Chapter 31b. Mortician
“Hey, Uncle Val,” Mattie greeted when her uncle (actually her second cousin by marriage) opened the door to the log cabin. “How are you?”
Holding the doorknob, he stepped aside and indicated she enter with a wave of his hand. “About to go round up my girl. Hogzilla got out of her pen.”
Wrinkling her nose, Mattie walked into the hallway. “I didn’t see her on my walk from the clubhouse.”
“You wouldn’t. She doesn’t go east. Always west. She knows her Uncle Outlaw would shoot her if she tried to run him.”
Mattie giggled. “Your pig refers to Uncle Christopher as Uncle Outlaw?”
He winked at her. “Don’t tell Zoann. She wouldn’t believe me, but my girl knows about respect. One nip at his heels and he’d turn her big, juicy ass into thick slices of bacon.”
Unsure if he was serious, Mattie clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from roaring with laughter.
“The boys are in the den,” he said, chuckling and brushing past her, heading toward the door at the opposite end of the hallway. It led to the back of the house and Hogzilla’s pen.
“Thanks, Uncle Val,” she said.
Setting her book bag on the hallway table, Mattie heaved in a breath, drew herself up, and sailed to the den. She’d called for the meeting and they’d agreed to come, so she shouldn’t feel so overwhelmed.
She peeped in the room. CJ, Ryan, Devon, and Rory were still in their school uniforms, scrolling on their phones and ignoring each other. Grant sat with an ankle on his knee, bored and beautiful.
“What’s up, Matt?” Rory asked without looking up. “Why’d you summon all of us? Especially me. You could’ve just talked to me about whatever at home.”
“Where’s Harley?” she asked, stepping just inside the door, flushing when CJ and Grant simultaneously raised their heads and focused on her.
“With my mom,” Ryan answered, leaning over and grabbing his cigarette from an ashtray on the table in front of him. He took a draw and then returned it to its place. “Why?”
“Because I need to talk to you about her and I don’t want her to overhear.”
“Don’t tell me you called us together for her,” Devon complained, glaring at her.
“I know she isn’t anyone’s favorite person right now—” Mattie started.
“What about her?” CJ interrupted, his tone as inscrutable as his look.
“I’m sure you knew she wouldn’t be here, Mattie,” Ryan told her. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have asked to meet.”
“I suggested here,” CJ said. “I didn’t know it was about Harley. Mattie merely said she had an urgent matter to discuss. I thought it was about Rebel.”
All five boys turned to her and she bit her lip, suddenly uncertain. She might’ve been blowing everything out of proportion.
“Uh, n-never mind.” She started to back away. “Forget it.”
CJ slid his phone in his top pocket and straightened. “Wait, Mattie. Tell us. I’m genuinely curious.”
Tangling her fingers through her hair, she pulled on the strands, enjoying the burn to her scalp. “Something’s wrong with Harley,” she blurted, tugging her hair again. “I th-think Nardo’s hurting her in some kind of way.”
Unease flickered across Ryan’s face. Mattie swore she saw guilt too, though she couldn’t imagine what he’d done. Unless he was hurting her?
CJ cocked his head to the side. Rory and Devon exchanged glances with each other. Only Grant remained expressionless.
“What makes you think that?” CJ finally asked.
“Every time I saw her when we were in LA, she was covered from her neck to her feet,” Mattie explained. “Even at the pool. It was so weird. She was acting weird too.”
“What’s new about that?” Devon spat. “She’s been weird for fucking months now.”
“Hey, asshole, who the fuck asked you?” Ryan demanded.
Devon thrust his chin toward Mattie. “She did. She asked me to be here.”
“Her mistake,” CJ said flatly. “So get the fuck up and go. You obviously don’t give a fuck about what happens to Harley.”
“I don’t.”
“That shit’s getting old, Dev,” Grant said with disapproval. “She pissed us off. We get it. It’s over. Even if it wasn’t, she belongs to us. If someone’s hurting her, we defend her.”
Glaring at Ryan, Devon got to his feet and walked out.
CJ studied Ryan for the briefest second. Instead of an assholey reply, Ryan couldn’t meet CJ’s gaze.
Interesting. He almost seemed…guilty. Mattie refrained from pointing out that observation. She wanted to help Harley, not reignite a war between CJ and Ryan.
“Uh, Harley is so jumpy,” she blurted, not thinking about her words. “And so very sad. Just like I was when I had to deal with Wallace, Billy, and Eric.”
They all snapped their gazes to her, but she immediately regretted her words at the combination of anguish and anger blooming on her beloved brother’s face.
Stones dropped into her belly, and she lowered her lashes. Her lower lip trembled but she swallowed, hard, like she was forcing down a ball of popcorn overflowing with half-popped kernels.
“Come here, Mattie,” Grant instructed softly, drawing her attention. His gentle smile eased her pain and humiliation. He patted the spot next to him, where he sat on the sofa, the only one to do so.
Stiffening her backbone, she walked over and plopped next to him, locking her knees together and sitting ramrod straight, tension humming through her body.
“No one blames you, Mattie,” CJ said.
“Not about Wallace, Eric, or Billy,” Ryan told her without sympathy or hostility. He was just him. “They were motherfuckers.”
Getting up from his spot on the floor, close to the coffee table, but near where CJ sat on a chair, Rory came to her, forcing Mattie to slide over. The moment she brushed against Grant, he slid over, too.
Her brother hugged her. “Did you ever tell Mom the entire story?”
She laid her head on her brother’s shoulder. “No,” she whispered.
“Mom would know what to do.”
“I’m scared to tell her. I don’t want her to blame herself and she’s dealing with enough right now.”
“What about Aunt Meggie?” Ryan asked. “Or my mom?”
“I’ll think about it,” Mattie promised, disentangling herself from Rory and sighing. “But this isn’t about me. My problems have been taken care of. Harley’s hasn’t.”
“If she has a problem,” Ryan said. “Maybe she just wants attention.”
“I hate to agree with Ryan,” Rory started. “He’s right, though. Lately, Harley has done everything she can think of to disrupt our lives.”
“Not on purpose,” Mattie argued. “She’s been going through stuff.”
“Yeah, Matt, mean bitchiness,” Ryan said, snickering. He smirked at CJ. “Makes for an awesome bed partner. Oops. I forgot you don’t know anything about fucking beyond a single blowjob.”
“And you don’t know anything about loyalty beyond…” CJ drew his brows together in mock consideration, then snapped his fingers. “Fucking never.”
Anger blanketed Ryan’s face.
“Shut the fuck up, Ryan—”
“You’re in my fucking house, cuck. If you don’t like what I have to say, get the fuck out.”
“Come on, Mattie.” CJ stood. “Let’s go to my house. I’ll get Mom’s Lexus and we can go for a burger or something.”
“Absolutely not!” Ryan jumped to his feet. “Harley lives here.”
“Mattie called me first, dickhead.”
“You don’t know—”
“She told me who she was going to call after, so I do know.”
“Please don’t argue,” Mattie said. “This won’t help Harley.”
Grant nodded. “I agree.”
“Why don’t I talk to her?” CJ suggested. “Grant, go to Uncle Mort. Mattie, see if you can get into her phone. Maybe, we can find something there—”
Relief flowing through her, Mattie nodded. “I should’ve done that first.”
Shoving his hands in his pockets, Ryan narrowed his eyes, glanced away, and bit his lip. Definitely guilt.
What had he done?
“I can check her phone,” he said after a brief moment of consideration. “She lives here. I have access to the device itself.”
Mattie didn’t trust him, so she shook her head. “I know how to get into phones with just a phone number.”
“You get more information with the actual device,” Ryan argued, which Mattie couldn’t refute.
He sounded sincere. What was the saying?
If it acted like a duck and quacked like a duck, then it was a duck?
But Ryan was Ryan. Years of fuckery toward her, his brother, and their cousins wouldn’t completely disappear.
If it acted like Ryan and quacked like Ryan, then he was definitely being a massive dick.
“You’re right, Ryan,” Rory said. “Matt, go with Grant. You can explain this shit better.”
“Why don’t Ryan and Mattie look into Harley’s phone?” CJ suggested.
Ryan gritted his teeth, then stiffened. “You don’t fucking trust me?”
“Should I?” CJ shot back. “There’s a goddamn reason you’ve become a motherfucking performative fuckface again. What the fuck did you do to Harley?”
“I resent that!”
“I don’t give a motherfuck what the fuck you resent, asshole. She lives here. You did something. You know something. Or both.”
Devon stuck his head in. “I’ll watch Ryan, CJ. I’ll make sure he does what he’s supposed to do.”
CJ glanced between the brothers, sweeping his green gaze from Devon’s kind whiskey-colored eyes to Ryan’s guarded turquoise ones. He shook his head. “No. If he’s up to something, you won’t give a fuck, Dev. You don’t like Harley.”
“I heard everything Mattie said,” Devon argued. “I don’t want Harley hurt. I promise if Ryan doesn’t have her best interest in mind, I’ll call you so Mattie can get on the job.”
Hesitation crossed CJ’s features. Obviously, he knew something was rotten in Hortensia.
“Have I ever lied to you or did anything against you?” Devon pressed, shoved his hands in his pockets like Ryan, then nodded to him. “We aren’t close, CJ. I’m actually closer to you than I am to him. We’re wasting time but I’m asking you to trust me.”
“Fine,” CJ relented, and Mattie didn’t know if she was relieved or worried.
It was past time for Mortician to stitch his fractured family back together.