I’ve been in the meat shack dozens of times before, but this is the first time I’ve actually been directly affected by one of the bastards held captive here. This visit is as personal as it fucking gets, which is why it’s a private party with two participants. Boss will be here with us, but only as a silent overseer.
I call on all the helplessness I felt at not being able to save Kennedy, the fear, endless terror I’d lose my brother, and hatred I can muster as I throw open the heavy steel door. The emotions wash over me, flooding my veins with the powerful, more deadly cousin of anger; rage.
When I see him, the man legally defined as my father, oddly, I feel at peace. Not because he’s virtually unharmed – his lip is split, and a cut along his hairline is all that’s visible – but because this day has been years in the making, and finally I get to claim my reward for being so patient.
“You don’t have to do this, son,” his voice begs for leniency before we’ve even begun. “I already signed the documents, that bitch will get her money.”
Jump’s arm uncoils like a snake, lunging to strike. My brother is fast, agile, and packs a punch, his fist connecting with Michael’s jaw before any of us see it coming.
“Don’t call her names. Don’t call her fucking anything. She doesn’t exist for you, you sick fuck.”
Nicely said, little brother.
“While we’re discussing things best left unsaid; don’t call me son. You lost that right when you left our mother with nothing but a fuck you very much,” I add conversationally.
I’m working hard to keep my temper in check, at least, for now. I’ll unleash seven kinds of wrath on him once I’m sure Jump’s had his say, and Michael understands the severity of what will happen to him if he tries to contact Talon or Kennedy again.
“I’m just gonna go stand over here and watch the show,” Boss grins menacingly, baring his teeth.
Michael tracks his movements as Boss leans up against the far wall and crosses his arms over his chest. To anyone who doesn’t know him, Boss appears at ease, relaxed even. But those of us who know him well, can see he’s poised, ready, and waiting to attack if the need arises.
Jump crouches in front of Michael. A man he’s never met. A man with no morals or conscience. A man who doesn’t deserve to be called a man at all. I watch as my brother assesses him with contempt. I see the way Jump’s eyes narrow at Michael’s useless non-verbal attempt at persuading him to reconsider. And I don’t miss Michael’s subtle hand movement as he goes to reach for Jump’s forearm. It was a mistake, and not one Michael will make again in a hurry.
The bone snaps. A disgusting, wet gurgle escapes Michael’s mouth seconds after Jump shatters his Ulna. He can’t retreat, however. Michael is shackled by one wrist and one ankle to the wall. There’s nowhere for him to go, nowhere for him to hide. He’s left with no choice but to face us; something he should have had the balls to do years ago.
Jump pushes out of his squat and comes to stand beside me. He looks back at the man crowding himself into the concrete like he thinks it will somehow save him from his long overdue fate, and scoffs.
“How’d we turn out like this, if that’s who donated half our genes?”
Cocking my head, I reply,
“I like to think the other half, mom’s half, were far superior so they’re the one that won out in the end.”
“Yeah, let’s run with that,” he agrees wholeheartedly.
“Now,” I smirk, addressing the pathetic excuse for a human being, “lets you and I have ourselves a little chat, shall we?” It’s not a question, he doesn’t have a fucking choice. This isn’t a democracy, it’s a dictatorship, and I just happen to be the overlord.
Shaking his head in the negative, Michael’s voice is strained and threaded with pain. Good. He deserves that and so much more for what he’s done and the lives he’s ruined.
“No. Please. I swear to God, I’ll leave town and never come back. I won’t contact them. I won’t bother any of you ever again. Just let me go. Let me go and you can have anything you want.”
“See, that’s the thing. We don’t want a goddamn thing from you. Not your money. Not your promises. And definitely not your bullshit apologies,” I bite out furiously. “A million years ago, I would have sat and listened to your excuses; why you took off and left our mom, why you never came back, why you didn’t contact us. None of that shit matters anymore. All I give a fuck about is why you thought you could rape an innocent young girl and get away with it, and why you’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars looking for a son you have no right to claim.”
Stalking over to the opposite corner to where Boss is stationed, I drag a utilitarian metal chair across the barren concrete floor, placing it directly in front of him. This is a tactic I learned from Gage to make him think he has time and give him a false sense of security. Putting myself closer to his level makes me appear more approachable when in all reality I’m anything but.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen. Honestly, I didn’t. I was walking out of the Chinese restaurant after picking up dinner when I saw her there shivering from the cold. I asked her if she was okay, if there was anything I could do, but she wouldn’t answer me. I was worried about her, thought she had hypothermia or something. It was snowing that night. It had been for nearly a week straight. She had to be all of ninety pounds if that. A tiny thing like her shouldn’t have been out there alone like that.”
The words fall from his mouth like verbal diarrhea and paint a vivid picture that triggers memories of Kennedy curled into a protective ball under a soaking wet blanket.
“When I touched her, she came alive. She blinked up at me with those huge gray eyes of hers and I lost my mind. I couldn’t think with how much I wanted her. She was so beautiful, so pure, like the snow that was falling around us. My body screamed at me to take her, to show her how beautiful she was.”
“So you’re saying you raped her because you wanted to show her she was beautiful,” I sneer. “She was fifteen. Fucking hell! She needed someone to take care of her, not take advantage of her. You could have taken her somewhere, a shelter or refuge for women, but instead, you took her innocence. What the fuck is wrong with you?” I lash out, plowing my steel capped boot into his shin.
A scream of pain echoes around the room before Michael stutters,
“I kn-know. It was wrong. I was wrong. It never should have happened.”
“No fucking shit,” Jump barks. Clamping a hand down on my shoulder, Jump tells me, “There’s nothing more he can say that isn’t going to make you want to kill him. Let’s move this along, big brother so you can get home to someone a lot prettier than this piece of shit.”
Jerking my head, I mutter,
“Agreed.” Laser focusing on Michael, I recline back into my chair and clench my jaw. “In the interests of getting the fuck out of here, why are you searching for her son? Why the hell do you think anyone in their right mind would let you anywhere near him?”
Something flares in his eyes, something besides pain before he hides it, trying to slip his blank mask back in place.
“My wife wanted more children, and I couldn’t give them to her. She bitched at me for years to go and see a doctor and get tested in case anything could be done. We knew it wasn’t her, she was perfectly healthy, so it had to be me. But I already knew what our problem conceiving was, I just couldn’t tell her.”
“But you’ll tell us, won’t you?” This isn’t a question, either. It’s a command. One Michael doesn’t and can’t ignore. He’s in no position to deny us anything, and he knows it.
Nodding his head once, he confesses,
“I’d been cheating on her for years. It started just after we got married because I didn’t marry her by choice; I was forced into it when she got pregnant with our first son. Her father was on the board at the company I worked for and threatened to ruin me if I didn’t make an honest woman of his daughter. I liked her, she was good in bed, came from money, and the thought of marryin
g her didn’t repulse me so I figured why not. That didn’t mean I was happy to be tied to one pussy for the rest of my life, though.”
Fuck, this man makes me sick.
“I started using an escort service which specialized in high profile clients and knew how to be discreet. The last thing I needed was my sexual proclivities being leaked to the media and it getting back to her father. I thought they were all screened,” he implores, shaking his head. “I figured they had those bitches tested before they let them sit on someone’s dick for an exorbitant fee. I was wrong.”
Boss burst out laughing at Michael’s insinuation, his big body shuddering with hilarity.
“You got the clap. Jesus, how dumb can one motherfucker be?”
“Fuck me,” Jump adds. “On second thoughts, don’t fuck me. I don’t swing that way and I sure as shit don’t wanna catch whatever you’ve got.”
“I didn’t know,” he protests loudly. “I never would have fucked her if I knew. And I definitely would have insisted on using a rubber if I had even the faintest idea she was carrying anything infectious.”
Now it’s my turn to shake my head in disgust.
“You fucked a hooker bareback? Jesus, you are a fucking moron.”
“I didn’t know,” he bellows. “That was one of the things that made me choose that agency. They promised their women were clean, young, willing to do anything, for the price of course, and that you were allowed to fuck them bare. Do you know how rare that is?”
“For good reason, fuckwit,” Boss chuckles.
“So, she gave you the clap, your swimmers died off, and you thought seeing as you stole Kennedy’s ID you’d look her up, and what?” I demand angrily.
Michael diverts his eyes, staring hard at the floor between his feet.
“I kept tabs on her,” he admits quietly. “Not for the reasons you’re thinking either. I just wanted to know she was okay, that she hadn’t died out there. When my investigator told me she had delivered a baby, I only wanted to meet him. Just once. Just see him, and maybe hold him for a minute. But she left the hospital an hour before I got there, taking my son with her, so I put my investigator on full-time with a generous bonus if he could find her within the month. He didn’t obviously, but he was able to track her whereabouts. I don’t know how she did it, but she managed to give us the slip every time we got close. It was as if she knew I was looking for her.”
“She did. Kennedy always knew when you were getting too close. Her protective mothering instincts kicked in, alerting her to the fact that her son may be in danger, so she got the hell out of there,” I snarl, planting my fist in the side of his face.
Michael blinks a few times to clear his head and continues.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her or the boy. Like I said, I just wanted to see him at first, but then that all changed. My wife was adamant I give her another baby or she was going to leave me. I couldn’t let her do that, not to me. You will never understand, but her son was the key to keeping my marriage intact. I also believed the boy would be better off with my wife and I taking care of him. We could have given him anything his heart desired. Good schools, the best clothes, cars, money, holidays, whatever he wanted.”
“His mom gave him more than you ever could. She loves him more than she loves herself. She sacrificed everything for his happiness and safety. You think material possessions could sway that kid into leaving her, you’re dead wrong. She was his whole word for fourteen years, and she’s raised him into an amazing man, but now he’s got us too. And we would never let him anywhere near a pathetic motherfucker like yourself, or the ball busting cunt you call a wife,” I assure him, smiling evilly when his face twists into an expression that looks a hell of a lot like guilt.
“I know. I saw it when I was watching her with him. He looks happy. He looks so much like both of you too,” Michael mutters dejectedly. “If it weren’t for my wife finding out about him when she went through my filing cabinet three months ago, I wouldn’t even be here. I would have given up. We are long past having any more children, so what was the point in continuing to search for him I told myself. But then my wife confronted me with what she found, and demanded I find him and bring him to her. She wanted another shot at raising a child that wasn’t self-absorbed, and spoilt rotten like our grown sons are. And to keep her happy and keep my father-in-law off my back, I told her I would.”
Jump clenches his fists tightly beside me, coiled and ready to fight. He’s as furious as I am about this. We all are.
“You are nothing but a waste of fucking oxygen. If it weren’t out of respect for a woman a thousand times the person you are, I would kill you slowly and painfully for what you’ve done to her and her son. Not to mention, what you did to our mother. But I do respect her, and I’ll abide by her wishes because I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”
Shoving the chair I’m sitting on aside, I rise to my full height, towering over the man I will never acknowledge again as my father.
“I’ve heard enough,” I declare, taking a menacing step toward Michael. “There is nowhere I’d rather send you than to the depths of hell where they’re reserving a special place for men like you, but like my brother, I don’t make promises I can’t keep. And I promised my woman I wouldn’t kill you. That doesn’t mean I can’t hurt you, though, because I can and I will. Before you leave here, you’re going to know what the meaning of pain is. You will know what it feels like to be broken.”
And break him we do.
By the time Jump and I leave the meat shack, Michael is barely breathing. His ribs, nose, one leg, and wrist on the arm that wasn’t already shattered are broken. Blood streams from various gashes on his chest, thighs, and upper arms, not deep enough to nick an artery but enough to cause significant amounts of pain. His shoulder is dislocated, and if it isn’t broken, his clavicle is at least fractured. Both eyes are swollen shut, the bruising already creeping across his face as we mount the first step.
He is a mass of agony and pitiful whimpers when we decide he’s had enough. When we know he can’t take anymore without us breaking our promise to Kennedy.
I thought I’d feel differently when it happened, when my fists met his flesh. I honestly believed a flash of guilt or remorse would take root and force me to stop and think about what I was doing. But there was nothing. No pity. No mercy. Nothing. I was numb to who he was and what part he had played in mine and Jump’s lives. All I could see was what he did, who he hurt, and what he stole that wasn’t his to begin with.
My rage had a singular focus, a target to unleash on. The beast inside me broke free and channeled its fury on Michael. One slice for every year he made Kennedy feel fear. One hit for every year Talon has been alive. One kick for every year it took me to have Kennedy in my arms where she should have been all along.
I did leave Michael with something, though. Something he wouldn’t soon forget. Something I promised him I will follow through with if he ever comes within one hundred miles of Kennedy, Talon, or Furnace again.
Yanking his head that’s hanging limply against his chest backward, my eyes lock on his.
“You don’t know me, you will never know me, which means you don’t have the first fucking clue what I’m capable of. I don’t care who you are or how much money and reach you have. There’s nowhere you can hide if I want to find you. Nowhere you can run that I won’t catch you. No amount of money will save you if I choose to end your life. And trust me, I will. If you ever try to contact Kennedy or Talon, I will gut you like the pig you are before tearing your heart out with my bare hands. And that’s after I inflict so much pain you’ll be begging for me to kill you. Mark me, motherfucker, this was just a taste of what you have coming to you if you don’t cease to exist for them.”
That was it. There was nothing more to say. Since we couldn’t kill him, Jump and I had to be satisfied with leaving him beaten and battered, bleeding, alone, cold, and scared for his life. It was poetic in a way because we were leaving him in a ve
ry similar state to which he left Kennedy all those years ago.
*****
Kennedy’s fingertips ghost across my cheek, travel down my neck, and over my chest before coming to a stop on my lower stomach where they draw unrecognizable patterns. Her touch is tender, reverent even as she slowly pulls me out of the fog of anger I was trapped in.
“As far as I can tell, he took it well,” she replies to my earlier question. “He didn’t say much, but he promised to talk to me if it started messing with his head.”
Nodding, I kiss the top of her head that’s resting over my heart.
“I’ll talk to him later. I want Talon to know he can come to me or Jump too.”
Smiling against my chest, she murmurs,
“He knows that, honey. Talon trusts you both, and I wouldn’t be surprised if either of you find yourselves with a fourteen-year-old shadow in the very near future. He’s ecstatic the three of you are related. I heard him telling one of his friends from school how cool it is that he’s got big brothers that are badass bikers who belong to a real life MC,” Kennedy ends on a giggle.
Vengeance MC Box Set - Volume 2: Gage ~ Cash ~ Knight (Vengeance MC series Book 8) Page 52