Chapter 10b CJ
His constantly ringing phone hurt Diesel’s head. Jana, based on the tone, but he didn’t have the energy to answer. Of all the scenarios, Aunt Meggie leaving never entered his mind. It broke his heart and sickened his soul that they’d driven her away.
Her unexpected departure also brought painful memories back to the forefront. Memories he’d ignored and refused to admit.
Memories of his father’s fuckery. Long before Theresa Rivers abandoned her family, Diesel’s father, Skylar, had been a deadbeat and a heavy drinker.
His last known address ran through Diesel’s head. When he’d discovered the location of the man he believed to be his father, he’d gone to the ramshackle place and just stared. Never having the courage to see if that was his father.
Even now, when memories of Skylar’s meanness rose up, Diesel empathized with him over Theresa’s desertion.
Diesel’s parents rarely talked about their ages.
If they had other family, he’d never met them.
He wasn’t allowed to ask questions that any kid wanted to know about their family.
It was a miracle he was allowed an education.
His father kept them isolated from the world, though Theresa worked her fingers to the bone to provide for them.
Someone–maybe one of her coworkers or Skylar’s drinking buddies–once told Diesel his mother had given birth to him at sixteen and his father had been close to forty.
Except Theresa looked so much older and Skylar beat the shit out of Diesel for even asking the question.
Suddenly, her heartbroken sobs invaded Diesel’s mind.
Over the years, she’d cried buckets for one reason or another.
Skylar always called her emotional and unreasonable.
She cried, he said, to have her way. She cried, he swore, because she wanted to shirk her woman’s duty of taking care of her family.
The ringing started again, invading Diesel’s misery. He tipped his head down and stared at the phone, where it lay on the desk in his bedroom.
Aunt Meggie teaching him to slow dance juxtaposed with Skylar grabbing Theresa’s hair and dragging her out of sight.
One recollection was real, happy, him as a sixteen-year-old preparing for prom.
The other might’ve been a figment of his imagination since the self he saw was a child, no older than six and screaming for his mother.
He closed his eyes, then hurriedly opened them again, unable to bear the image of Aunt Meggie the night she came home from the hospital after Uncle Christopher’s stunning breakdown.
Still, Diesel never expected her to leave. Since he’d been brought into the Caldwell family, she was the one constant, a steadying hand, a gorgeous woman with a beautiful soul and a will of iron.
How had he taken her for granted so fantastically? If one of the men in her life had given her the respect she deserved, she wouldn’t have left. Diesel couldn’t even make it better because she was using a burner phone.
Bitch Better Have My Money blasted through the room, startling him. At first, he thought he was hearing things. He straightened and picked up his cell phone, his hand shaking.
“Ax?” he answered hoarsely, fatigue weighing him down.
“Mom sent me upstairs ‘cause I’m covered in flour,” he said.
Diesel squinted. “Are you cooking?”
“Baking,” Axel said proudly. “We’re about to have a big dinner and I told Mom I’m the man of the house and I need to help cook.”
“Right.” Diesel realized he could get a location from Axel’s phone. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the skill to do so. Stretch did, but that meant seeing Cash. The only other person was Ryan. “How long will you be in your room before you have to go back downstairs?”
“Why?” Axel asked suspiciously.
Standing, Diesel glanced around and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m taking a shit. I need to call you back in ten minutes.”
“Mom said we have thirty minutes ‘til we eat, so hurry up. Okay?”
Diesel smiled. “Okay, Ax.”
“Diesel?”
“The clock’s ticking,” he said impatiently. “What?”
“I love you and I miss you. When we get back home, be nice to Mom. Okay?”
“You’re coming back then?” Diesel croaked.
“I like Rodeo Drive with all the cool stuffs to shop, but I miss home, so does Mom and Reb.”
Rodeo Drive? “You’re in Texas?” Diesel asked dubiously. Dallas, maybe? Highland Park Village? He was almost certain the streets in the shopping district were named after places–Versailles, Bordeaux, Fairfax. “Is there a Cowboy Avenue and a Horse Street?”
“I’m not sure. And, no, I don’t think we’re in Texas. We wasn’t on the plane long enough.”
Diesel absorbed that information.
Axel gasped. “Motherfucker, you’re playing me!”
Fuck. “What the hell are you talking about?” Diesel demanded, more hopeful than he’d felt in hours. Until then, he’d been so focused on Aunt Meggie, he hadn’t realized how much he missed Axel. “I haven’t played you one bit.”
“You’re trying to get Mom’s location and I called because I miss you. Don’t make me fire you as my fucking attorney.”
“We’re all scared and worried, Ax,” Diesel said quietly. “If I promise not to tell anyone else where she’s at, will you tell me?”
“No,” Axel said stubbornly. “Dad said a liar’s the worst motherfucker in the world and a snitch belongs in a ditch. If I tell you where Mom’s at, I’d be a snitch and then a fucking dirty liar ‘cause I’d have to look her in her face and pretend I didn’t rat her out.”
“Axel–”
“I’m not listening, Diesel. No motherfucker wanted to listen to me. I’ve preached until I’m fucking green in the face. Cherish that woman. Take care of Mom. Do motherfuckers listen? Nope. One fucking day you all will fucking look back and say Axel was right.”
“We’re saying it now,” Diesel grumbled. “Call me back in ten fucking minutes.”
“Nope. It’s down to five.” Axel disconnected.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Dialing Ryan’s number, Diesel sprinted into the hallway, hoping everyone remained in a central location.
“What, Diesel?” Ryan answered crossly.
“Get your fucking ass to the house now. You have four fucking minutes,” he ordered, and hung up. “Uncle Christopher! CJ!” he yelled, hurrying down the staircase at breakneck speed. “Ransom! Ryder! Bishop!” Fuck Kaia.
Cutting across the central foyer, he headed to the door that led to the breezeway at the back of the house, which was the quickest route to either the mancave or the den.
“We’re here, boy,” Uncle Christopher said, standing in the doorway of the den.
“I think they’re in California,” he said, puffing out air, winded thanks to his mad dash.
“By Rule?” CJ questioned.
“How do you know this?” Ryder demanded.
Uncle Christopher received an alert on his phone that someone was at the gate. For once, Ryan listened.
“Don’t keep us in suspense, Diesel,” Bishop said.
“Wait a minute,” he said, using the app to open the gate for Ryan and then texting him their location in the house. “We’ll figure it out. As soon as Ryan gets here.”
They didn’t have to wait long.
“What’s up, Diesel?” Ryan asked, walking into the room moments later, looking as haggard as the rest of them.
Axel’s ringtone blasted through the room.
“Ax is calling you?” Ransom breathed.
Nodding and placing a finger over his lips, Diesel walked to the bar and sat the phone down, then answered and placed the speaker on.
“What’s up, Ax? Got all the flour off you?”
Uncle Christopher widened his eyes and Diesel shook his head.
“Most of it. I didn’t take a shower like Mom said, though. I wonder if she’ll notice.”
The words went over Diesel’s head. “Why are you calling me on your phone?” he asked, staring at Ryan. “It can be traced.”
Ryan nodded and pulled out his own phone.
“The fire phones are no fun. I can’t play games or watch no porn or nothing. When we get home, don’t tell Mom I used it.”
“If she finds out, I’m your attorney. I’ll get you off the hook.”
“You’re pretty good at that. I probably should give you a raise.”
Uncle Christopher grabbed a drawing pad from one of the shelves and his pen from his pocket and began writing. Suddenly, all the boys were doing the same thing and pieces of paper with hastily scribbled questions landed next to Diesel’s phone.
“How’s Kaia?” Axel asked.
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Yeah, well, motherfucker, I suggest you find out. If Kaia had been driving Mom around that day, he would’ve come with us because she’s worried you, Dad, CJ, and Bishop will be mean to him when he’s trying really hard to help her. More than all of you.”
Uncle Christopher snapped his brows together and opened his mouth but Diesel shook his head.
“That isn’t true, Ax.”
“Refer to my other talks with you and Dad. And CJ,” Axel declared.
“Anyway, I called you on my phone because I didn’t know if you’d pick up from the fire one.
It don’t get my special ringtone ‘cause the numbers are different. Mom doesn’t know I snuck my phone with me.
We were supposed to give them up. I’ve tried to keep it off, but a man can only take so much. ”
Smiling, Diesel rifled through the slips of paper and found Uncle Christopher’s.
“Ax, I have a question for you,” Diesel asked, suddenly on the verge of tears at the seriousness of the situation.
The torment on Uncle Christopher’s face, the unease on CJ and Bishop’s, and the fear in Ryder and Ransom’s eyes put pressure on him to say the right thing.
One wrong move would send everything to fucking hell. “Does Aunt Meggie hate us?”
“Mom don’t hate nobody,” Axel said with indignation. “Her feelings are hurt. None of us even told her about Rule. Or the fire at the rectory. We didn’t take up for her when Dad threatened to give away Gunner and Jo.”
“I beg to differ.”