Chapter 74
Nash
Knock Knock.
I held still, listening like an animal stalking prey. The door flung open, and Sabastian stood there, glaring at me with Ivy in the background.
“What the hell do you want?”
“I’m here because we were finally finding some common ground, and I don’t like how shit popped off today,” I said, giving a little shrug, selling the story as best I could.
“It was kind of a shock to see the woman who murdered my mother standing in the middle of the school.”
He crossed his arms as he glared at me. Ivy was inching closer, probably afraid we were going to get into it this time.
“Yeah, that would fuck with anyone,” I said, agreeing with him. “Look, the way I see it, there is enough bad blood between all of our parents for ten lifetimes. If this cycle of anger is going to end, we need to be the ones to do it.”
Sabastian looked skeptical, but he uncrossed his arms.
“What do you have in mind?”
“Come to Volatile Saturday night. Both of you. We will hash shit out and find a way to co-exist, because neither of us is going anywhere. Ren and Ivy are best friends,” I said, waving at her.
“The anger and animosity will only ruin friendships. Ren says she sees you like a brother, whether you’re related or not, and she is torn up. ”
Ivy touched his arm.
“We were just saying that we needed to figure something out. Why don’t we at least try? I can’t see myself not hanging out with Ren. She’s my best friend.”
Thank you, Ivy, my unsuspecting helper.
“We’ll go, but Yuliana better not be there, I don’t want to speak to her.”
I held up my hand like I was swearing on the bible.
“Fine by me. Like I said, this is about us stopping the cycle of bullshit. Doesn’t mean we have to agree or see eye-to-eye about what our parents have done,” I said, deserving an Oscar for my performance. “Come for say 8:30, we have training on Sunday, and I don’t want to be out too late.”
Checking my watch, I smirked. I nodded to the boys, then got up and kissed Princess.
“I need to talk to Nora. I’ll be back.”
“Anything wrong?”
I shook my head. “Just club stuff, nothing to worry about.”
“Okay.”
Ren turned back to Chantry, while her new guard, Mo, stood off to the side keeping watch. I liked him. He was keen, intelligent, willing to die for her, and didn’t look at my wife like she was a hot piece of ass.
I signalled Liam, and he walked over to the big bay window to keep watch. As I headed to the bar, I pulled up my text messages and called Nora over, so Ren would see the two of us chatting.
“Can you hand me the tablet?”
“Sure,” Nora said. “But don’t you have one in the VIP area?”
“I do. I mean the one for inventory,” I said.
“There’s no need, I took care of it earlier,” Nora said with a smile.
Of course, she would be beyond efficient today.
“Alright, thanks. I’ll just look at the drink one while I’m here.”
She shrugged like I was being strange and handed me the black tablet with red rhinestones from behind the bar.
“Sure thing, you’re the boss,” Nora said and walked away.
The drink choices seemed to grow every week as Nora came up with new concoctions. I aimlessly scrolled the list and kept one eye on Liam. He tipped his chin, and I hit send on the pre-written text.
N: Go time.
It was hard as fuck to keep a straight face as the sound of sirens filled the air. Red and blue lights flashed across the black-tinted glass as the cops wheeled into the parking lot.
I marched for the door, scowl on my face as I pushed through the crowd with their phones out filming it all. I got outside just in time to watch the show.
“What the hell are you talking about? I don’t deal drugs,” Sabastian said as Ellis and his crew surrounded the car.
“Open the trunk,” Ellis commanded as Sabastian, with his hands in the air, was pushed up against the car and frisked.
The guys and Ren joined me outside just as one of the officers used the remote to unlock the trunk.
“What’s going on,” Ren asked.
I didn’t answer her, instead I stepped away and yelled.
“Hey, this is my club, what are you doing?”
Another officer patted Ivy down, then handcuffed her and told her to remain silent.
Morrison had the night off work so he wouldn’t see this or be dragged into it. At least, not until he got the call from Ivy about what happened.
Ellis looked at me.
“I know who you are, Collier, and I don’t care. We have every right to search this vehicle,” Ellis said, smirking.
He really was such a prick
“On what grounds,” I asked, and Sabastian looked at me.
“We got a tip that Mr. Nikitovich is selling drugs through this club.”
“That’s bullshit. I don’t allow drugs in my club,” I yelled for the cameras. “This is blatant harassment of my customers.”
“We’ll see,” Ellis said.
Part of me hated doing this, but the rest…
didn’t give a fuck. I had never trusted Sabastian but had tried to see things from Ren’s point of view.
I agreed with her that we shouldn’t be blamed for the mistakes of our parents, but…
he’d proven more than once that he was not on our side.
He was emotional, unstable, and I couldn’t take the chance that he might try to hurt Ren or her mother.
Ellis pulled two cutesy backpacks out of the trunk. One was pink, the other was white with flowers.
Sabastian looked at them and then at Ivy.
“Why do you have my backpacks,” Ivy asked, and my eyes shot to Liam, who shrugged.
Okay, that was not part of the plan.
“I don’t know. Why are they in my trunk, Ivy,” Sabastian asked, his tone clearly saying he didn’t trust her either right now.
The zip sounded final as Ellis opened the bags and pulled out bricks of cocaine.
“What the fuck,” Sabastian said as his eyes went wide. “That is not mine.”
He looked at Ivy for answers.
“It’s not mine. Where would I even get it,” Ivy asked.
She and Sabastian both turned on me.
“You did this. You all did this, didn’t you? You fucker,” Sabastian roared and pulled on the officer holding him.
“Put them in separate cars. We’ll take them both in,” Ellis ordered.
Fuck.
“This can’t be happening,” Ivy said, her voice shaking as she looked at Ren. “I didn’t do this. You know that, right? Please tell me you know I wouldn’t do this?”
“I know,” Ren yelled back as she walked up to me.
You could still hear Sabastian melting down in the back of the police car, his feet pounding on the inside of the door as he yelled. He certainly wasn’t helping his case.
Once the cops were gone and the customers went back inside, Ren turned on me. Mo and the guys stood behind her. She stared me down and crossed her arms.
“You did this, didn’t you? He’s right. You set him up.”
I didn’t say a word. I didn’t feel guilty for protecting her, not now, not ever. Even when she didn’t fucking see the danger in someone she cared about. I would do whatever it took to keep her safe.
“Answer me, Nash.”
“No.”
“No, what?”
“No, I’m not going to answer you.”
“Nash, I’m not playing this game with you. Tell me right now if you had anything to do with this,” Ren demanded.
“And what if I did? What are you going to do? You gonna rush down to the station and tell the cops that it wasn’t your psycho, sorta brother? That it was your husband and boyfriends instead?”
Ren looked over her shoulder, and the guys all nodded.
“All of you?”
“Ren, he was dangerous. I know you don’t want to see it, and I understand why. But love also makes us blind,” Liam said.
Myles stepped forward.
“Ya know how much I hate keepin’ stuff from ya, Snowflake, but they’re right. We couldn’t take the chance that another New Year’s happens. We can’t lose anyone else, and next time it really could be yer Ma, Da, Lip, or one of us. He needs to be in a feckin' time out.”
“I don’t believe this,” Ren said, and ran her hand through her hair. “Do none of you feel even the tiniest bit guilty that he could go away for life for this? For something he didn’t do. My friend is down there with him and scared out of her mind.”
“I don’t give a fuck that he is behind bars where he can’t hurt us.
In fact, he can rot there for all I care.
” I leaned in closer and felt the anger radiating off of her.
“He deserves everything coming to him. He did the same thing to Zigzag, who is currently waiting to see how much jail time he is facing. And because of me and what I did tonight, Zigzag will only get two years instead of fifteen. So no, I don’t care,” I whispered. “And I’m not fucking sorry.”
“You made a deal for Zigzag,” she whispered.
“Fucking right I did. Christov played him, and so did Sabastian. They are the ones who should be locked up. I did what I did, and I won’t take it back. So, if you want to head on down there and tell the cops what you think really happened, go for it.”
“And put all of you in there instead? You knew I wouldn’t do that. This…this is unbelievable. What’s going to happen to Ivy?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure how that happened,” I said, looking at Liam.
“No idea, but I’ll find out,” he said, pulling out his phone.
“Make sure you get answers tonight.”
He nodded and walked off.
“I don’t believe this,” Ren said, looking at me and then Myles, Blake, and Theo.
“I get why you did it, but it still doesn’t make ruining his life okay.
And to top it off, you all lied to me and kept me in the dark, again,” she fumed.
“I have to go to the police station and see what I can do about Ivy.”
I grabbed her hand before she could walk away, but she jerked free.
“Don’t,” Ren ordered, her eyes cutting me deep.
“Let me handle Ivy. I’ll even call Morrison to make sure he’s there when she gets out. Just stay away from the station,” I said.
“Why, are you scared I’m going to turn you in?”
“No, because as angry as you are, you know that we’re right. Ella died the last time we waited to act. You and your father almost died the time before that. You really want to see what the third one looks like?”
I hadn’t wanted to go there and say it out loud, but she needed to hear it.
“It’s just better that you stay out of it,” I said.
“Fine, I’m going to my dad’s.”
“I’ll drive you,” Theo offered.
“No. Mo can take me. I don’t want to talk to any of you right now.”
We all watched as Ren marched off, Mo following like a shadow.
“We really might’ve fecked it up good this time,” Myles said. “I knew lyin’ to her was a bad idea.”
“Yeah, and how would you have neutralized the problem when killing him was off the table?”
“I don’t know,” Myles said, running his hand through his hair.
“Exactly, and she was never letting us do this. So, we did what was necessary.”
“Aye…I guess.”
I wouldn’t take it back, so the only thing I could do now was deal with Ivy being caught in the middle.
Liam rounded the corner and looked around.
“Where’s Ren?”
“She left with Mo to go to her dad’s,” Blake said.
“What about the backpacks? You find anything out from Trent?”
“Yeah, the idiot decided to use those instead because they looked, and I quote, less suspicious,” Liam said.
“Stupid son of a bitch. Alright, we need to take care of him tonight. Quietly. I’m heading to the station to talk to Ellis, and then, I’ll meet you at the cabin.”
Liam nodded.
“You want all of us there,” Theo asked, and I shook my head.
“No, if anyone can get Ren to see that this is not a bad thing, it’s you three. Wear her down so we don’t all end up divorced,” I grumbled and headed for my truck.
Choices and consequences. It never ended.