Chapter Sixteen #2
Cash set his empty bottle down and addressed Johnnie again. “How long did you want everyone to accept Kendall? Or was that only a justification to bitch and complain? She’s accepted. We all love and admire her as part of our family. What the fuck more do you want?”
Gunner ran to Christopher and raised his arms. “Tired, ‘Law.”
He climbed onto Christopher’s lap and laid his head against him.
Kendall and Megan embraced before she scampered to Cash.
“Let me move the empty bottle out of your way,” she said.
“Thanks, Sweetness,” Cash said, a little confused.
Like Christopher was. Megan never served them in the mancave or cleaned until afterwards.
Bottle in hand, Megan eyed Kendall.
What the fuck was going on?
“I’ll get you another beer, Cash.” Megan smiled brightly. “I’ll take everyone’s orders. ”
She looked at Kendall again. Waiting. Expecting…
Glowering, Megan huffed. “I’ll serve you whatever you want.”
What the motherfuck? Had Megan lost her fucking mind? Did she realize she was offering motherfuckers pussy?
“It’s all you’re good for anyway, Meggie,” Kendall said faintly.
Christopher couldn’t have heard right.
“Says you, Kendall,” Megan said with a little sniff. “I think I’ve proven my worthiness over the years.”
“I-I…” Kendall glanced from Johnnie to Mortician to Christopher and, finally, to Megan.
Megan rushed behind the bar and turned her back. A moment later, Christopher received a text message.
Help us. Remember when we agreed that Kendall would insult me? We still want to do it to fool Johnnie so he can lay off Kendall, but I want to test a theory I have. Johnnie doesn’t see himself as Kendall’s knight any longer. If I’m correct, he’s an idiot, but whatever.
Megan and Kendall implementing their plan should’ve bothered Christopher. It had the potential to go fucking sideways. Instead, happiness and relief settled into his gut. Megan needed help to connive. His sweet angel was truly back!
He laughed. Megan cleared her throat, and he snapped his mouth shut.
She opened the cooler and grabbed a beer before stalking back to Cash and setting the bottle in front of him, throwing Christopher a violent look.
“I’m not only good for serving, Kendall,” Megan said as a lead-in.
Christopher’s humor fled. Fuck it all, but he felt as lost as his woman and his sister-in-law. He liked their new family dynamic. He liked the new Kendall.
“You’re right of course, Megan.” Johnnie drained his glass of whisky and slid it to the edge of the table. “You’re also quite good at having babies.”
“Fuck, bruh, don’t start this shit again,” Digger said irritably.
Standing behind Johnnie, Megan gave Kendall a pointed look.
Kendall drew in a deep breath. “I will never be you , Meggie. I will never be a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker, happy to run a house and keep the family together. I will never be the nucleus of the club and hold it together because you’re the backbone.
Mother, lover, friend, sister, old lady, sweet angel, and bad bitch. ”
Megan blew a kiss at Kendall, then glared at the back of Johnnie’s head.
Right on cue, the motherfucker laughed. “You’re right, gorgeous. Megan’s just a diamond in the rough, when you’re already a diamond, brilliant and finely hewn. Incomparable.”
Mortician winked at Kendall.
Johnnie stiffened. “Please stop flirting with my wife, Mortician,” he snapped. “Find yours and wink at her.”
“Bruh,” Digger said with disapproval.
“Even I’m not that fucking blind, Johnnie,” Val said. “I can see fucking clear as day what the fuck’s going on.”
“What? Kendall coming to her senses and realizing Megan can never compare to her?”
Both Megan and Kendall looked at Christopher. He was supposed to jump in, but he felt it was an unnecessary maneuver. Winning a war meant strategic planning. Besides, the girls fucked over Johnnie on their own just fine.
Mortician stood from his seat to walk to the humidor where a variety of cigars were kept. “Bailey still here?”
“When we left the den, she was,” Megan answered.
“She didn’t look very comfortable,” Kendall said.
Mort lifted a Toro-shaped cigar and sniffed. He set the Asylum 13 Ogre back in place, closed the glass door, leaned against it, and looked at Christopher. “Maybe we can go in the den?”
Megan came to Christopher and started to lift their sleeping son into her arms, but he turned away. “He a heavy lil’ motherfucker, baby. Ima take him upstairs before I go to the den.”
“Okay.” She kissed Christopher, straightened and looked at Kendall. “Let’s leave them to it.”
“Not before you get my whisky, woman,” Johnnie said, smug.
Snatching his pint of tequila and draining it, Christopher tipped the bottle toward Johnnie. “You ain’t happy afuckinlive, huh? You been shot, beat three times to the second fuckin’ power, and put the fuck out your goddamn house, and you still ain’t fuckin’ learned.”
“I haven’t been beaten nine times, Christopher.”
“Wait, bruh, that’s your fucking takeaway?” Digger asked.
“Get your own drink, Johnnie,” Megan said, then stalked out of the room.
Kendall looked nervously at Christopher.
He smiled and nodded to her. Johnnie, their kids, and the rest of the family were all she had.
She was only as strong as the support around her.
Christopher wished she’d have the acceptance she craved, from everyone at once.
With or without Johnnie, she had to know how much they all valued her .
“You cool, Red,” Mort said. “Go check on Bailey for me and tell her I’ll be there in a minute.”
She stood taller. “Okay,” she said, and glided away.
“You need to check Megan, Christopher,” Johnnie said after Megan and Kendall left. “The bullshit she handed my wife is unacceptable.” He lifted his empty glass. “She didn’t even get my fucking drink.”
Val frowned. “Know what I realize, John Boy?”
“What?” Johnnie asked in exasperation.
“That a college education don’t do a motherfucker no good if he just fucking stupid.”
“I suppose that’s why you never went to college,” Johnnie retorted. He smirked at Mortician. “I’m still shocked you thought education was important.”
Christopher had enough of Johnnie’s insults and assfuckery. “Get the fuck out my goddamn house with your Logan bullshit or shut the fuck up. You not sittin’ your motherfuckin’ ass in here throwin’ digs at my best fuckin’ friend.”
“That wasn’t a dig!”
“Only according to you,” Cash snapped.
“What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
“I can ask the same motherfuckin’ thing. What the fuck’s wrong with you ?”
“Maybe it’s you, Christopher. Something you’ll never see or admit. Maybe I’m sick of fucking living up to your fucking standards. Trying to please you when you want my fucking blood.”
“I want fuckin’ fairness from you. I want fuckin’ sense from you. I ain’t tolerated the original Logan. I’m sure the fuck not puttin’ up with Logan 2.0.”
“I’m not Grandda. He didn’t want me associating with you, Mortician, Val, or Digger. He wanted the club for me!”
“He wanted me fuckin’ dead so you could take that motherfucker. If it wasn’t for Big Joe—”
“No, fuckhead, if it wasn’t for Cee Cee,” Johnnie spat.
“ Cee Cee paid bounties to keep you, Megan, Big Joe, Bailey, K-P, Roxanne, Mortician, and Digger alive. Cee Cee kept you alive, not Big Joe. And if it wasn’t for Grandda, Sharper, and Dinah, Big Joe never would’ve turned into a fucking addict.
She started shooting him up on Grandda’s and Sharper’s orders. She—”
Maybe Johnnie noticed Christopher’s shock. It felt as if the blood siphoned from his veins, so he must’ve been ghost white. Yet, his pulse roared in his ears and the contents of his stomach twisted.
Johnnie covered his face. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean…it slipped out. I’m sorry.”
Big Joe had only been like a father to Christopher, and the news tore him up.
Time healed all wounds, but emotional scars never went away.
Megan still missed Big Joe. Christopher missed him.
Often, he wondered how he’d react to Christopher marrying Megan and fathering her children.
Sometimes, it still haunted him that Big Joe once told him Megan wasn’t for him and Christopher thought her little more than a spoiled little cunt.
Over the years, Megan vacillated between loving the man she remembered, hating who he’d become, to disliking him for forcing Christopher to shoot him. Still, she’d grieved for him. In recent years, they’d begun to toast his birthday at the annual July 4 th picnic.
“Megan’s ma turned her old man a drug addict?” Christopher croaked, thinking of how she’d feel if she ever discovered that.
Johnnie bowed his head. “And Grandda turned him into a raging psychotic girl killer. Kendall…there are so many letters, Christopher. I don’t know if she’s even gotten to them.
Big Joe…” His nostrils flared. “I’m not Grandda,” he said softly and glanced away.
He s crubbed a hand over his face. “I visited him in Colombia once.”
“I know,” Christopher said.
Accusatory gray eyes flickered from Val to Mortician to Digger.
“Wasn’t us, bruh,” Digger said. “Prez freaky like that.”
“You didn’t tell us ‘til months later anyway,” Val said. “When Iona wanted to visit Colombia, and you refused.”
“They ain’t told me.” Christopher left the subject of Iona alone. It still pissed him off when he thought about how much respect he gave Johnnie’s relationship and never got the same courtesy. “The only fuckin’ time you ever went off the fuckin’ grid back then—”
“Logan was supposedly dead at that time,” Johnnie interrupted. “You couldn’t have known I went to Colombia to visit him.”