Chapter 24b. Johnnie #2
“Do that motherfucker,” Roxy ordered, throwing the broom aside.
“Your hand’s swelling,” Kendall said to Zoann. She sailed behind the counter and halted at the window. “Give us some ice.”
A tap sounded on the door.
“That’ll be some customers,” he said.
“Move that bitch out of the way,” Kendall instructed. “And if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll shut the fuck up.”
“Symphony won’t be happy,” Tee sniped, showing his fucking face. “She’s tough. She takes care of her younger sister because they’ve both had a hard life.”
“She’s not using my son-in-law for an easier one,” Roxy called.
“Tee, I suggest you tell Symphony it’s in her best interest to not only behave but to shut the fuck up,” Kendall cautioned, meeting his gaze and glaring at him. “She doesn’t get to disregard Bailey, fuck with Mortician, and come away unscathed.”
“This is her only fucking warning,” Zoann added darkly.
“Now, give me the fucking ice for my cousin’s hand.” She swept her gaze over his swelling hand. “You need some, too.”
Scowling, Tee stomped away, quickly returning with an ice-filled plastic bag and shoving it through the window’s opening. “I can’t fucking open today thanks to you three.”
“We’ll compensate you for the lost revenue,” Roxy swore. “Let’s jet.”
Turning, she went to the table and grabbed her handbag just as Symphony groaned and sat up. She opened her mouth.
“Bitch, if you know what’s good for you, swallow those fucking words.”
Apparently, she’d had enough of Roxy. She snapped her mouth shut, struggled to her feet, and ran to the bathroom, without looking back.
At loose ends, Kendall decided not to go into the office. The morning had been filled with drama and she’d never be able to concentrate. Besides, she needed to touch base with Bash and see when their rescheduled meeting could take place.
Johnnie didn’t have much to say to her or Mattie yesterday and barely spoke to them at breakfast this morning. Or, maybe, they hadn’t had much to say to him. Mattie and the boys seemed to be happy that they were returning to school.
Yet Kendall still felt adrift. One, Meggie wasn’t home. She didn’t think she’d settle until her friend returned. Maybe, then, life could return to normal. Then, there was Mortician. She was so worried about him, especially after Rory told her what happened to both Digger and Cash.
There was also Celia Caldwell lurking. She had no idea what that bitch wanted and it shocked her that Christopher was so accepting. Had he listened to his instinct and decided she was safe? Or was his guard so far down because Meggie wasn’t home that he’d allowed a snake into their midst?
She didn’t know. Although she wouldn’t find answers at Charlotte Redding’s house, Kendall called her and asked if they could have lunch.
She valued Charlotte as a friend and someone who’d supported her when no one else would.
But she’d long ago stopped confiding her darkest secrets and she rarely spoke about the club.
However, Kendall wanted to talk to her about the conversation she’d had with Brooks about the state of his marriage as well as Charlotte’s intentions.
Kendall needed to form her own opinion about the situation and then decide what to do.
The Reddings no longer lived in an exclusive neighborhood behind security gates with check-in stations.
While it wasn’t the ramshackle structure they’d moved into when Christopher first made Brooks work for him to atone for his sins, it was an ordinary, two-level ranch style home that sat on a quarter acre of land.
Kendall parked behind Charlotte’s Subaru Legacy, a match to Brooks’s sedan. Before she reached the porch, Charlotte opened the door.
“Kendall, darling,” she greeted, stepping aside so Kendall could enter.
She paused and kissed Charlotte’s cheek, waiting until her friend closed the door and guided her to the elegant dining room.
“I couldn’t have Cook prepare anything elaborate on such short notice, but anything for my Kendall.”
Smiling, Kendall pulled out her seat and slipped into the chair while Charlotte did the same. “Whatever she prepared smells delicious.”
“Always. Cook is an excellent chef.”
Charlotte still didn’t believe in equality where her staff was concerned, now reduced to two—a cook and a housekeeper—instead of the fourteen she once employed. The housekeeper was Maid, while the chef was simply Cook.
“I haven’t seen you in a while,” Kendall explained. “Brooks mentioned you and him were having some issues. I’ve been meaning to drop in and see how everything is.”
“Resolved, my dear,” Charlotte said briskly, and Kendall sagged in relief.
“I’m so glad to hear that.”
“Brooks mentioned you weren’t pleased about my plan.”
“I wasn’t,” Kendall acknowledged. “Considering you intended to set Meggie up.”
“To save Brooks. Surely you can understand that, darling.”
“Protecting your husband is understandable, Charlotte. Using an innocent woman to do it when your idiot listened to my idiot isn’t. Brooks should’ve gone to Christopher.”
Charlotte drew herself up. “Well. Christopher? Sounds…cozy.”
“He’s my brother-in-law. There’s nothing more to it.”
“You can fool everyone else, Kendall, but not me. I know you’ve always carried a tawdry passion for that soulless criminal.”
“Don’t go there. Everyone else has forgotten it. We’ve all moved past it.”
“Are you sure about that?” Charlotte said with a sniff. “It wasn’t so long ago that Meggie was going to let that man kill you and Johnnie. You’re too much of a sweet girl to know retribution. She saw her opportunity—”
“Am I a fucking ghost?” Kendall snapped, frustrated. “Obviously, she didn’t do it. You were there at Outlaw’s birthday party. You know what happened. Stop twisting this to suit what you wanted to do.”
Charlotte reached her hand across the table and held it out. Kendall didn’t want to take it but she drew in a deep breath, extended her arm, and placed her hand in the older woman’s.
“You know I’ve only ever wanted the best for you, dear,” she said softly. “Sometimes, I am a little overzealous in my wont of protecting you. I mean no harm. Believe me.”
“If you want to harm Meggie, then you do mean harm, Charlotte,” Kendall said quietly, no longer the damaged woman who bought into Charlotte’s spin on Kendall’s life at the club or her relationship with Meggie.
Releasing her hold on Kendall, Charlotte straightened and drew her hands in front of her.
“I thought you’d put your derision toward her and Christopher, Johnnie, behind you.”
“Not when Brooks is in danger,” Charlotte cried.
“Brooks and Johnnie endangered themselves,” Kendall snapped, wondering why she’d even gone there. “Meggie had fuck-all to do with it.”
“Do not blame my husband for her crimes.”
“I love Brooks to death, but that motherfucker’s a fucking idiot,” Kendall snarled.
Charlotte gasped, and her hands flew to her mouth.
Storming to her feet, Kendall snatched her purse. “Have you contacted Bash or anyone about Meggie?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Kendall bared her teeth. Charlotte had once meant the world to her.
The only other opinion she valued more was Brooks’s.
Then she met Johnnie. Not only had she gained a new family, dysfunctional though they were, but an entirely new perspective and appreciation of differing views.
Charlotte remained stuck, stubbornly insulated in her own little world.
“Get out of my house, Kendall. Don’t come back.”
“I once held you in the highest esteem, Charlotte. You meant everything to me. You are still important to me.”
“If you apologize, I will consider forgiving you.”
“Who have you talked to about Meggie?”
Smugness wasn’t a good look for Charlotte. Or, maybe, it was pettiness, since she’d always been conceited even after she’d fallen from her pedestal in society.
“You have your secrets and I have mine.”
Kendall heaved in a breath. “Keep your fucking secrets. I don’t need you to open your goddamn mouth.” Not only did she have ‘secrets’, she had contacts. “Good day, Charlotte.”
Sitting on the bed in the room he’d moved to, Johnnie stewed in anger, bitterness, and misery. On the one hand, he couldn’t stop thinking about that horrendous video between his grandfather and Sharper Banks.
Somehow, Jana Reynolds always intruded and added humiliation to his hodgepodge of emotions. Now that Kendall was home, it was inevitable she discovered that cunt’s existence.
Despite Diesel’s claim that Jana wanted nothing from him, Johnnie didn’t believe it. He was a fucking prize as a pal, a partner, or a parent. She’d want the Donovan name for prestige if nothing else.
Fucking slut. Just like Hopper. Dirty, sloppy bitch.
Johnnie scrubbed a hand over his face, thinking of Mattie. She’d been influenced enough by Rebel, her whore of a cousin. He could only imagine what would happen if she met Jana.
How had he ended up in this predicament? Him? The golden boy. The one with the brains, the future. The education.
No, they were lying. Jana belonged to Christopher. Logan was his grandfather, too. A blond. Her genes could’ve skipped a generation, bypassing both Hopper and Christopher. Logan had gray eyes, too.
If Johnnie remembered, Hopper’s eyes were bluish gray, although he wasn’t quite sure about that. She’d been a good fuck with a pretty face and a nice body. Her eye color hadn’t mattered one bit.
Jana resembled Johnnie because she, like him, favored Logan. Again, Christopher’s grandfather, too. And, everything Bash had told Johnnie the day he met Easton, everything he’d learned previously, he’d never heard of Jana or saw evidence that Hopper gave birth to a great-grandchild of Logan’s.
Staring at the ceiling, Johnnie couldn’t ignore his hollowness.
Neither Kendall nor Mattie had much to say.
Not ‘I’m sorry for leaving and worrying you’ or ‘I missed you’ or anything.
Yet, she’d had more than enough to say to Mortician.
Johnnie heard her on the phone with him when they got back home. Giggling and whispering.
Fucking fuckhead. He needed something on his fucking mind other than Johnnie’s wife. What about his own? He needed to figure out how to get back in Bailey’s good graces instead of flirting with Kendall.
Motherfucker.
Huh.
Johnnie had it in his power to put something else on Mortician’s mind, so he’d stop filling Kendall’s head with nonsense.
That fucker wanted to fuck with Kendall against Johnnie’s express orders? Then turnabout was fair play.
Smiling, Johnnie turned and snatched his cell phone from the small table next to the bed. He didn’t call Bailey often so he had to pull her number from his contacts.
“Hello,” Bailey answered on the second ring.
“Hi Bailey. This is Johnnie, Kendall’s husband,” he added in case she didn’t recognize his voice. “Do you have a minute? I have something very important to discuss with you.”