Chapter Four - Christopher #2
“That’s a no,” Axel said. “First, you’re implying the Blonde Warrior is a stupid motherfucker by not knowing she wouldn’t put dairy and poultry in a refrigerator.”
“I’m busy, mister,” Knox snapped.
All eyes turned to Christopher. He continued smoking.
It annoyed the fuck out of him that Knox always sent Megan long fucking lists for shit he didn’t fucking need if he didn’t fucking buy it.
She might get mad at Christopher if he fucked that motherfucker up or told him to fuck off. She’d give Axel a pass, though.
“I said to give me a minute.”
“You can say whatever you want,” Axel declared. “That don’t mean I got to agree or listen.”
“I’m the adult and the authority figure,” Knox argued because they all tended to argue with a goddamn ten-year-old. “You will listen to me.”
“Unless your fucking name is suddenly Christopher Caldwell, I don’t got to listen to you or no motherfucker except him.”
“I resent you calling me a motherfucker,” Knox sneered.
“At least I don’t got to explain context clues to you,” Axel said darkly.
“Outlaw, do you hear this child?”
“Dad’s not deaf, just fucking senile, so of course he hears me,” Axel said.
Knox’s floundering made Axel’s confrontation worth it. Even better the appalled expression that wiped away his dumb fuckheadedness.
“You’re not going to win, Knox,” Cash said. “Just listen to him and make your life easier.”
Cash was right, but Christopher refused to agree with that motherfucker. He’d only been allowed to join them because of Ophelia and Stretch.
“He’s a kid! What the fuck does he know, Cash?” Knox transferred his glare from Cash to Axel. “I’d ground my own son—”
“Don’t,” Johnnie and Cash chorused.
“Tried that, too,” Cash added. “It does not fucking work.”
Irritation crossed Knox’s face and he gritted his teeth. “Say what you have to say, Axel, and then don’t talk to me until you apologize.”
The little motherfucker laughed and rolled his eyes. “I got enough motherfuckers here to talk to, Uncle Knox. I don’t ever got to talk to you for the rest of your fucking life.”
“The kids call me Pop.”
“Luckily, I’m not a kid. And you’re only called Pop ‘cause Lolly is Lolly. She’s sweet. You’re you. If you want me to call you Pop, you got to earn that.”
“What the fuck do you mean I’m me?”
“Do you ever look in the mirror?”
“Every fucking morning.”
“It must not be long then,” Axel said. “Otherwise, you’d see the mean fuckhead that I see.”
Knox gasped. “I’m mean in your estimation?”
Axel smirked. “I’m a kid, so what do I know?”
Tapping out his cigarette, Christopher puffed out his chest, so fucking proud that Axel already knew how to gaslight.
“You just said you were a man.”
“I’m turning eleven soon. How does that make me a man?”
CJ tipped his head down trying to hide his smile, although Ransom and Ryder laughed outright.
Knox snapped his brows together. “You aren’t as smart as you think you are, mister.”
“I’m not the one looking like a confused donkey.”
“I look like a donkey to you?”
“Would a beautiful girl like Lolly marry a fucking donkey, Uncle Knox?”
“Your grandmother is not a girl. She’s almost sixty!”
“Your woman not fifty-four or fifty-five?” Digger asked, frowning.
“Both are close to sixty,” Knox said defensively.
Axel’s mouth dropping open interrupted whatever anyone else might’ve said. Clearly, anyone over a certain age fucked up his entire worldview. He looked at Christopher. “She’s older than you, Dad?”
Christopher sipped his beer. “Yeah, boy.”
“But she has a lot of sense and she remembers things. Plus, she’s so pretty. What happened to you?”
The snickers didn’t bother Christopher in the least. Megan thought he was a god. He didn’t give a fuck if Axel saw him as a shriveled prune found at an excavation site.
“You hard on a man’s ego, boy,” Christopher said, drinking more beer.
“If you talk to your own father with such disrespect, I don’t stand a chance,” Knox grumbled. “What do you have to say and who is the Blonde Warrior?”
“Mom, and I don’t disrespect Dad, Uncle Knox. I talk to him how he got to be talked to. Man to man.”
“Didn’t you just say you were a kid?”
“Do you believe everything you hear?” Axel asked. “Or do you trust your fucking eyes to tell you the truth.”
Shaking his head, CJ put down the pool cue he’d been holding the entire time, waiting for Axel to relent. “Come on, big head. Let’s go to the basement. We have a meeting, remember?”
“Let me finish with Uncle Knox, ‘k, C.?”
CJ nodded. “Okay, Ax,” he said, sighing.
Folding his arms, Knox looked at Axel. “I’m listening.”
“When did you give Mom your list?” Axel asked.
“What list?”
“How old are you?” Axel asked suspiciously.
“Does it matter?”
“Ax probably think you senile like Outlaw, Knox,” Val volunteered.
“He forgets a lot, too,” Axel said with a decisive shake of his head. “Mom tells him not to do stuffs and that motherfucker still does it. That’s why she left. You don’t remember the list you gave Mom, Uncle Knox. Didn’t you just text her, asking her where your stuffs was?”
“You didn’t specify what list you meant,” Knox retorted.
“You’d just mentioned that list. I shouldn’t have had to pacify.”
“I said specify.”
Axel looked at Christopher.
He nodded. “He did, boy.”
“Are you sure? I heard pacify, Dad.”
“Don’t worry, Ax,” Ryder said. “You probably have a bunch of ear boogers.”
“That’s true, Ry,” Axel agreed. “Do you think Reb will get them out for me?”
“If you’re tired of living, ask her,” CJ said. “Otherwise, I’d advise that you don’t.”
“But I like beautiful girls taking care of me.”
“Ask Mom,” Ransom said. “She’s the most beautiful girl.”
“Nope. We won’t disturb Mom unless it’s for fun stuffs,” Axel said. “Like today when we went swimming.”
CJ looked at Christopher with meaning. “In the natatorium, Dad.”
Axel lost his smile, gazing from Christopher to CJ before settling on Diesel. “Did I do it wrong? Mom didn’t have fun? She got mad?”
Christopher couldn’t think of a response.
As much as a fearless little motherfucker Axel was, he was still just a kid.
He didn’t realize how traumatizing it must’ve been for his ma to go back in that fucking room.
Almost as triggering to Christopher as walking into Rule’s room the night Megan and Rebel came home from the hospital.
“Did I make Mom want to leave again?” Axel said, sniffling.
Diesel walked from behind the bar, got down on one knee and hugged Axel. “Aunt Meggie had a lot of fun today, Ax.”
“Yeah,” CJ said. “She’d never get mad at her Sweet Pea.”
Christopher kept a neutral expression, even though he was so proud of CJ. Megan’s nickname for Axel upset their boy to high fucking heaven, yet he pushed his hurt and jealousy aside to comfort his little brother.
Ransom and Ryder ran to Axel, but didn’t pull him away from Diesel, Axel’s favorite brother, even aside from his two partners in fuckery.
“Mom would take you, Ax,” Ryder said. “Just like she did before.”
“Only ‘cause she thought you and Ran were mad at me.”
“Mom knows your loyalty is with her over Dad,” CJ told him. “She’d want you with her.”
Christopher winced. Val and Mortician’s surprise didn’t help his guilt. Even though he’d told his sons there were no sides, they still had it in their minds that there was, so it had been a battle zone for months.
“If Mom leaves and I go with her, I’ll have to leave my men,” Axel said miserably, then turned to CJ. “Mom didn’t like swimming?”
“Mom played volleyball with us,” Ransom reminded him, a fact Christopher didn’t know.
By the time he led his merry band of motherfuckers to the house with Stretch pushing Cash’s wheelchair and Mortician in charge of Digger’s, Megan had been in the kitchen with Bishop and Kaia.
“She taught us all how to swim,” CJ said. “If you’d upset her, she wouldn’t have been teaching Gunner.”
“But Mom’s Mom.” Axel’s eyes brimmed with tears, but he seemed determined not to cry. “She loves us a lot and she don’t care if she get upset as long as we’re happy.”
“Aunt Meggie’s the Blonde Warrior,” Diesel said, looking as nonplussed as the rest of them and as Christopher felt by Axel’s observation. “She’s a strong woman. She also stands up for herself when she can’t take any more bullshit.”
“Before we go downstairs, why don’t we stop in the den and check on Mom?” CJ suggested.
Diesel stood and dusted off his jeans. “In the meantime, why don’t you tell Knox whatever you needed to say?”
“I don’t feel like it no more. I want Mom.”
“A good attorney, like a good biker, ignores his personal problems for the good of a client or his brothers,” Diesel told him.
“Right.” Axel thought for a moment. “Mom’s my client, huh?”
Diesel nodded.
“I was defending her against Uncle Knox always asking her to get a lot of stuffs.”
Although Axel hadn’t asked a question, Diesel nodded again.
Stiffening his little shoulders, Axel marched back to Knox. “Sorry for the delay in your sentencing, Uncle Knox.”
“How can you sentence me without a trial?” Knox asked with less indignation, probably softened by the reminder that Axel was just a kid.
“Because the evidence proves you’re guilty,” Axel said. “You don’t need a trial.”
“It’s due process, Axel,” Diesel said, behind the bar once more, a cigarette jammed in the corner of his mouth. “Innocent until proven guilty.”
“But the evidence—”
“The defense deserves to have access to whatever evidence the prosecution has,” Diesel explained.
“I can win,” Axel insisted. “Even against you and Aunt Kendall, Diesel.”
“Kendall—”
Christopher turned a look on Johnnie that promised swift retaliation. The motherfucker snapped his mouth shut.
“Kendall is a brilliant attorney, Ax,” Diesel said, sucking on his cigarette. “She’s hard to beat even during mock trials.”
“State your argument on Uncle Knox’s behalf, Diesel,” Axel ordered, fully engaged and moving past the temporary episode over his ma.
“Exhibit one is Aunt Meggie’s email to everyone, asking what they wanted her to stock,” Diesel said.