Chapter 10
“ S tay in the truck.” I squeeze Peyton’s thigh as I open the driver's door, and stare at my father’s cabin. It’s looking worn and unkept, but that's hardly surprising. It’s been more than ten years since I last paid him a visit, and the last one didn’t go so well.
I clear my throat as I step up to the porch and knock on the door.
“It’s open.” His voice growls from inside, and when I slowly push it open I choke on the stench of tobacco.
“Should ya be smokin’?” I flick my eyes toward the oxygen tank he’s got beside his armchair as I step inside.
“I’m as good as dead anyway, might as well enjoy the finer things in life.” He lowers his pipe then uses his teeth to pull the stopper from a bottle of scotch so he can knock it back.
“I’m touched that you care so much about my health, but I’m assumin’ it ain’t why ya here.’Specially, since I told ya never to show your face in front of me again.” He hangs his drinking arm loosely off the chair and waits for my response.
“I need your help.” I take a seat in the armchair opposite him.
“You want my help?” He shakes his head and laughs, before erupting into a coughing fit that turns him purple.
“Eden’s back.”
“Eden’s dead.” His face turns stern real quick.
“Yeah, well, it turns out Jimmer had a lot of secrets. He helped her deceive us all.” I watch him for a reaction, one of the first lessons he ever taught me as a boy was never to lie to someone you care about. I’ve never lied to him, which is how I know I’m gonna win this stare-off.
Eventually, he shifts his eyes from mine to look out the window and now it’s my turn to laugh.
“But you knew that, didn't ya?” I think back to the conversation I had with Stacey in my office a few weeks ago. The one where she informed me that he was the person who contacted Jimmer for help.
“You let me down, Logan.” He shrugs his shoulders as if it ain’t a big deal and I have to clamp down my back teeth to stop me from kicking the shit outta him.
“You let her down?—”
“I didn’t come here to talk about that,” I interrupt him when I let frustration start to override my senses. “I need you to?—”
“You can thank that fancy piece of ass you used to hang out the back end of, for the fact Eden’s safe.” He tokes back on his pipe and sniggers at me.
“Stacey?”
“That’s the one, she got hold of me after you got outta jail, told me how angry you were. She also told me what a mess my little girl was in. So, I spoke to a man who could do somethin’ about it.”
“Then you both lied to me. She never told me she’d made contact with you. She made it sound like she was surprised to see Jimmer that night he saved them. And when I told you that I knew about Eden, you were surprised.”
“I’m sure everythin’ happened exactly how Stacey told it.” He laughs as if all this is one big joke.
“Vex, I thought my sister had killed herself. I spent ten years blamin’ myself for that, and Aar–”
“Don’t you ever mention that boy’s name in front of me again! I may be slow these days, but I still know of a thousand ways to fuckin’ kill ya.” His eyes turn to slits and I feel his hatred seep inside my soul.
“Was that my punishment for not takin’ care of her?” I stand up and shake my head. “You’re a sick fuckin’ bastard.” I wanna wrap my hand around his throat and squeeze the last of his weak, fragile life right outta him.
“I was doin’ whatever I could, you’d proved you couldn’t take care of her and Cliff was still out ther?—”
“Cliff’s out there now,” I interrupt him. “ And like I said, Eden is back. We got murdered girls rockin’ up on our beach and I need your help.”
I hate having to say those words and believe me, if I wasn’t so desperate, I’d much rather be choking on ‘em.
“Now, ain’t that funny?” He sniggers at me.
“If you hate me so much why did ya give Jimmer your Dirty Dozen ring, and tell him to give it to me?” I divert the conversation from why I’m here, to get a few of my own questions answered.
“Because it’s rightfully yours.” The clever-ass smile fades from his face before he takes another swig from his bottle.
“You told me last time you saw me that I ain’t no son to ya. You sendin’ me this ring contradicts that.” I hold up my hand and show him that I’m wearing it.
“So what does it mean, Logan?” He raises his eyebrows.
“It means I don’t shy away from my responsibilities. I am your son, and there was a time when I was real fuckin’ proud to call myself that.” The room falls silent and when he pulls his oxygen mask up to cover his face and makes a deep inhale, I don’t drop my eyes from his.
“What d’ya need?” he asks once he’s got the supply he needs.
“I need an edge, I need to know everythin’ about Cliff so I can draw him out from where he’s hidin’ and end this for good,” I explain, taking my seat again and hoping the old man’s got something for me.
“I heard he took the girl, the younger one.”
“Yeah, he took Willow.” I frown, wondering why that’s relevant, Cliff’s never given a fuck about his kids.
“Then your boy, Wrath, will know what it feels like to lose a sister too.” He smiles callously.
“Fine.” I shake my head and get up. “I came here to try and do what's right by Eden, and the club. For all we know she might be the next girl who’s bleedin’ on our beach.”
“With you lookin’ out for her she probably will be.” Him acting like he doesn’t care has me losing my shit, and gripping the old bastard by his shirt.
“Go on, son , put me outta my misery.” He winks.
“You know, what happened to that family all those years ago wasn’t your fault.” I watch his cocky expression fade into the guilt that keeps him bound to this cabin. “But when you die in this chair, bitter and alone, I want ya to know that what you did to your own , was all on you.” I shove him back into his seat and march for the door.
“There's a woman.” I halt when he shouts out at me. “Last I heard she was in some kinda facility in Colorado. Cliff was seein’ her before he got sent to set up Long Beach. I guess his love sent her crazy.” Slowly, I turn around to face him again.
“His love?”
“Oh, he loved her alright. He was obsessed with her. Her name was…” He pauses so he can think. “Anita. Anita Carter, I don’t know if she’s still alive, and if she is you won’t get much sense outta her.”
“How do you know about her?” I ask suspiciously. I was at Long Beach for a long time, I don’t remember hearing Cliff ever mention a woman called Anita.
“I may have had Jimmer deal with the Eden situation, but I was determined to be the one who made Cliff and Aaron pay for what they did myself. There were a few times during that time period where I forgot that I was Dirty Soul…hell, I forgot I even had a soul. I wanted to make Cliff hurt, and I knew that girl meant somethin’ to him. I looked her up, found out where she was and I paid her a visit.”
“You were gonna kill her.” I stare down at him in shock.
“Like I told ya, I lost myself.”
“But ya didn’t.”
“Yeah, well, I guess Anita Carter helped me find my soul again. She was a good person, oblivious, clearly bat-shit crazy, but good. I spoke to her for an hour, and I left.”
“And Aaron, how were you gonna make him pay?”
“I did make him pay.” He smirks. “In exactly the same way as you did,” he points out. “I’ve spent my entire life torturin’ people, but I learned for myself that there’s no worse pain than guilt. I wanted you and that boy to blame yourselves for Eden’s suicide.”
I’ve done some really fucked-up shit during my time on this earth, but what I’m hearing here is undoubtedly the words of the devil.
“How much did Jimmer know, did he know about Wrath’s involvement?”
“Jimmer knew nothin’, just that I had a daughter and that I needed her outta Long Beach, with a clean slate.”
“But why? Why would ya not tell him? You could have got Cliff kicked out the club years ago. Jimmer would never have tolerated what he did. He made the fuckin’ rules.” I think of all my own reasons for keeping what happened from Jimmer. Pride —the fear of what punishment Wrath would be dealt. But my father hated us both, it makes no sense that he would protect Aaron or Cliff back then.
“Because it was gonna be me that eventually killed ‘em, I didn’t want no club vote determinin’ the outcome for those cunts. I wanted to be in control of their fate. I would decide how long Aaron would suffer his guilt, and how long Cliff would have to keep lookin’ over his shoulder.”
“I take it ten years wasn’t enough?” I look at the weak, old man in front of me and thank God that I have Peyton in my life. There was a time that misery and hate fed my soul too, without her I could have easily ended up just the same as this sorry-assed fucker.
“Just because I ain’t the man I used to be doesn’t mean they're safe,” he warns.
“You make a threat like that about my VP again, and I’ll fuckin’ kill you myself. You did a good job of makin’ me and him suffer, I’ll give ya that. But how does it feel bein’ that father that never stepped up? The man who put wallowin’ in his own self-pity over gettin’ to know his daughter? You had choices when it came to Eden. At least Aaron owns his shit instead of festerin’ in it.”
I step back out the door and slam it behind me. Leaving the spiteful bastard to rot.
“So, how’d it go?” Peyton looks excited as I get back into the truck.
“Exactly as I thought it would.” I fire up the engine.
“Wait, we’re leaving? You drove me out all this way and I don’t even get to meet your father?”
“Believe me, darlin’ ya wouldn’t want to.” I skid the hell outta there and head for home.