Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
XANDER
It had been two days since I gave it all to my Sage. Two days in which she’d gladly helped me carry the load I’d been holding on to alone all these years.
Two days in which we began to heal together.
And now the real world was invading.
“I don’t like this.” I turned from watching my woman to Judge. He was standing with me at the back of the room, his shoulders pressed to the wall, arms crossed, booted feet planted wide, with his eyes to his girl. “Don’t like this one fuckin’ bit. She shouldn’t be here. Already endured enough.”
There was a part of me that agreed with him, but it wasn’t my call. It was Sage’s, and she’d wanted to be there when we pulled her mother in. Insisted on it in such a way she’d have made us all miserable if we didn’t give in to her.
“You can’t just keep me here!” Lorelei Winthrop’s shout pulled my eyes to the two-way mirror that led into the room in the back of Alpha Omega where we’d brought her for questioning as soon as Dalton and West tracked her down thanks to the GPS hack I’d done on her phone.
“I know my rights. I’m pressing charges! ”
If the bitch wasn’t using her pussy to con men out of their cash, she was stupid as all fuck.
Her looks were the only thing she had going for her.
It was clear from looking at her that her daughter had inherited her height and curves, but where Sage’s appeal was natural, this woman’s was desperate, which made her unattractive as hell.
She’d been blowing up Sage’s phone after jacking Davenport’s money because she was on the run and actually thought Sage would help her out, even though she’d been banging her own daughter’s husband behind her back for months.
She’d finally given up, but the dumb bitch had kept and was using the same phone.
Davenport was using it to hunt her, but he didn’t have the skills I did, so he was always two steps behind, since she thought if she kept moving she was golden.
I’d gotten the number from Sage’s phone, hacked it, and tracked her GPS so we’d know exactly where she was at all times.
“No one knows you’re here,” Lincoln told her in a calm, conversational tone, like he had all the time in the world to put up with this woman’s shit.
“And once we let you go, your shit’s gonna be so fucked that tryin’ to get anyone to believe you were bein’ held against your will is gonna be the least of your problems.”
Her back went straight and she locked her eyes on Linc. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Pushing the chair he’d been sitting in back on two legs, he kicked his feet up on the table and crossed his ankles.
“It means we already found the pussy-whipped fucker you used to help set Judge Winthrop up to go down for attempted murder, and his videotaped statement has already been handed over to the authorities. And before you think you can get to him and manipulate the stupid SOB into recanting with a blowjob or somethin’, you should know, he’s in federal custody.
He won’t be available to service for a long, long time. ”
Her eyes got big and her face went pale beneath her caked-on makeup, but as quickly as the fear came, she covered it up with bravado. “I’m not worried about that. It’s his word against mine.”
“Wrong. It was his word against yours,” Lincoln corrected.
“Now it’s his word, along with all the very detailed emails and text messages between you two regarding how to frame your ex-husband for a felony, against yours.
” She blanched again, but Lincoln kept going.
“See, my guys are skilled, they can dig shit up you thought you’d buried so deep it became compost. The moment you walk outta this room, your ass is bein’ sent straight back to Tennessee where the authorities are already waitin’.
And sweetheart, hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re lookin’ at some serious fuckin’ jail time. ”
Her mouth opened and closed several times before she shrieked, “You can’t do this!”
“Already done,” Lincoln stated, pushing out of the chair and heading for the door. “Only reason for your pitstop here first was ’cause we needed your phone to track down Davenport. Got that. Now we’re done with you.”
He exited as West entered, moving to the woman, taking her by the arm, and pulling her from the chair.
I moved to the door of the observation room and opened it, meeting Judge’s eye and indicating he should head out with a jerk of my chin.
He did, giving Rox a whistle and a crook of his finger.
The second she was within reach, he hooked her around her shoulders and led her with him.
I moved to Sage and did the same, holding her stiff body against me as we headed for the reception area where Judge’s boys were waiting.
West was leading Lorelei Winthrop through there on her way out, and I wanted them all to get a chance to witness her fall.
Keeping my woman pressed firmly into my side, I maneuvered us so she was standing between me and her father with his whole crew—their family—at our backs for support as West rounded the corner with the bitch in tow.
Her eyes landed on her ex first, and her lips parted on a silent gasp. “Judge,” she gasped, shocked to find her ex out and breathing free air.
But before anyone else could say a word, Sage broke from my hold and stomped over.
Her hand flew through the air so fast it was a blur.
Her palm connected hard with Lorelei’s cheek, and the crack that sounded through the room was so loud I winced and heard several of the guys behind me suck in a hissing breath.
I’d experienced one of my girl’s slaps, and that fucker had hurt. But she hadn’t put half as much juice in mine as she did the one she just gave her mother.
When West righted her and she turned her stunned, tear-soaked gaze back to her daughter, that handprint glowing like neon on her face, Sage leaned in and hissed, “You took eleven years from him. From us. But even then, he had his friends. He had his family. He knew he had people who loved him, and that got him through. Now he’s out.
He’s got his crew, and a new woman who’s so much better than you, you couldn’t even wish to be half of what she is in your wildest fantasies.
You’ll have no one. You’ll be all alone.
And even if you get out before you do the world a favor and stop existing, you’ll still be alone.
I hope you remember that every night when you lay your head down, and I hope it’s the first thing you remember when you wake up.
” Then she turned to West and issued, “Get her the hell out of here. She’s not even a memory anymore. ”
That done, she spun on her kick-ass, sexy-as-fuck motorcycle boots, walked right to me, and face planted in my chest.
The room remained silent as I wrapped her in my arms.
Then Scooter spoke. “Fuck me, girl. Felt that slap in my balls. Think they shriveled up into my stomach.”
Danno spoke next. “Shit made my butthole pucker up real tight. Christ. Bitch’ll be feelin’ that for a while.”
And just like that, Sage felt the burn, let it wash through her, and pushed it out. And I knew this because, at their words, she looked up at me with a beaming grin just a moment before she threw her head back and laughed.
Stepping away from the prick who was currently on all fours coughing up blood, I grabbed the towel off the table and wiped my hands.
Then I scanned the room.
All my brothers from Alpha Omega. Judge. His crew. They were all gathered around the room, lining the walls. Sage wasn’t allowed in on this one. I’d put my foot down.
I gave my full attention to Judge, who’d been keeping track for me.
“Right. Broken nose and fractured cheekbone done. What else did this motherfucker give her?”
He inclined his chin and answered, “Still got a ways to go, but your choice what’s next. We got the lacerated liver or the broken ribs. But on that last one, you gotta make sure one of ’em punctures a lung.”
I looked back to John Davenport to find he was staring up at me, fear apparent in his eyes.
Good.
“Liver next. I wanna take my time on the ribs. I’m thinkin’ one at a time. Slowly.”
He’d kept my woman for three hours.
I kept him for five.
Thirty minutes after I was done, an unconscious John Davenport—sporting all the same injuries he’d given to my Sage and many, many more—was dumped on the steps outside the Hope Valley police station.
Ten minutes after that, an anonymous call was put in to his loan shark, informing him which prison he’d eventually be able to find the man responsible for losing his five hundred grand.
Needless to say, John Davenport’s days were numbered, and I didn’t even feel a little bad about that.
Sage
One week later
Dad’s buds were leaving.
They were heading back home to Redemption, Tennessee, and I was more than a little heartbroken to see them go.
There were two silver linings. The first was that they’d all be back with their families for Thanksgiving, which Xander and I were hosting at the cabin, and the second was that my dad wasn’t going with them.
He was staying in Hope Valley. Permanently. He had me, he had his new woman—who was a good woman—and now that his name was cleared, he’d landed himself a gig as a mechanic where he’d spend his days working on motorcycles. His dream.
“Gonna miss you, li’l bit,” Scooter said in a quiet voice as he pulled me in for a hug.
Banks, Fletch, and Danno had already gotten their goodbye hugs and had moved out to let Scooter and Cannon have their turn.
“I’ll miss you too, Scoot,” I replied with a sniffle. “But I’ll see you in a few weeks. Be sure to bring your appetite.”
“You know I will, girl.”
He pulled back, gave me a grin, then moved the other guys waiting a distance away so Cannon could get in there.