Chapter Seventeen—Johnnie #2
“The second reason he might’ve asked you to deliver Tío,” Celia continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “is because you can get to him without raising suspicion. If Bash tries, Outlaw might run across him and kill him.”
Johnnie had been too shocked at Bash’s behavior to consider that possibility. “Right.”
“Can I make a suggestion?” Easton asked, yawning as if he didn’t have a care in the word. As if he hadn’t been lusting after Megan just hours ago.
Goddamn.
Johnnie had brought Easton to the hospital under false pretenses and allowed him in on club secrets as a prospect he sponsored.
The motherfucker had gone onto Megan’s private wing.
To her and Rebel’s room. To the room where the boys were, not far from the stairwell accessible only to club members.
And, now, Easton sat with Bash, so close enough to that madman he barely flinched at his behavior.
The enormity of what he was doing nearly sent Johnnie to his knees. Not for the first time, the thought of escaping crossed his mind. If he couldn’t get Bash back into line and control of this situation, running might be his only option.
As soon as possible, he’d create a contingency plan.
Create an offshore bank account, using an alias.
Check for places he might run to where Christopher would never think to find him.
Stockpile Kendall’s meds because no fucking way he’d leave her behind.
Whether she chose to flee with him did matter.
He’d give her the option of going with him willingly to clear his conscience.
If she resisted…
“I think there’s a simple solution if you’ll hear me out.”
Easton words broke through Johnnie’s paranoia.
“No one asked for your input,” Cleaner said, his dislike of Easton undisguised.
“I want to hear it.” Celia patted Tabitha’s shoulder and nodded to Easton. “What’s the suggestion?”
“Shut up,” Cleaner ordered. “You aren’t a fucking club member.”
Bash stiffened. “I’m not warning you again, fuckhead. Do not disrespect my little sister. I might have to cut out your tongue.” Sane again, he nodded to Easton. “What, motherfucker?”
“Take Tío back to Salt Lake City. I’m not a full patch Death Dweller yet like Shine, but I’m a prospect.”
“Shine’s not any fucking thing anymore,” Bash spat, glowering at Tabitha. “I hope you sucked him off good the last time he stuck his cock in your fucking mouth, slut.”
Shine?
Tabitha’s sob reached Johnnie through a dull tunnel.
Shine.
Shine was a Scorpion?
“What…what happened to Shine?” Johnnie pushed out.
Cleaner swung his annoyed gaze to Johnnie. “The last place we tracked him to was a funeral home. I guess they killed him and didn’t realize his phone was on him.”
Johnnie swayed like a scared bitch. “D-D-D-Diesel…uh, Diesel…w-w-w-was it Diesel who g-g-g-got him?” he managed, his stuttering echoing Brooks and their first visit to Salt Lake City.
Smirking at Johnnie, Cleaner nodded and folded his arms. “That’s what we’re thinking. We can’t prove it, so we can’t strike back.” He jerked his head toward Bash. “According to him.”
“What the fuck you mean according to him?” Bash demanded, narrowing his eyes.
“You’re pissing me the fuck off, Cleaner.
Who the fuck else would it be according to, fuckhead?
I’m the motherfucking president. Unless we go to the funeral home and tear the motherfucker apart looking for Shine’s body, we can’t fucking prove Diesel fucked him up.
He didn’t deserve to be shot or stabbed or whatever. ”
Johnnie choked. Shooting and stabbing was too simple for Diesel.
Ignoring every gaze turning to him, Johnnie scraped his trembling fingers through his hair and yanked, threatening to tear strands from his scalp. “F-first, if it was Diesel who snatched him, there won’t be a crime scene.”
“Explain,” Bash ordered.
Johnnie pursed his lips, rocked on his heels, and cleared his throat. “If Diesel got Shine and brought him to the funeral home, alive, he threw him in the crematorium. Alive.”
“Goddamn,” Cleaner said.
His eyes widening, Bash lost his color. “Knocked out?” He sounded surprisingly hopeful.
Relating to Bash’s fear and disbelief, Johnnie shook his head. “Tied up, but very much awake.”
They glanced amongst themselves, silent. Horrified. Terrified. Even Tabitha’s sobs had stopped. Blindly, she reached for Celia, who returned to her seat and hugged her tightly.
“You know this how?” Bash finally asked.
“Because Christopher does it to enemies,” Johnnie croaked. “He taught Diesel.”
“Goddamn,” Cleaner repeated.
“I thought you told me your texts to Diesel weren’t inflammatory, Easton,” Bash said, still a little colorless. “And why the fuck did you send the motherfuckers?”
“You told me I have to listen to him, Bash,” Easton said, snatching his phone from his pocket. “Here,” he said a moment later. “Screenshots of the texts I sent to Diesel from Tío’s phone.”
After Bash read the texts, he grunted.
“Do you want to see them, Johnnie?” Easton asked, the only man there with the sense to appreciate Johnnie’s presence.
“I’d appreciate that.” Once Johnnie read the texts, he agreed with Easton.
He’d sent nothing to annoy Diesel, which meant only one thing.
“I haven’t seen the footage of exactly what happened to Tío, Bash but he must’ve taunted Diesel.
Jerked his chains in some way. “My guess is he pissed Diesel off by running off at the mouth or by pretending to back off and thinking to get the drop. Christopher taught me…Diesel…Val…Mortician…he…You don’t understand about Logan,” he whispered.
“Christopher learned to read the smallest change in our grandfather. Things no one else would notice.”
Johnnie staggered to the vacant seat and flopped onto it, imagining his own gruesome death.
He dropped his head into his hands. “I love torture.” That was well known, too.
Technique and brutality traveled through the pipeline.
“Christopher goes for the head almost every time. But Diesel? He loves it all. Blood, gore, torture, quick kills, drawn out death, hand-to-hand combat, decapitation, fire, drowning, hanging. It doesn’t matter,” he said dully. “He’s a fucking executioner.”
“He’s adopted,” Bash said after a prolonged silence. “Shine once told me that Diesel claimed if anything happened…well, if he was hurt, Christopher would seek justice on his behalf. Is that true?”
“Quite,” Johnnie said. “If any of his children are hurt from Diesel to Jo, he will annihilate the perpetrator.”
“Bash, back off,” Celia pleaded. “I’m begging you. Before this ends badly.”
“His cunt isn’t his children,” Bash declared, scrubbing a hand over his face.
“You’ve lost your mind.” Celia looked at Tabitha. “Didn’t Diesel tell you that Outlaw wasn’t only furious that he’d been kidnapped by your father and the other boys, but also because those idiots sent photos of a dead man to Meggie and pretended it was him?”
“Yes, Aunt Celia.”
Celia returned her attention to Bash. “Think what’ll happen if you actually hurt her, asshole? You will die.”
“What do you mean if Bash hurts Meggie?” Johnnie asked. “You never said you’d moved to the next phase. I thought I still had time. What the fuck do you mean if Bash hurts Meggie? That sounds imminent. No! Fuck no! Have you lost your fucking mind! I demand more time!”
No one interrupted his rant, though they all stared at him as if he’d turned into a stupid motherfucker.
Finally, Bash gave him a half-smile. “Ignore Celia. She’s overwrought.” He patted Tabitha’s head. “This is what I’ll do, since I think your Aunt Celia loves you as much as she does Easton and Tío. I’ll summon Diesel and tell him he better be nice to you and don’t even think about divorcing you.”
“Diesel doesn’t like Tabitha,” Easton said dryly. “If he finds out she’s related to you, all bets are off, Bash. He might kill her.”
“No!” Celia cried.
“Then we better fucking warn him it’ll be in his best interest not to fuck with this cunt.” As decent as he was a moment ago, he turned into a motherfucker again, and thumped Tabitha’s head, scowling at Celia’s slap. “Tabitha’s death will hurt Celia.”
“How am I supposed to warn Diesel without giving myself away?” Easton asked. “Wouldn’t it be better if you impressed that up on him?”
Bash laid a finger on his chin and thought for a moment, then nodded and pointed at Easton. “You’re right, boy.”
Cleaner curled his lip and threw a death stare at Easton. “You just have all the answers, huh, Easton?”
Easton ignored him, not even flinching.
Smiling, Bash walked around to Johnnie and settled his hands on his shoulders, beginning a rough massage. “How are you feeling, little brother? Tight in there. You need a muscle relaxant?” He squeezed harder.
Johnnie tried to shrug him away but didn’t succeed.
“Kids are so fucking annoying, huh, Johnnie?”
“Yeah,” Johnnie managed, pretending Bash wasn’t hurting him. “They are.”
“Cleaner interrupted me in the middle of coming. Madder than a motherfucker since my jizz squirted into the cold air instead of a warm cunt.”
“You’re disgusting,” Celia complained.
Bash ignored her. “Shit was such a fucking emergency, Cleaner rented us a private plane. All my reserve cash is gone. Between this house and the unexpected transportation, I’m fucking broke.”
Motherfucker stayed broke for one fucking reason or another.
“Send me an infusion of cash, and I’ll stick to our agreement.”
Johnnie finally jerked himself away and jumped to his feet. His neck and shoulders felt fucking broken, they hurt so bad. “What agreement, asshole? You took away a deadline. Told me I’ll know when you run out of patience.”
“Not out of them with you yet. Meggie’s head is still attached to her shoulders. Tío?” Bash said without missing a beat. “I still want to choke the fuck out of him, but Celia doesn’t want me to.”
“How much do you want from me and how much time will it buy me?””
“Half a rock, and an amount,” Bash announced. “I also promise I won’t kill Meggie without a twenty-four-hour warning. Until then, I’ll find a way to force my cock down her throat and up her pussy.”
Johnnie glared at Bash.
He laughed like the fucking madman he’d shown himself to be and clapped Johnnie’s back so hard, he almost fell to the goddamn floor.
“Just fucking with you, little brother. Relax. Christopher’s cunt is safe for now as long as I get my money.
” He raised his hand. “Scout’s honor.” Grinning broadly, he held out his hand. “Let’s shake on it.”
“It’s really this easy?” Johnnie asked suspiciously, staring at Bash’s hand as if it was a snake about to strike.
“Of course. I’m a sadist, not a masochist.” He threw back his head and laughed again, then tried to tickle Johnnie, abandoning the handshake. “Just kidding. I’m neither.”
“C-can I ask you something?”
Bash’s bright gaze fell on Johnnie. “Ask away.”
“Are you high?”
“Moi?” He clapped a hand on his chest. “I’m just a happy motherfucker.” He stepped back and indicated Tabitha. “She isn’t really our niece, by the way. We’ve just been fucking with you.”
“But—” Johnnie’s brow pleated in confusion. “But, uh, I thought–”
“Bash!”
At the sound of footsteps, Johnnie jerked around and his eyes widened at the sight of Tom Harris, Molly’s father, striding into the room, like an overgrown peacock.
Nostrils flaring, Johnnie glanced in the direction Tom had come, but saw no one behind him. Still, he held onto hope and asked, “Is Molly here? Outside, maybe?”
“Nope,” Tom answered, extinguishing Johnnie’s hope.
“Is she dead?”
Tom shrugged. “Is she?”
“Tom—”
“Tom,” Bash called, interrupting Johnnie’s plea, and pointed to Celia. “Leave.”
“Bash—”
“Leave, C. I’m bored. Besides, I’ve made enough concessions to you for the day.”
Her lips thinned, Celia got to her feet and nodded to Tabitha. “Let’s leave them–”
“You leave,” Bash said. “Tabitha stays. You don’t think I’ll let her bullshit go unpunished, do you?”
“Bash,” Celia started.
“Not fucking listening. You can’t save every cunt around, especially the cunts who’ve wronged me. Walk the fuck out or I’m locking you…” He waved his hand in the air. “Somewhere and making her pay for Tío and me losing my temper with you.”
“Asshole,” she hissed, threw him a putrid look, and stalked away.
She’s pissed,” Bash announced, snickering. After grabbing a beer from the refrigerator and still ignoring the wrecked kitchen, he waved Tom forward then nodded to Tabitha. “Fuck her.”
“What?” Johnnie cried.
“No!” Tabitha cried. “I don’t want to. What if Diesel finds out?”
“You’ve already sucked and fucked Shine, slut,” Bash said calmly. “If Diesel finds out, he’ll kill Tom, I suppose.”
“Or I’ll kill him,” Tom said, smiling. “I’ll enjoy hearing him scream, though not as much as I would if it was CJ.”
“Yeah, fuckhead, in your fucking dreams,” Bash grunted. “Now, fuck her or shut the fuck up and get the fuck out of my face.”
Leering, Tom yanked Tabitha to her feet and ripped away her sweater dress.
Tabitha screamed. “Don’t, please!”
“Stop, goddamn it!” Johnnie roared as Easton jumped up and shoved Tom away.
“You can’t have this fuckhead rape this girl,” Johnnie snarled, standing next to Easton and helping to block her from Tom.
“Fuck you,” Bash said, flipping back into a dangerous psycho.
“No, fuck you. I have a fucking wife. A daughter. Nieces. Cousins. A sister-in-law.” He pointed in the direction Celia had fled. “A sister. It’s bad enough I have to watch you kill innocent women. You aren’t assaulting one in front of me.”
“She’s not our niece, so it shouldn’t matter,” Bash declared.
“I don’t give a fuck. She’s an innocent woman.” He turned to Tom, ignoring hostility floating toward him.
Easton swept Tabitha into his arms and carried her away. No one stopped him, a good sign to Johnnie.
He turned to Tom. “Name your price to bring Molly back. Whatever it is.”
“It’s out of your price range,” Tom sneered.
“Try me.”
“Zero.”
“I…what?”
“No fucking amount of money will make me give that cunt up,” Tom barked. “Ryan told me CJ wanted that bitch. I’ll be damned if I’ll allow that arrogant fuckhead to have her.”
“Ryan regrets—”
“Shut the fuck up, Johnnie. I swear to you, bring her up to me again and I’ll kill her sooner rather than later.”
“Tom, listen to me. She can do worse than CJ.”
“That’s rich, coming from you. When you don’t even like that motherfucker.”
“Forget that—”
“Fuck you. All roads lead to CJ, except my daughter. That one leads to her death.”