Chapter 17 Raff
Seventeen
Raff
Might as well get stoned – Chris Stapleton
My tires screech as I take the last turn, the house coming into view. My pulse pounds like a war drum, my hands tightening around the steering wheel. I don’t stop to think. I don’t hesitate.
Then I see him.
Justice bursts out of the front door, his little legs pumping as fast as they can carry him. He’s crying, his face streaked with tears, but he’s running straight for me.
I slow my bike, coming to a top. The second he’s close enough, I scoop him up, holding him tight. His little arms wrap around my neck, his whole body shaking against mine.
“Daddy Dean,” he sobs into my shoulder.
I swallow hard, pressing a hand to the back of his head. “I got you, buddy. You’re safe.”
But Josie isn’t.
“Move!” I bark, motioning to my brothers. “Country Boy, Grinder, Miles, Dove—get in there. Now.”
They don’t hesitate. They know what’s at stake.
“Gotta go get your momma. Need you to stay with Boots. He’s gonna take you home. I’ll be there soon, okay?”
“Momma said she would be behind me,” he hiccups.
“She is just making sure you’re safe. Go with Boots, okay.
I’ll be home soon as I can. Sara is waiting for you at the house.
” I hand Justice off to Anthony “Boots” Brocato, Stud’s son, Honey’s brother and probably one of the nicest Hellions anyone will ever meet.
He will be the calm Justice needs until I can get Jo and be home with him myself.
“Get him out of here. Don’t stop until you’re home. ”
Anthony nods, carrying Justice away.
I turn back to the house, my jaw clenching as I take in the sounds coming from inside. A crash. A scream. My body goes ice cold.
As they storm the house, I pull my gun, heart hammering.
I’m coming, Josie. Just hold on.
I push through the doorway, my gun raised.
The sight before me makes my blood boil.
Brett stands behind Josie, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other holding a gun to her temple.
Blood drips from a wound on her forehead, staining her skin.
She sways slightly, her breath ragged, but she remains on her feet.
Beside Brett, there is a woman who watches with a smirk, her own gun trained on Josie’s side.
Josie lifts her gaze to me, her eyes filled with pain, worry, but also with something else—relief.
I keep my gun steady, my voice low and lethal. “Let her go.”
“Justice,” Josie whispers.
“Safe,” I tell her keeping my eyes trained to Brett while Country Boy has his gun aimed on the woman.
“Let her go,” Brett chuckles, pressing the barrel harder against Josie’s head. “Or what, Dean?”
My finger tightens on the trigger. “Or I put a bullet between your eyes.” He doesn’t react to my threat. “Brett,” I growl, taking a step closer. “This ends the same way no matter what. You hurt Jo, I hurt Colleen here.” This gets his attention. Yes, I know who Collen Martin is.
The woman cackles, shaking her head. “You can’t hurt me!”
“Dying can be painful, not sure what you’ve heard,” Grinder taunts her.
“Without his son, Brett won’t stay with me. There is no greater pain! All my life I wanted him to love me. I can’t have kids, and he wants his family back.”
Colleen Martin is Brett’s high school sweetheart.
Only she’s been in love with him since the fifth grade.
She has a vision board of their wedding on her social media page and children’s names for the kids she can’t have.
Colleen got pregnant in high school. Brett joined the Army to provide for them.
Only she had a massive rupture causing loss in pregnancy and a hysterectomy to save her life. She’s been unhinged ever since.
She spreads her arms, her smile wild. “You want to shoot me? Do it. You’d be doing me a favor.”
“Colleen, Brett doesn’t love you,” I tell her. “Leaving someone after losing a baby so young, he’s selfish. If anything I need to shoot him so you can be free of the pain, he caused you.”
She twists her neck awkwardly looking at me almost sideways. “I love him.”
“You need to love you, Colleen.”
“He just wants his son. If you let him have the boy, we will let her go.” Colleen tries to bargain.
I shake my head. “Sweetheart, I hate to break it to you, especially like this. But if that man was willing to stay with you as long as he had his son. If none of this was about her then he would have taken off with you the minute you got Justice from the school for him.”
“What?” She questions like she’s taking in what I’m telling her.
I stare at Brett. “If this fool loved you, he wouldn’t have his ex-wife here. You and him would have already been out of the state with the boy. You’re here to take the fall for whatever he had planned for Josie and Justice.”
“Oh you think you’re so smart, don’t you, Riffraff. Fuckin’ Hellion garbage.” Brett taunts. “Got it all figured out.”
“Well if I’m wrong, tell me, Brett. Tell Colleen matter of fact, clue her in.”
“She is here to see what a mother does for a child. She has begged me to forget how she is the reason my baby is dead. I can’t forget. Josie is a good mom. The best. Colleen is here to see the depths a mother will go to in order to save their child. The way she never would for our baby.”
I shift my eyes to lock onto Josie looking for any moment I can get the shot off. Colleen screams a gut-wrenching scream dropping her gun and rushing towards Brett. “I didn’t kill our baby. The doctors did it!”
Her movement causes Brett to twist the gun on Colleen giving Josie the opportunity to maneuver out of his grasp.
Brett fires his shot into Colleen, while I embrace Josie running towards me and Grinder lets off the shot killing Brett.
“It’s over,” I whisper into Josie’s hair. “Don’t look back. Stay focused on me,” I explain holding her against me. I give a nod to my brothers, putting the safety back on my gun before sliding it into the waistband of my jeans.
I back out of the house keeping Josie against me so she can’t see the pools of blood from the two dead bodies in what was once her living room.
“You’re safe,” I whisper over and over.
“Thank you for making Justice the priority,” she tells me when we stop in front of my bike waiting on the police to come.
“I love you, Josie. I love him. In order to protect you, he needed to be safe. I’m always going to keep him safe and you too.”
She drops her head against my shoulder. “I love you, Dean,” she whispers holding onto me.
We stand there and I give her the quiet to process what just happened.