Chapter 11
Remy
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. She has a daughter? I mean, there was a time she stayed away, but that was when we first broke up. I thought it was just her getting over me. Taking the time she needed for herself. I still don’t let go of her. I hold onto her like she might run if I do, and from the sounds of it, she will.
“I need to go,” she whispers this time.
“Start talkin’, Tianna.”
“Please, just let me go. I can fix this. I can make it right,” she cries and pleads with me. Someone knocks on the door, and I move us away from it before telling them to come in. Gunner and Hodge step in, looking between us before he actually speaks.
“Got some bad news,” Gunner says.
“What is it?”
“There’s a new hit out on Tianna. Mystic caught it before it got too far down the chain,” he says softly. Tianna gasps and slowly stops fighting me.
“What?”
“That’s right. You wanna run to him, and he wants you dead! You wanna run right to him so he can kill you!” I roar at her. I let her go now. She steps away from me as I look back to Gunner and Hodge.
“It was him, right?”
“Don’t know for sure, but I’d assume so.”
“Why would he want me dead?” She questions herself more than the rest of us.
“I don’t know, Tianna. You’re safe here, though,” Hodge tells her as he looks at me. “We got your back, Remy.”
“My daughter,” she whispers, and my heart shatters inside of me. She has a daughter with that motherfucker. Anger courses through my veins as I think about that.
“What?” Gunner asks, looking between us.
“She has a daughter with him,” I tell him.
“It’s not with him, Remy. She’s yours,” Tianna screams before breaking down in tears once more. My breathing kicks up a notch as I let that sink in. I have a daughter, one she never told me about. What the hell is wrong with her? And that bastard Brad has her? Without thinking, I storm toward her, ripping her off the floor before wrapping my hands around her neck. I hold her there against the wall as she fights for air.
“I have a daughter? And you let that motherfucker take her?” I scream in her face. She can’t answer; she can’t even breathe at this point. Gunner and Hodge are pulling on me, trying to rip me away from her. I don’t let go. I hold on tighter. I will kill her. I will kill her for letting something happen to my daughter.
Finally, they pry me off her, and she gasps for air. Gunner moves to her side as Hodge shoves me back a few steps. I want to hurt her. I want to kill her. She didn’t tell me I had a daughter, and now that motherfucker has her? How could she do this to me?
“You need to take a minute,” Gunner tells me as he rubs Tianna’s back.
“Fuck that! Get the fuck out of here and let me handle her,” I yell.
“No. You’re gonna take a fuckin’ walk, Remy!” he orders. Hodge shoves me another step back, and finally, I give in. I turn and walk out of the room, punching the wall as I go. I make my way down the main room and grab the first club whore I can find, dragging her body toward mine.
“Suck me off,” I demand her. She licks her lips and lowers to her knees when Locke comes over and grabs her.
“Get the fuck up and get outta here,” he tells her. More anger consumes me as I look at him. “You’re not tryin’ to do that right now, Remy. Come on,” he says. I shake my head and walk to the bar, grabbing a beer and a few shots.
“You don’t know what I fuckin’ want right now.”
“Neither do you, brother. Don’t make a mistake with her,” he says, nodding toward the girl.
“A mistake? My first mistake was lovin’ Tianna!” I roar. I hear her cries. I know she’s out here too, and I don’t give a shit. I’m pissed. I’m beyond pissed.
“Let’s just calm down,” Gunner urges as he drags her across the room toward me.
“Get her the fuck away from me, Gunner.”
“We need to talk about this, Remy.”
“I said get her the fuck away from me!” Gunner nods for one of the girls to get her and they walk her across the room as she cries.
“You have a daughter out there, Remy. A daughter we need to find,” Gunner reminds me.
“She lied. All these fuckin’ years, she came back here fuckin’ me and tellin’ me she cared about me, and she fuckin’ lied!”
“I think you’re gettin’ hung up on the wrong thing right now, brother. She fucked up, I’ll give you that, but you have a kid out there we need to find.” I clear my throat and nod my head.
“You’re right. You’re right. I need to find her.”
“There we go.” I nod my head as I walk toward Tianna, keeping myself as calm as I can. The girls quickly step away when they see me coming, giving me space.
“Gunner’s right. I need to find our daughter. But after I find her and bring her home, you’re never gonna see her again.” That’s a threat. Tianna’s eyes fill with tears as she shakes her head.
“You can’t do that. He’s been doing that, Remy. Please. Don’t do this to me.”
“Do this to you? You did this, Tianna. You kept her from me. All those times you brought your ass over here, and not once did you say anything about her. How could you? How fuckin’ could you come here and fuck me and not tell me about her?”
“I was trying to protect her. You don’t understand. Brad kept her from me. He took her away and threatened to kill her,” she cries harder.
“And you didn’t think I could do anything about that? You didn’t trust me enough or think I could handle Brad?”
“He’s powerful, Remy.”
“I’m powerful, Tianna!” I scream in her face. “I’m a fuckin’ killer! I come home with blood on my hands, and you think I couldn’t take this motherfucker down?” I shake my head. She doesn’t know me like she thought she did. Or maybe I don’t know her like I thought I did.
“Please, Remy,” she sobs as she begs me. I reach up and grab her face in my hand, squeezing it hard enough to leave marks.
“You fucked up, Tianna. You fucked up so badly there is no comin’ back from it. I’ve done nothin’ except be here for you. I’ve waited for you to come to your senses. I’ve waited for you to come to me, and you know what? You never did. You chose him, and you let him take my child. Now you’re gonna know exactly what that feels like.”
“I already know what it feels like, Remy! I barely see her as it is. Please, don’t do this!”
“You did this. Remember that. You fuckin’ did this,” I remind her before letting go of her face. I turn on my heel as she calls out to me. I ignore her and walk outside the back door. There’s no way anyone could get back here. There’s a huge cement wall that encloses our backyard.
I pull out a cigarette and light it up, blowing smoke into the night sky. A daughter. I’m a fucking dad. I’m someone’s dad.
“That was a lot to take in,” Locke says as he comes out and stands next to me.
“You ever wanted to kill someone so badly, but you know you can’t?”
“I get it, brother.”
“A kid, Locke. She kept my kid from me.”
“By the sounds of it, he kept the kid from her too.”
“Doesn’t matter, does it? She should have told me. I could have done somethin’ a long time before now. Who the fuck knows what he did with her.”
“We got Mystic doin’ his thing. I’m sure he’ll come up with somethin’ for us.”
“I don’t know nothin’ about her. Not her name, age, nothin’.”
“She’s almost two. Her name is Charlie.” I glance over at him as he watches me.
“Charlie. Two years, brother. Two fuckin’ years I lost with her. How could she keep it a secret that long?”
“He threatened to kill her. Threatened never to let her see her again. As it is, she gets to see her very little,” he says.
“That what she said?”
“Yeah. He told her she would get her back after the weddin’, but he lied.”
“I can’t make sense of any of this,” I admit to him.
“I don’t blame you, brother. It’s a pretty big mess,” he adds.
“I have a little girl, brother.”
“Yeah, you do.”