Chapter Twenty-Six – CJ
Standing in the foyer with Diesel, Dad, and some of the other guys , CJ still couldn’t believe Axel had actually planted a fucking bomb. Like a real, live bomb that went boom boom pow. The exploding kind. The damaging type.
A fucking bomb.
A real-real boom boom pow, exploding, damaging motherfucking BOMB!!!
How the fuck had he even built that motherfucker?
Two hours after that bomb detonated, CJ was still in fucking shock.
Mom hadn’t reappeared, so he didn’t know if she’d found that wretched little fuckhead and hung him up by his fucking fingers.
“Exactly what the fuck did you do to Axel that he planted a fucking bomb in your bathroom, Diesel?” Uncle Val didn’t have a fucking care in the world, smoking a cigarette with contentment, since it wasn’t his fucking house where a little bomb making cretin lived.
“Didn’t think the kid would really make a fucking bomb. ”
Exactly. Period. Amen. Everything.
Axel. Made. A. Fucking. BOMB!!! A bomb.
When CJ was Axel’s age, he wasn’t thinking about mass fucking destruction.
“I’m fuckin’ curious myfuckinself, Val,” Dad said, smiling, his hair ruffling from the breeze blowing through the entrance doors, opened to sweep away the smoke. “I ain’t got that fuckin’ story, Diesel.”
There was no fucking story worth a motherfucking bomb. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Sipping his beer, Diesel shrugged, clamping his jaw shut.
Fuckhead. It was because of the argument over Rebel that Axel bombed the fucking bathroom.
“I’m lucky he didn’t bomb my bathroom,” CJ grumbled, deeply, deeply annoyed and outraged. To the depths of his fucking soul. No, beyond. To infinity. Beyond that, too. “I can’t believe that little motherfucker.”
“Don’t forget he poured baby oil on my floor and in my shower and attacked me with a fucking belt when I fell on my ass,” Diesel growled.
Narci and Torrin howled with laughter, and Diesel flipped them off.
CJ wanted to throw them the fuck out. Nothing about this situation was humorous.
“Axel got you on his own, Diesel. He put baby oil on my clothes, which I discovered after my shower. When I walked out of my closet, Ryder, Ransom, and Axel attacked me. They changed their plans because Jana was in your room. Those little fuckheads only stopped when I crawled under my fucking bed.”
The minute everyone howled with laughter, CJ regretted his honesty. He’d never live this shit down.
“For real, CJ?” Diesel asked, his eyes wide.
CJ nodded. “That little motherfucker plotted the entire fucking attack. It took me fifteen minutes to negotiate with him. He threatened to fucking blind me with a phone flashlight.”
Dragging on his cigarette, releasing the smoke, and repeating the process, Dad listened intently. But pride flickered across his face, annoying the fuck out of CJ.
“He only fuckin’ motherfuckers up cuz of Megan, so what the fuck you two did to your ma?”
All eyes turned to CJ and Diesel, and they glanced at each other.
“Ain’t no fuckin’ need to look at each fuckin’ other. You already fuckin’ know what the fuck you fuckin’ did, so fuckin’ spill. Now.”
“We argued, Dad,” CJ said carefully. It was the simplest explanation and one that wouldn’t get Diesel fucked up. “In the rose garden.”
“Axel was in there with you?” Ryan walked to the standing ashtray and discarded his cigarette. “He didn’t warn you motherfuckers to chill?”
Diesel pursed his lips and CJ rocked on his heels.
“What the fuck did you two motherfuckers do?” Dad asked again, losing his patience much faster with CJ and Diesel than he did with Axel.
“Mom wanted to talk to Diesel, Dad. Axel walked in at the end and he thought we were upsetting her. Later, he saw us arguing in the rose garden.”
“Back to Ryan’s question,” Narci said. “With one of my own.”
It was only fair they wanted details, since they’d gotten the emergency alert once the fucking sprinklers went off.
They swarmed the house within minutes, helping to clean up the glass from the blown-out mirrors and frosted glass shower.
Although part of the sink was missing a section, Axel’s bomb wasn’t strong enough to cause damage beyond the bathroom.
“What, Narci?” Diesel asked irritably as if he had the fucking right. Everything was his fucking fault.
Narci looked at CJ, then grinned at Diesel. Another unserious fuckhead with twinkling eyes. “Why argue in front of Ax if he’s on a crusade to protect Meggie?”
“The little monster has listening devices all over the fucking house,” Diesel said grimly.
Chuckles rose around them, and CJ gritted his teeth.
At least, Dad wasn’t amused. “Fuck!” he exploded.
“Don’t worry, Dad,” CJ grouched. “I told him you and Mom spend alone time in there and we watched him remove it.”
“After we got a fucking sex ed lesson,” Diesel said with distaste.
“Well.” Huck looked at Potter, Pike, and Zephyr. “Remind me never to fuck with Meggie.”
“Diesel?” Rebel called.
Their group parted, revealing his little sister standing in the archway, leaning on Kaia, in one of her peignoir sets.
CJ frowned. She looked both sweet and innocent and like a girl that guys wanted to date.
Diesel’s fierce glower rivaled Dad’s as Rebel hobbled toward Diesel without Kaia’s assistance. CJ would’ve hung back too if he had two motherfuckers looking at him like Dad and Diesel were staring at Kaia.
Rebel greeted Uncle Val, nodded to Dad, and ignored everyone else.
Diesel scowled at her.
“Lean down, fuckhead,” she said crossly. “I have something to tell you.”
“Did you ask him yet, Reb?” Axel’s frightened little voice blared down the hallway.
Growling like a fucking grizzly, Dad started forward.
“Wait, Daddy!” Rebel called, turning toward him.
Ignoring Diesel’s death stare, Kaia hurried to assist Rebel as she rushed to Dad as fast as she could.
“Just listen to me,” Rebel said to their father.
“Fuck no, Reb. You know what that little motherfucker did.”
“I have a right to due process, Dad,” Axel called. “That’s why I need my fucking attorney.”
“You have a motherfucking right to have your fucking ass beat,” Dad roared, appeasing CJ’s need for revenge. Finally, that little fuckhead would face punishment for his fucking crimes. “Diesel not fuckin’ gettin’ you off.”
“I didn’t mean to blow up the bathroom.”
“You planted that motherfucker. You meant to do it.”
“He didn’t,” Rebel insisted. “It was to warn Diesel. When he moved it, it must’ve destabilized the contents.”
Jesus Christ.
Jesus.
Christ.
Floundering for a response, Dad lost his color.
“Goddamn,” Diesel whispered. “Axel could’ve blown himself the fuck up.”
Rebel nodded. “Mom brought him, Ryder, and Ransom to my room. The boys are really upset, Daddy.” She lowered her voice.
“Mom wants them punished, but she told me to get Diesel. What could’ve happened hasn’t dawned on Axel, but Ryder and Ransom understood the moment they heard his explanation and Mom’s trying to ease their fear.
This could’ve been so bad. We could’ve lost him. ”
A sobering reminder that went over everyone’s head in the heat of the fuckery.
“Your ma must be so upset,” Dad croaked.
“A little,” Rebel admitted, instructing Kaia to help her to the bench. “Narci, would you know how to remove this cast? My foot and ankle should be healed and it is so fucking cumbersome.”
“It involves a medical saw and other tools, Reb,” Narci said.
“They’re different from regular saws,” Rebel responded. “They’re designed to minimize harm to the skin underneath.”
“Don’t matter,” Narci told her. “I’d prefer not to do that because if I something went wrong and I nicked you—”
“You fuckin’ die,” Dad said, ignoring Rebel’s glare and turning toward the archway. “Axel, come here, boy.”
“Are you mad at me, Dad?” Axel asked in a pitiful little boy voice that hid the chaos he constantly created.
“Can I talk to him, Uncle Christopher?” Diesel asked.
Dad scrubbed his hand over his hair and sighed heavily. “Yeah.”
“I’m coming, Ax.” Diesel broke away and detoured to where Rebel sat next to Kaia, scooping her into his arms. She squealed in outrage. “You’re not fucking dressed. You’re going back upstairs.”
“Since there’s no elevator in this house, who am I to argue if you want to serve as mine?” she asked sweetly and indicated Kaia follow with a regal wave.
“You aren’t welcomed,” Diesel snapped, stalking away like a jackass and drawing Dad’s attention.
The lights around the grand staircase flicked on and Mom came into view, one arm around Ransom and the other around Ryder.
“Come on, Sweet Pea,” she started, then paused at seeing Diesel carrying Rebel. “Kaia can help Rebel, Diesel. You see to Axel.”
“But I’m tired, Mama,” Rebel whined. “Ax can come back to my room and talk to Diesel.”
“Kaia can carry you.”
Dad narrowed his eyes again and looked at CJ.
He shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he lied.
Mad as a motherfucker, Diesel stormed back to where Kaia stood and handed Rebel to him.
Mom was in the foyer now and signaled Kaia to carry Rebel away. Fuckhead followed them until they went up the staircase and were out-of-sight.
Axel watched it play out, looking from Mom’s annoyance to Diesel’s.
“Motherfucker, I’m in trouble because of you,” Axel said. “I didn’t mean to blow up your fucking bathroom but I will beat you again. Don’t. Make. Mom. MAD!”
“How is you blowing up my fucking bathroom my fucking fault?” Diesel snapped.
“’Cause I got a fucking brain and you fucking don’t. If I could lend you mine for a day, you’d fucking realize the error of your ways.”
“You could’ve killed me!”
“Then you wouldn’t be here to upset Mom, fuckhead.”
“You want me dead?”
Axel scowled. “No, Diesel. I love you a lot, but you’re a jackass and so’s CJ.”
“How the fuck did I get into this?” CJ demanded, his irritation sliding into anger because Dad wasn’t saying a motherfucking peep. “We resolved our issues.”
“All you got to do is open your fucking mouth and then he’ll open his. You motherfuckers not fucking happy unless you’re fussing with each other.”
“You fucking think your strategy will work and stop us from arguing?” CJ asked incredulously.
“See what I got to put up with, Dad?” Axel yelled. “Talk to your fucking sons.”
“What the fuck are you, Axel?” Diesel demanded.
“His fucking daughter,” Axel barked. “What the fuck you think I am? One of his sons, but I’m Mom’s son first. I told you motherfuckers that. Do we got to repeat this every fucking day of my fucking life? Are you motherfuckers that fucking old?”
“I’m not fucking old, you rancid little roach,” CJ blared.
“Your mama’s a fucking rancid roach,” Axel snapped and turned to Diesel, ignoring Mom’s giggle. He didn’t realize what he’d called her as he pinned Diesel with his gaze. “As for you, you fucking diseased monkey, act like my fucking attorney and get me off.”
“I’m too much of a fucking diseased monkey,” Diesel told him.
Axel threw him a dark look. “Then give me my five fucking dollars back. That covers an entire month. You’ve only had to defend me two or three times, not every day.”
“You can’t pay me five motherfucking dollars and expect me to defend you every fucking day, Axel!”
“I shouldn’t! That’s fucking expensive. For your shoddy fucking work, I should give you fifty fucking cents for the month.”
“I quit!”
“Fuck you. You’re fucking fired.”
“You can’t fire me if I’ve already fucking quit.”
“You only quit ‘cause you’re fucking guilty of being a shitty chicken.”
Another giggle escaped Mom and she clapped a hand over her mouth.
“And a shitty attorney,” Axel continued.
“I don’t want to get you off,” Diesel sniped. “Do you know what the fuck you did?”
“Yes, motherfucker! Yes! I fucking did it. The only thing I regret is the stupid bomb. I didn’t know moving it would make it blow up. Everything else? I’d do it again.”
Diesel glowered at him. If CJ was in Diesel’s position, he’d fucking glower, too.
“We’re not talking about this every fucking day, Diesel,” Axel warned. “It’s fucking done. If you haven’t learned your fucking lesson, I’ll do it again. Case fucking closed, motherfucker.”
Mom put her hand on Axel’s shoulder, but he was so busy arguing with Diesel, he shrugged her off.
“That was Mom, stupid,” Ryder told him.
Gasping, Axel froze and turned to her. “You aren’t mad, are you, Mom? I didn’t know it was you. Don’t leave again. Okay?”
Mom hugged Axel. Folding his arms, CJ clenched his jaw and looked away. She didn’t hug him after the Triplets beat the fuck out of him. It didn’t matter he hadn’t told her. If she knew, she’d probably excuse Axel anyway. He was her new favorite.
“Listen to me, Sweet Pea.” Mom released Axel and clutched his shoulder. “I love you so much for you wanting to protect me so fiercely. However, you could’ve been seriously hurt or you could’ve seriously hurt Diesel. I’m very upset with you over the bomb.”
“But I don’t lie, Mom,” Axel said in a watery voice. “I told everybody I was building a bomb.”
“You did,” Mom said gently. “That’s my fault for not believing you.”
“No, it isn’t!” Axel insisted and hugged Mom. “Dad knew, too. So did CJ and Diesel. Nothing’s your fault. Don’t leave again. I swear.”
“Axel—”
Ignoring Dad’s call, Axel ran to him and hugged his waist. “Tell her, Dad. Tell her nothing’s her fault.”
“Axel, love, listen to me—”
“It isn’t your fault, Mom!”
“Son—” Dad started.
“Tell her, Dad,” Axel begged.
Mom walked to Dad and gently tugged Axel back into her arms. “Listen to me, love. I love your daddy. The only way I’ll ever leave him is if he cheats or if he hits me. I’m not leaving, but you have to remember I’m not perfect either.”
“To me you are.”
Mom smiled tenderly.
“And to C. And Diesel,” Axel continued.
She nodded. “They are.”
“Don’t forget us, Ax,” Ransom said.
“You’re perfect to Ran and Ry,” Axel said dutifully.
“I appreciate that, Sweet Pea. Just remember we all have flaws and emotions. I’m sure your daddy will make me mad again.”
Axel stiffened.
Mom raised her hand. “And that’s okay, sweetheart. I’m very upset with you and your men, but do you see me leaving?”
“No,” Axel sniffled.
“Diesel and me had a disagreement. CJ was with us. As much as I appreciate your defense of me, it wasn’t warranted. Especially the bomb. You could’ve been killed. Do you understand me, Axel? That bomb could’ve exploded and took you away from us. What would I have done without my little sweet pea?”
“You have your potato,” Axel told her.
“We can’t call CJ ‘potato’ in mixed company,” Mom said. “And my potato isn’t my sweet pea.”
“Are you really punishing us, Mom?” Ransom asked.
“I’ve already suspended your debit cards,” Mom said. “And you have extra chores. I also expect your dad will want to punish you, too. You three built a bomb.”
“Are you really going to let Dad beat us?” Axel squeaked.
“How about I negotiate for a lighter sentence, Ax?” Diesel said. “Pro bono.”
“If you win, I’ll rehire you,” Axel said miserably.