An Outlaw Valentine

by Kathryn Kelly

  Outlaw’s hand trembled. “My ass said I was gonna fuck him up, yet you did your bullshit, anyway,” he rasped to her. Wildness crept into his eyes and anger flushed his face. “Goin’ so fuckin’ far that he strangled Megan. He tried to fuckin’ take her from me.”

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she chanted.

  Ignoring her, Outlaw stared into Johnnie’s eyes, shoved the gun into his mouth. His hand shook, moved, before he…pulled the trigger.

  “Get him to the fuckin’ ER,” Christopher ordered over Kendall’s screams, after Johnnie slumped back, a hole in his cheek.

  Mortician, Val, Stretch, Cash and Digger jumped into action, each of them grabbing some part of Johnnie’s body and carrying him out of the clubhouse. They wanted to save his life, but they also wanted to be out of Christopher’s line of fire.

  He barreled to where Roxy stood consoling a hysterical Kendall. Before he reached the women, Knox jumped up and blocked his way. Offering him a half smile, Christopher punched the fuck out of him and sent the assfuck flying, then continued forward.

  “You lucky you fuckin’ knocked up,” he told Kendall, hating her so much he could almost keel the fuck over and die. His loathing of her poisoned him, almost to the point of death. “I can’t fuckin’ kill you, but I can throw you the fuck off the goddamn premises. I ain’t ever wantin’ to see your fuckin’ face again.”

  “You shot him,” she wailed. “You shot Johnnie.”

  Tears glistened in Roxanne’s eyes, but she remained silent.

  “You got ten fuckin’ minutes to get the fuck off the grounds, or I’m pickin’ you the fuck up and throwin’ you the fuck off.”

  “Outlaw, please,” Roxanne whispered, her cheeks wet. She was a tough bitch, though. Despite everything that happened, she wasn’t flinching. She knew the deal. Either you obey. Or you die. Case fucking closed. “She’s so distraught. Give her an hour.”

  He opened his mouth to deny her.

  “For me,” she added quietly.

  “One fuckin’ hour, Roxanne,” he conceded, and stalked off.

  Arriving at Hortensia General, Christopher headed straight to ICU and Megan’s room. He knew Johnnie had been brought here, but he wasn’t interested in checking on him. He sighed. They really needed to buy a fucking floor. All motherfuckers did was end up in the fucking hospital.

  When he walked into her room, he found her eyes open. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, she’d awakened, then drifted back to sleep, seeing she was safe and secure. She had a concussion, suffered from dehydration, and had developed pneumonia. He was so fucking thankful she hadn’t been raped. Not that he would’ve cared. But it would’ve destroyed his Megan.

  She might’ve started cutting herself again. As it was, he’d have to look for signs.

  All that mattered, though, was that he had her back. He’d intended to stay at her side until she was released. Then, Kendall struck.

  When the text had come through, Megan had been asleep. He’d started to ignore Kendall’s message, but figured whatever psycho bitch was important enough for her to send a group text. Receiving Mort and Digger’s replies clued Christopher in that she hadn’t only sent the text to him. He’d hoped it meant she’d found her broom and was going to soon fly the fuck away.

  Kendall always did shit where everybody had to keep her at the forefront of their minds, if only for a little while.

  Megan smiled at him. He attempted to smile back, but it felt forced. It didn’t surprise him when she looked at his face and her happiness faded. “What happened?” she whispered, sounding worse than she had after Johnnie had choked her.

  Johnnie. Fuck. He had to tell Megan about the shooting. Fuck.

  The impact of what he’d done arrowed into him. Not for him. If he had to do it again, he would. Johnnie had enabled his cunt, then had the fucking nerve to strangle Megan.

  That’s what got Christopher the most. That motherfucker had actually tried to take Megan away from him. Right now, he hated him for that.

  On the other hand, Megan would be devastated. That’s why he’d stuffed the gun in the corner of his mouth at the last minute, aiming to have an exit wound in his cheek. Of course, bullets were unpredictable. A motherfucker might survive a shot to the head and die from a shot to the shoulder. There were so many variables involved—the trajectory, the wobble, the velocity.

  Maybe, that’s why he’d pulled his .22, instead of his nine. Maybe, he really hadn’t wanted to kill Johnnie, just shoot some fucking sense into him.

  “Christopher, what’s happened?” Megan asked again.

  He set his jaw. “I shot Johnnie,” he announced, keeping his voice even and his expression blank.

  “Wh-what?” she gasped, pressing the button that controlled her bed, to raise herself into a sitting position.

  “That motherfucker strangled you,” he snarled, furious, hurt, and betrayed.

  “You shot Johnnie?” she repeated on a sob, not bothering to deny his statement anymore.

  If things had progressed to this point, then she knew he had irrefutable proof. In this case, Kendall’s confession.

  “Is he dead?”

  He swallowed hard, and blinked. “I don’t fuckin’ know,” he barked, as if he didn’t give a fuck. Well, he didn’t. Fuck John Boy. He’d brought that shit on himself by staying married to Kendall.

  “Why’d you shoot him?” Megan cried.

  “What the fuck did he expect my ass to do? Motherfucker betrayed the club, me, you. I ain’t had a fuckin’ choice, not on a personal level or a president level.

  Megan shook her head in denial. “How could you shoot him?”

  Glaring at her, he told her exactly what Kendall had said to him.

  “Christopher, Kendall saved me, and you repaid her by shooting her husband,” she said in a loud whisper, tears, anger and hurt in her voice. “You should’ve felt indebted to her.”

  To that bitch? He’d prefer to eat ant dicks.

  “You owe her!” Megan commanded.

  Christopher’s heart seized up on him. He just might fucking kick it. But Megan hadn’t fought to stay alive for him to turn around and keel the fuck over.

  “How the fuck you say I owe Kendall?” he demanded.

  She glared at him and he scowled at her, admitting she was speaking the truth. He should feel indebted to that bitch. Indebted. To motherfucking, goddamn, fucking Kendall, who’d turned Johnnie into a bleeding cunt. “I had the fuckin’ address you was at on the list Riley gave to my ass. I woulda found you my-fuckin-self.”

  “I wouldn’t have been alive. I’d given up hope and was freezing to death.”

  Making a fucked up situation even more fucked, she had to remind him how close she’d come—a-fucking-gain—to death. “Don’t fuckin’ worry, baby. Ima find Mystic and stuff his ass in a fuckin’ freezer. He left you fuckin’ naked, without food or water. He left you to fucking freeze. I gotta stuff him a meat locker ‘til he freeze halfway. Then, Ima thaw his ass out and fuck him up.”

  “Christopher!”

  Folding his arms, he threw her an annoyed look. “What?”

  “Mystic isn’t important. We’re talking about Johnnie and Kendall.”

  The fuck Mystic wasn’t important, but he’d drop the subject for now and go back to the other conversation.

  “Kendall has really gone over the top, but she could’ve withheld my location forever. She knew she’d get into trouble by telling you, yet she did so anyway. You’re a very fair man. Be fair in this case.”

  “I ain’t fair where you fuckin’ concerned,” he cut in.

  “Whether Johnnie l-lives or d-dies, you have to let her stay at the club as long as she wants to. She saved me, Christopher.”

  He scowled at her. “You mad at me?”

  She lifted a brow at him and sniffed. He wasn’t sure if it was because she had snot in her nose or if it had something to do with him.

  “I’m furious with you,” she admitted, confirming her
prissy little sniff had been because of him. “Johnnie might die, and…and…and oh my God! I can’t believe you shot him. He’ll never forgive you if he lives.”

  “If he don’t forgive my ass, that’s on him. After a while, a motherfucker get tired of warnin’ motherfuckers to be-fuckin-have. He was out of fuckin’ warnins.”

  “Suppose he dies?” she wailed.

  “That shit on his ass, too. He shoulda fuckin’ had the balls to make that bitch behave.”

  “I’m not worth shooting your own brother.”

  He stiffened and shot from his seat. “You worth more than that, Megan,” he fumed. “You worth shootin’ my-fuckin-self over. You worth dyin’ for and killin’ for, no matter who the fuck it be.”

  “You’re such a psycho,” she said around sniffles.

  “Ain’t never said I wasn’t,” he agreed, calming down because, although she was angry, she’d forgive him. “But my ass your psycho.”

  She swiped at her tears. “Can you go see about Johnnie?”

  “Do I gotta?”

  She nodded.

  Huffing out a breath, he turned and stomped away.

  “Johnnie’s in surgery,” Cash informed him as he walked into the waiting room, where his boys were.

  He didn’t say a motherfucking thing. They all stood up and started talking, like he pressed a fucking button.

  “Bullet exited through his cheek,” Mortician said cautiously. “He’ll survive.”

  Digger stuffed potato chips into his mouth. “Yeah, Prez. Motherfucker going to have one cheek now. Other than that, he’s going to be fine.”

  Christopher heaved in a breath, and relief hit him so hard, he had to sit down.

  “Ignore Digger, Outlaw,” Val inserted. “They taking skin from his ass cheek to repair his face cheek. It was a small bullet, so he had minimal damage.”

  “I’ve already arranged for cash dropouts to all involved,” Stretch added.

  To insure cooperation and silence. By law, gunshot victims were supposed to be reported to the police.

  “Roxy called me,” Mortician started into the silence. “She about to bring Kendall and the kids to Charlotte and Brooks.”

  Fuck, Charlotte was a worst bitch than Kendall. He sighed. By all that was fucking holy, he was indebted to fucking Kendall. He got to his feet.

  “Call Roxanne. Tell her Kendall can go back to her house if she want to. Bitch let us get to Megan, so…yeah…her ass can stay if Johnnie want her.”

  “Meggie got to you, huh, Outlaw?” Val asked.

  Clenching his teeth, he nodded, walking out of the waiting room to the snickers of his boys.

  As he came to, the sound of a woman weeping reached Johnnie, and he listened. Kendall. More awareness seeped into him.

  Everything rushed back to him. Kendall’s confession. His shock. Christopher’s anger. Suddenly, the bandage on the right side of his face itched. The taste in his mouth nauseated him and the IV in his hand burned.

  What Kendall thought would happen, Johnnie had no clue, but that was her fucking problem. She didn’t think. She got an idea into her head, and forged forward, despite the consequences.

  Despite any and everything.

  “He wake up yet?”

  At the sound of Christopher’s voice, Johnnie’s ears perked. He didn’t fault his brother for his current condition. Christopher had given him chance after chance after chance, much more so than he would ever give most people. Johnnie had known all along that eventually, Christopher would run out of patience.

  Kendall hadn’t believed such a thing would ever happen. To her, he bluffed and blustered. Because they were family, they were untouchable.

  “Th-thank you for letting me come back,” Kendall said softly.

  Johnnie had been lost in his thoughts and missed her answer to Christopher’s question. Since she didn’t know Johnnie was awake, he figured she’d responded in the negative.

  “Ain’t had a choice, Kendall,” Christopher grouched. “Megan pointed out cuz of you, her life got saved.”

  “I’ll be sure to thank her.”

  “You ain’t goin’ near her. Left up to me, your ass wouldn’t be ‘round John Boy no more.”

  “Before the shooting, he told me he was going to buy me a house, so I could leave him.” She sniffled, then sobbed.

  Johnnie remembered that conversation. When he thought he’d die, all the love he ever felt for her rushed back. Now, once again, he was empty inside. Instead of consulting with him before she’d gone to Christopher, she’d just forged ahead and risked hers and Johnnie’s lives, as well as that of their unborn baby.

  “Can you fuckin’ blame him for wantin’ your ass gone?”

  “I never thought he’d walk away from me. Just like I never thought you’d really shoot him.”

  “That’s your fuckin’ problem. You do shit and don’t give a fuck ‘bout consequences. I told you and him, you had one more fuckin’ time to fuck up, and I was gonna kill him. You thought I was just hearin’ my ass talk cuz I fuckin’ like to?”

  “But you missed and didn’t kill him.”

  Christopher laughed without humor. “Ima just chalk that comment to you bein’ a stupid bitch. Insteada you leavin’ shit alone, you gotta point out shit obvious to every motherfucker but your ass.”

  “I don’t mean it the way you’re taking it. I’m glad your aim isn’t as good as you think it is.”

  “Kendall, a blind motherfucker coulda fucked up Johnnie as close as my ass was to him. The goddamn bullet was in his fuckin’ mouth. Ain’t no fuckin’ way I coulda missed blowin’ him the fuck away.”

  Another sob escaped her. “You’re cruel.”

  “And you hard-headed. All you gotta do is be-fuckin-have. And act like your ass got some goddamn sense. That education you talk ‘bout all the time ain’t doin’ you no fuckin’ good cuz you don’t have no common sense.”

  “And you don’t have scruples. Even now, when you shot your own brother, you’re remorseless.”

  “See? You still ain’t gettin’ it. You tell my ass I ain’t got scruples when you the bitch that drug her husband to have her fuckin’ way. You ain’t understandin’ Johnnie got shot cuz of you.”

  “No, he got shot because he strangled Meggie.”

  “And? You think Ima apologize for that shit? That’s the main reason he got shot. Other reason is he was a assfuck over you. You manipulate the fuck outta him, and put the club and my woman in jeopardy.”

  “Meggie manipulates you!” Kendall flared.

  There was some movement, as if Christopher shifted his weight. “Megan manipulate me for simple shit or to stop shit. You manipulate John Boy for underhanded, devious shit.”

  “It’s the only way I know how to be,” she admitted pitifully.

  “It’s the only fuckin’ way you wanna be. After all these fuckin’ years, if you ain’t realize we, even my ass, your fuckin’ family and you ain’t got to do shit, you ain’t ever gonna realize it. Family is family. We stick together.”

  “You didn’t do that when you shot Johnnie.”

  “Cuz when there’s a choice between him or Megan, I choose Megan,” he stated simply. “Besides, my ass also the club president. When he let you talk his dumb ass into meetin’ with a rival club member, he, in essence, betrayed the club and me. If I let any of that shit go, motherfuckers’ll get outta hand.”

  “Yes, because control is so important to you. You’re such an asshole. Cruel and heartless and a joke. You’re just jealous of my husband. That’s why you tried to kill him. But, you stupid bastard, you couldn’t even do that right!”

  Christopher sighed. “You gonna forever remain a clueless fuckin’ cunt, cunt. Lemme lay it out for your dumb ass. When I pulled my fuckin’ piece, I knew I was gonna pull the trigger. I’m so fuckin’ pissed with Johnnie, but all I could think ‘bout was him and me. Before you. Before Megan. Just him and me, as we grew up. I ain’t admitted it to myself then, but I ain’t wanted him to die, so I pulled my .22
and not my nine. But a bullet a bullet, yeah? I still coulda fuckin’ killed him when I pulled that trigger. Ain’t takin’ that away. When it came time to cap his ass, then I thought of Megan and changed the angle. If I wanted your man dead, his ass woulda been dead.”

  “He’s not my man. I’ve lost him.”

  “If only that was fuckin’ true.” A moment passed. “Then, again, maybe it’s gonna be true. Johnnie ain’t puttin’ you out for no other reason than the fact you drugged him. If not for that shit, he’da still been lookin’ his dumb ass the other way.”

  “I don’t believe that,” she choked out, returning to the pitiful woman Johnnie had heard when Christopher first arrived.

  “Don’t give a fuck. It’s the truth.”

  “You’re so smart and think you know him better than me. Well, he’s going to hate you when he opens his eyes.”

  “That shit on him. I do what I gotta do and make no fuckin’ apologies to no motherfucker except Megan. She, as much as Johnnie, the reason, I ain’t killed you yet. Cuz, bitch, if any motherfucker deserve to die, you do. You the bitch that cause all the misery. If you confine it to your house, he gotta deal with it. But you always find a way to involve me, Megan, and the club. You always hit the goddamn trifecta. You the bitch that need to die. You.”

  Before Christopher lost it, and carried that through, Johnnie moaned.

  “Johnnie!” Kendall cried. “Oh my God, let me get the nurse.”

  The sound of her footsteps pounding away meant he was alone with Christopher.

  A moment later, he loomed next to Johnnie’s bed, and stared down at him. Christopher heaved in a breath.

  Johnnie knew that was as close to remorse as Christopher would ever show, so he made a slight movement of his head, hopefully communicating that all was well between them.

  “I forgive you, too, John Boy,” Christopher responded, then walked out of the room.

  She needed help. At first, Johnnie treated her as his wife, as if he wanted to keep her. As his healing progressed, he became more and more distant. Today, ten days after his injury, he was being released and intended to go to his room at the clubhouse, instead of their home, devastating Kendall.