Mortician’s words tore through her. How could she have been so stupid to not see how much they all cared for her? Even if it was because of Johnnie, she’d had the family she’d always dreamed of.
“Whatcha want, Kendall?” Outlaw snapped. “I gotta get back to the hospital by Megan.”
His words made her cry harder. “It’s all my fault,” she confessed, not thinking this decision through, only panicked at the thought of losing Johnnie. “Meggie being kidnapped. Johnnie being drugged and Johnnie strangling her. I even called CJ a little idiot and tried to punch him in his face. And…and…and I withheld Meggie’s location from you. I’m the one who convinced Johnnie to meet with Randolph behind your back, to try and broker a peace deal. I intended to represent Randolph, so, in essence, I fraternized with the enemy against your orders and against Johnnie’s will. I’m so, so, so sorry. Please forgive me.” Tears slipped down her cheeks and she swiped them away. “I’m begging you.”
Stillness fell over the room and a chill entered, as if a ghost had walked in and sucked the warmth out of the air.
Johnnie’s eyes widened, then he paled, glancing uneasily in Outlaw’s direction. The other men looked both shocked and concerned. Their gazes travelled from her to Outlaw and back again.
Growling, Outlaw rose to his feet, and stared at her, then narrowed his eyes.
“Now, Prez,” Mortician started, standing also, and holding out his hands. “Think about this. Meggie girl safe.”
“Shut the fuck up, Mortician,” Outlaw ordered. “The only fuckin’ thing savin’ you is you did what the fuck I ask. You saved my girl. Megan reminded me of that. But she ain’t fuckin’ here and you still fuckin’ lied to me.”
Without another word, Mortician returned to his seat. Outlaw remained standing. The cold hatred in his eyes alarmed Kendall. She should’ve waited until Meggie was out of the hospital.
Thinking of Meggie, Kendall swallowed. All she knew was that Meggie had been rescued. No one had mentioned anything else about her to Kendall.
“How the fuck you figure it’s your fault, this motherfucker strangle my girl, Kendall?” he demanded, starting to pace. “Never fuckin’ mind. I already know. You put fuckin’ marks on your own neck.”
His ability to reach the correct conclusions no longer surprised her, so she nodded.
Outlaw paused to glance between her and Johnnie. He sat in his seat, ashen, unable to speak. The fear in his eyes almost broke Kendall. He had to know that even if Outlaw killed her, he’d never hurt Johnnie.
“Don’t make Johnnie pay for my crimes,” she begged.
All the warmth was gone from Outlaw’s face. She saw nothing of the biker she knew. Yes, he disliked her—hated her. He called her names. But he had a spark of humanity in him. The ability to be reasoned with.
This man, Outlaw, was a killer.
She trembled, wondering if she’d erred in her decision to confess. “If there are any repercussions take them out on me.”
Her words sent him into action.
He stalked to where Johnnie sat. “I told your motherfuckin’ ass to get control of your bitch.”
Johnnie swallowed, more color leeching from him. “I know.”
Leaning down, Outlaw yanked his gun from his leg holster and aimed it at Johnnie’s head.
“No!” Kendall screamed, trying to rush forward but unable to because Mortician held her back.
“Anybody hun…gry?” Roxy ended on a gasp. “Outlaw—”
“Shut the fuck up, Roxanne,” he commanded, then turned back to Johnnie. “Even when you fuckin’ found out this bitch drugged you, you ain’t did nothin’. You shoulda sent her the fuck away.”
Clenching his jaw, Johnnie didn’t answer.
“What the fuck I say gonna happen to you if you ain’t stop her bullshit?”
“You said you’d kill me,” Johnnie said in a hollow tone.
“Yet you let her fuck with you, with Megan, any-fuckin-way.”
“He didn’t,” Kendall screamed. “Please! He didn’t know.”
Outlaw glowered at her. “Johnnie say Mort told him where to find Megan. I didn’t give a fuck if a unicorn clued him in at that moment. I just wanted my woman. But I been wonderin’: How the fuck Mort knew, and ain’t told me. You know how? Cuz, you, bitch, told Roxanne, and she ain’t know how the fuck to tell me without givin’ you up.”
“I can explain,” Roxy said quickly, sidling closer to Knox.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and looked at Outlaw with guardedness.
“I ain’t fuckin’ interested in no fuckin’ explanations, Roxanne,” Outlaw spat. “My ass pissed, but you did what you shoulda to protect Megan and this cunt.” He nodded to Kendall. “Ain’t faultin’ your loyalty.”
“Okay, Outlaw, just drop the gun from Johnnie’s head before you fire accidentally,” Roxy pleaded in a faint voice.
Instead of dropping the weapon, he cocked the hammer.
“No!” Kendall screamed, again attempting to surge forward.
Digger blocked her and Mortician pulled her back a second time, but she fought against his hold.
“Please, Outlaw!” she screeched. “Oh my God! Please, don’t do this.”
“I love you, Kendall,” Johnnie said quietly.
“Let go of me, Mortician. I’ve got to save Johnnie.”
“Letting you go not going to do no good, Red,” Mortician said in a distraught voice.
In other words, she couldn’t save Johnnie. Nothing she did would help. But she had to try.
“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry, Outlaw. Please don’t kill Johnnie. Please,” she sobbed, hysterical. But nothing moved Outlaw. She looked at Johnnie, on the verge of fainting and throwing up. “I love you so much, Johnnie.”
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.
Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books Page 450