Chapter 14 – CJ #2
Rory was on his phone. He hadn’t even started eating yet.
“I say Fia again,” Devon suggested. “They’ve already fucked.”
“Fuck no!” Dad snapped. “If he fuck that bitch again, I’m shootin’ the fuck outta her.”
Kaia’s eyes widened. “But—”
CJ shook his head. “You’ll make it worse. Don’t say anything.”
“Fia is the easiest and the quickest. By the time Rebel returns, your balls will be nice and empty,” Devon crowed. “And she’ll never know.”
“That’s so fucking wrong,” Ryan said, inserting his two cents into the conversation as if anyone asked him.
“Rebel doesn’t deserve that.” He walked to the chair, directly across from Kaia’s.
Gripping the back, he looked at him. “Don’t do this, bro.
She’s probably devastated over Diesel. If she ever finds out you fucked Fia or any girl behind her back, it’ll crush her. ”
“A man has needs,” Jana said softly, sidling a glance in Kaia’s direction.
Her wistful tone sure made it seem like she was willing to fulfill that motherfucker’s needs.
“Jana’s right, Ryan,” Devon said. “Besides, Kaia was flirting with other chicks last night and Rebel either didn’t realize it and that shit went over her head or she didn’t care.”
At the beginning of the party, Kaia had been flirting with Jana.
She’d been blushing and giggling, too. Then, when the dancing started, girls vied for Kaia’s attention.
CJ was almost certain Rebel hadn’t made a big deal of it because she trusted Kaia.
She didn’t like most of the girls there, but she also didn’t think Kaia would sleep with any of them because they were going steady.
As much as it galled him, CJ understood Ryan’s point. Devon’s vehemence that Kaia sleep with another girl, though? That mystified him. It was almost as if he wanted to see Rebel hurt.
As long as Kaia stayed away from Fia, CJ would find a side chick for him. He needed to know how to finesse situations if he wanted to be an effective leader. Even Dad told him that. Rebel was too headstrong and stubborn to listen to reason and he didn’t want her to end up having sex at a young age.
What if she forgot her birth control? The course of her life would change forever if she ended up as a teenaged mother.
He swallowed, hating the predicament he found himself in.
“Kaia should make an arrangement with one of the club girls,” he said with a sigh. “As long as it isn’t Fia.”
“You all are so fucking wrong,” Ryan repeated.
“No one asked you,” Diesel said coldly. “Shut the fuck up before I remind you why you’re lucky to be alive.”
“Yeah, Ry,” Devon agreed. “What the fuck’s wrong with you? These are our bros. Where’s all this sudden loyalty for Reb coming from?”
“Rebel covered for me with Mom,” Ryan answered. “She visited me after…after…” He heaved in a breath. “She came and talked to me when no one else has or would. She deserves my loyalty.”
Rory snorted. “A little fucking late for that, asshole.”
At Dad’s lifted brow, Rory flushed, much like Kaia had. CJ admired his father’s ability to get answers with just a look.
Before anyone responded, Mom breezed into the room.
Dad wasn’t the only one whose tongue almost hit the fucking floor at seeing her midriff revealed in a hoodie crop top and matching low-rise sweatpants.
Narci and Torrin did it lowkey, but lust was still in their eyes.
It still drove home Mom’s shape, which grossed CJ the fuck out.
Besides, those fuckheads acted as if they hadn’t seen her in such an outfit before.
For fuck’s sake, she’d worn much more revealing clothes.
“You’re not packing?” she asked Kaia, after greeting the newcomers.
“He ain’t goin’, Megan,” Dad announced.
“I beg to differ,” Mom responded.
“You fuckin’ knew he kissed Rebel?”
Mom narrowed her eyes—at Dad instead of Kaia. The iciness in her blue eyes…
Oh, goddamn. “Uh, Dad—”
“What does me knowing about Kaia and Rebel have to do with anything, Christopher?” Mom asked, not only interrupting CJ but ignoring him.
“What the fuck you mean?” Dad demanded. “You know exactly what the fuck that got to do with shit. He ain’t goin’. Case fuckin’ closed. And if you push this fuckin’ issue, that motherfucker fired. And Ima fuckin’ kill him.”
“Kaia, please go and pack,” Mom said in a steely voice, not taking her gaze from Dad.
He roared to his feet and pulled his gun, aiming it at Kaia’s head.
“You motherfuckin’ move and I’m shootin’ the fuck outta you.
You’ve lost your fuckin’ mind, Megan. Rebel my baby girl.
Underaged. This motherfucker almost twenty.
He ain’t got no fuckin’ business kissin’ her.
And he definitely don’t need fuckin’ access to her, so fuck you. He stayin’ here or he fuckin’ dyin’.”
Instead of backing down, Mom flushed. Fury burned away the ice in her eyes. “You really want to do this, Christopher?”
Dad waved his gun at Kaia. “I’m fuckin’ doin’ it, ain’t I? Let Bishop go if you need help. Kaia stayin’. Or you stay the fuck home, too. You ain’t got to go the fuck away. You just want another fuckin’ excuse to leave me.”
“You’re not standing in the way of me taking care of my children,” Mom spat. “You know? All the babies you want me to have to suit your purposes.”
“I ain’t took your fuckin’ birth control!” Dad roared, letting the cat out of the bag in front of everyone.
Mom shoved him, a win for Dad, especially when she eyed the silver platter before addressing him.
“Did I mention them again, jerk?” she yelled.
“If you called me down to tell me that Kaia isn’t coming, you could’ve saved that text.
He’s coming or when I walk out that door, I’ll be gone for a month at the least, so what’ll it be? ”
Dad paled. “Megan—”
“Save it,” she growled. “We just went through this. Not even an hour ago—”
“Before I knew what the fuck happened.”
“And you’re mad at Kaia, instead of Diesel?” Mom gasped.
“Why the fuck would I be mad at our kid when he was just tryin’ to teach Rebel not to trust motherfuckers and show her how fuckin’ na?ve she is?”
Mom’s mouth fell open and CJ cringed, scrubbing a hand over his face, the situation deteriorating by the fucking minute. Hearing Dad repeat Diesel’s excuse made it sound as lame as it was.
Picking up Dad’s water glass, Mom lobbed it at Diesel’s head. Motherfucker ducked, so she snatched a plate, tossing it like a fucking frisbee before Dad set his gun on the table and grabbed her.
“Die,” she snarled to Diesel, so fucking furious she was turning purple and struggling against Dad’s hold so violently he struggled to contain her. “You stinking jackass, Diesel Caldwell.” She bit Dad’s arm.
“Ouch, fuck!” he said, losing his grip on her.
She rushed Diesel and punched the side of his head. If Dad hadn’t grabbed her in a bear hug, she would’ve hit Diesel again.
“Megan, listen to me,” Dad panted. “Listen, baby. Just listen.”
“What, Christopher?”
“Ain’t no motherfucker need to be kissin’ our fourteen-year-old daughter. Maybe I shoulda handled Kaia better, but how the fuck you expect me to react?”
“Like you would if it was one of the boys,” Mom said.
Even CJ identified with Dad’s outrage. That was unacceptable.
“Fuck you. Fuck no. Rebel a kid. A girl.”
“You can’t manipulate Rebel’s life to suit your standards, Christopher.”
“You not Rebel’s bestie. You her ma. Act like it and do better by her. Gigglin’ and overlookin’ her kiss a nineteen-year-old motherfucker bein’ a shit ma.”
“You’re calling me a bad mother again?”
“You ain’t a bad ma,” Dad snapped, although that’s exactly what the fuck he’d called her even if he was too caught up in the moment to realize it. “I already apologized for that. That don’t mean I ain’t callin’ you down when you fuckin’ up.”
The moment Dad loosened his hold on her, Mom yanked herself out of his embrace. Folding her arms, she made a point of looking around the room, at the floor and the ceiling. “I love your glass house. Where’s your stone?”
Glaring at her, Dad sat back down.
“Rebel isn’t even talking to you, Christopher,” she huffed.
“You refuse to make up to her and you have the nerve to call me down? Make up with our daughter before you ever make that mistake again.” She turned to Diesel, sank her fingers in his hair and tried to pull that motherfucker from his scalp.
“Your daddy and the boys are firmly on your side, son. I have to protect Rebel. Know this: if you ever hurt her like that again, I will have you tortured and murdered.”
Diesel gritted his teeth, which was just what the fuck Dad was doing.
Mom shook him, using his hair as her guide. “Am I clear?”
“Yes, Aunt Meggie,” he grunted.
She shoved him away and glowered at Kaia. “I have a question for you. You have a lot riding on how you answer,” she said darkly.
Kaia gulped. “Y-yes, m-m’aam?”
“Did you sleep with Fia last night?” she asked, shocking the living fuck out of everyone, even Dad who knew the fucking truth.
“F-F-Fia?” Kaia squeaked.
“Fia!” Mom snarled. “The blonde who wants to die. Who I will watch die if she hurts Rebel. That one. Now answer me.”
Kaia looked at CJ for guidance, but he didn’t know what the fuck to say, so CJ looked at Dad. And Dad? He looked at motherfucking Diesel. No one, absolutely no one, was prepared for Mom’s confrontation.
“Your silence says everything,” Mom declared, then looked at Dad. “I want Fia dead, Christopher. Today.”
“No! Wait!” Kaia was pale and wide-eyed.
Fuck, so was CJ. So was everyone. Except Mom. She was livid.
“I d-d-d-didn’t sleep with Fia. Or n-n-n-n-no one. I swear.”
“Bro, you didn’t come home last night,” Ryder said.
“We looked at the footage because we were trying to figure out how late Bishop got home to decide how violently we needed to wake him up. We didn’t see Diesel, Bishop, Jana or Kaia come home.
When we looked, the only activity we saw was Dad leaving this morning. ”
“You told your ma?” Dad asked, sidling careful glances at Mom.