Chapter Thirty-Eight
Marchella
I hated the position he put us in, even if I’d kept my mouth shut and went through the motions. His presence brought a calm to me that I couldn’t describe. When I was with Blaze, my world became brighter. He only had eyes for me, and he made me feel like a goddess. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him working with my father, but it really wasn’t fair to whine about his choice of job, when I’d been the one to bust his balls for not having one. The man hadn’t even been in town a week, and he’d not only landed a job, but he was also going to be co-owner. Shit, most of the douchebags around here were pushing thirty and the only things they could get in their names were criminal records and social media accounts.
I felt bad for pressuring him on top of all the other hell he was catching from his mom and Easy. Especially now that I was sitting there listening to Nikki and watching the way the room changed and charged around me. I’d known my father was a disciple all of my life, but I never really grasped what it meant until now.
Nikki’s baby daddy, Dwayne Corey was an informant. She couldn’t go to the police, he practically was a cop. They protected him like one of their own. I’d gotten that much out of her on the ride over. She’d actually been clutching a torn order of protection when I found her.
The police were aware their dog had gone rabid, and no one had bothered putting him back in the cage, or better yet– putting him down.
For the first time in my life, I understood that maybe if the club hadn’t been between us and the mob, none of us would be here today. Afterall, hadn’t that war started because my grandfather’s drug trade got his Valentino wife killed?
What if they’d come after my family, and there had been no club?
I was numb for a moment as my mind spun.
The front door quietly popped open, and Donnie started toward us. His thumb hitched back toward the parking lot where my car was no doubt, still kissing my brother's motorcycle.
“Yeah, yeah. It’s good,” Blaze quietly assured him.
Donnie nodded and stretched his neck a little to see what was going on in the office.
“I ain’t seen her in a hot minute,” he mumbled. “The fuck happened to her–?”
“Some dude beat her ass, made her suck his dick, and poured gasoline on her. I think her kid saw the attempted bonfire or whatever–” Blaze summarized in a low, respectful tone that I doubted Nikki heard.
“Is he still breathing?” Donnie casually asked.
My father made a throaty sound of confirmation and Donnie nodded and glanced toward Blaze.
“What time you got?”
“He said two hours.”
“Hmm?”
Blaze looked at him finally, his features slowly shifting as he studied Donnie.
“Not him, you.” Donnie pointed to the bracelet on my husband's ankle. “What time do they put you back on lockdown?”
“Shit,” Blaze cursed.
“It’s nothing. I can take care of it, but I need a timeline.”
“What the fuck do you know about house-arrest equipment?” I spat, not wanting another episode with the court.
“I know enough, Sis,” he promised, placing a gentle hand at my back. “I won’t let him get hurt. I promise.”
The last part was whispered, so only me and Blaze heard. Blaze laughed, but I flashed my brother a grateful half-hearted smile.
“Just handle it and get your ass back home, already.” I shoved a kiss against Blaze’s cheek and shot toward the door.
I didn’t know how to let him go. I didn’t know how to stop him. I didn’t want to stop him, but I didn’t want to lose him, either, so I just removed myself from the equation. The last thing I wanted was him thinking about me and some outburst when he needed to be focused on armed confrontations and making sure that Dwayne got a trailer-sized bonfire.
I was halfway down the cemetery hill when I realized what was going on. It might have even been the sight of the graves that slapped me with reality.
They weren’t going to burn his house.
They meant to kill Dwayne.
I stopped at the T and stared at my mother’s grave in the cemetery across the street. I’d heard Donnie ask if Dwayne was still breathing, but that was just how people talked around us. They were mean mother fuckers, every last one of them. It was like when my brother used to shriek, ‘I’m going to kill you ,’ when I took the last of his favorite sweets when we were kids. They were just words, right?
The sea of headstones staring back at me said otherwise.
The air in the car was sucked out all at once, or maybe it just seemed that way because I couldn’t draw a breath. I kept gasping over and over, my knuckles tightening on the wheel. I stomped on the gas and made a sharp turn.
Goddamn it.
What the fuck was I doing? I couldn’t let my college graduate husband throw his life away with this bullshit. He didn’t even know Nikki or Dwayne. He probably couldn’t name any of the founding Disciples beyond his grandfather and mine. This wasn’t for him!
My thoughts were racing. So many dark memories consumed me, I ended up pulling over on the side of the road. I closed my eyes, but it didn’t help anything. The memories became more vivid.
The spinning, lightheadedness was replaced by the racing of my heart, and a trembling that left my legs thumping on the floorboard while images of my childhood flashed before me.
Mackie’s chest to my back, his hand firmly over my mouth while we watched through a slightly cracked door. I could hear my mother long before I saw her. She was screaming like she was in the fight of her life. The sound grew louder and exploded just as he came marching in the front door, his hand tangled in her hair. Dad lost her at one point and scrambled, taking out strands of hair in his missed swipe at her head, the fighting left her shirt twisted up around her bra. When he got ahold of it again, he jerked, dragging her over the carpet and banging her head off the leg of a kitchen chair on his path to the bedroom with her
Tears were streaming down my face when I came back to myself. I slumped back on the seat exhausted and absolutely certain that my father saw Blaze as the same threat he had my mother. He’d done that to his own wife for trying to take his daughter away, what would he do to a person he didn’t give a fuck about? Someone who just randomly appeared from Georgia.
Someone to blame Dwayne and the fire on.
I wanted to be wrong, but in my heart…
I was shaking so violently I didn’t trust myself to steer and my legs felt so light and numb. I threw the car door open and let the breeze wash over me.
“Focus, March,” I coaxed myself.
It took a while, but the shaking slowly subsided. I reached for the door, taking a hold of it with every intention of swinging it shut. That was when I saw the cop in the rearview mirror. A wave of dizziness hit me hard. I clung to the door and my mouth watered, sweat prickled at my brow, and the air suddenly seemed to take a chill as I inhaled through my nose.
I heard boots on gravel, and the subtle white noise of his radio before he read my plate aloud.
I exhaled through pursed lips and shifted, causing the door to lurch while I was trying to wipe my brow.
“Whoa there, you okay?” the officer asked.
“Uh– yeah.” I swallowed, only to lean forward and vomit. I barely had time to throw the door wide enough to miss.
“Oh– Okay.”
I shakily wiped my mouth and gave him an apologetic look, “I’m sorry. I’m— I think I might be pregnant.”
“I see that.” He nodded vigorously.
His uniform identified him as a county officer. ‘Ludwig’ was stitched over his breast in bold letters, along with a badge number.
“I’m so sorry,” I managed, swiping at my hair.
“No. No you’re fine. I mean– you are okay?”
“Yeah. No, I’m fine. I just needed a moment. I’m better now. I’ll just compose myself and be on my way, I’m sorry,” I babbled.
“You take all the time you need, Honey. Do you need me to stick arou–?”
“No,” I cut him off, “No, I’ve wasted enough of your time. I’ll be fine. I promise.”
He gave a relieved chuckle and headed back to his car.
“Oh. My. God.” I whispered to myself once he rolled up next to me and waved. He took off down the highway, adjusting his headlights as he went.
I turned the air on and pulled out onto the road. I had to drive for several miles before I got my bearings. I was about five miles out of town, if I’d have stayed straight a little while longer, I’d have ended up at the Nokomis hospital.
How the fuck does that even happen, I inwardly asked myself. How fucking crazy was I that I could black out while driving?
And come to my senses hanging out of the car with the cops rolling up, no less!
“Jesus Christ.” I wiped my face with my hand and headed home, despite my urge to find Blaze.
I didn’t think I was sick or pregnant, but I had no idea how much time had passed, or what I’d roll up on. The last thing I wanted to do was cause them to get caught. Dwayne chose his fate when he tried to set a pregnant woman on fire. Whatever became of him was between him and his maker as far as I was concerned.
I just hoped Blaze made it home okay.