Misled (31 page)

Zoann hunched her shoulders
and flattened her hand on her belly. “It doesn’t matter. I just hope Megan gets out before she finds herself pregnant and without the baby’s father. Have more sense than I did.”

Christopher
didn’t even give a fuck she’d just announced her pregnancy after guzzling half a fucking wine distillery. She’d given up on him way before she’d fucked whoever she’d fucked and gotten knocked up. If she’d come to him, instead of coming at him, he would’ve been willing to do something for her.

“I
suppose you want me to leave,” she repeated quietly.

He looked at Digger and Mortician. “You mind if she hang around?”

Her eyes widened in surprise and Christopher glowered at her. “Ain’t doin’ it for you. Ain’t even doin’ it for Ma. I figure Megan would still want your fuckin’ bitchy ass here. She said what she had to say and it’s over. But you the most two-faced cunt I ever fuckin’ met.”

“Christopher!” his mother gasped.

Zoann’s lips quivered and Bev’s mouth dropped open.

“Don’t Christopher me, Ma. Why don’t you Zoann her? This bitch been up in my ass for fuckin’ ever
because of my club, then she’s spreadin’ her pussy for one of my brothers and insultin’ everyfuckinbody because the motherfucker ain’t called her. What the fuck she expected? We’re murderers and man-whores, remember? That’s what the fuck we do. Fuck a bitch, knock her up, and walk the fuck away.”

A noise caught his attention and, through his rage, he saw Megan, just behind his mother, chalk white and wide-eyed. She backed a little away.

“Don’t, Megan,” he warned. “It’s Christmas and don’t let all these fuckin’ emotions fuck with your head. You know exactly what the fuck I’m sayin’ and you know this ain’t got shit to do with you.”

She studied him and he could see her mind turning, the hurt churning and he damned the anger that made
him yell loud enough to be heard down the road.

She nodded and gave him a small smile. “
Yes, you were making a point.” She left it at that and turned to his mother. “Patricia,” she said softly, “I think the turkey is ready.”

His mother nodded but it wasn’t as if anyone felt like eating. Zoann’s bullshit had ruined it.

“Bev, can you help me set the table? Zoann, I need you to fill the water and wine glasses. Ophelia, you get the butter, salad dressing, and salt and pepper in the proper dishes.”

Like a drill sergeant, Meggie called her troops to action and they obeyed. He thought dinner was shot to shit, but, surprisingly it wasn’t. The little girls, Megan, Ophelia, and Patricia kept conversation flowing and laid-back. Slowly, they pulled the rest of them in, including Zoann, and it seemed as if the big blow-up between them had been just a glitch in a perfect day.

While the women cleaned up and Avery got the kids ready for bed, him, Johnnie, Digger and Mortician brought a couple bottles outside and started a small bonfire.

“Is this the life you want, Outlaw?” Mortician asked, passing the tequila to him.

Christopher took a swig, searching his heart. As much as he wanted to be able to do this day in and day out for Megan, he couldn’t. This wasn’t him. It wasn’t his life and hadn’t ever been. He’d always been on the fringes of his family, just as he now lived on the fringes of society.

The ocean roared behind them, the glow of the fire lighting the sand, the sky filled with stars.

“No. I wish it could be. This is where Megan belongs.”

“As if where you’re at matters to Megan,” Johnnie jeered. He snatched the bottle from Christopher and took his turn before wiping his hand across his mouth and thrusting the booze to Mortician.

“Hey,” Megan interrupted, dropping into Christopher’s lap and curling against him. “What are you guys talking about?”

She’d approached so silently, they hadn’t heard her come up, and Chris
topher wondered just what she’d overheard.

“I got a question for you, Meggie,” Digger called.

She leaned her head over and looked at him upside down. Christopher realized she was in her bare feet, even though she wore his jacket.

“What?”

“What you did back there, saving the dinner when it was really going down the shitter. How you did that? I mean I might need to get a bitch who know how to calm shit down like that and make dinner seem like shit never happened.”

Meggie straightened on Christopher’s lap and rotated to face Digger. “Welllll, some people have it and some people don’t.”

But, later, when they were alone, after he’d taken her to their room, he repeated Digger’s question, knowing there was more to it than her breezy answer.

“Although your sister’s words were hurtful, they were nothing compared to getting punched, watching your mother get punched, and then being ordered to talk because it was Christmas and we could act happy.” Her smile was sad. “According to him, we didn’t want to be happy. Nothing he did made us happy, he said. You learn
to adjust to any situation, if you want to survive. It’s something you never forget.”

Christopher tightened his hold on her but she went on.

“After a while, I was the one who kept my mom encouraged. I cleaned her up after Thomas beat her to a pulp or f-forced her to have sex,” she whispered. She shrugged again and kissed his naked chest. “I love being here and getting to know your mom, but when are we leaving to go home, Christopher? I sorta miss the club. You’re there and the new friends I’ve made and I just feel so close to my daddy.”

So many fucking lies and deceptions with Megan.
He gripped her hip and squeezed. “That’s my life, babe, not yours.”

“Huh?”

“If not for Thomas Nicholls, you woulda never met me. You’d be in school, lookin’ forward to graduation shit, thinkin’ about college to be that meteorologist.”

“You’re right,” she said softly. “But that didn’t happen and my life went a different way. The only way to survive is to take the punches and bounce back. Otherwise, life just beats you to a pulp until you’re too bruised to get up and fight back.”

“You sure you not older?”

She smiled. “When I was little, I always wanted to get married and have four or five kids. I saw how my mom exhauste
d herself working away from home and then working
in
our home to take care of me. I had chores from early on. To me, it always seemed like Mom had two jobs, you know? But the one at home never ended. I always talked about my wedding and my children. One day, Mom asked me what about a job. I told her my family would be my job. She grounded me and took all my Barbie dolls away. She said I’d set women back two centuries by my stupidity.”

“Your mom said that to you?” Christopher already didn’t like the stupid bitch for not getting her little girl out of the clutches of her husband.

“Yeah. She was different, then. Stronger. A real tough woman. Seeing her brought so low is even harder because of that.” She moved against him, restless. “By the time the weekend was over and I went back to school and Farrah and Lacey asked what had I done, I was determined to find a career. I liked science and I liked everything about the weather. It fascinated me, so I chose that and stuck to it.” She laughed, low. “But I always thought I lived in the United States of America. You know? The country with a Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that gave me the freedom to choose what I want to do. I didn’t realize because
I
exercised
my
right to choose what
I
wanted to do with
my
life, I would be kicked out of the sisterhood.”

Christopher bit back his laughter because, although she was fuck on with her observation, she had a fucking way with words and she didn’t hold back on her opinions. He could only imagine how well that went over with Thomas Nicholls.

“You’re right,” he said. “You ever tell your old man?”

She nodded. “Daddy said he’d set aside money for me so I could have my own bank account and not have to depend on my husband if things would go bad or something, like it did with him and Mom. He also said he’d make sure the man I married had life insurance because things happened and I couldn’t be too protected that way.”

Christopher could imagine Boss saying that, although Megan didn’t seem to realize that had been a veiled promise. If her marriage ended, no doubt Megan would’ve become a very wealthy widow because Big Joe would’ve fucked any man up who fucked over his baby girl.

He realized his memories of Boss were getting easier, some of the better times breaking through all his bitterness.

Christopher couldn’t remember when he’d enjoyed being in his mother’s company more. Or, maybe, because Megan was with him and not his aggravating-assed, bratty sisters and nieces, once they’d departed and stayed the fuck away. Long Beach was a good escape when Megan needed a break, needed the illusion of normalcy. He knew they’d visit at Christmas, if at no other time.

Christopher couldn’t deny he was looking forward to get
ting back to the place he felt most comfortable. His mother asked to go to the club for the annual New Year’s celebration. It seemed so important to her and Megan looked excited, so he agreed. He even relented and allowed Ellen and Kiera to attend since, somehow, they’d become friends with Megan.

No one had heard from Val or Rack since the confrontation in the boardroom and
Christopher blamed himself. He allowed his personal feelings to interfere with club business, which was inexcusable.

However, he refused to have his mother stay at the clubhouse, so he had some of
the probates clean her old house and air it out. Until she returned to Long Beach, he and Megan was staying with her. Besides, he told both of them, he wanted Patricia watching over Megan. He’d hoped by the time she left, he would’ve made contact with Val. So far, he hadn’t succeeded. He hadn’t heard from Val, couldn’t find Rack, and didn’t know where Snake hid. It was already the second week in January and Patricia would be leaving in two days. He’d just have to keep Megan guarded, twenty-four/seven.

Now, as he watched her
sleep, he thought about everything he and Megan had talked about, the baby he’d asked her for. He supposed men had asked women to have their babies forever. And, women, sweet, pleasing creatures that they were, opened their bodies and allowed men to give them said babies.

He pressed his hand against Meggie’s flat belly.
He’d come enough inside of her to give her five babies. Call him looped out of his head, but he wanted to bind her to him in some kind of way. He wanted her to have his child, continue his legacy if worse came to worse and he ended up dead.

Christopher’s thoughts idled for a minute before gunfire shattered the stillness. He bolted upright, rushing to the dresser for his gun. Meggie sat up,
too, and blinked, clutching the covers to her naked breasts.

His mother screamed before he could tell Meggie to find clothes. Fuck, before he could find clothes.
Another burst of gunfire.

“Christopher!”

He ignored Meggie’s frightened cry and burst into the hallway. He’d apologize to his mother for his nudity later. Right now…he stopped in his tracks, a roar of pain and fury escaping him at the sight of his mother’s body on the ground, a hole between her eyes.

Without heed, he opened fire, not bothering to closely identify the gunman, only wanting the fucker dead. Only—

“Christopher?”

He squeezed the trigger, not responding to Megan, tears running down his cheeks. He emptied his magazine in the fucker, splattered him to hell.

“Outlaw.”

Snake.
The voice was behind him and he held a fucking gun without ammo. Useless. Christopher turned, trembling because the body of his mother lay behind him. In front of him, Meggie stood, her naked body as white as a sheet, her lips trembling. Snake pointed a sawed-off shotgun toward them.

  Christopher
shoved Megan behind him, hoping she didn’t see his mother, hoping she kept quiet. He had to keep his shit together, so she wouldn’t end up dead like…”My mother. You killed my mother.”

“My father,” Snake snarled. “Your mother.”

“Megan ain’t my mother.”

Snake smile
d coldly. “No, she’s not. She’s my sister, though, a whore like your mother. Fucking my father because my sister’s fucking mother married a fucking prick and broke my father’s heart.”