Chapter 21
I hated to leave Paige again, but I wanted this done by morning.
She was in agreement.
When I informed her that her dad was flying in and we were snagging him to bring back to the swamp box and what Micro so far had verified they were involved in, she said she wasn’t surprised.
And there was no love lost between her and them. As for her mom, she never had much time or tolerance for Paige, but my woman wasn’t sure how much her mom knew of the illegal activities of her husband and son.
Micro guessed right.
After a quick stop at the hotel Paxton had stayed at, Worthy Senior hightailed it out to the campground.
Imagine his shock when Thunder and Butcher were there to greet him, not his son.
Around one in the morning, we all returned to the box.
I had to say that the years hadn’t been kind to Paige’s dad.
I recalled meeting him after the accident when he and his lawyer met with Moondog, my dad, Diablo, and a few others.
He was fat, and his face was severely lined, even for his age. The veins on his face suggested he drank too much. He’d put on a false air of worry for Tiago and talked about how sorry and upset his family was over what his daughter did. Recalling that long-ago meeting made me angrier.
He was tied up and seated on a chair across from his son.
You could tell he was disturbed by his boy’s condition.
However, he apparently still believed that he was in a position of power and could buffalo us because as soon as we entered, he started with his demands.
“I want to speak to whoever is in charge here,” he demanded.
“That would be me,” Diablo said.
“Good.
I demand that you let my son and me go.
You have no right to detain us.
Look what you did to him! I’ll go easier on you and not call the authorities about what you did to him if you let us leave. And before you think you can get away with harming or killing us, you can’t. I’m an important man, and so is my son. We have connections. My son is about to marry into an extremely influential and wealthy Texas family. They won’t rest if something happens to us,” he demanded with a smugness about him. Paxton was wearily watching him, weakly shaking his head and making moaning sounds behind his gag.
“It’s alright, Pax, we’ll be out of here soon,” he assured him.
“Albie, don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Diablo informed him.
“My name is Albert, not Albie, but you may call me Mr.
Worthy.
What’s your name?” he asked, sneering.
“I don’t take orders from you, Albie.
As for my name, it’s Diablo.
I’m the president of this club.
And you and I met thirteen years ago. In regard to your remarks about how important you and your son are, those are lies. You aren’t any better or more worthwhile than us. In fact, you’re much lower in the standings. As for Paxton’s future in-laws, they’ll want nothing to do with any of you once they know what you’re truly like.”
“You think dirty bikers are more worthwhile than us? You’re nuts.
I’m a businessman, and my son is a lawyer and soon-to-be mayor.
And the Rosen family won’t believe a word you say.
This situation is ridiculous. I demand you release us, now!” Albie bellowed.
Casually, as if swatting at a fly, Diablo backhanded him across the face, snapping his head hard to the side.
The ring our president wore busted the bastard’s bottom lip.
His second backhand cut Albie’s cheek open.
“You make no demands here.
Do I need to push it home to you harder? You’ll sit there and be quiet unless asked a question.
We’ll do the demanding.
First, do you have any clue why you, your son, and those three men are here?” Diablo asked.
Albie didn’t respond right away, but when he saw Diablo pull back his hand, he rushed to answer.
“Not really.
There was a man on the phone with my son.
His name was Scorpion.
He supposedly is with my daughter. I can only imagine what she’s been filling his head with. You have to understand. Paige isn’t right in the head. She’s a pathological liar.”
“A pathological liar, hmm, Scorpion, what do you have to say to that assessment of Paige?” Pres asked.
“The only liars are that one and his worthless son,” I growled.
Albie’s gaze landed on me.
He scanned me from head to toe, then shrugged.
“I’m sorry that you were taken in by her, but if it makes you feel better, a bunch of people have.
Paige is an excellent liar.
When she was younger, we took her to psychologists and psychiatrists, and they tried to cure her, but in the end, they couldn’t.
They told me and my wife that narcissists like her often are convincing liars.”
“The only pathological lying narcissists on this compound are you two,” I pointed to him and Paxton.
He was back to hanging his head.
“And even if she was, why the hell would that warrant having her kidnapped and then threatened with death? Don’t deny it.
Your son said it when we were all on the phone.”
“I didn’t hear him say anything of that nature.
You must’ve misunderstood him.
And she wasn’t kidnapped.
These men are private investigators hired to find her. They did, and she came with them willingly. After they got to where they met my son, she became out of control, and that led to a call being made to you. She was spinning outlandish tales of how she was engaged to you and other things. We wanted to prove she wasn’t, hoping it would make her see the truth.”
“And what truth is that?” Butcher asked.
“She needs to return to Texas.
She’s ill, and the best place for her is close to her family so we can care for her.”
“Jesus Christ, they both spin the craziest tales, don’t they? The only ones who’re nuts are them,” Thunder muttered as he rolled his eyes.
The rest of us snickered in agreement.
“We can sit here for hours debating who’s right or wrong, but we need to return home.
Let’s cut to the chase.
You have to know how to speak to your kind of people.
What will it cost?” Albie asked pompously.
“Our kind of people? Cost? Are you implying we’re lowlife criminals who’ll back off and let you leave for money?” I asked.
Paxton was back to moaning and watching his dad.
He weakly shook his head.
Worthy Senior ignored him.
“Money always works with those who don’t have it.
How much do you want? But don’t get too greedy.
I won’t be extorted too far.”
“We might consider taking something other than money,” I said to fuck with him.
His eyes brightened.
“And what would that be?”
“Tiago, would you kindly tell him what it’ll take?” I requested.
T came driving his chair up to the front of the group.
Until then, he’d stayed more or less hidden behind my brothers.
“Sure will, bro.
It’s not much.
I’d just like you to give back the use of my legs and erase the past thirteen years of being a paraplegic and all the pain, depression, and other suffering I’ve endured.
Oh, and to have treated Paige as a beloved daughter and sister since birth. If you can do that, we’ll let all of you walk out of here right now.”
Albie’s smile changed to a scowl.
“I can’t change what happened to you.
And why would you give a damn about Paige? She’s the reason you’re in that chair.”
“Like fuck she is! We know it was Paxton and what you threatened to do if she didn’t take the blame.
You’ve mistreated that poor woman all her life.
She’s kind, sweet, caring, and nurturing.
I’m lucky to call her my friend. And my best friend is more than lucky he found her!” Tiago roared.
Senior flinched.
“I’m over this jackass.
He’ll keep trying, and nothing will change their fates.
Let me lay this out to you.
Your son was given loving attention by Tiago. We know what you and he have done for years. The bribes, threats, and more made against those whom you’ve hurt or swindled. You told my woman that if she didn’t accept blame for the accident, she’d be sent to stay with great-uncle Claude, the pedophile. You’ve run off friends and lost her jobs and apartments. It ends today. As for the Rosens, when they get a copy of everything Micro has discovered about you, they’ll be so glad they dodged a bullet with you that they won’t care that you’re gone. As for your wife, we’ll see what her fate is,” I informed him happily.
His smugness had slipped away.
The dawning of what he and Paxton were facing was registering.
As it did, I walked over and removed Pax’s gag.
“Dad, they know.
Stop.
We’re dead,” he whispered hoarsely.
However, Worthy Senior had to go down the road of begging.
It was pathetic.
He was even trying to throw his son under the bus, claiming it was all his idea and that he’d threatened his parents if they didn’t do as he said.
Supposedly, Paxton said he’d kill them. We got a hearty laugh out of it.
Finally, Albie grew quiet.
When he did, I turned to Tiago.
“Before the intermission, you spoke of removing parts of Paxton.
Would you like to do that still? And would it be something you’d like to see happen to his old man?”
Albie whimpered.
Pax moaned.
T thought it over for several moments before he answered me.
“I do believe I’d like to finish what I started.
You know how I hate not to.
As for the other one, he allowed and encouraged Paxton’s entitled behavior and belief that consequences were only for others.
I think he should get the same. However, I’d like you to do the honors.”
As Senior pleaded, I went to find another pair of snips like the ones Tiago brought.
While I did, Butcher and Crash moved Albie to be next to his son and strung him up the same way.
They removed his shoes and socks and rolled up his pant legs, so I had an unencumbered view of his feet.
By the time T and I were ready to start, Albie had snot running from all the crying he was doing.
Taking up spots directly in front of them, I let T choose which finger to do first.
He counted from three to one, and then we snipped.
Even though the snips were very sharp, it took a lot of hand strength to cut through bone. Grip strength was something Tiago worked on a lot. His hands had to do more work than a typical person’s. He snipped, and the first digit dropped, followed by mine. As they did, Wolverine was there with a small hand torch. As our medic, he’d mentioned the need to ensure Paxton didn’t bleed too much during the process. He volunteered to cauterize each nub. We’d talked about it at the clubhouse before we returned to the box. It added even more to their pain, which was a win-win for us.
After removing all ten fingers, we barely paused before we went to the toes.
Those were a little harder, so we ended up cutting off the two smallest ones before we stopped.
Not to seem like we were lazy, we finished off the other toes by smashing them with hammers.
Both men had vomited all over themselves, which had been washed away by cold water.
This left them shivering.
They were suffering, and we could’ve continued for hours more, but I was done.
A nod from my friend told me he was, too.
“We need to wrap this up.
However, before we do, we want you to confess to us everything that you’ve done over the years, starting with the accident that hurt Tiago.
Think of it as your confession to your priest, if you had one.
And the more details you give, the longer it lasts, and you remain alive. But don’t think you’ll just give a couple and be done to end your suffering, because if you do that, we’ll find other ways to hurt you and prolong it.” I laid out for them.
As Micro set up to record their confessions, Ken called us over.
He and I spoke for a few minutes.
It seemed they were ready to end their time.
We were thanked for letting them watch the show. They claimed they didn’t need the rest of the Worthy’s evil deeds on their minds. They had enough of their own to do penance for.
I could be a sadistic prick when I wanted, but in their case, I didn’t need to release my venom on them.
I’d punched Colin for punching Paige.
She’d told me on the break that, overall, they could’ve been much worse.
They hadn’t made threats of rape or anything like that. For good measure, I did punch the hell out of each one of them. They didn’t make a sound.
After briefly conversing with my brothers, Turbo, Wolverine, and Micro were given the green light.
They walked up to stand before the three men.
Bernardi’s men looked them straight in the eyes as my brothers shot them point-blank in the forehead.
The Worthy men screamed in terror when they heard the shots.
We gave them a minute to calm down, and then the confessions started.
They were talking over each other and had to be told to stop and take turns.
They’d go back and forth depending on who was pointed at.
The details of the dirty business deals and how they scared and threatened people and ruined others went on. And as Micro thought, there had been cases of rape by both men.
I did ask about something that had been bugging me.
“Paxton, your dad told you on the phone that you were on a timetable and you needed Paige.
I want to know what that was about.
What is going on? We know you couldn’t care less if the Rosens meet your sister or if she attends your wedding.”
Wearily, Pax confessed.
“The Rosens have been wanting to meet Paige.
We kept making excuses.
They got suspicious of them and insisted on meeting her before the wedding, or they’d call the whole thing off.
If that happens, there goes my political career and all our aspirations.”
“Christ, you really only care about yourselves, don’t you? You make me sick,” I snarled.
Paxton seemed to run out of the ability to say more.
We let him hang there.
We’d lied about ending their suffering as soon as they were finished.
An hour and a half in total was what it took for them to spill their guts.
When we didn’t shoot them like the others, they were stunned.
“You said we’d be done,” Albie mumbled.
“And you will be, but first, we’ve got to take a short trip.
Don’t worry, it’s not far,” Diablo told them.
We unchained them.
Bernardi’s men had been removed from the building while they confessed.
Dragging them outside, they saw a side-by-side with a trailer on the back.
The other three men were in it. They were forced into the wagon with the dead bodies. The rest of us had thought ahead and brought other all-terrain toys with us. Off we went. Tiago rode in mine with me.
Not far from the swamp box was another gate that exited the compound grounds in the back.
It went straight out to a dirt road.
Not far from that road, on a path used for riding trails in the swamp, was a known gator slide.
There was a big bastard who lived there. We called him Big Gnawbert. He’d been around forever. We didn’t know his actual age, but we estimated him to be about seventeen feet long and weighing around one thousand pounds. Anyone who had ever tried to hunt him never got lucky, and some lost limbs and their lives. Gnawbert was king and a legend in this area.
When we reached the area of his favorite slide, which was where he liked to enter and exit the water, we stopped.
We unloaded ourselves and checked the area.
Since they were fresh kills, Gnawbert would likely take the three goons to his nest below the water.
But to ensure he did with my almost in-laws, we would be tossing them in fresh and alive, the way an alligator preferred. Nothing better for a gator than to do a death roll and drown his victims, then stash their bodies in the underside of the banks and other vegetation to rot and become tenderized. A couple of minutes later, the dead bodies were tossed into the water. They sank from view. We had lights on so we could see if Big Gnawbert came up on us.
“We’re ready.
Shoot us.
Get it over with,” Albie croaked.
“Oh, who said we’d be shooting you? No, we’ll be throwing you in kicking.
Gnawbert loves it when his dinner fights back,” Crash gleefully told him.
This caused both men to scream and try to fight back as they were hauled out of the trailer.
We’d changed out the chains securing them for fibrous rope.
I wasn’t holding my breath that we’d get to see Gnawbert, but it would’ve been great.
Counting to three, we threw them into the water.
They thrashed and screamed even louder.
We were watching and laughing as they sank.
Suddenly, Paxton was dragged under. There was a flash of a reptilian tail. This caused Worthy Senior to scream louder. He watched in horror as the water was roiled by the alligator and his son’s body. Soon, the water went back to calm. Albie was trying to tread water softly as he craned his neck, looking for Gnawbert.
And then, just like that, I saw eyes coming along the top of the water.
They were barely visible.
Suddenly, a massive mouth full of teeth came out of the water.
Albie saw it coming and screamed bloody murder. He was snatched up and taken below the surface. We watched for several minutes to see if any bodies came to the surface. They didn’t. Over the next few days, we’d continue to check to be sure none did. Though this property wasn’t often hiked by others, there was a chance. We didn’t want to leave evidence behind.
With the show over, we loaded back up and headed to the clubhouse.
The swamp box would be cleaned later today by the prospects.
And it would remain a mystery what happened to the Worthy men when they came to Florida.
I hoped they survived long enough to suffer more. It was my idea to feed them alive to the alligators. I came up with it years ago. My club loved to call it the Scorpion’s Sting.
As we rode back, I swore I could feel relief and happiness coming off Tiago.
His expression was serene.
Since the accident, he has always had this tension about his features, even when smiling and joking.
It was gone. Justice had been served, and it was time to think of the future.
***
The past three weeks, since the removal of the two Worthy men and Bernardi’s men, had been filled with many things.
Bernardi did send a couple of guys.
We knew that due to some kind of tracking or alert that Micro had set up on his online footprint.
I didn’t pretend to understand what he meant. I was just as thankful as could be that we had him. And if he couldn’t do it, we had other resources in our friends’ clubs or in Tiago.
After snooping around, they ended up coming to the compound.
They posed as security consultants.
They pretended to be looking for three dangerous men whom they were tracking.
We put on the appropriate show. We welcomed them into the clubhouse and had them sit down and show us photos. We gave them suggestions on individuals they might want to ask, such as the chief of police. They thanked us and left no closer than before.
We didn’t worry that they’d find out that the men did make contact with Paige because, again, Micro and Tiago performed magic and altered the video from the security cameras at the parking garage.
They swore no one would be able to prove it was altered.
However, an eye would still be kept on Bernardi in case he had others come around.
After a week of inspecting Gnawbert’s territory, we stopped.
No body parts were found.
As for Paige’s mom and the Rosens, Paige did get a call from her mom demanding to know where her dad and brother were.
My desert blossom played it off beautifully. She was the perfect degree of confused and then upset. She informed her mom that she hadn’t seen them. When her mom called her a liar, Paige said that was rich coming from her. She then proceeded to tell her mom that if they were missing, they probably took off. She spun a believable story that the two guys had been hiding money for years so they could disappear and start over. She ended it by telling her mom never to contact her again.
Emily Worthy didn’t listen and called and then sent letters.
What made them stop was when she ended up running into financial trouble.
Information regarding Albert’s hidden income and offshore accounts was anonymously given to the IRS.
Since they filed jointly, it was her problem as well. The amount of money they owed would bankrupt her. In addition, she was facing jail time for it. It was our way to get justice on her, without killing her. We didn’t know how much she learned after the fact, but there was no indication she personally threatened or hurt anyone.
As for the Rosen family, they also received an anonymous bundle detailing the shady and criminal side of Albert and Paxton.
It was quickly announced that their daughter had broken the engagement and wanted nothing to do with Paxton.
They helped to spread the speculation that he and his dad had fled the country because they found out they were about to be exposed.
Several good things happened as well.
First, Bev was out of our lives.
It took a couple of weeks of pushing and insisting that I go to her doctor’s appointment for her to crack and admit she wasn’t pregnant.
However, to be sure, we made her submit to a pregnancy test that Wolverine administered, just to be sure. Once it came back negative, she was banned from the club. When I asked why she lied, she admitted she’d been hoping I’d claim her, and when I didn’t, she came up with the baby idea. The sonogram belonged to her friend. It was pure coincidence that she had it the night Paige was there.
For Paige, there was a win on the job front, although it was also a win for the club.
After Diablo and the club rescued Jauhnna from her horrible situation with her first husband, there had been talk of us helping other victims like her in some way.
It had been in the works and was still ongoing in the setup because it took tons of time, resources, and building connections to do it properly, but it was underway to create Wrath’s Recovery.
It was an underground system to help women, children, and men get free of their abusers, disappear, and start a new life.
We were all stoked about it.
The other clubs were more than willing to help in any way they could.
Jauhnna planned to be very hands-on. She believed passionately in it.
After a long talk with Paige, it was decided that those escaping would often need medical attention and to be assessed to see if they might need hospitals, etc.
This was the job for a nurse.
Eventually, they might expand to offer a doctor, but to begin with, they were thrilled to have a nurse.
Paige readily agreed. She would help them set up the whole medical side of it. This meant she didn’t have to get a job elsewhere.
This wasn’t the only thing happening for the club.
Next was the garage.
I’d finally gotten around to talking to the club about expanding it.
It would mean even more work in some ways for me, but we were turning away work. We could hire more mechanics if we had more work bays. And if we had more customers, I could hire an assistant. It was to start in the new year.
The final thing was the tattoo shop.
We’d purchased the one Thunder had told us about last year.
It was entirely ours, and we were doing business like crazy.
Darian, the ink slinger who did Thunder’s eagle tattoo, had stayed and was a large part of the success. We’d been happy with how that business had been performing this year. What made us even happier was that after asking him several times to consider becoming a prospect with our club, Darian had just finally agreed. He was our third prospect. The other two were showing him the ropes. We did have to make allowances for his tattooing time, but it benefited the club, so it was no problem.
Today, the whole club was buzzing.
We were preparing for the party later.
It was time to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another.
I was excited to see what it would bring other than a wife and possibly the beginning of a family for me.
Mom arrived from Virginia yesterday.
She planned to spend ten days with us.
She and Paige had hugged and instantly started to bond even more than they had already over video calls.
They went off together to talk about the wedding and God knows what else. I was used to being the focus of Mom’s attention along with Tiago. We hung together and joked about how we’d been replaced. Mom had always said she wished she’d had a daughter.
The food, alcohol, and fireworks were ready to go.
Jauhnna, Mom, and Paige insisted we had to decorate the common room for the occasion.
Jaycee had been ecstatic when she saw what they were putting up.
They let her help where she could. I have to say, they did a great job. It screamed festive New Year’s without being cutesy.
We’d all celebrate together, and then at midnight, we’d usher in the new year.
At that point, anyone who didn’t want to stay to have time with the hangers-on and club sluts, they’d leave.
It had been agreed that it was only fair to the single guys.
The food had been prepared by the three ladies despite us saying we’d have it brought in.
They waved our suggestion away, even though Jauhnna and Paige cooked for Christmas.
The whole clubhouse smelled delicious.
They were doing it in the large kitchen we had there. We’d snuck in several times to get a taste or sneak a bite and were run off. Mom used the wooden spoon, just as she did when I was a kid. Paige and Jauhnna used whatever they could get their hands on.
I couldn’t wait until I rang in the new year with a kiss and more with my Blossom.
She was sporting her engagement ring proudly for all to see.
I’d given it to her after we dealt with her family and the others.
Along with it, she had received her property cut. She told me she would wear it tonight. It would be her first official wearing. We had invited friends and employees to celebrate with us.
Taking in the room, I thought we’d gotten everything done.
I’d ask one of the women to do a final walk-through to make sure it met their satisfaction.
Then I’d get ready.