Chapter Thirteen – Johnnie #2
“Good,” CJ responded, then pinned Johnnie with a resentful gaze.
“Because of your fuckery at the school toward my brothers and me, Mattie thought we were taking too long and she wanted to check on Harley, whom Ryan had already left with and headed to Turn Creek. We thought Nardo had attacked Harley. It took forever for her to say it was that motherfucker’s father. ”
“Wait. A grown motherfucker attacked my niece?” Digger demanded.
“He was waiting for her in the auditorium.” CJ rubbed the back of his neck, reminding Johnnie of Christopher in that moment. “I thought Uncle Mort said he was going to have guards or Marvey was going to stop Nardo—”
Guilt hit Johnnie. Apparently, CJ hadn’t realized that Johnnie told Marvey to cancel the extra precautions Mortician demanded, because he’d been eaten up with anger and jealousy. Marvey reported to him every morning. Mortician ordering Marvey to do anything rubbed Johnnie the wrong fucking way.
“Wally, Jr. grabbed Mattie, but she fought him and made it to the edge of the pathway, where the street started again. If not, Grant might not have heard her when she screamed and that motherfucker might’ve dragged Mattie into the bushes and finished…
” CJ shook his head and swallowed. “Finished strangling her,” he pushed out.
“Thank you, Grant,” Johnnie said in a choked voice just as Mattie and Harley walked out of the bathroom.
“I didn’t mean to wear my slip-on Oxfords, Daddy,” Mattie said, pausing next to Grant.
At first, Johnnie didn’t know what she meant. Until he recalled telling her what ladies wore.
His nostrils flared and shame like he’d never felt swirled in his gut. More than that, fury. Bash had set them up. He’d pretended to want peace and brought Wally, Jr. to target their daughters.
Johnnie got to his feet. “Go with Roxanne,” he snarled to Mattie. “I have an errand to run.” He stormed away.
Twenty minutes later, he pounded on Celia’s door. She’d know where the fuck to find Bash. That motherfucker sent his fucking dogs to do his dirty work while he got high or planned his next fuckery behind the safety of whatever hellscape he’d slunk to after toying with Kendall.
“Open this fucking door, Celia,” Johnnie snarled, the memory of Bash and Kendall together enraging him.
He kicked the door.
Celia swung it open. “What’s–”
Uninterested in anything she said and not waiting for an invitation, he barged inside.
“Where’s Bash?” he demanded.
“What do you want?” Celia folded her arms. “I was upstairs unpacking. Easton’s in the hospital. I can’t leave as I planned—”
“Fuck Easton. Fuck your plans. Fuck you. Where the fuck is Bash?”
“About to shoot your fucking ass off, fuckhead,” Bash barked, looming in the doorway of the kitchen in his bare feet, gun aimed at Johnnie’s head.
“Put that gun away, Sebastian!” Celia ordered as Johnnie roared in anger and charged toward Bash.
The motherfucker pulled the trigger. Somehow, the bullet missed Johnnie, but it also halted him. Bash was ready and willing to kill him, unlike Christopher who hesitated most of the time.
If Johnnie knew Bash was still in town, he would’ve gone in with guns blazing.
“You sent that motherfucker to rape and murder my daughter. Now, you—”
Bash barreled to Johnnie. “What the fuck did you say?”
So fucking over Bash, Johnnie shoved him, not caring about his gun, only wanting to avenge Mattie. “You fucking heard me. Don’t play fucking dumb. Wally, Jr. attacked Matilda!”
“That little fuckhead!” Bash shoved his gun in his waistband and screamed at the top of his lungs.
Normally, the behavior frightened Johnnie.
Now, he just didn’t give a fuck. “I haven’t fucking seen that motherfucker since the night we got here.
He fucking left. He…he tried to hurt Kendall’s daughter? My almost stepdaughter?”
His almost… “Get the fuck off that bullshit. Mattie’s my daughter. Kendall’s my wife. Who you fucking played.” And who he had no chance with. Johnnie would kill him first. “Wait until I tell her the man she found so fucking charming took her for a fucking dumb bitch.”
Bash stiffened and narrowed his eyes. “I’m getting quite fucking tired of your blindness, asshole. If I sent Wally after Mattie, do you really fucking think I’d still be in town? Do you think I would’ve allowed Celia to remain in town?”
“I’m fucking sick of you,” Johnnie barked, suddenly so fucking exhausted. “Because of you, I’ve ruined every fucking thing in my life and this is how you repay me?”
“You ruined that yourself. I didn’t fucking tell you to play the hero.”
“You’re a lying fuckhead. You knew what the fuck you were doing.”
“What, Johnnie? Targeting the weakest link? Brooks? You involved your motherfucking self. You proved to be even weaker than Brooks, so fuck you.”
“I wanted to prevent exactly what the fuck happened. My daughter’s throat is bruised.
She’s hoarse and traumatized because he was strangling her!
” Johnnie gulped, barely able to breathe.
“Dear God, what if we would’ve found her body?
Do you know…” He covered his face, the horror of that scenario enough to make him dizzy.
“Do you know what that would’ve done to Kendall? To me and her brothers?”
Bash gripped his elbow. “Come on, motherfucker,” he said, not giving him a choice and dragging him to the kitchen. He shoved him in a chair. “Let me get you a drink.”
“I don’t want a fucking drink! I want Wally, Jr.”
“Sorry, little brother. I want him more. Christopher won’t look too kindly on this. Unlike you, he’ll come here blasting, not giving a fuck who he fucks up to avenge his niece. Even worse, that little fuckhead made it seem as if I’m betraying Kendall.”
“That’s my fucking wife.”
“Who you don’t fucking deserve. I almost shot the fuck out of you yesterday with the way you humiliated her.”
Johnnie got to his feet. “I’m going to find Wally. I’ll cleave him in half so you can fuck him up, too.”
Bash snickered. “I like the way you think. I guess there’s a fucking first time for everything.”
Halting, Johnnie glowered at him.
“You got to admit, you’re not very skilled in the thinking department.”
“I didn’t come for your fucking insults.”
“Don’t give a fuck. Insulting you is a favorite pastime of mine. Now sit the fuck back down.”
“Where’s Celia?” Johnnie grumbled, complying with Bash’s orders and returning to his seat because someone wanted his company. “I have to apologize to her.”
“I’m sure she’s giving us privacy. If I wanted her to hear, I would’ve stayed in the fucking hallway.”
“We’re talking loud enough.”
“She has the art of discretion down to a science.”
“I want to get my hands on Wally, Jr.,” he reiterated.
“As much as I’d like to appease your little toddler whine, I can’t. I don’t know where the fuck he’s at. I’ll send Cleaner after him because I have to salvage the deal Kendall is trying to arrange.”
“You were serious?”
Folding his arms, Bash leaned back in his chair. “Did you not fucking hear me when I reminded Kendall that I would take care of it?”
“You’re a fucking asshole.”
“And you have shit for brains. What the fuck’s your point?”
“Kendall. My wife who I love very much.”
“Fuck, I need to lend you some of my romance novels. ‘Cause, little brother, you don’t know the first fucking thing about love.”
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe this’ll make you feel better. Even if I didn’t love Kendall, I owe Christopher.” Straightening, he sighed. “And Meggie.”
Johnnie started.
Bash chortled. “I shocked myself with that one. But Christopher treated my little sister with respect. And I was expecting Meggie to have her ass on her shoulders when she visited her. Or to threaten Celia. Or, fuck, I don’t know. That little cunt is even more gorgeous in real time, by the way.”
“You confronted her a few weeks ago. You already knew how she looked.”
“Forgot it. I’ve been too busy jerking off to the blonde pussy bush in the photos Doomed Dementor sent to me.”
“Bash—”
“Shut the fuck up, Johnnie. I don’t want to hear it. Anyway, she was so fucking kind to Celia. Genuine. I couldn’t help but…” He shrugged. “Admire her. I still want to fuck her, but I’ve decided against forcing my cock in her.”
“You’re too fucking kind.”
“And Kendall likes that little cunt. Also, Christopher saved Easton. Cleaner told me Wally, Jr. shot my kid. I didn’t believe it. I thought that little motherfucker was off somewhere losing himself in pussy. I just couldn’t fathom him betraying me and shooting my boy.”
“Cleaner knows how the fuck Wally looks.”
“Cleaner is a jealous fuckhead. I just thought he was saying that, so I could fuck up Wally the next time he showed his miserable little face and take the heat off himself. If I would’ve believed Cleaner in the first place, Wally wouldn’t have gotten to your girl.”
Johnnie scrubbed a hand over his face. “I can almost taste his fucking blood. I’m going to dig out his fucking eyeballs and suffocate that motherfucker with them.”
Bash’s eyes lit up. “Can I watch?”
“Fuck no! You’d have to come on club grounds.”
“Suppose I said pretty please?”
“Pretty…what…fuck you!” Johnnie sputtered.
Bash started to smile, but then his eyes widened and he jumped to his feet. “Fuck! Easton. If Christopher thinks I betrayed him, my boy’s dead.”