Chapter 23
Hodge
I couldn’t tell her what we were doing, or she would have lost her shit, and that’s not something I was ready to deal with at the moment. She knew this was coming; she just didn’t realize how soon it would be.
Christopher and his no-good wife are tied naked to the chairs in the middle of this freezing cold warehouse, shivering and sniveling. None of that will help them now.
“So you just got rid of her?” I ask the bastard once more, but he refuses to answer me. That’s fine too. We have ways of making men talk, and I’ll use every single one of them with these two fucks.
“He doesn’t seem to want to say shit,” my dad observes as I nod my head. I reach over and pick up the electric cattle prod, sparking it before pressing it into his flesh. Christopher screams, piercing my fucking ears, but all I can do is laugh.
“Why did you get rid of her?” I roar this time.
Her mom jolts in her chair as I stick this bastard once more, shooting electricity into his body.
He grits his teeth as tears fall down his face.
I wonder if he thought about her tears? No.
He fucking didn’t because he didn’t care.
He threw her out like a piece of fucking trash.
The thought has me pressing the button once more.
“She wasn’t useful! I didn’t need her until she was thirty!” he screams, tears and snot leaking down his face.
“For the money?”
“How the fuck did you know about that?”
“She knew about that, asshole,” I growl this time.
“She knew?”
“Not everything, but most things.”
“My father left it all to her the day she was born. I knew then we had to keep her around,” he adds as anger surges in my veins.
“Not because she was your kid?” Locke asks him, tilting his head to the side to stare at the bastard.
“I didn’t want kids,” he yells as he glances over at his wife. Judging by the look on her face, she has something to say, so I step over to her and wait.
“What is it? What the fuck are you lookin’ at him like that for?” At first, she doesn’t want to say anything, but when I drop the prod and take the knife out of its sheath, she speaks up.
“She … Kemah isn’t his daughter.”
“What the fuck did you just say?” Christopher roars as he shakes in his chair. The sound of the metal scratching the cement causes me to chuckle.
“She isn’t his?” I ask to make sure I heard this correctly.
“No. So that money was never hers to begin with,” she adds.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Remy asks this time as we all look around at each other.
“You let her believe she could have it all. You had her believe the money would go to her when she was thirty?” I ask them,
“If she thought she was getting a fucking cent that was on her!” Her dad screams.
“Fuck. So, who would get the money?” I’m curious as to what they’re going to say.
“No one!” He roars, but she looks up at me.
“Me.”
“What? Why the fuck would you get it?” He snarls at her. At first, she doesn’t want to say anything, but the more I look at her, the more I get it. I don’t understand why she would let Kemah believe it was for her, but I see why she would get it.
“You were fuckin’ his dad?” I laugh out loud. This just gets better and better. I run my hand over my face as I pace back and forth in front of them before pointing the knife at her mom.
“You lied to her? You let her believe it was for her? You were a part of this shit, yeah? Letting that bastard put his hands on her, hurting her. You knew all along she wasn’t gettin’ shit out of it, right?” I see the tears well up in her mom’s eyes, and it makes me fucking sick. She knew.
Finally, she nods her fucking head, and I can’t take any more. I step toward her quickly, sliding the blade across her throat as her eyes widen and crimson runs down her chest. That bitch. She used her daughter as much as he did. Not anymore. Neither of them will hurt Kemah ever again. This is it.
I step back as she gasps and gags, just watching her die. It doesn’t bother me. Death never has. And knowing I’m making things better for Kemah? That’s even fucking better for me.
I look over at her dad and point the knife at him next as he watches me intently.
“I want to know where that piece of shit, Jake, is.”
“How should I know?”
“You know. And I want to know where he is,” I roar louder this time. Christopher just watches me until he begins to laugh. I know I’m not getting shit out of him, and that’s fine. We’ll find him. It may take time, but we will.
I move closer, slam the knife down into his thigh, and listen as he screams for me. I pull it and repeat the process to the other side, and then his shoulders.
“Fuck you! Fuck you!” He screams louder as tears roll down his cheeks. Fuck me? No, fuck him.
I laugh as I stand in front of him and stab him in the chest multiple times. Over and over, I slam the blade deeper and deeper.
“She’s mine now! There’s nothin’ you can do to hurt her anymore.
I’m gonna take care of her. I’m gonna be the family she needed all this fuckin’ time!
” I roar with each stab into his chest. When the anger finally slowly subsides, I pull myself together and step back, looking at the mangled mess I made of him.
My dad walks up next to me and slaps a hand on my shoulder.
“We’ll find, Jake. And we’ll make him pay.”
“I know we will.”
“She’s one of us now, brother,” Locke tells me.
I nod my head as Remy steps up and takes the knife from my hand.
He pulls his phone out and makes some calls, calling in someone to clean up this mess as I stare at the motherfuckers who hurt her to begin with.
She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve any of what she got, and now I’m going to be the one who picks up her pieces and glues them all back together.
My dad grabs a rag and tosses it to me, but I don’t catch it. I let it fall to the ground as I storm out of the warehouse and toward my bike. I’m too amped up right now. I’m too far gone to care what I look like.
I climb on and rev it up, pulling away from the warehouse and heading straight for the clubhouse.
The entire ride is spent thinking about her and what she went through.
The more I think, the angrier I get. Jake is out there somewhere, and I have no idea where.
That fact doesn’t sit well with me either.
I pull into the driveway and ride up to the clubhouse before killing the engine and climbing off.
A few guys linger outside, eyeing me as I stomp toward the door.
I shove it open and head inside, straight to the fucking bar, when I see Kiki.
Her eyes move over me, and understanding sets in.
I see her walk toward me, but I don’t acknowledge a word she’s saying.
“Don’t hurt her, Hodge. She’s had enough,” she tells me. I bark a laugh before turning to look at her.
“Hurt her? In what way, Kiki?”
“You know what way, Hodge! Don’t do it to her,” she says once more when I see Kemah walking out of the hallway.
She doesn’t see me at first, but when she does, she notices everything else too.
The blood splattered on my face, my clothes, covering my hands.
She starts to turn and leave the room, but I don’t let her.
“Don’t you fuckin’ dare walk away!” I demand. My tone causes her to stop moving and stand still. She doesn’t turn to face me, and that’s fine, but she isn’t walking away from this either. I hear the others come in, but my focus is on her.
“He’s going to do something stupid, Locke.” I hear Kiki tell him.
“Leave him alone, Kiki. It’s not your business.”
“Hodge,” Kiki tries once more, but I ignore her and down the rest of my drink before walking toward Kemah. She’s turned around now, her eyes wide with fear of what I’ve done or what I might do.
“Are … are you okay?” she asks, her tone shaky.
“You know the answer to that, Kemah.”
“I … I don’t know what to say here, Hodge.”
“That’s because you don’t need to say anything. Jake isn’t dead yet. I don’t know where he is,” I tell her as she looks at the blood on me once more. It takes her a minute, but then she realizes what I did. A gasp falls from her lips as she takes a step back.
“You … them …” I smirk.
“This blood on my face was from watchin’ your mom bleed out after I slit her throat.”
“Wha … No.”
“Yeah, sweetheart. I told you I was gonna make them pay for what they did to you.” Kemah watches me intently, unsure what to say, and I get it.
What do you say to someone who just murdered your family?
Tears fill her eyes, and I laugh. I actually fucking laugh at her. “No tears, Kemah! They used you!”
“I know they did,” she whispers.
“And your dad? He’s not even your dad. What a fuckin’ joke that was.”
“What? What do you mean? The money … his grandfather …” She says, sounding confused.
“Your mom was a whore, Kemah. She was fuckin’ your grandfather. That money was never yours. It was hers.”
“They lied about it? They lied about the money?”
“Fuck the money, Kemah! What the fuck is it with you and the goddamn money?” I yell loudly.
I’m sick of it. The fucking money means nothing, so why doesn’t she understand this?
Before I can think better of it, I reach up and grab her around the throat and squeeze.
Her eyes widen as she looks at me, and someone’s hand lands on my shoulder.
“Fuck the money, Kemah. The money means shit. This, us? This is it. This is all you fuckin’ need, and from now on, this is all you’ll have. There’s no fuckin’ amount of money that’s ever gonna change that. You got me?” She doesn’t say anything, just stares at me.
“Let her go, Hodge. You said what you needed to say,” Remy says.
“Have I?”
“Yeah, brother. You have. Let her go. This has been a crazy night, and we don’t want it to get crazier,” he tells me. I’m not ready to let her go. I don’t think I ever will be.
But I do it. I let her go. I release the hold on her neck and watch as she steps back, a little unsure of what to do now. There’s nothing to do. This is it. This is us.