't coming out to play like they used to. "Yeah, I suppose I am."
"I think Summerville was good for you, too."
"It was. It was humbling, to say the least."
"What do you mean?"
Laughing, Colt leans back to mirror VP's position. "Who would've ever thought that I, Colton Nichols, would be the voice of reason in any situation?"
"Get out of here."
"It was eye opening. I saw Dax at his most destructive, and it was like an out of body experience. I saw just who I used to be, and it was like... God, it put into perspective just how patient Lex has been with me. I still can't figure out how she could love me through everything I put her through and still be here."
He recounts how he rolled up to a gas station after a run to find Dax picking a fight with three men who could and would have put him in the ground. If it hadn't been for Colt showing up when he did, Summerville likely would have lost their President, which was a fear the men had when they asked the Drifters to patch over. Dax was at the point of no longer wanting to go on with his life without Dani, and he thought getting himself killed would somehow bring him to her.
"What'd you say to him?" VP asks, his eyes intrigued.
"That if Dani was anything like Lex, she won't be wherever the hell he goes. Just like I doubt Lex will be meeting me on the other side," Colt says. "She's only ever killed to save herself or someone else. She's not like us."
"She's more like us than you think," he says and chuckles. "I knew Dax was reckless. They all told us, but I didn't think he was suicidal."
"I kind of understood. If I lost Lex like that, before we had kids, I'd go off the fucking deep end, too. I wouldn't know what to do, but I also know Lex would pissed as all get out if I did. It's definitely a good thing we stepped in with the Hellraisers, though. He might've found a way to get himself taken out before finding out Dani was alive."
A smile of pride spreads across VP's face. "That's something else Lex did that shows how much things have changed. The old Lex would've charged in without thinking. The way she brought it to us to do the heavy lifting really showed how much she's grown. Maybe it's being a mom, but she's done such a great job. She actually seemed happy when she called me from the wedding."
"I really don't think she hated being someone we all turned to for ideas and plans, but she hated how she was taken advantage for it. I can't blame her for thinking that's the only reason she was kept around."
A look Colt can't quite figure out washes over VP's face, and Colt hates how much he feels as though he's being examined through a microscope. Like this man hasn't known him his entire life. Before he can ask what it's all about, VP changes the subject.
"Who are Hailey and Lucas?"
"Oh, yeah. Uh, we found a couple of teenagers squatting in the house when we went to check it out before everything arrived. They'd been there for a while, and I brought them home to what I can only imagine would make the producers of Hoarders run away in fear and disgust. I couldn't leave them there," he says and lets out breath to calm him at the memory of the passed-out druggie mom and abusive, disgusting stepfather. "It was bad. It was... The mother was passed out with a pile of needles on the floor next to the couch, and the maggots and ants made me wish I was back in Ty's apartment. Pre-Tara."
His eyebrows shoot up. "That has to be disgusting."
"The abusive stepfather was the reason I knew I couldn't leave the kids there. I nearly murdered that asshole when he slammed Lucas against the wall right in front of me."
"What?"
Sniffling, he looks at the table. "Lex and I are taking over guardianship of them. Hailey's graduating this year, but Lucas still has a few years left. And I'll be damned if I let a child go home to parents I know are abusive and neglectful. I just can't. It's not in me, and I've apparently become more like your daughter than I'd realized."
VP's eyebrows stay raised. "Wow."
"Hailey's going to be a bit of a challenge. From what I gather, both of her parents are gone, and the two shitheads at the house are her stepparents. She doesn't seem to have had an easy life, and it definitely shows. That girl is harder than Lex ever was. With a sass that rivals my sister."
"God help you both."
Laughing, Colt shrugs. "Just a year. Lucas seems easier. I don't think he's been hardened yet thanks to Hailey shielding him. She used her body as a shield when we confronted them in the house. I just hope we can stop his circumstances from completely ruining him because he seems good. He kind of reminds me of my brother, actually."
It's been a while since he's let himself think of his brother, Noah. The last time he did, it was after Casey died in his arms in Black Valley, and Colt spiraled into a darkness that almost cost him everything. Noah was always the good one in the family. He was the one who would have gone off to be a doctor or something. More than the outlaw lifestyle.
VP seems to understand the need to take a moment to think about Noah, and Colt appreciates it. He's been too scared to let Noah enter his mind after nearly losing Lex in more than one way, but it feels good now.
"I can't imagine not caring about where my kids are. Even when shit went south with Ashley, it was obvious Diesel worried about her. He couldn't force her to get help, but we know he'd go running the minute she called and said she was. These kids were gone for a month, VP. A fucking month."
"I guess I have five grandkids now."
"We're not adopting them, but Lex will only need about a day before she considers them her own. So, yeah, I guess you do."
"And Lacey's pregnant?"
Shrugging, he shakes his head. "I guess so. She showed up in a full-on panic. Not that I can blame her much, but I think Black Valley has done her good. Lex commented at the wedding how Lacey looked like she was glowing, and I saw a bit of a belly. But I never would've guessed a baby. I have a feeling P's freaking out, too."
"I gotta say, things were a bit boring around here until you came back, Colt," VP says with a laugh.
"Ky's in a lot of trouble."
"Do you know about it?"
He grimaces. "Yeah. Even Lex knows. She was in Arizona when she found out about it. How he kept the secret this long, I'll never know. That man cannot keep anything to himself to save his fucking life. Not on a personal level, anyway."
"I've never seen Felicity that pissed."
"I'm not really worried about her. That will figure itself out. What I'm worried about is Lex. Her reaction to Felicity wasn't like her. That's why I know this shit is a lot for her to deal with. Not that I helped with putting two more kids in the house."
"I'll admit that her reaction worried me a bit."
Running a hand over his face, he looks at the Chapel doors. "I just want to help her. Until she tells me and lets me know how I can relieve some of this for her, I'll just be sitting here. Waiting. I guess right now, all I can do is be here for her. The moment she tells me she needs me, though, I'm jumping in."
"I think knowing you're here when she does need you helps more than you think it does," VP says. "And not pushing her also makes it easier on her. You're doing good, kid."
Is he? Colt isn't so sure. If he was doing so well, why wouldn't Lex just tell him? Does she think he can't keep a secret? That he can't be trusted? Even though it hurts to think she doesn't trust him as much as he trusts her, he pushes it to the side because she needs him. And he knows he's the reason they aren't on the same level. He just needs to navigate a little better and be there in all the ways he can. For her, he'll do anything.