Easton #2
“Not liking my kid, another of Daddy’s grandsons, does both,” Bash said flatly. “I could understand if Easton had a cunt. He’s a swinging cock. He also backed up your story and saved your fucking life because I was going to shoot the fuck out of you. All the inconsistencies and shit.”
“I’ll treat him better,” Cleaner muttered. “I promise, and thank you, Bash.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank my boy.” Bash finished the beer and lit a cigarette. “It’s your last chance. We’re leaving tomorrow.” He smirked at Charlotte. “Just staying behind to tie up a pesky loose end.”
Smiling demurely, Charlotte sat a little straighter.
“Lottie!” Bash chortled. “We’re rude motherfuckers. I’m sure you’ll agree.”
She slid back and stood, pointedly looking at the wall clock and then her diamond encrusted watch. “Brooks will be worried. I’m afraid I must depart.”
“You have to excuse me, Lottie babe,” Bash said, pausing to enjoy his cigarette. “But I’m in need of money, so I’ve thought long and hard about your proposition. Just remind me why you want me to kill Meggie. I’ll tell you my price. She’ll be dead within the day.”
Poker face firmly in place, Charlotte studied Bash. “What about the peace agreement?”
“Is Meggie a motherfucker?” Bash retorted.
“By decree of her sex,” Charlotte said with a sniff.
Bash snickered. “High class words by a high-class bitch.”
“I do not appreciate your filthy insults.”
“Take me as I am or leave me forever, Lottie Dottie.”
She huffed.
“The floor is yours.” Cigarette between two fingers, Bash swept his hand in a wide arc. “Tell old Bashie-Boo everything.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want Meggie dead.” Easton hoped she took the bait and backed off. “It would devastate Kendall. They are very close.”
“Kendall is closer to that Roxanne woman,” Charlotte sneered.
“Even more of a guttersnipe. At least Meggie doesn’t have a foul mouth or fight at the drop of a hat.
Rebel is proving herself to be the same garbage as Roxanne.
I might not agree with Mr. Donovan on much but our views on that horrible child are in sync.
I’m sure Meggie is diseased.” She leaned forward and dropped her voice to a whisper.
“She has marital relations with Outlaw,” she said and leaned back again.
“Rebel has had unmarried relations with Diesel.”
Easton shifted uncomfortably, concerned Diesel would lose his fucking mind at that lie.
Bash lifted his brows. “Really?”
Charlotte nodded.
“I would think hearsay is beneath you, Lottie Dottie.”
“Tabitha, a completely awful woman, told Beams. Kendall’s assistant.
Beams is lovely. I referred her to my darling girl.
Beams told me. It makes sense. Rebel walks around with her midriff and knees out.
Whoever heard of cropped sweaters. It defeats the entire purpose of keeping one warm.
And jeans are uncouth enough, but cutoff jeans? ”
Bash discarded another cigarette. “I think you mean cut out, Lottie.”
“Is there a difference, Mr. Bash?”
“Cutoffs are fucking shorts,” Cleaner told her.
Charlotte’s lips tightened. “I don’t remember asking you.”
“I decided to answer you,” Cleaner said coldly. “Thank me and move on.”
Ignoring Cleaner, she focused on Bash and shivered delicately. “Do you know Rebel is also sleeping with Grant Harrington, three bikers, including that young Black, and Kia.”
“Kaia?” The hatred stirring in Cleaner’s eyes didn’t surprise Easton. Cleaner was very sensitive about certain matters, and Charlotte’s references to Bishop understandably pissed him off. Easton pasted on a smile. “Bishop is a biker. Kaia isn’t.”
“Whatever his name is,” Charlotte spat. “As a matter of fact, do you do 2-for-1 deals, Mr. Bash?”
Bash lifted a brow. “Kaia and Meggie?”
“Rebel and Meggie.”
A growl interrupted that brief moment of silence, startling Charlotte.
“I thought we were alone,” she said as a thud reached them.
Bash nodded to Cleaner. “Close the fucking door. Next time turn the TV off, asshole.”
Charlotte glanced around. “I-I haven’t heard a TV…are you sure we’re alone, Mr. Bash?”
“Positive,” Bash said, his growing agitation very clear.
Cleaner returned to his seat and grabbed another beer. “A new program must’ve started. By all means, continue. We’re all in need of money.”
Hesitating for a fucking second because she had zero survival instincts, Charlotte took Cleaner’s advice and opened her fucking mouth again.
“Once that little two-bit hussy is dead, her evil spawn will run to my darling Kendall. She’s such a loving girl.
She’d console Rebel out of blind loyalty.
Rebel has the same morals as her mother.
Zero. Meggie is a little slut with zero moral compass.
I’m sure Rebel would try to seduce Mr. Donovan because she’s her daughter. Those types of women are insatiable.”
“Rebel isn’t a woman,” Easton said.
“They start early with their filthy ways. She’s just a Bathsheba. So’s her mother.” Charlotte thought for a moment. “So’s Matilda.”
Bash stiffened. “Kendall’s girl?”
“Influenced by Rebel. Just as Rory is with Outlaw’s clone, CJ.
Kendall would be so much better off without any of Mr. Donovan’s progeny.
Pity those biker people didn’t do her a favor and kill Matilda.
” She sniffed. “Disgraceful. I will liquidate my assets if you add Matilda—all of Kendall’s kids—along with CJ so Outlaw can feel the pain threefold that he put my family through when he killed Kyler—”
“For such a classy cunt, you certainly are vengeful,” Bash told her, his pale green eyes cold and unforgiving.
The door opened and Johnnie walked in.
“Johnnie—” Bash gritted.
Charlotte blinked, then pasted a smile on her face and got to her feet. “Good evening, Mr. Donovan. What are the chances of meeting you here?”
Johnnie stared at Charlotte.
Standing, Bash squinted. “John Boy?”
For the first time, Easton saw something more than a man who jumped to Bash’s bidding. More than a coward. Before him was a cold-blooded killer, a man with dead eyes and no humanity.
“Er…” Charlotte grabbed her handbag from where it lay on the table. “Brooks is probably overcome with worry—”
“You really want my kids dead?” Johnnie growled.
“Dead? Those sweet children? Kendall adores them.”
“I fucking heard you!” Johnnie roared.
“Then you heard wrong,” Charlotte said flatly, her eyes drawn to Diesel as he walked in, a big fucking knot on his head, Val close on his heels. She didn’t bother to greet them and looked at Johnnie again.
Diesel walked to her, shoved a gun against her temple, and waited a second. Until her danger registered and her eyes widened. He pulled the trigger, spraying blood on him and Johnnie.
Shaking his head, Val jammed his cigarette in his mouth and grabbed the shotgun Bash kept right outside the kitchen door. He brought it to Johnnie. “Here, motherfucker. Get it out of your system.”
“You had no fucking right to kill her, Diesel.”
“You were taking too fucking long, Johnnie. The sound of that cunt’s voice nauseated me.”
Johnnie glared at Diesel, then pressed the heel of the gun into his shoulder and laid his cheek against the stock. He aimed the barrel at her head and pulled the trigger. Before he fired the second shot, he pointed at her heart.
His eyes bright with insanity, he inhaled and his breathing quickened.
He laughed, then knelt next to her. “I can’t wait to get you to the meatshack. You should’ve been dead years ago, Charlotte. Wouldn’t you agree?” He rubbed his fingers over her head wound and his nostrils flared.
“Do I have to knock you out too, Johnnie?” Val asked, leaning against the counter, spattered with blood and pieces of brain. He nodded to Diesel, ignoring his glare. “I could’ve left him fucking conscious since you two motherfuckers went off the script anyway.”
“She wanted to fucking kill my children,” Johnnie snarled, so fucking unhinged Easton wondered if he’d return to the man he knew.
Bash was silent, taking everything in, looking a little shell-shocked by the turn of events.
Johnnie snatched Charlotte’s corpse to a sitting position and shook her.
“Why, you fucking bitch? Why? Kendall thought the world of you! You wanted to take her children away because of me?” He shook her again, then released her and let her topple to the ground, laughing again.
“Blood,” he breathed. “Blood. The hallmark of life.”
Beginning to sweat, Easton looked at Bash, wondering exactly how safe he was as a Dweller prospect. He’d never fucking witnessed someone in a frenzy because of blood.
“Do you have anybody else this motherfucker can kill?” Diesel demanded.
Bash swallowed. Even Cleaner pressed his lips together.
“I was supposed to kill this cunt if you hadn’t stolen my fucking thunder, nephew,” Johnnie sneered.
“If you wanted that much fucking interaction with that bitch, you should’ve taken her to the meatshack,” Diesel replied.
“I was trying to decide how to fucking kill her, asshole. I didn’t know if I wanted to slit her throat, stab her in the fucking eyes, or shoot her. I was thinking. I might’ve taken her to the meatshack if you’d had a little bit of fucking patience.”
Easton was still recovering from his gunshots and he was fucking surrounded by lunatics.
“You didn’t have knife or gun out, Johnnie,” Diesel argued.
“She was my fucking kill.”
“No, she was Bash’s kill,” Diesel retorted. “Who you wanted to hold a fucking conversation with.”
“I like torture!”
“Conversation isn’t fucking torture,” Diesel said. “It’s socializing.”
“Are you two motherfuckers finished trying to out-crazy the other?” Val interjected.
“No!” Johnnie and Diesel chorused.