Page 27 of Deception (Deranged Drifters MC #22)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Griffin’s Beach Rocco

“ W hat the hell?” Rocco almost shouts when Colt and Venom push their way inside with Lex and Melanie following close behind. “Gee, I guess, come on in.”

“Where the fuck is your girlfriend?” Venom asks.

Melanie pushes past and calls out, “Living room!”

Staring at Colt, Rocco tries to put together what this ambush is all about. The sickly look on Lex’s face makes Rocco immediately nervous and defensive. “What’s going on?”

“There’s something you need to know, man. About your girl,” Colt says.

“What the hell is this?” Autumn cries, and Rocco rushes in to find Venom blocking the sliding door. “You think you can just come in here and box me in? I live here, too.”

“Do you want to tell Rocco, or do you want me to show him the video I took of Julian confessing?” Lex asks.

It’s an ultimatum that would normally come out harsh, but Rocco’s taken aback by the despair in her tone. The way she seems to plead with Autumn to have a reasonable explanation for whatever it is she needs to share. The scene makes his stomach drop.

“What video?” he asks.

“The rat isn’t a member. It’s an old lady,” Colt says, but his eyes never stray from Autumn. “We’ve known it since the first raid.”

“Wait,” he says with a chuckle. “You think Autumn’s the rat? Seriously?” He looks at his girlfriend and expects her to laugh in their face. Instead, she’s as pale as Lex as she stares at the blonde. “No, tell them it’s not true. You’d never do that to me.”

Autumn swallows. “So, what? You’re here to beat me up? Put me in the hospital? It’s not going to stop Julian.”

It’s not the answer Rocco wanted, and he steps backwards. “It’s true? You’re talking to the cops?”

“I told you I wanted out,” she says, finally looking at him.

Her eyes plead with him, and he feels like she just punched him in the nuts.

“You couldn’t marry me, and I understood.

But the club makes you the worst version of yourself.

The cheating and the strippers… If we got away from the club, I could finally be happy. ”

“That’s not getting out. That’s locking my ass up behind bars.”

Her red hair hits her face as she shakes her head furiously. “No, Julian promised he’d spare you. Leave you out of it if I gave him the information he needed to lock everyone else up. We could be free,” she says. “I just wanted us to be free. All of our issues always tie back to this damn club.”

“Our issues?” He feels stupid asking, but he never once believed the club was the root cause of anything between them. Except when it comes to club bunnies, it seems.

“You won’t be as tempted to stray when you’re working a real job and making honest money. You’d come home to me every night, and you’d learn how it feels to be proud of what you’re doing. Not running guns for this fucking club. The bad influence of everyone around you would be gone.”

Rocco just stares at her. “He’d never leave me out of it—”

“He promised me!”

How can you be so fucking stupid, baby?

“Then you’d have put a target on Rocco’s back because he’d look like a rat,” Colt says. “And we’d have to kill him.”

“You may have been free from the club, but you’d have freed me from life,” Rocco says.

“No… I would have gotten us away before anything could come back to you,” Autumn cries.

Closing his eyes, he tries to remember to breathe. This can’t be happening. How could I miss this? “Who’s doing it?”

“Me,” Lex says. “It’s my job now.”

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

He opens his eyes, and she nods. The tears in her eyes makes him feel a little better because it means she doesn’t want to do this. Just like he doesn’t want her to.

They walk into the office, and he pauses, his back to Lex. How did they get there? To the point where his girl has to die because he’s selfish?

Bending down, he punches the code into the safe under the desk. “This is my fault,” he says, pulling out his untraceable gun and twisting on the silencer. “I did this.”

“She made the decision.”

“He knew she was weak. Of course she’d—”

“She approached him with the offer, Rocco. She’s the one who put all of this into motion.”

Staring at the gun in his hand, he shakes his head. “You were right. I allowed her to settle instead of setting her free, and this is what happened. I just loved her too damn much to let her go, but I didn’t love her enough to give her what she needed.”

“I’m not sure she was ever really made for the club. She loved you, so she learned to deal with it, but I don’t think she ever understood what it meant to be truly in it.”

“I’m sorry, Lex.”

Her hand reaches for her gun in the back of her waistband, and he holds his free hand up. It never occurred to him that this would look like he planned to harm her. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted. I’ve made so many mistakes.”

“What are you doing, Rocco? You’re making me nervous.”

He looks up into her blue eyes. “You don’t trust me.”

“No, I don’t.”

“That’s also my fault.”

“What—”

“I have to do it. Not you… Me.”

The sigh from Lex sounds like relief. “You don’t have to.”

Nodding, Rocco blinks back the tears. “Yeah, I do. I’m at fault for all of it. Go out there like you were going to, and I’ll make it quick. She won’t even know it happened.”

They walk back out, and Lex takes the gun from her waistband. Rocco feels a bit of comfort seeing the pain from this betrayal. That she still has an air of disbelief that they got here like he feels.

“You’re going to kill me?” Autumn asks, her chest heaving.

“You betrayed the club,” Venom says. “There’s no exception for a rat.”

“But I did this for us, Rocco,” she says, tears streaming down her face as she pleads with him. “You can’t let her kill me. It’s only because I love you.”

His hand shakes as he holds the gun behind his back, and the tears sting his eyes. “You betrayed us, baby. I love you, but this is my family. This is the only life I’m going to have.”

“He promised to spare you!” she shouts. “We were going to finally be happy!”

“Tell him you love him,” Lex says.

Shaking her head, Autumn looks at Lex. “Please, Lex, don’t do this. I’ll go away.”

“Tell him you love him, Autumn. Make sure those are the last words he hears from you. Please. Please, Autumn.”

“I love you, Rocco,” she says, tears staining her cheeks.

Her body slumps forward, and he lowers the gun to his side as Lex falls to her knees and lets out a strangled cry. He moves to the ground, his gun discarded on the floor, and he pulls Autumn’s body into his arms.

“I’m sorry, baby. I should’ve let you go a long time ago, but you’re free now,” he says as the tears finally fall.

The hollow point bullet entered the base of her head but didn’t exit. Closing her eyelids, he pretends for a moment that she’s just sleeping and kisses her forehead.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers and rocks her, his hand shaking as he cups her cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“What the fuck just happened?” Venom asks as he stares in confusion.

Bending down to take Lex’s hand, Melanie looks up with watery eyes. “Rocco took care of it.”

“It’s my fault,” he says, his lips pressed against her skin. “I should have let her go years ago. Probably more. I pushed her to this.”

“This isn’t your fault,” Colt says.

His head snaps up, and he glares at his President. “Isn’t it? I’m the reason she talked to Julian. Lex was right. I let her settle, and she was desperate. I fucking failed her.”

“She made her choices,” Venom says. “She could have left at any point.”

“You don’t get a say in this!” he shouts. “The only time she ever left me had her coming back with a stalker who almost killed Colt. You weren’t here, so you don’t know. You don’t understand.”

“I do,” Lex says, her voice cracking as she crawls over and gently caresses Autumn’s hair. “I understand.”

For the first time in a long time, Rocco sees that he and Lex have something in common. They understand this pain that no one else will.

“She hated you,” he says. “That was my fault.”

“She made her choices,” she says and lowers her head to gently kiss Autumn’s forehead just like Rocco had. “It doesn’t matter that we weren’t good for a while. She was still my friend. One of my oldest, and this isn’t how it was supposed to end.”

“Lex?” Melanie asks. “Babe, are you okay?”

Shaking her head, she falls back and puts her head in her hands. “Nothing about this is okay.”

“What’s the plan here?” Venom asks, his voice quiet. “I can take care of… her.”

“We need a note,” she whispers. “She needs to disappear. She took all the cash you had in the safe, and she used it to create a new identity.”

“Make sure it says you confronted her about talking to Julian and gave her a head start to get out of here. To leave and never come back,” Rocco says. “I want it known you wanted to save her.”

Melanie stands. “I can take care of that.”

He nods towards the office, and Melanie disappears. At least there’s a plan. It wasn’t just running in, guns blazing. Lex always has a plan.

“I just need a few more minutes with her,” he says, his voice low as he looks up at Venom. He doesn’t even care how weak he sounds pleading with the scary man. “Please, I just… I need a few more minutes.”

No, what I need is a fucking time machine to fix everything I did wrong.

“I’ll go get the truck,” Venom says, his voice soft, and he squeezes Lex’s shoulder as he walks by.

The blood soaks through Rocco’s clothes, but he doesn’t care. Nothing matters right now.

Sniffling, Lex runs her shaking hand over Autumn’s hair one more time. “We’ll give you some time alone.”

“No, stay,” he says and reaches out for her. “Please, I…”

“Okay,” she says.

He looks up at Lex, and the dam breaks. “You tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen.”

“I wish this wasn’t how it had to happen, Rocco. I really, really do.”

“I know, Lex,” he says. “I know.”

Rocking her, he sobs into her hair. He doesn’t even remember what they talked about tonight. Everything before finding out she talked to Julian faded away, and he tries to get it all back. The simple moments he’ll never have again with his girl.

Colt stands against the wall, waiting and willing to help however he’s needed. And when Melanie walks into the room, she keeps her distance. It’s no secret she and Autumn never really liked each other.

“Letter’s written, and I think I did a pretty good job copying her handwriting. I used the gloves in there, so only her prints should be on there, if there are any at all.”

“We need a marker of some sort,” Lex says. “For us.”

Rocco nods and licks the tears on his lips. “In the garden. She loved her roses.”

“A stone with a dragonfly etched on it. She loves—loved—dragonflies.”

“That’s perfect,” he whispers.

Staring down at his girl, he memorizes her face.

Studies every feature, every blemish, every freckle.

It’s the last time he’ll ever see her, and he wants to remember it all.

Not just the bad that came about tonight, but the good, too.

Because even though it seems like it right now, he knows it wasn’t all bad.

“Venom’s back,” Colt says.

It feels like it’s only been seconds, but he knows it’s time. “Goodbye, baby,” he says and lays her on the white carpet he’ll have to tear up. “I love you.”

Lex bends down and whispers something in Autumn’s hair before kissing her forehead. When she climbs to her feet, Rocco pulls her to him, hugging her tightly.

It’s the first hug he’s given Lex. He doesn’t remember ever embracing her when she returned from Arizona. Never in high school. Possibly in grade school, but probably not.

She’s the only one who understands his pain. The loss. The betrayal and the guilt.

“We’ll be okay, right?” he asks her as he sobs into her neck.

“We will,” she whispers. “With time.”

Releasing her, he cups her face, neither caring about the blood. “I’m sorry, Lex.”

“Me, too.”

She thinks he’s apologizing for Autumn’s necessary death, but he doesn’t correct her. He’s sorry for how he’s acted the past decade, at least. Everything he ever did that contributed to this moment. His attitude and his actions. This is no one’s fault but his own. She tried, and he didn’t let her.

Ky walks in with Venom, and Venom licks his lips. “Thought you might want to take Lex home,” he says. “I brought Ky with me.”

“Do we tell everyone?” Melanie asks. “How does this work?”

“Yeah, we’ll have to,” Colt says. “We need everyone to know that it doesn’t matter who you are. If you rat, you pay the price.”

“Even the newbies?” Melanie asks. “Don’t we risk scaring off Hailey and Jamie?”

Maybe it would be for the best. That way, no one else has to go through this like I am.

“Rocco, why don’t you go and shower? We’ll take the clothes and burn them. There’ll be no traces of blood,” Ky says.

No traces of Autumn Sims dying here. Soon, it’ll be like she never lived here, either.

“Lex, you should change into some of Autumn’s clothes to burn these, too,” Rocco says. “Plus, if we want to make people believe she ran away, we’ll need to get rid of most of her stuff, anyway.”

“Colt, you take Lex home after she changes. I’ll take care of the rest of things here. Just tell me what you need to keep, Rocco,” Melanie says.

Maybe she’s not so bad, either.