Johnnie #2
He smirked at her and poured another drink for them.
“We agreed to disagree. No matter what you two think, she my wife, so she was above every other bitch here. Even you. It wasn’t my fuckin’ place to consider how you felt or what the fuck you liked and accepted.
That was only Johnnie. Still the fuck is. ”
“Sometimes, some places, some clubs, have a hierarchy based on age.”
“Don’t give a fuck. That ain’t us. Besides, we met her before we met you. She wasn’t older, but we knew her longer.”
“I’m never winning this argument with you, am I?”
“Nope. I concede some of your behavior was justified. Johnnie and Megan had a situation. I hated lookin’ at his fuckin’ face, knowin’ that. I can only imagine how the fuck you felt, watchin’ that stupid fuckhead fawn over my fuckin’ wife.”
He should’ve fucking killed him then to save a lot of heartache now. Stupidity like Johnnie suffered from only worsened with age.
“I was insanely jealous. And I just wanted to matter. All I ever heard was how perfect Meggie was and how I should be like her. She’d never get jealous if the situation was reversed.”
“If Johnnie put that in your head, he a lyin’ motherfucker. Megan was jealous of you, Kendall. There was other shit goin’ on when you first met such as that lil’ motherfucker tellin’ Megan about Big Joe’s empty grave. But she was still jealous of you.”
Kendall’s eyes widened. “She told you that?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged, tasted more tequila.
“Sometimes, it was plain as fuckin’ day, but do it matter?
That’s my woman. I’m supposed to fuckin’ know her.
Just like I know…knew…Johnnie. He was my cousin, my brother, my vice president.
Don’t think that motherfucker ain’t got off on havin’ you and Megan always at each other’s throats cuz of him. ”
“It wasn’t as if it was an actual competition,” Kendall said morosely. “Meggie loves you.”
“Wasn’t a competition in the way you mean, but as long as Megan engaged, she cared. In your man mind, it was more about him than you two. She wanted him happy, yeah, but she wanted you happy, too.”
He stared into his glass and swirled the contents, seeing nothing but Rebel in Megan’s lap, Axel in tears, and Rule lost in insanity.
“Ever wondered what you and I would’ve been like as a couple?”
Christopher polished off his drink, then set the glass down before considering her question and sniggering.
“Fuckin’ brutal. Deadly. You woulda been orderin’ motherfuckers’ deaths every fuckin’ day.
Look at you wrong? Shoot them. Talk to you wrong?
Torture them and shoot them. Don’t talk to you?
Cut their fuckin’ tongues out since the motherfuckers were useless and let them bleed to death. ”
“Nuh-uh!” She laughed merrily, her eyes bright. “If they would’ve bled to death, they couldn’t have suffered life without a tongue.”
Shaking his head, he laughed and looked at his watch. He’d have to get back to the hospital soon. “Why you not home?”
Just like that, Kendall’s humor fled. “I’m avoiding Johnnie. Why aren’t you at the hospital?”
He was avoiding Megan. He shrugged.
“I see.” She sniffed. “Your small little man brain is as fucked up as ever.”
“Fuck off.”
As usual, she didn’t fucking listen. “Let me ask you: how well versed were you on depression and suicide before you almost drove me to my death?”
“Fuck, you’d been around years by then. I knew you was a psycho cunt, baby, so what the fuck you talkin’ about?”
“If that’s not the fucking psychopath throwing stones, I don’t know what is.” She shook her head. “Anyway, jackass, you were aware enough to fuck over me, but not enough to really help me.”
“I ain’t wanted to fuckin’ help you. What the fuck you talkin’ about, Kendall?” he repeated. “I wanted you fuckin’ dead.”
“Christopher,” she snapped, “do you really think Meggie understood how severe her son’s schizophrenia was? Does anyone truly understand mental illness? Especially in the club. You drink it off or fuck it off. I was psycho cunt. Rule was Jesus Boy.”
“He’s a kid. You was a grown bitch. That I fuckin’ hated.
I ain’t cared. I do now. We friends and family.
Then? I wanted you fuckin’ wiped the fuck off the earth and dropped into the Mariana Trench.
Megan wouldn’t let me kill you, so I had to find a way to make you fuck up your own self.
I’m glad you ain’t, by the way. Just don’t ever think I ain’t wanted to drop pieces of you in a fuckin’ grave and salt it over to make sure you wasn’t risin’ the fuck up ever again. ”
She burst into laughter. “You’re so fucking insane.”
“So you keep saying.”
“Not only me, sir,” she said primly. “Psycho Stalker Wildman?”
“A name I wear proudly.” Megan called him psycho, too.
At one time, it signaled her capitulation to him.
But now… Swallowing, he glanced away. “Maybe Rule got it from me. Ma was solid. Good and kind. Sweet.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and met Kendall’s inscrutable gaze.
“And she ended up with me as a son. A psycho killer.”
“What about Logan and Cee Cee? Not one of those fuckheads were sane.”
“. Johnnie insane too, by the fuckin’ way.”
“Johnnie’s brilliant,” Kendall retorted, and hiccupped.
Christopher squinted. “You fucked up?”
“No,” she said cheerily. “Merrily mellow.”
“Fucked up.”
“That’s not ladylike,” she said, wagging a finger at him.
“When did you last eat?”
“At lunch.”
“Fuck, you drank on an empty fuckin’ stomach?”
“I’ve been busy. I didn’t have an appetite.”
“You gonna have a fuckin’ hangover.”
“Says you. I can hold my liquor quite well, thank you very much.”
Some liquor, but she’d been throwing back vodka and tequila since she’d arrived. “How’s Brooks? Still a faintin’ pussy?”
“I haven’t seen him faint in fucking years,” she slurred.
Fuck. He needed to feed her, but they didn’t have anyone on premises to cook. Maybe, he’d order a pizza for them. He was a little hungry as well. Fuck, did Kendall even eat a normal pizza? If she told him to order one with seaweed and squid ink on a tofu crust, he wouldn’t be happy. A sandwich–
“And he only fainted the last time because you knocked him out.”
“Then the motherfucker didn’t faint. He got knocked the fuck out and that was for a fuckin’ reason. By the way, since I ain’t came in last week for our weekly meeting, is there anything new you found out about what Bash might want?”
“Still have no idea. The founding members were fucking pigs. If they would’ve killed Logan Donovan decades ago, it would’ve helped. Fucking demon fuckhead. Cee Cee was better than him any fucking day of the week.”
“My old man?” News to Christopher. Before he met Cee Cee, he’d hated him because of what he’d done to Patricia. Once he rode into town and fucked with Megan, Christopher despised him. Cee Cee was everything fucking vile and evil. “I disagree. He hurt Ma, Zoann, and Megan. He was a motherfucker.”
Kendall met his gaze and nodded. “He was,” she agreed gravely. “Rapist and misogynist. Deplorable actions. Deplorable, deplorable, deplorable.” She giggled. “I like the sound of that word. It flows so lovely. And Cee Cee was deplorable.”
Shaking his head, Christopher sighed. “You need to get home. You fuckin’ gone.”
She howled with laughter. Unable to help himself because she sounded so happy, Christopher joined her.
And that was how the fuck Johnnie found them.
Johnnie had been sitting at home, awaiting his wife.
Minutes crept by, then hours, and he hadn’t heard from her.
Dinner passed without Kendall. She hadn’t even come home to cook, forcing him to have a meal delivered.
Blade ate in his nursery with Ella, while JJ sat at the table with Johnnie.
Mattie and Rory were still glued to Megan, Rebel, and CJ. And he’d thought Christopher.
Instead, the motherfucker was entertaining Kendall allowing his own wife to languish alone in the fucking hospital.
To pass the time, Johnnie had called a few club presidents and campaigned about pushing Christopher to sue for peace with the American Scorpions.
Hopper’s torn letter and Bash’s increasing instability haunted him.
Concerned the shit would soon hit the fan, Johnnie corralled the weaker members into thinking the Dwellers couldn’t win a war.
For two chapter presidents, it was as easy as asking, but he’d almost had to do everything but handstands for the other four.
He’d worried his treachery would get back to Christopher.
Unfortunately, Johnnie had no choice but to risk it since he’d destroyed any chance of ending Bash’s quest with Hopper’s assistance.
Thoroughly agitated after the sixth phone call ended, Johnnie noticed it was after eight, so he’d come to the club to brood, although his wife would see it differently.
Kendall hated it whenever he spent an evening drinking without her there, especially if the girls were around.
Besides, Johnnie had needed to unwind after planting the seeds of doubt in some of Christopher’s staunchest allies.
Hopper’s letter frightened him into action.
Tearing up that fucking letter just frightened him.
Until he dealt with Bash, Johnnie sought to appease him and transferred the money as promised. But he would prevail and show Kendall—and Megan—that not only Christopher was a hero.
Still, he’d spent the day creating a contingency plan if he needed to run. Sometimes, doubts crept from the depths of his soul, and he questioned his ability to control Bash. If his efforts didn’t work…he was so fucking dead.
Currently, that didn’t matter either. Only the scene he’d walked up on. Christopher and Kendall…
“What the fuck’s going on here?” Johnnie roared, pounding his fist on the table.
The laughter died and Kendall jumped. He smirked.
Christopher glared at him. “What the fuck you think? We drinkin’, fuckhead.”
“You’re pretty fucking cozy with my wife.”
“And you pretty fuckin’ careless about your life.”
Kendall blinked at him. The flush on her creamy skin, the way her red hair streamed around her, and the happiness on her face turned his stomach. Jealousy pounded through him and his vision blurred. Johnnie pointed toward the exit. “Let’s go, Kendall.”
A mutinous look entered her eyes and she grabbed the nearly empty bottle. “I’m not ready.”
Christopher snatched the tequila from her, as if he had the fucking right. As if they were lovers. “You might not be, but you ain’t havin’ no more tequila. You sauced efuckinuff.”
She laid her arm on the table and rested her head on her arm, then grinned. At Christopher. Her eyes were fucking sparkling. “One more. Please? Just a little bit?”
Christopher unscrewed the bottle and drank. “Your motherfucker think you offerin’ me pussy, baby.”
“She isn’t your baby, motherfucker,” Johnnie snarled.
Giggling, Kendall straightened. “My pussy belongs to Johnnie!” she declared.
Amused to fuck, which annoyed Johnnie almost to death, Christopher lit a cigarette and took a few drags.
“You love that you’re helping her to make a fucking fool out of me,” Johnnie accused.
“She can’t help you do what the fuck you excel at, assfuck.”
He didn’t flinch at Johnnie’s growl.
“Good one, Outlaw,” Kendall complimented, laughing wildly. “Although Johnnie isn’t a fool.”
“So what? You finally realized how much you pissed me off by letting her call you Christopher and told her to stop?”
Kendall tipped her head back and frowned at Johnnie. “Why are you angry I can call him Christopher? We’re family.” Uncertainty entered her eyes. “Aren’t we?”
“Yeah, ain’t we?”
“Motherfucker,” Johnnie growled, “you love Kendall fawning over you.”
“Nope. We friends. She’s my sister-in-law.
I am enjoyin’ the motherfuckin’ irony. You and Megan was friends.
I ain’t liked it but I ain’t pitched a bitch cuz I know the fuckin’ difference.
You fuckin’ don’t.” Christopher got to his feet and gave Johnnie an ugly look.
“You ain’t cared Kiera was seventeen. If I didn’t protect her pussy until she was eighteen, you would’ve fucked her.
You wouldna bothered about bein’ her friend.
Getcha motherfuckin’ head out your motherfuckin’ ass. I ain’t no threat.”
“As if I ever was to you and Megan. She only ever wanted you.”
“This old shit, Johnnie. I got enough new shit that we ain’t got to keep rehashin’ who Megan did or didn’t want.
I don’t fuckin’ know how many motherfuckers, how many times, over the years told you why shit turned out like it did.
I ain’t sure how many times Megan told you. You just stuck on fuckin’ stupid shit.”
Christopher snapping his fucking fingers and Kendall falling into line enraged Johnnie. When Megan never jumped to his bidding. He’d had a fucking plan to claim CJ as his own because Christopher hadn’t wanted her or their baby.
Did she listen? Did she even consider his idea?
Christopher started past him.
“I hope Megan’s happy with you,” Johnnie barked, pushed to his limit.
“Between me and you, her and Kendall, I’d say she got the short end of the bargain.
Who would’ve ever thought it? My children love and respect their mother.
The club members respect Kendall. Your boys can take Megan or leave her.
One of her sons tried to kill her. She’s such a slave to your cock, she couldn’t even get him fucking help.
The club members think she’s nothing but a fucking cocksucking slut.
She’s a fucking pathetic wretch, toiling away in your house, at the club, in your fucking bed.
So fuck you, Christopher. Fuck you and fuck her.
Fuck her. You’ll lose her soon enough. She can’t keep cheating death, motherfucker. ”
Throughout Johnnie’s tirade, Christopher stood quietly and kept his expression blank. Except at the end. Seeing that spark of fear, the worry, told Johnnie he’d gotten to him.
He smiled with vicious triumph.
Christopher left without another word.
Just as the door closed behind Christopher’s exit, Kendall let out a little snore.