Chapter 11
Trigger
I lean my elbows on my knees from where I’m sitting, resting my mouth on top of my linked fingers as I watch Cole. He’s sitting at the table on his own, doing his homework, not paying any attention to anyone around him. He’s refusing to talk to anyone, even Caleb.
He’s barely said two words since I picked him up three hours ago, and I’m beginning to worry about him.
This thing between his mama and me, it is hitting him hard, and the fact that he believes I don’t want him, that I don’t love him, that we’ll never be a family again when I’m trying my hardest to get his mama back, is fucking killing me.
I’m at a loss as to what to do right now.
My phone rings as I watch Mama go and take a seat next to Cole, but he doesn’t acknowledge her, and I sigh as I grab my phone out of my cut, but frown seeing who the caller is.
“Dad?” I answer.
“Virginia is in the torture chamber,” he says before hanging up, and my brows rise.
Huh?
The woman has been underground for fucking ages, so how in the fuck did he find her when Dirty hasn’t managed to?
Shaking my head, I climb off the bench and put my phone back in my cut as I walk over to Cole, gripping his shoulders when I’m behind him.
“I’ve got to go help Grandpa with something. I won’t be long, alright?” I say, but instead of words, he shrugs, and I sigh, “Cole–”
He cuts me off and counters, “Are you going to split Mama and Talen up?”
I lock eyes with Mama, hers wide before I look at Cole and see his attention on me. Fuck, I really don’t want to piss him off again, so what do I say to that when I plan to?
His mama is mine, she always has been. We just, fuck, we lost our way a little.
“Do you want me to?” I ask instead of answering his question.
“Yes,” he instantly returns, and my body relaxes. “I don’t like him, Dad, he’s not you, I want you and Mama back together. I want my life back to normal and not live in an apartment with cockroaches.”
What the fuck?!
My eyes widen as anger fills me, and Mama seeing my reaction, clears her throat and confirms, “There are cockroaches?”
Cole nods with shame, like he just got his mama into trouble and my jaw ticks. She hates me that much, she’s living in a shithole with fucking bugs.
“Mama kills them every time and puts stuff down, but I-I hear her at night, she cries herself to sleep, she isn’t happy. I’m not happy, I want to come home, I want Mama to come home, I want my family back, Dad…” He whispers, and I swear to fuck, my heart breaks.
I wrap my arms around his body from behind and press my lips against his head as he sniffles, and I lock eyes with Mama’s watery ones.
“Can you sit with him until I’m done, please?” I rasp, and she nods as she wipes away a stray tear.
I pull back from Cole and bend slightly so we’re making eye contact, his eyes that are so much like his mama’s, all watery.
I fucking hate this, I hate all of it, and I know I’m partly to blame.
“I’ll be half an hour, and when I get back, we’ll go home and eat all the junk food you can think of,” I promise.
His bottom lip trembles as he whispers, “But it won’t be the same without Mama…”
I hear my mama sniffle, but I ignore her and I state, “I’m going to get her back, Cole, I promise you, I will get her back.”
He nods and I kiss his head before muttering, “Be good for Granny, I won’t be long,” before I walk away with my heart in my throat, hoping and praying I don’t break my promise, that Ash will come back to me one way or another.
I walk into the torture room five minutes later, which is basically an outhouse that has been soundproofed, and find Dirty, my dad, Doc, who I thought was on a night shift tonight, and Stone.
All of whom are standing around a pissed off, and gagged Virginia tied to a chair.
Her face looking pretty banged up and swollen…
Huh, even her nose looked broken…
I tilt my head and ask, “Who beat the bitch up?” gaining everyone’s attention, Virginia’s body relaxing at my presence, which is fucking stupid on her part.
I never pictured her when I fucked her, always losing my hard on when I did see her instead of my wife.
She was just a way of trying to find the affection I lacked.
Dad answers, “Ashley,” and I look at him in shock but he’s not looking at me, instead he’s looking at Virginia with a scowl as he states, “My lovely daughter-in-law called me and explained that she needed my help so I dropped everything and went to her, only to find Virginia knocked out and Ashley shaking her hand.”
What. The. Fuck…
“Is she okay?” I demand as I step forward, and Dad scowls, fuck even the brothers look at me with anger. I roll my eyes and snap, “My wife, Dad! Is my wife, okay?!”
“Oh,” he mutters as the brothers wince and he mumbles, “uh yeah, she’s good, though the shit Virginia spewed pissed her off enough for her to hit her several times, busting up the bitch’s face. She knocked her out before calling me, her hand is just bruised.”
And now I’m hard and I want my fucking wife, preferably underneath me moaning my name as I make her come over and over again…
Virginia mumbles behind the gag, and Doc yanks it down, and she coughs, “Trigger, baby, I was attacked, she attacked me for no reason, she’s crazy, she hates that we’re in love.”
In love? What the fuck? I probably only fucked the bitch what thirty times in a year? Which fuck, I hate myself even more for my actions…
I raise a brow as Stone snorts, “Fucking delusional bitch.”
She glares his way and screams, “We are in love, and he’ll understand why I had to do it, why I orchestrated it!”
“Any idea what the fuck she’s talking about?” Dad asks as he stands beside me, and I reply, “Not got a clue, the woman is deranged.”
“Trigger, please,” she says, looking at me, “You need to avenge me, you were always supposed to be mine until she came along, please…”
I hold my hand out towards my dad without replying to her, and he places a knife in my hand.
Virginia smiles, clearly thinking I’m about to cut her loose, which like fuck am I, I just need to hurry this shit up because I made a promise to my son.
I grip the blade in my hand and walk over to Virginia, her eyes lighting up, but they soon widen as she gasps in pain as I slam the knife down into her bare thigh.
Tears instantly spill as her mouth opens, a scream wanting to release, but I quickly remove the knife, causing her scream to choke in her throat, and I stab the knife into her other thigh, blood instantly pouring.
Her scream releases as her body shakes.
“Music to my fucking ears for the pain she put my daughter-in-law and grandson through,” I hear my dad state, and I pull the knife out again, ready to end this bitch as I thrust it forward, right into her chest, and she chokes, her eyes wide as she jolts forward.
“You know that feeling that you have right now, the pain?” I sneer as she gasps for breath, “That is exactly how I felt when my ten-year-old came home crying because of you.”
I pull the knife out again before slicing it across her throat, and within seconds, her head drops, and I take a deep breath.
“Rot in hell bitch!” I mutter as I drop the knife, turn around, and walk to the door, stating, “Sorry for leaving you with the clean-up brothers, but I promised my son a junk food night before I kidnap his mama and bring her home.”
Their laughter follows me out of the outhouse, and I take a deep breath as I reach outside. One problem down, another to go and finding out why she back offed before I claim my wife back, even if I have to take her kicking and screaming.
***
The next day I bounce my leg and I look at Ash, who yet again is ignoring me, only looking at Dr. Chimes just like every session and I’m getting antsy.
We’ve been in here for five minutes, and neither of us has said anything.
I know she knows Virginia is dead, Dad called to inform her Cole will always be safe, yet she hasn’t even looked at me.
Does she think her boyfriend is next?
Well, she should because the fucker is a dead man walking for touching her.
“Okay, you two, how were the last two weeks?” Dr. Chimes begins.
“My wife has something to tell me,” I answer, not beating around the bush.
Dr. Chimes frowns while Ash scoffs, “I’ve got nothing to tell you, Trigger.”
Am I shocked she’s not taking responsibility for her part in all this? No, not really, but am I pissed she’s being stubborn? Absolutely.
Our son needs us to figure our shit out and any other children we may have in the future.
He wants a sibling, to come home and have his parents back together.
I want it all as well. We just need to figure out how to forgive each other.
She needs to ditch that dickhead boyfriend of hers before I get trigger-happy with my gun and she needs to put her wedding ring back on!
“How about I call Dirty then?” I threaten, and Dr. Chimes opens her mouth, but before she can ask what is going on, Ash snaps.
“You have no right to know why I backed off you, Trigger, you lost that right the moment you slept with that bitch and continued to do so for a year!” she sneers, looking my way.
She may be looking at me with hate but at least she’s looking at me.
“I didn’t sleep with her for a fucking year, Ashley!” I snap back, my anger hitching up that she’s still doubling down.
“Yes, you did!” she says louder.
“I fucked her two or three times a month, that is it!” I state then wince knowing how it sounded, and Dr. Chimes clears her throat, also knowing my fuck up.
“That’s it?” Ash chuckles, “You fuck another woman after being with me since I was ten years old, completely breaking me, and you say that’s it, like you were taking my last chocolate out of the fridge!”
“Pixie –”
She cuts me off and chokes, “I knew I never should have married you. I saw the wandering eye you had over the years, encouraging the flirtations of other women, enjoying it…”
“I was a teenager, Ashley but I never went there, I always came home to you.” I cut in, but she ignores me.