Chapter 4 - Misunderstood - Original Plot

4

            Kendall decided she’d atrophied into the curled up position Mortician had put her in. She wondered if her mouth would ever feel moist again. The gag preventing her from screaming—not that it would help—was tied just enough to do its job but not enough to cut into the creases of her lips.

            He hadn’t hog-tied her, leaving her one thing to be grateful for. Still, handcuffs around her wrists and ankles left her immobile. Topped off with her legs and feet stuffed into a sack and bound nice and tight with rope made Kendall feel like a pig in a blanket. And the asshole made her strip to her bra and panties, just in case she’d been related to Harry Houdini, she thought bitterly.

            Now, she lay in the back seat of Johnnie’s navigator, surfing through waves of anger, fear, betrayal, and humiliation. Feeling betrayed was foolish on her part. Her sisters had always been bitches, so she didn’t know why she continued to stick her neck out for them. If she hadn’t wanted to save Kayla, she wouldn’t be in this predicament.

            Why should Kendall care about Megan Caldwell, anyway? Kendall had tried to do the right thing and save Megan’s life and this was her reward. As far as she knew, the girl might not have survived and Kendall was sure they’d make her pay with her life for Kayla’s sins.

            It wouldn’t even matter that she and Johnnie had fucked. Women came a dime a dozen to these men, but those they considered family meant everything to them.

            Kendall closed her eyes and sniffled. As much as she hated to admit it, she identified with Ellen’s feelings. Kendall saw firsthand how the bikers’ fell over themselves for Megan, so, perhaps, she really had stolen Outlaw from her sister.

            Afternoon slid into early evening and the temperature cooled a few degrees. Chill bumps marched across Kendall’s exposed chest and shoulders. She reminded herself of her strength. She could endure this. She’d survived so much worse.

            Seeing men stroll by with shotguns resting on their shoulders, in complete disregard for any laws, didn’t matter. She wouldn’t bat an eyelash to give them a reason to shoot. And every time one of them framed their hands against the door to leer at her, she squeezed her eyes shut. Every time—

            “If you don’t get the fuck away from my ride, I’m pistol-whipping you, motherfucker, and then blowing you the fuck away.”

            Kendall startled at Johnnie’s growl.

            “Sorry, John Boy,” a guy muttered. “We just keeping an eye on that hot bitch back there and her big titties almost falling out that little bra.”

            “Yeah,” someone else added. “We were trying to figure out how we could do her since her mouth is gagged, her hands are cuffed, and her ass and pussy is covered.”

            “Not to mention your door is locked,” the first guy volunteered.

            “If my door hadn’t been locked, you two would’ve fucked her?”

            Kendall didn’t like Johnnie’s lazy tone. It gave her the impression he intended to hand her over if they told him ‘yes’.

            A “yep” followed behind, “yup.”

            The alarm honked and lights flickered when Johnnie pressed his keyless remote and threw his door open. The minute the two men crouched to peer at her, Johnnie grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and banged their heads together.

            It happened so fast, if Kendall had blinked she would’ve missed it. She lifted her head to watch them drop to them ground, knocked out cold.

            “You…what the fuck’s your name?” Johnnie muttered. A lighter flicked and he grunted. “New brother, get these two assfucks out of my sight. Explain to them if they wish to patch in, they don’t fuck with my ride and they don’t fuck with my business.”

            “I’m Slipper,” the man panted. “And those my boys. They didn’t mean nothing, John Boy. We just figured an enemy of your is an enemy of ours.”

            Kendall would pay a lot of money to know Johnnie’s thought right now. Finally, after several minutes of silence, he spoke.

            “A creed to remember,” he agreed. “But when shit’s under control, don’t interfere without permission. As I fucking recall, the order was to patrol until I came out. Not fucking look and not fucking touch. Your boys lucky my doors were locked. They would’ve ended up…” His voice trailed off. “Just consider them fucking lucky. Got me, Sock?”

            The gag bit off Kendall’s laugh. He was such a smart ass. She was pretty sure Johnnie knew the man’s name wasn’t Sock.

            “Er, Slipper. Remember? The first time I visited here I ate too much and vomited all over, then slipped in it.”

            Uh, disgusting.

            “Must’ve missed that auspicious occasion,” Johnnie said dryly, slamming the back door shut and opening the driver’s side.

            Slipper cleared his throat. “Any word on Prez’s old lady?”

            “No.” Johnnie sighed and squeezed the back of his neck. “I’ll be sure to let Outlaw know you asked about Megs.”

            Not waiting for a response, Johnnie closed his door, turned the ignition and started off to an unknown destination.

            Kendall hoped wherever he took her allowed her to see another sunrise tomorrow.

            Johnnie got on the road and headed out of Hortensia as fog rolled in, along with light mist. Despite the conditions, he’d take Kendall to his house in Long Beach and keep her there while he checked her information himself. They had guys on the payroll to do background checks, but Johnnie could do basic searches. All he needed right now to verify Kendall’s story. He needed to check on operations at the medical laboratory anyway. The business was a legitimate front to launder club money and he had to do transactions every couple months. Now, that they needed another Medical Laboratory Scientist, his presence was crucial.

            He was expected at the lab in a week, upon his return from Europe. Shit. The guns. The money the club had already received made it crucial for them to get those guns to their buyer. It meant being at the port to meet the cargo ship carrying the weapons.

            It meant they were fucked. They’d missed their flight. Of course, Johnnie could always book a new flight and set things to rights at the port and with their buyer. It might cost a nice bit of change, but they wouldn’t make enemies. Now, though, he had a complication of his own. Kendall. Christopher wanted her dead and, if her story checked out, Johnnie had to be there to keep her alive. Press her for more information.

            Twin or not, he still thought her tale of being there to save Megan was a crock of shit.

            He turned his head for a quick glance at her before refocusing on the road. Shadows swallowed her features. He didn’t know if she slept or not.

            He grimaced, remembering how very sad and alone she seemed. She was grieving.  Grief, he understood. Grief lured the broken-hearted to wild, crazy acts. Or just plain despondency and despair, the sense of never wanting to see another sunrise.

            And grief combined with the need for vengeance? Blind anger obliterated logic and the anguish of loss.

Megs understood grief, too. She also had a forgiving heart. She’d mourned Ellen’s death and Kiera’s as well, the other girl who’d been killed that harrowing night when Megan’s psychotic brother, Snake, had made his move to exact his revenge on Outlaw for the murder of the Death Dwellers’ former president, Joseph Foy, and Megan’s and Snake’s father. Before Outlaw beat him to death, Snake killed Aunt Patricia, Ellen, Kiera, and had had Outlaw buried alive. The only reason Megan survived was because Snake intended to make her watch while they killed Outlaw.

For all Megs’s grief on behalf of Ellen—all her acceptance of Ellen’s presence around Outlaw—how had the bitch repaid her? By spouting lies about her and making her sister believe she’d stolen Outlaw from her, when she’d never had the man in the first place.

            The memory of how perfectly Kendall’s long legs had wrapped around his waist and her breasts overflowed from his hands sent blood rushing to his cock. He couldn’t wait to see and feel them again. She’d offered him pussy on her own. He hadn’t demanded it from her, so refusing her generosity would be an insult. Besides, he was risking his life and Mortician’s by keeping her alive.

            Was he really thinking about fucking Kendall when he couldn’t stand her? Anger flashed through him and he pressed on the accelerator, speeding up his Navigator.

            She drew in a deep breath.

            “Once I find out what’s what,” he began, “and if I save your miserable life, will this be the end of it? Or will you try to hurt Megs again?”

            She snorted. “Do you think I’m a fool? Besides—“

            “For the shit you pulled today? Yes, I think you’re a goddamn idiot.”

            She sucked in a breath. “I didn’t do it.”

            Johnnie ignored her avowal. “Even if Ellen had been telling the gospel truth about what happened, it wasn’t your place to go in there and do what you did. I’m sorry. I meant Kayla. It wasn’t Kayla’s place.”

            “No?” she snapped. “Isn’t that all men like you understand? Violence. Death. Pain.”

            “Megs isn’t a man.”

            “I hate that name you call her.”

            Christopher did, too. “I don’t give a fuck. You just met me, so you have no reason to be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous,” she insisted. “And I don’t know about you, but I know you. We slept together. Remember?”

Yes, he did. Very well, which was unfortunate considering everything. “It was just a night. One of many I’ve had through the years.”

“I hate you.”

“Hate whatever the hell you want, just promise me you’re not going to attempt anything against her again.”

            She went silent and Johnnie frowned. “What did Ellen tell you about Chris…Outlaw?”

            “That he loved her and wanted to marry her. Have kids with her.”

Lying bitch. If Outlaw heard this, he’d probably rip Ellen’s photograph down that Megan had insisted on placing in the club in honor of her memory.

“She said he was gorgeous with black hair and green eyes. That he protected his own and bought things for her.”

             “Anything else?”

            “Megan came and seduced Outlaw away from my sister. Demanded he give her up if he wanted peace in the club. Ellen said how she shoved her and had her barred from the club and how she threw herself at you.”

            He felt like going and rip that bitch’s photo down himself. “That it?”

            “Yes,” she responded in a soft whisper that seemed to curl around his gut.

            A little over two hours later, Johnnie halted the Navigator in front of his house. Kendall had fallen asleep, which was fine with him. He didn’t feel like talking to her right now. She’d hurt Megs and, choosing to protect Kendall, noticing her vulnerabilities, seemed like a betrayal to Megs. Illogical, considering everything, especially her love and loyalty to his cousin. Still, he’d meant it when he said he’d give his life to protect Megs. So why was he risking his life for the woman who’d tried to hurt her? He couldn’t be sure Kendall wouldn’t try something again, he reasoned, consoling his motives and his guilt. She struck him as quite a determined woman.

            Instead of killing the engine, he decided to drive a little father to the house at the end of the private road. While the engine idled, Johnnie stared at the two-story house with the wrap-around porch and wood case windows. Hedges and beach bindweed centered the double-entrance, circular driveway. Silence surrounded the house, the roar of the ocean a sad melody to the deserted place.

            This was Christopher’s house, the place where he’d moved his mother to keep her safe. The place where Johnnie had fallen in love with Megs. After Aunt Patricia’s murder, Christopher had intended to sell it, but Johnnie swore he’d look after it, He’d lived it to that promise, but having the problem of Kendall brought all kinds of emotions to the surface.

            She was placing him in the same position Christopher had faced with the old president, Joseph Foy. Although the circumstances would be different, Christopher didn’t take kindly to being disobeyed and Johnnie might have to face the decision of saving his own life by taking Christopher’s.

            He drew in a deep breath. He was stretching things. Megs was alive, so it wouldn’t come to a life-or-death situation. Finished with the ‘what ifs’, Johnnie drove back to his house. He hadn’t been there in months, caught up in club business. After the wedding, he and Christopher had been scheduled to travel overseas to finalize the deal for a large shipment of guns to an Irish buyer. They didn’t know what the guns would be used for and hadn’t asked. Gun running to Canada and across state lines were one thing. International shipments was something else altogether.

            He got out of his SUV and walked around to Kendall’s side, opening the door and shaking her awake. Her lashes fluttered before her eyes flew open. She blinked to clear the sleep away and shrank back when she saw him.

            “I-I thought everything was a dream.”

            Johnnie lifted a brow. “More like a nightmare.” Leaning over her, he dragged her to the edge of the seat then lifted her into his arms.

            He slammed the door with his hip and his footfalls crunched against the gravel walkway between his driveway and his house. Inside, he laid her carefully on the floor to disable the alarm, then went around flipping on lights and opening windows to clear away the musty, closed-up smell. He realized he had no food or alcohol and cursed. He wasn’t hungry, but he didn’t know when Kendall had last eaten, and he sure as hell needed a drink.

            Instead, he retrieved Kendall and brought her to the living room where he laid her on the couch, immediately getting to work to unpackage her. Mortician was good at his work, so Johnnie had to cut the rope away, remove the burlap sack from her lower half before he could take her cuffs off.

            He stared at her beautiful body and growled at the small hint of jealousy he felt that Mort had seen Kendall undressed. No, the brother had touched her to undress her himself. But that’s what Mort did, so Johnnie had no reason to feel so irritated, especially over a bitch like Kendall.

            Groaning, she sat upright, rubbing her wrists. She bore the marks of the cuffs and the rough burlap material had abraded her skin after being wrapped so tightly because of the rope.

            Nothing more than the murdering whore deserved.

            “Johnnie—“

            “Save it,” he ordered, holding up a hand to interrupt her and ignoring the luminance of her eyes. He stood and stalked away from her.

            A few moments later, he sat at the breakfast bar and hung his head in his hands. He wanted to call Christopher and check on Megs, but his cousin would want a report of his own and Johnnie hadn’t come up with a convincing story about Kendall’s fate.

            “Is there anything I can do?”

            He cut his eyes in the direction of her voice. “You’ve done enough, so thanks but no thanks.”

            She sidled closer to him, dressed in only her panties and bra. “We can make each other feel good,” she offered. “Try to figure out a plan.”

            He straightened, doing his best to ignore her so near him and fucking nearly naked. “A plan for what? The only plan I need to figure out is if you have a twin and if you worked with her or not. I need to find a way to save my ass for disobeying Outlaw.”

            “Don’t you mean our asses?”

            “Yes,” he hissed, gritting his teeth at the signal his dick was sending to his brain. Brain? What fucking brain? “I sure do. Our isn’t only you and I, though. Our also includes Mortician, so if I find a way to save your ass, ours should be fine, too.”

            “But you and I—“

            In frustration, Johnnie jumped to his feet and pounded his fist on the counter. “There is no fucking you and I.”

            “Johnnie—“

            “Don’t. I don’t want to hear whatever the hell you have to say. I’m going to order food for us. Tomorrow, I’m going to my office and hope like hell I can talk to Megs.”

            Kendall’s mouth tightened and Johnnie swore hurt flickered in her eyes. She blinked and swallowed, but nodded, not protesting his harsh tone.

            “Where’s your office? Some back room at the local bar?”

            Johnnie glowered at her and walked to her, crowding her against the counter. “You’re hilarious, Kendall.”

Golden flecks blended in the brown of her irises and the lightest of freckles dusted her nose. Her tongue darted out and she licked her plump lips, inviting him to taste her mouth. He thrust his erection against her and she groaned, wrapping her arms around his neck. She attempted to kiss him but he tuned his head away and her soft lips pressed against his jaw instead. He cupped her pussy, the heat of her searing him through her pretty pink boy shorts. Suckling her earlobe and satisfied at her soft sigh, he rubbed her, slipping his fingers into her panties and rubbing her clit. He dragged his tongue around the shell of her ear, caressing her unable to deny either of them skin-to-skin contact.

So it might’ve been fucked up he was fucking her because he needed to have a little peace from his worry over Megan. He had nowhere to go with his feelings for her and he felt like tearing the place apart in anger and frustration, wondering why Christopher hadn’t called.

His lips hovered above her, tantalizing her with the prospect that he’d cover her mouth with his. Using two fingers, he massaged her pussy, teasing one of her breasts with his forearm. She threw her head back, met his gaze, hers hazy and dark.

“We’re going to screw, Kendall. Nothing more. Kissing is for lovers and you are not, nor will you ever be that to me.”

She moaned at his rough words and he increased the pressure of his fingers.

“You’re going to come for me like this. While I’m rubbing your pussy, then I’m going to pull your panties down, take my cock out and slip it into you, and fuck you right here while we’re standing up.”

Her legs began to tremble and he chuckled, angry as hell with her, but wanting inside of her. He increased the pressure of his fingers and bent his head, licking the pulse point at the base of her neck. She clutched his shoulders as if she held on for dear life. Her breathing went shallow and she cried out, shaking in his arms. Without asking permission, he turned her, positioning her back to his front.

His arm around her waist, he yanked her panties. “Lift up on your toes,” he ordered, unzipping his pants and jerking his dick out. She stood on tiptoe. He bent his knees, ever so slightly, and lowered his hips, aligning his cock at her slick entrance and inserting the tip. She moaned and he straightened to his full height, penetrating her completely.

He throbbed inside of her and tangled his hand in her hair. “Lower yourself back down, gorgeous,” he instructed, her uncertainty surprising him. He bit her shoulder and began moving inside her when she followed his directions. “You like dick, don’t you, Kendall?”

She nodded and he thrust into her harder, her body like hot satin around him. He wrapped his arms around her to keep her in place and control her. She leaned her head back, resting it on his shoulder. Johnnie shoved the cup of her bra down and pinched her taut nipple.

“Come for me,” he demanded and she complied, as if she needed to hear his voice to push her over the edge. She screamed his name and he grunted, pulling out of her. Cum jetted from him, raining onto her back and buttocks and dripping onto the floor.

She made him come completely undone and if he hadn’t been careful, he might’ve lost himself inside of her and spilled himself before withdrawing. Drawing in deep drafts of air, he tucked his cock back in his pants and zipped up. Kendall leaned against the counter, breathing hard, her glistening pussy tempting him to his knees.

He buried his face against her and ran his tongue along her seam before spearing it inside of her to tongue-fuck her and finger her clit.

“Please, please, please,” she screamed.

He wiggled his tongue against the heat of her entrance, pinching her clit, her short gasps and moans his reward. She bounced against his lips and fingers, the tremble traveling through her body vibrating against his mouth as she came. Showing her no mercy, he wrapped his arms around her thighs and stood up, lifting her along with him, lapping her clit until she pounded against the counter and cried his name, begged him to stop.

Setting her on her feet, he pulled his head away slowly, tucking an arm around her waist to hold her up while she recovered from her orgasms. When she did, she faced him and searched his face, combed her fingers through his hair, thumbed his lips still glistening with her juices. She leaned in.

“Please,” she whispered. “I want to taste my pussy on your mouth.”

Johnnie clenched his jaw and backed away from her. She looked and sounded so vulnerable and he could almost forget her earlier actions, the way she’d tried to fuck Outlaw and so easily replaced him when his cousin shoved her away. Right now, Kendall seemed like a defenseless woman, her body and emotions exposed and weak. To him. For him.

He closed his eyes, almost giving in to the temptation of her words and her plump mouth. But he couldn’t. For him, kissing was an intimate act, more personal than fucking, dick sucking, or pussy eating. To him, those things were about prurience and base pleasure. Not kissing. Tasting the sweetness of his partner’s mouth, breathing in her scent, swallowing her cries and whimpers.

Sighing, he gazed at her, unable to stop himself from caressing her jaw when he saw her flushed cheeks and darkened eyes. “Get dressed.” She doesn’t have clothes, asshole.

Jerking his shirt open, he shrugged out of it and helped her into it before buttoning it. Guilt piled on top of everything else. He’d actually fucked the bitch who’d attacked Megan. Or helped to attack her. Or something.

Angry, he pushed her away and glowered at her. Although the reason for the new anger was pointless. He should fuck up Mortician. He was the fucking brainiac who’d removed Kendall’s clothes. “Remind me to thank your “sister” for providing me with free pussy.”

“You think I want to be here? I have a life,” she yelled, her breasts rising and falling in agitation. “I have a career.”

“You had a life and you had a career. That went down the shitter when you attacked Outlaw’s wife.”

“She’s going along with no thought of Ellen, living her life and having babies.” She sucked in a sob. “Everything is about her. Can’t anyone see I’m grieving?”

Johnnie’s body was sated, but his head was in turmoil. Hearing her talk about his Megs with such derision and hate made him want to yank his dick off…well, no, he wasn’t that angry. But he felt like scrubbing away the remnants of her body.

 The passion that had flushed her skin turned to anger, matching the fury in her eyes. “No one sees me,” she snarled. “Men see a sex object. Ellen saw a spoiled little girl. My mother didn’t see me at all.”

Johnnie licked his lips and cursed because her taste still there and in his mouth. He also noticed she hadn’t mentioned the mysterious Kayla once. “And that matters how? People see whatever you present to them. You’ve shown me and my brothers a vengeful, whorish bitch. I can’t say what Ellen saw you as because in all the years I knew her she never once mentioned you. I don’t know your mother, so I can’t comment on that. Given that you, this twin of yours and Ellen are her daughters, my regard for her isn’t very high.”

A murderous light entered her eyes and she slapped him across his cheek. “You bastard.”

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” he spat, merciless, his anger deepening at his stinging jaw and his inability to keep his dick in his pants. “You’re looking for sympathy? You’re not getting it from me. We all have problems. Pain. Heartache.”

She snorted. “That’s hard to believe. You all are the problems and you cause the pain and heartache.”

Clenching his hands at his sides to keep from running his fists through the walls, Johnnie turned away. He wasn’t in the mood for conversation or food and almost wished he’d left this woman in Mortician’s hands and let him decide her fate.

His cellphone rang and he halted at the ringtone, the special one he had for Outlaw. Not trusting Kendall to keep quiet, he left her in the kitchen and walked across the hall to the library and shut the door before answering. He’d already rehearsed the explanation of how he’d taken care of Megs’s attacker.

“Outlaw,” he answered. “I was just about to call you and tell you about the woman…Ellen’s sister,” he added.

“Ellen? Dead Ellen? The one Snake took out?”

His cousin sounded tired and defeated and, for a moment, panic settled into Johnnie. The club meant everything to Christopher, but, other than surprise, he didn’t sound as if he gave a damn about Kendall’s fate.

“Yes,” he answered, determined to remain calm. When Christopher carried her from the church, Megs had been talking, so he supposed what he heard in his cousin’s voice was fatigue. He sure we hell was exhausted from all the emotions of the day. He sat on the sofa and laid his head on the back of the sofa, staring up at the intricate ceiling. “What’s going on with Megan and the baby? They’re okay or…?” He allowed his voice to trail off, not wanting to imagine the worse.

A laugh, a little wild and maniacal. “Megan’s my angel. She keeps me straightened out. I only take out motherfuckers if it is absolutely necessary nowadays. I can’t bear to think of those blue eyes of hers condemnin’ me. Hearin’ her voice tellin’ me about my fuckin’ conscience.”

“Christopher, talk to me.” Although he was and Johnnie didn’t like the pure grief in his cousin’s tone.

“My son. My boy. Ain’t never thought I could have somethin’ so perfect. Ain’t never thought I could point to somethin’ and say there’s the best of me. Megan did that for me.”

“What the hell are you saying?”

“What am I sayin’? What am I sayin’?” He laughed, bitter. “I’m sayin’ I went from headin’ to a fuckin’ airport to close our deal to plannin’ a fuckin’ funeral. I’m sayin’ my girl went into shock because of blood loss and somethin’ happenin’ to her placenta. Abrupt placenta or somethin’ caused by trauma.” He drew in a deep breath, a sob, but started speaking before Johnnie thoughts penetrated his shock and he formed words. “Megan don’t even know the little baby in her belly is gone. She ain’t woke up from the surgery to take him. They thought they could save him, but then they had to stabilize her. I gotta tell my girl he didn’t make it.”

            But Megan had. That’s all Johnnie could think about. Call him selfish but he’d just found out she was pregnant again, so, to him, the baby was abstract. She was real.

            “Christopher, listen to me. Megan has you and she has CJ. I’m sure she’s going to be heartbroken over losing the baby, but you still have her.”

            He wanted to jump through the phone and punch Christopher for scaring him. Hearing the word funeral from his cousin rattled Johnnie. He adjusted the phone to his other ear, trapped it between his shoulder, smelled Kendall’s sex on his fingers. And cursed. While he’d been saving—and fucking—Kendall, Megan had been battling for her life and losing her baby. His grief had no place to go, though. If he expressed how torn up he was over Megan, Christopher would know immediately it went deeper than it should. The others would’ve grieved her loss and mourned her. Johnnie would even go so far to say they would’ve been devastated. But it would’ve been small compared to what he would’ve felt.

            “I’m callin’ for a status on the bitch,” Christopher said, after a moment. The grieving husband and father was replaced by the MC president. “Mortician said you took her. You bury her?”

            Hearing what Megan was going through made Johnnie angry enough to want to shake Kendall until her teeth rattled. He wanted to lock her in a dark room and feed her bread and water for a month and nothing more. He wanted to chain her naked to a bed and make her imagine all sorts of harsh punishments. But he didn’t want to kill her if she were really innocent. Nor did he want to lie to Outlaw, so he said, “I’ve handled the situation. Don’t worry.”

            “I know I can count on you, John Boy. I’m sorry you had to do a woman. But I can’t let no motherfucker hurt my girl and that bitch did. Bad. She hurt Megan in ways I gotta tell Megan about and I’d rather cut my fuckin’ heart out than do anythin’ to hurt my wife.”

            “This isn’t easy, Prez,” John replied, deciding to test the waters. “If Megan found out we hurt a woman, how do you think she’d feel?”

            “Megan got the conscience. I fuckin’ don’t and, just like when I blew Bin’s bitch the fuck away, this is another time I don’t give a fuck how she’d feel. That other bitch needed to be put down and so did this one.”

            “She was hurting,” Johnnie persisted, unable to mention Kayla until he verified it. If there was a twin, he’d then have to sort through the bullshit and find the truth of Kendall’s role in this situation. And if she wasn’t telling the truth? What then? He didn’t know, so he couldn’t mention anything to Christopher, which, in effect, was making him double-cross Outlaw. “Grieving for her sister. She wanted revenge.”

            “Against Megan?” came the incredulous retort. “I understand the fuckin’ need for vengeance. But if you don’t know what the fuck you doin’, who the fuck you fuckin’ with, when you go after a motherfucker for some wrong, then you fuck your own self. Hear what I’m sayin’, John Boy?”

            ‘Yes.”

            “Megan told me about these two motherfuckers. A servant parable. One of them motherfuckers owed his master money and the boss told the fuckhead don’t worry about it. Then the motherfucker went out and saw some sorry fuck who owed him money and had him thrown in jail. He wanted his fuckin’ money and decided to get revenge on that poor bastard, forgettin’ entirely what a lucky motherfucker he was cuz his debt got forgave. He might’ve been a lucky motherfucker but he was a stupid one, too, cuz Bossman found out what he did and not only threw him in jail but had him fuckin’ tortured. He wanted revenge and got fucked himself. That bitch wanted revenge for Ellen. Well, just like that servant motherfucker, she fucked herself.”

            Johnnie squeezed his temples, knowing it would take a miracle to change Christopher’s mind. Knowing, too, the story his cousin had just related was as close to religious as he’d ever get.

            Kendall was so fucked.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW