Chapter Thirty– Christopher #2
“I think Ryan did it for Molly,” she said quietly.
“Before Harley and me went to Rebel, I did other scans. I was able to get one message between Ryan and Willard, and he told him to meet him at Turn Creek Bridge. He’d have her with him for all his good video work.
” She blushed. “The databases for the cameras are registered to the same IP address as that incoming text message. When…when I looked up the whois data for the camera database, it is registered to…to Wally Bart, Jr.”
“That’s not fucking okay, Mattie,” Rory snapped. “That motherfucker took videos…”
Turning, Rebel hugged Harley.
“Tell them the rest, Harley,” Mattie said miserably.
“I-I can’t.”
“Can I?” Rebel asked. “Somebody needs to fucking know.”
“One of you fuckin’ talk now,” Christopher ordered, losing his patience, despite how badly he knew they needed it. But what happened to them was fucking unimaginable and it left him reeling. Once again wishing Rebel was still a small girl. He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s okay. Tell me.”
“It’s so bad, Daddy,” Rebel whispered, tears spiking her lashes. “Super bad.”
Val sat heavily in a chair.
Harley ran to Val and hugged him. “It wasn’t all Ryan, Uncle Val.”
“For me and Reb it was,” Mattie added, pretending it didn’t matter but Christopher saw her shame.
“And for Harley?” Val croaked, returning Harley’s hug in a distracted manner and then releasing her to look at Mattie. “Someone helped Ryan?”
“Ryan helped someone,” Rebel corrected. “Mattie thinks Willard was cyberbullying Harley. His username is Pillar of Earth. He made her undress and do all kinds of stuff. Just to humiliate her. All kinds of stuff,” she reiterated, blushing. “Even in the shower.”
“Did you say in the fucking shower?” CJ asked.
Ignoring him, Rebel swiped her cheeks. “And he, Pillar of Earth, sent the videos to Nardo. That’s why he started beating up Harley.”
“Nardo beat you up because of lewd videos you were forced to do?” Val asked.
The girls looked at each other and Harley started to cry again.
“He sent videos of her and Ryan together,” Rebel mumbled.
“That Ryan sent to motherfucking Willard, right?” CJ demanded.
“Are you two with anyone on the videos?” Diesel pointed from Mattie to Rebel and pinned Kaia with a hateful look. “Any fucking lewd tapes floating around? Do we have to cleave him in three to avenge each of you? Or just keep that motherfucker whole when we get to him?”
Rebel cringed, and Christopher’s heart sank.
“Motherfucker,” CJ said, starting for Kaia.
“Stop, CJ!” Rebel cried. “I didn’t do anything with anyone!”
“You’re lying,” Diesel charged. “Tell us the truth so we can get everything that’s out there with you, Harley, and Mattie.”
“It was…it was…s-solo,” she said, unable to meet anyone’s eyes, and sobbing like she never had before. “I’m sorry.”
In the scheme of things, Rebel’s announcement relieved Christopher. However, he never thought he’d see the fucking day when anything about sex embarrassed him.
He was wrong.
The tips of his ears burned. His nose twitched and his goddamn face and neck almost erupted into fucking flames.
“And me walking around without a stitch of clothes on,” she added miserably, weeping bitterly. “Just out of the bath. Sleeping. The same with Mattie.”
“I don’t have as many,” Mattie said. “I think Ryan placed the cameras in Rebel’s room first. I was getting a lot of data. Harley has the most though.”
“You told Megan?” Christopher asked.
“Daddy, please…I know…Aunt Zoann” Rebel sat in Christopher’s seat and face planted on the table.
“Tell them, Mattie,” Harley croaked, hurrying to Rebel and rubbing her back.
“Aunt Zoann loves Ryan a lot,” Mattie said. “In the last few weeks, he’s been begging Willard to stop. He sent them something yesterday and Willard threatened to tell everyone about what his mom did to Ryan.”
“He said…he said he didn’t care. No one would care about what happened to him.
” Harley stepped back from Rebel and looked at Val again.
She started fidgeting. “They know…they know what happened to you and Aunt Zoann. If Ryan didn’t continue, they were going to expose everything.
They’re angry because Bash brought Molly back and they think it’s because of Ryan. ”
Rebel moved, breaking the tense silence, and straightened.
She grabbed one of the few remaining napkins on the table and patted her cheeks.
“Ryan was so fucking foul for what he did, but that stupid fuckhead ended up being a victim, too.” She hung her head and all Christopher wanted to do was hide her away and protect her.
From herself. From men. From the world. Her sniffle broke his fucking heart.
“If Momma knows, then she’s going to tell Aunt Zoann.
” Her voice cracked and Christopher balled his fists to keep from pulling his .
9mm, finding Ryan, and blowing him the fuck away.
She dabbed her cheeks again. “Even if Ryan deserves to be stomped, Aunt Zoann doesn’t deserve to be humiliated and devastated. She loves that prick.”
“He could’ve come to anyone of us!” Val snarled. “That motherfucker didn’t have to do that to you girls. To you, Harley. Your daddy one of my best…He could’ve come to any of us,” he repeated, a small sob bubbling up.
Devon hurried to Val and hugged him. “Dad, it’s okay. Ryan’s sorry, but he didn’t have a choice.”
That statement bothered Christopher, but too much was going on for him to figure it out. Later, he would.
“It’s not okay, boy,” Val said. “If Ryan didn’t want to talk to all of us, he could’ve come to one of us.”
“He went to my daddy, Uncle Val,” Mattie admitted, her voice as bleak as her eyes. “He tried to get help, but then he was scared, too.”
“He should’ve been!” Val barked, his eyes brimming with tears and fury. “What the fuck did he even need Johnnie for? Of all the motherfuckers!”
Because of Molly. Ryan had already confessed to Christopher. He just hadn’t confessed everything.
“I know why the fuck he did it, Uncle Val,” CJ said, red-faced with anger, his stormy eyes filled with emotion.
“It was because that motherfucker called Molly’s Dad and told Tom Harris where he could find her.
Then that stupid fuckhead regretted what he did and didn’t know how the fuck to get her back, so he made Harley, Rebel, and Mattie the fucking scapegoats. ”
“We made ourselves that,” Harley said.
Mattie and Rebel nodded.
CJ kicked at the air. “The fuck you did!”
“Willard…I got into a fight with him at the end of last school year,” Harley confessed. “And I-I beat him, then I-I escaped.”
“The Triplets saved me from Wallace,” Mattie added.
“And I beat the fuck out of Willard when he tried to snatch me,” Rebel said tiredly. “They wanted to humiliate us because we humiliated them.”
They looked as if their entire world had ended. Christopher knew out of the three of them, Harley’s experience was by far the most egregious. However, after Mattie’s exploitation by those two dead fuckheads and more recently Wally, Jr., this couldn’t have been easy for her either.
As for Rebel, her privacy had been invaded. She’d done nothing wrong. Even if she’d been swinging from a motherfucking chandelier with nothing covering her…
Heaving in a breath, Christopher scrubbed a hand over his face. He needed to tell Megan and Kendall, so they could talk to the girls. Bitsy needed to know an annotated version. This wasn’t a situation that could be hidden.
“I’m killing Ryan, Uncle Val,” CJ said bitterly. “He’ll be good practice for when I get my hands on motherfucking Nardo.”
Harley rushed to CJ and threw her arms around him. “No, CJ! You can’t go after Nardo,” she sobbed. “Please, he’ll kill you. He has an older brother and everything. Please. That’s why Daddy can’t go after Mr. Grevenberg. Please! I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she said, almost hysterical.
“Harley, Harley, Harley…shhhhh…” CJ took her face between his hands to try and calm her. “Baby…Harley…”
“He told me he’s going to hurt you and Daddy. He called just before Mattie did and—”
“That motherfucker called you?” CJ snarled.
Stretch jumped to his feet and shook his head at CJ. “Harley, can you call him back?”
The horror on Harley’s face when she turned and looked at Stretch told Christopher a lot.
“He’s not going to hurt you,” Stretch said gently.
“I thought Nardo was Pillar of Earth,” Harley said dully. “He has the video of Ryan and me. He’s going to release it to everyone. Everyone. The club members. The school. Everyone.”
Rebel and Mattie somehow managed to hug Harley at the same time.
“I need Nardo’s data, sweetheart,” Stretch said. “For his location and to try and get into his server to remove the video.”
“I’m sorry,” Harley chanted. “I’m sorry.”
“Diesel,” Christopher said. “Get Mort back here.”
“No, Uncle Christopher!” Harley said, halting Diesel.
As angry as Val was, his shoulders slumped at Christopher’s order. Mort would shoot the fuck out of Ryan.
“Mort got to know part of the story, baby,” Christopher said to Harley. “To protect that fuckhead, we leave out some facts for right now.” He looked at Rebel and Mattie. “But Megan and Kendall need to know everything, too. Set everything up in the conference room, Stretch—”
“Please, Uncle Christopher,” Harley said. “Please. I’d rather die—”
“That isn’t an option, Harls,” Rebel said fiercely. “Not for you, me, or Mattie. You’re smart and strong, just like Uncle Mort. He won’t let them hurt you anymore. Neither will my brothers, CJ and Diesel. My daddy. Our uncles.”
“Mr. Grevenberg will beat me again,” Harley said, crying quietly. “Or Nardo. And M-Mrs. Grevenberg won’t care. She’ll let them.”
Mrs. Grevenberg was a dead bitch, so she’d never hurt Harley again.
Another sob escaped her and she removed her jacket.
Christopher wasn’t sure who the fuck gasped. It could’ve been every motherfucker in that fucking place. The bruises on Harley’s back and stomach, the marks on her neck, must’ve been so fucking painful.
“Jesus Christ,” CJ whispered. “Nardo did this to you?”
She nodded. “Pillar of Earth always laughed.”
CJ narrowed his eyes. “Ryan knew. That motherfucker knew and he didn’t open his fucking mouth?”
“No one knew,” Harley said, missing CJ’s point about the fucking picture Ryan supposedly accidentally took. “I couldn’t tell anyone.”
“I’m callin’ Mort.” Christopher wouldn’t want motherfuckers forcing Rebel to do anything and maybe traumatize her further. “CJ, call your ma. Ask her to get here, stat.”