Prologue – Johnnie #2
“You think?” Bash demanded. “You had your motherfucking chance to shoot me down. I was alone, which you fucking knew. You could’ve taken your goddamn shot, so fuck you.”
Humiliation invaded Johnnie and he placed his hand on the gun holstered at his side. Before he drew his weapon, Bash and Easton pulled on him.
“Drop your motherfucking hands, Johnnie,” Bash said coldly. “I didn’t plan to fuck you up, so don’t make me.”
Grinding his teeth, Johnnie raised his hands. “Christopher isn’t stupid. If I disappear, he’ll know it’s because of you.”
“I can fucking kill you and make it seem like you betrayed me in the act of betraying him. You think he’d avenge you or dance on your fucking grave?”
Johnnie didn’t answer. He didn’t have an answer. Once again, Bash had backed him into a corner, leaving Johnnie’s life on the line.
“I’m bored.” Bash’s gun disappeared inside his cut and he nodded to Easton, who holstered his gun too, so Johnnie lowered his hands. “I’m also sick of you dicking me around. Everything’s at a fucking standstill.”
“How the fuck is that my problem? Christopher knows everything, dickhead. He’s looking into the documents. You have anything to say—”
Bash grabbed a handful of Johnnie’s shirt and jerked him forward. “Listen to me, motherfucker. I don’t give a good fuck who’s in charge. My fucking club’s in trouble. I need money. I need what rightfully belongs to me. I need Christopher’s cumrag broken figuratively and literally.”
He shoved Johnnie away, unmoved by Johnnie sputtering and coughing.
“You insane fuck!” He thought of Torie and the same fear he’d experienced last night surged into him. “Christopher will kill you, me, and Easton or Pounder. He’ll blow your motherfucking club out of existence if you fuck with Megan.”
Studying Johnnie, Bash took his time lighting a cigarette and puffing on it a few times. “What do you think I will do if you ignore what I want?”
Johnnie couldn’t say and didn’t want to find out. For two years, he’d been at Bash’s mercy. With each passing day, the power imbalance worsened. He’d even been made to kill two of his own brothers. Which reminded him. “The bones of three Dwellers were found. I only killed two.”
“You can’t prove it,” Bash said. “But I can show that you killed those two bozos on camera. Who the fuck knows what you were willing to do off camera?”
“Christopher already knows,” Johnnie said smugly. At Bash’s surprise, his satisfaction increased. “Obviously, it doesn’t matter.”
Bash and Johnnie faced off. The longer the silence extended, the more comfortable Johnnie grew that he’d outwitted the asshole.
Then, Bash smiled, so coldly it chilled Johnnie.
“I wonder how the brothers would feel knowing Outlaw’s a fucking traitor.”
“What…?”
“You heard me, motherfucker.” Bash poked Johnnie’s chest. “He found out you fucked up Dweller brothers in cold fucking blood and didn’t put you to ground? He’s as much a turncoat as you.”
“No! What do you mean? No! I didn’t say that! No—”
“Shut the fuck up, dickhead,” Bash commanded. “You listen to me. If you don’t do every fucking thing I tell you to do, I’m exposing you and Outlaw.”
“No one will believe you!”
“Unlike you, motherfucker, I know how the fuck to bring about the demise of fuckheads. You want to fucking test me, go ahead.”
“We already know you’ve infiltrated the school and you’re listening in on phone conversations.” Johnnie nodded to Easton. “He proves that. How else would you know how much Megan likes Channing Tatum?”
“Research, motherfucker. Research. That fucking school’s a fortress. The closest we got to getting in was when I was stalking my nieces and nephews.”
“You’re a fucking liar. Furthermore, what the fuck’s going on with the Gnomes? They rode up on Megan and they were wearing Scorpion cuts.”
Anger marched across Bash’s face, disappearing just as suddenly. “You’re giving up everybody, huh, John Boy? Don’t know why those brainless motherfuckers wore my club’s colors, but I’ll find out and see to it that mistakes like that don’t happen ever again.”
Johnnie gasped. He hadn’t exactly doubted Megan. “So they are Scorpions?”
“Did I say that?”
“Yes, in so many words.”
“Always the smartest cookie in the jar, huh, little brother?”
“Good of you to finally recognize my superior intelligence.”
Bash guffawed. “Only to Marvin the Martian. You like Looney Tunes, right?”
He elbowed Easton, who was also chuckling.
“Your teasing isn’t funny,” Johnnie spat. “I have a very good sense of humor especially at my own expense, but I’m offended. Jokes are only as good as audience response. Easton has to laugh. Do you see me laughing?”
“Did you hear a joke?” Bash said, still chuckling. “I sure the fuck didn’t. I spoke the truth.”
“You’re a fuckhead.”
Easton’s eyes rounded and Bash’s laughter abruptly stopped.
“You’re lucky we’re kinfolk or I’d fuck you up. Don’t let it happen again.” He narrowed his eyes at Easton, who suddenly found his boots very interesting. “Disrespect like that will get your tongue and an eye removed. Understand?”
“Perfectly, Bash.”
“I don’t!”
“How fucking shocking.”
“Tongue I understand. Why an eye?”
Bash shrugged. “Why not an eye? Forewarned is forearmed. You see an eyeless, tongueless fuckhead moping around, are you committing the same offense or will you learn from that motherfucker’s mistake?”
Johnnie wouldn’t debate torture and punishment with the motherfucker, though Bash’s retribution had inherent flaws.
“Fuck, Bash, what games are you fucking playing? Tell me now!”
Bash blew smoke in Johnnie’s face. “Don’t have time for the fucking long game, asshole. I strike and get it over. We just have to look at how you’re yanking my nuts to see why my fucking patience is so thin.”
“You were happy enough to take my fucking money.”
“Would’ve had more if you got me the right will and I killed that cunt.”
Johnnie’s nostrils flared. As much as he resented Megan, he didn’t want her dead. Most of the time, though he had his moments.
“But it’s your lucky day. I’m bored so I’ve decided to play.”
“With?”
Taking a last drag on his cigarette, Bash threw it on the pristine wood floor and stomped it out. “Is it you? Who knows? Could be.”
“I take umbrage to that. I have superior bullshit detection. You couldn’t play me if you tried.”
Bash exchanged a look with Easton, then smiled at Johnnie. “Must be nice to live with that level of delusion.”
“Get out, asshole.”
“You’re inviting old Eastie here to the club ASAP,” Bash continued as if Johnnie hadn’t spoken. “You’re introducing him to Meggie. If Outlaw got his rocks off in that bitch he iced last night, I’ll bet his bitch is willing to let Pounder lick her pussy.”
“How the fuck do you know about Torie?” Johnnie refused to address “Eastie’s” mission. If Megan hadn’t given into Johnnie, she’d never submit to anyone other than Christopher. “You said you didn’t infiltrate the club.”
“I said the school, jackass. Never mentioned the fucking club.”
“Do you have listening devices or cameras?”
Bash and Easton exchanged laughter.
“So fucking cliché, little brother,” Bash said, feigning sadness. “Neither.”
“A spy?” Johnnie guessed. His mind searched for any new faces, but he didn’t hang around the club as much as he once had. He didn’t know of new hangarounds, only newly patched-in brothers. “A Scorpion posing as a Dweller?”
“Nope. A cunt sucking good cock.”
Johnnie squinted. “Nyx?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Bash—”
“Not listening. You have a choice to make. Believe everything I say. Introduce Easton, keep your fucking mouth shut, or have me expose Outlaw as a fucking traitor for knowingly allowing you to get away with the deaths of your brothers.”
“Don’t hurt Megan.” Bash’s ultimate goal. Somehow, Johnnie allowed Bash to outwit him. He needed to figure Bash out before it was too late. Perhaps Easton’s presence was a good thing. Maybe Johnnie could flip him and draw information out of him. “Please. Megan’s innocent.”
“There’s more than one way to hurt a cunt.
” Bash’s nostrils flared. “As much as I hate to lump myself in your league, maybe I belong there. Christopher had Daddy’s admiration because Daddy had some type of feelings for Patricia.
Me? I only truly love Celia, my little sister, and always want the best for her. ”
“The curse of the Caldwells,” Johnnie responded with a thin smile. “Cee Cee adored Kimber. Christopher loves Zoann. And you sound as if you feel the same about Celia.”
Bash shrugged. “It doesn't matter if Daddy ended up despising Christopher’s mama. He still had that feeling for her. But Christopher’s respected.
He’s feared. Brothers either love him or try not to fucking cross him.
Yet he has something I would kill for. Something you hate him for.
And she gave it to him. The fucking best of him. Of Daddy.”
“CJ.”
Bash nodded. “Christopher also has love and happiness. Maybe if a Meggie-type cumrag came along for me, my life would be different.”
Threads of weariness and regret laced Bash’s tone, though Johnnie couldn’t detect the underlying meaning of the confession.
It was hard to believe his half-brother capable of tender feelings or even letting his guard down to allow a woman in.
“Stop referring to women as cumrags if you want love, motherfucker,” he growled. “Even Megan wouldn’t stand for that.”
“Even Megan? According to Daddy there’s a lot that wild little cunt wouldn’t put up with. She isn’t as sweet and submissive as she leads everyone to believe.”
“You don’t know anything about her, so don’t pretend otherwise,” he said harshly.
Surprise flared in Bash’s eyes.
Johnnie puffed out his chest. “My point was that it’s never too late for love. You might walk outside and the love of your life runs into you.”
A bark of laughter escaped Bash. “Doubtful. Got more kids than fingers, toes, cock, and balls combined. Just don’t have a connection with them. Not like I did with Daddy and Christopher has with CJ.” He glanced at Easton and smirked.