Page 20 of Karma (Deranged Drifters MC #23)

Chapter Twenty

Griffin’s Beach Colt

S tanding in front of Phillip, Colt takes in his state. He’s chained with his hands shackled above his head, and his feet barely touch the ground. As an added precaution, they bolted chains to the cement before wrapping his ankles up to make sure he has no way to free himself.

“Big man in charge came down to see little ol’ me, huh?” Phillip laughs maniacally.

Venom and Psycho stand off to the side, both studying the man as though deciding what to do first. The truth is, they have the plan worked out already. It’s all a show for Phillip.

“Look at that. You can read,” Colt says.

“Any chance you’ll grant me a request?”

The arrogance makes Colt want to slap him and gag him to shut him up, but his curiosity wins out. “And what the fuck would that be?”

“I’d like to talk to Nash before you kill me.”

Venom chuckles. “Oh, you fucking idiot, we’re not going to kill you.”

“Yet,” Psycho adds. “You left us a lovely little playbook of what you planned to do to our girl, and while it’s not a bad start, we’ve made a few additions.”

“You lacked flair. Imagination. Creativity,” Venom says.

Smirking, Phillip giggles. “Did I now?”

“Yeah, this is all very clinical and frankly, it’s fucking boring.”

“What creativity you do have is very elementary,” Psycho says.

“But you did help us figure how to keep you alive to make sure we enjoy every minute possible.”

If the threat concerns him, Phillip doesn’t show it. Which completely unnerves Colt. He looks impressed and excited, instead, and he should have been taken out many, many years ago.

“Let’s see what he has to say to his daddy,” Colt says and sends a text to VP to join them in the basement. “He’s on his way.”

“I can’t wait.”

VP walks down the stairs after a staring contest between Colt and his brother-in-law. Considering his granddaughter’s at his house, Colt can’t figure out how he spends so much time at the clubhouse.

“What?” VP asks.

“Your son wants to talk to you.”

“That thing is not my son.”

This amuses Phillip, and he beams. “And people wonder what drove me to start killing. I have a few questions for you… Dad.”

“I don’t need to stick around—”

“Yeah, the fuck you do,” Psycho says. “You created him.”

VP clenches his jaw. “I’m not taking responsibility for him being this way. I didn’t do this.”

“I meant you climbed on his mom and released a load inside of her…”

“If the shoe fits,” Venom adds with a chuckle.

“They’re right, you know,” Phillip says and tilts his head. “This is kind of your fault.”

Nodding, he crosses his arms over his chest and glares at the man who looks shockingly like him. “Is it? Because I forced you to kill those people?”

“Do you know how you made Mom feel when she found out that you’d not only moved on but started a new family? Like we were nothing?”

“You needed help, and she refused.”

“Yet, you still fucked her until the day you learned you were having another son. You finally had a chance to start over, and you didn’t need her pussy anymore. You used her, and you broke her.”

Colt snaps his head to look at VP, who stammers out, “I never—”

“She confessed when I killed her that she let you mount her even after she knew you married Margaret,” he says, emphasizing the T.

“She thought you’d come back to us if she kept letting you fuck her, but the day you learned you were having another son, you cut her off without a word.

Tell me, would you have continued to cheat if Zane was a girl instead? ”

Looking at Psycho and Venom, Colt shares their shock. VP was married to Margaret when he knocked her up, but he was still sleeping with Phillip’s mother? And they all know VP messed around with Emma before Margaret died.

“What we were having didn’t change anything. I knew I was playing with fire, and I was trying to convince her to get you help. She refused, and that’s why we stopped. I needed a clean break if she wasn’t going to keep turning a blind eye.”

Tilting from side to side, he pouts. “Oh, was parenting hard? Poor you.”

“You tried to skin a cat alive when you were barely out of diapers,” he says. “There is no way I would let you near my family.”

“But I was your family, too!” he shouts. “When something doesn’t go your way, you just wash your hands of it and walk away. The people you bring into this world aren’t meant to be disposable, Nash.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

He laughs. “Why the fuck do you think I targeted people who looked like your children? You clearly didn’t get the message because the way Lex said it, you were only concerned about Zane. Too much commitment being a father to more than one kid?”

“I never left Lex.”

“But you don’t really love her, do you?”

Scoffing, VP shakes his head. “You have no idea—”

“Okay, sure, you love her. As much as you can, but it was just never quite enough. Not like you love Zane. She loved you, though. Probably still does no matter how much she wishes she didn’t. She’s not like us, Nash. She comes off hard, but she’s soft where it counts.”

“Is that right?”

“If things were different, you know, like me trying to kill her, she probably would’ve welcomed me into her life. Who knows? Maybe everything could’ve turned out differently if I didn’t feel the need to teach you a lesson.”

He laughs in a way that chills Colt to the bone. This motherfucker is legitimately nuts. VP doesn’t like it, either, and he snaps. “What’s so fucking funny?”

“I’m just imagining an alternate universe. I could be sitting at that fucking table wearing that stupid fucking leather like you. Wouldn’t that be a kick?”

Every reaction Phillip gets from VP intrigues the other three men. It’s not difficult to get under the older man’s skin, but Phillip manages to do it much easier than anyone else before. Maybe there is some guilt there he’s downplaying and hiding from everyone.

“Tell me something, Nash. Who were you more concerned about? Your daughter or your son?”

“I was worried about both—”

“Bullshit.”

Colt glares as VP fumbles to defend himself. “I care about both of my children.”

“Technically, you have three,” Psycho says with a cough.

“But you love Zane the most. He’s the favorite. Which is kind of interesting because the middle child has a reputation of being the forgotten one. The oldest is usually the most loved, and the youngest is spoiled. But not with you.”

“You were impossible to love.”

For some reason, his confession hits Colt hard even though Phillip just smiles with satisfaction. As a father, he can’t imagine not loving his child. No matter what that child might do, he’d still love him or her.

“Do you love Margaret more than Emma? Is that why you don’t really give a shit about Lex? I always thought you loved Emma the most, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think you just lost your ability to con women into your bed.”

“I’m not playing this game with you.”

“You created this game!” he shouts. “Everything I do is because of you! Everyone I killed was to teach you a lesson. This is all your fault!”

Swallowing, VP looks around at the three officers staring him down.

All focus has moved to him, and Colt knows that whatever’s broken inside Phillip isn’t VP’s fault.

What he did was play a part in making it all so much worse.

Like Zane, it’s time he finally pays for the consequences of his actions.

“You’ve always gotten away with everything.

You didn’t like the first family you created?

Great. You started a new one. Before your wife even dies, you climb onto a new woman and knock her up.

That relationship causes strain on your favorite child?

Well, obviously you cater to your kid at the expense of everyone around you.

But it’s never your fault. Or his. It’s everyone else’s.

They all just don’t understand, do they? ”

“That’s—”

“You’ve made a life of being the victim. You’re not the victim. You’re the villain. That’s the reason you never feel guilt or regret.”

Spitting on him, VP shakes his fists clenched at his sides. “I regret having you,” he growls. “I’m standing here having a conversation with a man who should have been aborted.”

The words strike the last nerve Colt has, and he fights the urge to punch VP. “Like father, like son.”

“What?” he asks, whipping his head to glare at Colt.

“That’s what Zane’s been telling Lex her entire life. Maybe Phillip isn’t so different from the men in his family.”

“Look at that!” Phillip says, smiling wide despite the spit sliding down his cheek. “My brother-in-law agrees with me. Does this mean we’re going to share a beer and talk about how terrible this motherfucker is?”

Turning, Colt laughs. “Sure! Oh, but there’s just one small detail. You tried to kill my wife by kidnapping her at gunpoint—loaded or not—and put her in the hospital. Unlike VP, I don’t ignore abuse to Lex and pretend shit didn’t happen.”

“For what it’s worth, I feel a little bad about it,” he says. “I mean, compared to all the others. She is family, after all. It’s also why we were going to die together. The two discarded children in our father’s life.”

“ For what it’s worth , the three of us actually love Lex, so we take attacks against her fucking personally,” Venom says. “Besides, taking out a man who gets aroused and considers forcing himself on his own sister deserves to beg for death.”

Phillip never turns away from VP, and he doesn’t acknowledge a word Venom says. “Will you even feel a sliver of guilt? Or remorse? Or regret about how you’ve handled your life? Or is this just one more thing that isn’t your fault?”

“What you chose to do because you felt abandoned, or whatever the fuck went through that landmine of a mind, isn’t my fault. You chose to do these things. I will not take the blame,” VP says.

“Figures. You’re never to blame. Always the victim. That’s all I needed. Be gone.”

Rolling an industrial meat grinder over, Phillip quirks an eyebrow. Colt knows without any doubt how demented this man is when the look on his face becomes overly intrigued rather than fearful.

“You really did decide to put a personal touch to my plan. I’ve never once considered a meat grinder before.”

“I’m glad you admire my imagination, but I don’t know how long that’ll last when I start putting your limbs through it,” Venom says.

“I’ve always wanted to play the mad scientist,” Psycho says, slapping goggles onto his face. He slips on gloves and reveals a series of chemicals. “Only some of this was taken from your notes, though. I’ll have to be careful to make sure we don’t end your life too soon.”

The bulge in Phillip’s jeans makes Colt sick, and he swallows the vomit rising in his throat. How the fuck is this arousing?

“I’ll leave you guys to it,” Colt says and follows VP upstairs.

“You wanted to punish me, is that it?” VP accuses once the basement door slams shut.

The men in the room fall quiet as all eyes focus on the duo. They’ve been waiting for an update. “You don’t want to do this here, VP.”

“Yeah, I fucking do.”

“That wasn’t a punishment. That was what we, in the real world, call a reality check. Both of your sons have tried to kill your daughter, and it’s time you step back to see where the source of evil stems from.”

Hands shaking, VP clenches them. “You really think what he did was my fault?”

Colt laughs. “I think he’s completely off his fucking rocker. He got hard seeing what type of torture he was about to endure, for God’s sake, but you played a part in how he chose to carry out his plans. How he picked his targets.”

“You think I did this?”

Lack of sleep and worry about Lex has Colt on the verge of attacking his father-in-law. “My God, do you ever hear the words people around you say, or do you just make up the conversations in your head and hear what you want to hear?”

“Just tell me what you think, Pres .”

“Okay, here’s what I think. I think he was spot on. Yeah, he was fucked from the moment you came inside his mom rather than wrapping your shit or pulling out, but you pushed him over the edge. And you’ve made a life out of playing the victim. Nothing is ever your fault.”

He takes a swing, but Colt dodges it. “You’re lucky I don’t beat your ass for that.”

“You’re lucky I haven’t put you six feet in the fucking ground,” Colt growls. “Keep pushing me, though. See how much this President patch truly holds me back.”

“This is not my fault.”

“It’s not not your fault,” Undertaker says.

Chuckling, Colt nods. “Phillip was right about another thing. It’s time you start paying for the consequences for your actions. Turning a blind eye to everything you don’t want to acknowledge will no longer be tolerated.”

“Be careful what you say, Nash,” Jennings says. “You’re not in a position of power any longer. And he’s right. It’s time you finally deal with the shitstorm you’ve helped create.”

“You want my patch? You want me to take off my leather and toss it to you? Go out and black out my ink? Will that make you all fucking happy?” VP spits out.

Ky shrugs. “It wouldn’t make us not happy. Unhappy? I was never great with grammar.”

“Put the motion on the table, Colton,” VP growls.

“You don’t want me to do that.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because you won’t fucking win,” TK calls out. “You are so fucking dense.”

Letting out a breath, Colt shakes his hands out to keep them from knocking VP on his ass. “I think you should walk out of this room while you still can because that leather is the only thing keeping you above ground right now. Don’t risk losing your only source of protection because of your pride.”

“You really think you have that much influence?”

Everyone raises their hand when TK calls out, “If we took a vote, who would choose to send Nash Dalton packing?”

“Not even the other charters who don’t really know you all that well like you,” Brock says.

“Well, we like Snake more than you,” Shep says. “Which should really tell you something because he hit our girl not long ago.”

“Don’t tempt me, Nash,” Colt says. “If you have half a brain, you’ll get the fuck out of my face before I decide to put this motion on the table to make sure you take your last breath today.”