Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
DELPHI
We were at the clubhouse. Theo was with Legs, letting her spoil him while he got snuggles from Hero, and I was in the sacred room used for church.
The girls wanted to wrangle their way in, but they were shot down, much to Nevaeh’s annoyance.
Though she threatened to withhold sex from him for a week for being mean, Havoc’s smirk was one filled with the knowledge that she wouldn’t last a day.
I didn’t get involved. I knew they’d dig the truth out of me, eventually. I hoped to keep it a secret because the fewer people who knew the truth, the better, but I figured it would be impossible with this lot.
I stare around the room as it fills up. We don’t have a full house, which I think might be Havoc’s doing.
Toot and Mac are here, along with Circus, Capone, Kruger, G, Midas, and Havoc.
If this had been brought to church, it would have been a full house.
As it stands, Havoc has yet to decide if it is a Ravens’ matter.
I bite my lip as everyone takes their seats, refusing the water Kruger offers me.
“You need a pain pill.”
“Not until I’m done here. It makes me fuzzy.”
He sighs but gives in, moving in close so that our legs are pressed together.
“It feels like I’ve been called into the principal’s office,” I murmur.
“You have. Though if anyone is doing the spanking, it will be me.”
“Alright, I called you guys here because you’re either closest with Delphi or you might have found yourself dragged in for other reasons.” Havoc glares at me, though it doesn’t have any anger in it, more morbid curiosity. “Kruger told us what you told the police.”
I nod.
“He thinks there’s more to it.”
“Because he’s a smart man. I promised I’d tell him, though I didn’t realize it would become a clubhouse show-and-tell.”
“We’re trying to protect you,” Toot points out.
“And I’m trying to protect you right back. Look, before I start, can I ask if my shop is okay? Did anyone find a bomb?”
Havoc leans back and shakes his head. “I had Powers and his dog go over it all. Nothing.”
I let out a relieved sigh. “I hoped it was a hoax. I just wanted to be sure.”
“Well, now you know. Tell us what really happened, Delphi.”
I run my finger over a scratch in the wood of the table. “To explain, I have to go back to the beginning.”
“The morning of the shooting?” Mac frowns.
“The day I first met Theo in the apartment above The Book Nook. The day he pulled a gun on me.”
Silence wraps around the room before Kruger explodes out of his chair. “He did what?” he bellows.
I yank his arm. “Calm down, or I’ll just stop talking now.”
He growls but eventually sits back in his seat beside mine.
“He was terrified, beaten to shit, and had no reason to trust me, but I talked him down.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want it to be the only thing you saw when it came to him. He was so much more than a boy with a gun.”
Kruger grips his hair but says nothing. He knows I’m right. He only took a chance on Theo in the first place because of me. If he thought for a second Theo was a danger to me, he’d have killed him himself. Boy or not.
“Carry on,” Havoc prompts.
I look from Kruger to him. “Greer told me the day I opened The Book Nook that Diane had signed herself into rehab and that a judge would likely rule in her favor if she completed it. She said it wasn’t written in stone, but she wanted to warn me just in case.”
“You knew?” Kruger grunts.
“I hoped for the best, prayed every fucking night, but I knew.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“You love Theo. You knew what he’d been through.”
“You thought I’d go round and cause problems?”
“I don’t know what I thought you’d do. But I couldn’t risk losing you, and I know there isn’t a thing on God’s green earth you wouldn’t do for me, including killing a woman who would take Theo from me. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You still should have fucking told me.”
“I know you want to fix everything for me, Kruger, but you can’t.
You protect me in every way you can, but life just seems to have it out for me.
It’s like I’m cursed with something. And every time something happens, you carry a little more of it on your shoulders, like it’s your fault that I’m the universe’s fuck-toy.
What you don’t get is that you’re my bright spot, my home when the darkness threatens to suffocate me.
If I lose you, I don’t know what I’d do.
I’m as protective of you as you are me because I know what it feels like to lose everything. ”
He reaches over, cups the back of my head, and slams his mouth down over mine, sealing our lips in a kiss so hot I’m surprised my clothes don’t catch fire.
Toot whistles. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
Kruger pulls back and flips him off.
“Alright, Jesus. Focus here, people. Delphi?”
I look back at Havoc, who looks resigned to multiple outbursts.
“So like I said. I knew what would happen, and I knew I couldn’t stop it, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t prepare for it.”
“You had a plan?” Circus says.
“Yes. I made a plan with Theo. At first, it was a way to get him back. But after talking with Legs that day, I realized Theo had the right to know either way what kind of woman his mother was. She’d either step up and be the woman he deserved or she’d fuck him over, and he’d grieve what could have been before he started healing. ”
“So what happened? How did you know what was going down?”
“I didn’t until Theo texted me that he wanted me to get him some of that tea he liked.”
“Theo doesn’t like tea,” Kruger states.
I nod. “I know.”
“He knew you’d realize something was wrong. It was a pre-planned statement.”
“Not exactly, but we’d joked around weeks before that if he called and said he was drinking tea, know he’d been kidnapped and was signaling for help.”
“How did you get there?” Capone narrows his eyes at me, making Kruger tense. “Tell me you didn’t drive.”
I bite my lip. “I didn’t drive.”
“Then how did you get there?”
“I called a cab.”
“You called a cab, but you didn’t call any of us? Why?” G crosses his arms.
“Because you’d have stopped me. All of you would have patted me on the head and told me to sit tight while the big, strong men in my life fixed it for me.”
“And what the fuck is wrong with that?” Toot hisses.
“Nothing, Toot. Not one damn thing.”
Nobody says a word for a minute, trying to figure out what my point is.
It’s Kruger that gets it first. “His mother set him up. She let him down a million times before selling him out, ripping him from the one place that actually made him happy. It had to be you, because you needed him to know that it’s not all women, not all mothers.
Some of them will die for their kids. Hell, some of them will kill for them…
” His voice drifts off as he looks at me, and all the pieces slip into place.
Before he can speak, I continue, my eyes locked on his, praying he doesn’t look at me differently after this.
“At the first sign of trouble, Theo was supposed to text me and then get out. I’d prearranged for him to leave his bedroom window open a little so I could sneak in and get a lay of the land, which I did. ”
Havoc curses. “Do you have any idea what could have gone wrong?”
“No. I’m just a sweet and innocent virgin skipping through the world with a guardian angel on her shoulder.”
The anger in the room pulses like an invisible enemy ready to strike. With no target to attack, the hostility and aggression grow. They’ll lose their minds, so perhaps sugarcoating things isn’t the way to go. But you can never be sure if ripping the Band-Aid off is easier or worse.
“I pulled my gun. Cleared the room and made my way to the living room, where Josh sat unconscious on the sofa. After I checked on him, I cleared the rest of the house, switched out his beer, and got rid of the evidence.”
“Got rid of the—” Circus snaps his mouth shut and indicates for me to continue.
“Men are predictable creatures, Circus. I talked with Theo at length about Josh’s habits. We knew him coming back was a possibility, so we prepared for it just in case. Of course, we couldn’t plan for every variable outcome, but I know how to adapt. You guys taught me that.”
A low blow, but goddamn it, they’re not giving me a chance. What if the shoe were on the other foot? They’d have done worse.
“Josh is an alcoholic and considers Theo and Diane his servants. With that in mind, I gave Theo something to slip into Josh’s beer if the opportunity arose, so he could get away from him.”
“What did you give him? Where did you get it? If you left a trail, the police will find it and you’ll be fucked,” Mac so helpfully points out.
“Then you’d better hope your former president knows what he’s doing,” I snap back.
Kruger shifts to get up, but I grab his arm.
“So help me god, if you leave, I’m done.
You wanted to know what happened, but you want to stop me after every sentence to critique my actions.
Do I get to do the same with the shit you guys have pulled over the years?
Let me guess, it’s club business. Well, guess what?
This is Delphi business, and if you can’t handle listening to it without being sanctimonious, judgmental assholes, I’m done. ”
My chest is heaving by the time I’m done, but I’ve had a rough few days. Honestly, I’ve already committed cold-blooded murder. What’s a few more bodies added to my kill count?
“Continue,” Havoc grunts out.
“Right. Theo spiked the beer after he took a beating, and Josh passed out. He texted me about the tea to let me know shit was going down, which was when he made his escape. The only problem was that Diane tracked him down.
“She told him that The Book Nook was wired to explode.”
“And Theo would never do anything to risk that place when he knows how much it means to you,” Circus states.
“I don’t get why he’d buy it, though. What the fuck does Diane know about bombs?”