Chapter Twenty #3
Maverick groans, sniffing the air, then physically shudders as he spins around and stalks toward the door.
“Just hurry the fuck up then.” He leaves the door half open as he storms out, and Clover giggles as we quickly jump out of bed and get dressed.
Her mood has lightened considerably, whether from the glucose, the great sex, or the absurdity of the situation, I’m not sure, but I know there are questions building in her eyes.
A few minutes later, we make our way into the main clubroom, where Sadie and Maverick are waiting with plates of food set out for all four of us. There’s even a small bowl of cat food on the floor, and Dracula immediately abandons us to attack his lunch.
“Thank you for thinking of Dracula,” Clover says warmly to Sadie as we settle into our chairs. Clover leans over to Sadie, giving her a quick sister-in-law type hug.
Sadie smiles, but there’s an obvious tension around her eyes. She knows something heavy is coming.
Maverick clears his throat, looking between Sadie and me. “All right. We need to talk about what happened yesterday when Phoenix and I went into the prison.”
“Okay,” Sadie says slowly, her fork pausing halfway to her mouth, her eggs hanging in limbo.
I take a deep breath, knowing there’s no easy way to say this. “I guess this is where I come in. While we were in the prison, we ran into someone we definitely weren’t expecting to see.”
“Who?” Clover asks.
Maverick and I exchange a look, then my eyes shift to my sister, knowing this is going to impact her just like it did me.
Finally, I find the strength to force the words out.
“Sadie… I don’t know how else to tell you this, but in the bottom cells, underneath the prison, we ran into our mother… Layla.”
Sadie’s fork clatters to her plate, her eyes wide as saucers, her mouth opens wide in shock. “What? She was in jail? As a prisoner?”
“Oh, God, was she one of the surrogates?” Clover’s voice is barely a whisper, her hand sliding out to take mine in hers.
Sadie’s eyes widen in fear, her hand shooting to her mouth like that could be the worst outcome.
My stomach churns, sweat tops my brow, and I freeze.
Not knowing how to move forward with telling Sadie that our mother was the reason for all those surrogacies down in that fucking hellhole.
My desperate eyes seek Maverick, pleading with him, and he simply nods in understanding.
Maverick leans forward, his voice grim. “Cupcake… she wasn’t a surrogate or a prisoner, not exactly.”
Sadie furrows her brows, tilting her head at Maverick in confusion. “W-what do you mean?”
My shoulders slump, and I let out a stuttered breath. Clover notices the anxiety rolling through me and cuddles into my side instantly.
Maverick continues, “She was recruited. Layla’s been working with Javier, with the Cartel, for years, helping them to run their operation inside the prison.”
The color drains from Sadie’s face as she jerks back, shaking her head in disbelief.
“No… that can’t be right? She was working with them?
Willingly?” Her head snaps to me to seek clarification, but the moment her eyes meet mine, and she sees the state I am in, she knows.
She can already tell that everything Maverick is saying is the truth.
I nod, feeling sick all over again as I reach my hand across the table for hers. “Sades… she’s the one who’s been overseeing the surrogates they’ve been keeping underground. The pregnancies, the babies… fucking all of it. Our mother was the goddamn caretaker of the whole damn thing.”
“Jesus,” Clover murmurs as Sadie just stares at me like she is in complete shock.
“It gets worse,” Maverick says, his jaw tight, and Sadie slowly turns her head to look at him.
“How can it get worse than that, Mav?” she whispers, a tear sliding down her cheek.
He furrows his brows, his eyes instinctively dropping to her pregnant belly, then back up to meet her glistening eyes. “When Layla saw us, when she realized we were there to shut down her operation, she threatened you, Sadie.”
Sadie’s hand flies to her throat, a shocked gasp escaping her. “Threatened me? How?”
It’s Maverick this time who seems to be frozen, so I take over.
“She said that she knew you were pregnant, Sades… and that if you had a daughter, she was going to take her and train her as a bird for The Nest,” I explain, watching my sister’s face crumble, her hand instinctively moving over her stomach protectively.
“She said she’d make sure your child became one of Javier’s weapons. ”
“Oh my God. That doesn’t sound like the loving mother we knew at all. Are you sure it was her?” Sadie whispers, tears falling down her cheeks like a river.
My chest squeezes, my eyes well up, seeing my sister going through the same rationalizations I had to.
That this woman, our mother, who we thought we knew, had a complete personality transplant.
I guess that’s what the corruption of the Cartel can do to someone.
Maverick reaches out, taking her hand in his. “She was completely lost, Sadie. The woman who raised you… she was gone. What was left was something else entirely.”
“What happened. There’s something you’re not telling us?” Clover asks, her eyes on me, though I can see in her eyes that she already knows.
Maverick rolls his shoulders, seeming suddenly uncomfortable.
So I take over. “I froze… I did the same thing you just did, Sadie. That the woman we knew, the woman who made me love Elvis, who gave you that vinyl you still have, who taught us that even when you’re having a bad day, and tomorrow is a fresh start, I couldn’t rationalize those thoughts.
So when she started threatening you and your unborn child, Maverick and I both knew that we couldn’t let her anywhere near you. Sadie, we couldn’t!”
She lets out a soft sob, her bottom lip trembling as she softly nods, her hand gently sliding out across Maverick’s chest, where the large bandage covers the wound my mother made with her shiv. “Did s-she do t-this?” Sadie whimpers.
Maverick softly nods, reaching up to take Sadie’s hand in his, and he then kisses her hand gently and holds it back to his chest.
“S-she tried to k-kill you?” she stutters through her tears.
Maverick simply nods.
Sadie turns to look at me, tilting her head, tears still streaming down her face. “Wes, is she?”
Letting out a heavy exhale, I stand and walk around the table, then squat beside her, pulling her to me in the tightest embrace.
“I’m so sorry, Sadie. I’m so sorry that you didn’t get the chance to see her.
I’m so sorry that she isn’t the mother we remember.
And I’m so sorry that we had to do what we had to, to make sure that you and your baby are safe. ”
She clings to me as she cries harder, Maverick’s eyes meeting mine over her shoulder as I hold her tight. He nods, giving me a silent thank you for not telling Sadie which one of us took the kill shot. It’s better if she doesn’t know who, and it stays ambiguous.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper into her hair. “I’m so fucking sorry you had to find out this way.”
“She was already gone, wasn’t she?” Sadie asks through her tears. “The mother we remembered… she died a long time ago.”
“Yeah,” I say quietly, stroking her hair. “She did.”
Clover reaches over, squeezing Sadie’s hand supportively. “I’m sorry. I had no idea she was even alive, let alone…” she trails off, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine how hard this must be for both of you.”
“You understand why we did what we had to do?” I ask Clover, making sure that she’s okay.
Clover nods firmly. “Of course I do. You protected Sadie. You protected all of us. Sometimes the hardest choices are the right ones.”
We sit in heavy silence for a few minutes, processing everything.
Finally, Sadie wipes her eyes and takes a shaky breath. “Thank you,” she says, aimed at us both. “For protecting me. For… for ending her suffering.”
Maverick nods grimly. “She wasn’t coming back from what they’d done to her. What they’d turned her into.”
“I know,” Sadie whispers. “I know.”
One Week Later
The clubhouse feels different now. Lighter somehow, despite everything we’ve been through.
We won.
The Cartel’s chokehold on the city is broken, their operations dismantled, their key players either dead or scattered to the wind.
We’re all gathered in the main room, watching the evening news coverage of what the media is calling ‘the largest multi-front operation against organized crime in California history.’ They don’t know who’s responsible—we made sure of that—but the reporters are having a field day with the story.
The widescreen television hangs down from the rafters, and we sit back in the clubroom beneath it, catching up on the latest daily information coming out about the Cartel.
“In related news…” The anchor continues, “Corrections Officer Rhonda Williams has been arrested in connection with the prison corruption scandal. Bank records show she received payments totaling over two hundred thousand dollars from accounts linked to The Rojas Cartel over an eight-month period.”
Alpha turns up the volume as the camera cuts to footage of Rhonda being led away in handcuffs.
Montana throws his popcorn at the screen. “Boo!” he calls out, making us all chuckle.
“Sources close to the investigation report that Williams never spent the money, claiming she was being coerced into cooperation through threats against her sister, who was being held at another facility. The district attorney’s office has not yet announced whether they will pursue full charges or consider a plea agreement based on the coercive circumstances. ”
“Think they’ll go easy on her?” Haven asks.
Montana shrugs. “She helped them hurt Mom. Made her life hell for months. But she was also a victim in her own way. Whatever happens to her, happens.”