Page 30 of Karma (Deranged Drifters MC #23)

Chapter Thirty

Griffin’s Beach Lex

W alking into the clubhouse, Lex freezes when she sees the birthday banners, balloons, cake, and presents. She assumed she was stopping by to pick up the kids. Not because today happens to be the day she was born.

“What the fuck?” Lex mutters and glares at Colt.

Colt’s hands fly into the air. She’s felt quite a bit of betrayal from him lately, and now she has another reason to have him make it up to her in the bedroom. “This was not me.”

“I did it,” Zane says. He stands next to the present table with her mother and the doctor from the hospital, and he hasn’t broken anything yet. “Happy birthday.”

Her heart races, and her feet refuse to move.

She flashes back to the last birthday party she had in this room, and it turns from this lovely, simple display to a completely destroyed room with cake on the walls.

Broken presents everywhere, and a brother screaming how much he hates her and wishes she wasn’t born.

The part of the memory that makes her sick is the fight between her parents out back. She’s right back on the roof listening to her father say she wasn’t worthy of a party.

“Lex, breathe,” Colt says, hurrying over to her. “Someone, get a bottle of water. Baby, you’re white as a sheet. Come, sit down.”

The Prospect, Booker, hurries over with a bottle, and Colt opens it, forcing it into her hand as he guides her to sit.

“Drink,” he orders as she just sits there. “You’re going to pass out. Drink it.”

Why is drinking water going to stop me from passing out due to shock?

She decides it’s easier to comply, even if she finds it silly. “W-why? I… I don’t know what to think right now.”

“What do you mean?” he asks with a laugh.

“Well, by now, the place would have been… you know… kaboom. Party over. Presents destroyed and the cake with my face on it plastered on the wall.”

“We’ve had a party for you before,” VP says. “Many of them.”

Rolling his eyes, Colt shakes his head. “Yeah, and they were all ruined by Zane and his big feelings.”

“No, they weren’t—”

“What fucking birthday did I not go fucking ape-shit crazy for?” Zane asks. “Seriously, do you have early onset dementia? I feel like that’s more short-term problems than long-term when it comes to memory. Or did you hit your head? Repeatedly?”

Lex can’t stop her snort as Diesel steps forward. “Selective memory. It’s nothing terminal, unfortunately.”

“No, I remember having a party for Lex. Right here. There was a cake with her face on it, which I remember because I find it weird having to cut into and eat my daughter’s face,” VP says. “God, what year was it?”

“Fifteen,” Lex says. “The last party ever thrown.”

“That cake hit the wall so fucking fast,” Diesel says. “Zane wasn’t in here more than thirty seconds before he tossed it. I don’t know which was worse. The splattered cake with her face on it, or the devastation on her real face.”

VP shakes his head, adamant this isn’t the same memory. “No, that wasn’t it. We opened presents. I remember you got a… some type of handheld video game toy. You were so excited that you were jumping around with glee.

I don’t know why I’m even surprised. “That was Zane’s fifteenth birthday,” Lex says, her heart sinking.

“No, I remember you jumping around—”

“Because I’d saved up all my birthday and Christmas money to buy it for him. I knew how much he wanted it, and he was happy. Until he learned I’d gifted it to him. He smashed it and stomped on it.”

The doctor gasps and looks at Zane. “Is this true?”

“I was a dick to Lex. I don’t remember it specifically, but it sounds like something I did,” Zane admits.

She has to give him credit for honesty in front of his new girlfriend, but VP still stares dumbfounded. “How could I get that mixed up?”

“Because he was the kid worth throwing parties for, remember? I wasn’t.”

“You are,” Emma says. “Zane did this for you, baby.”

Scanning the room, she gets a good look at the gift table. There must be at least fifty presents on there. “Good God for presents.”

“Those are just the ones from Zane. We all hid the ones we brought in case he lost his mind again,” Diesel says. “We’re still working on trust issues with him.”

“What?”

“I got a gift for every Christmas and birthday I ever ruined. And then a birthday gift for every year from sixteen to now,” Zane says.

I’m not normally one to be bought, but if they’re good presents, I might forgive him.

“I helped him pick some of them out,” Margaret says. “You’re going to love them!”

The pride in the little girl as she walks over to stand with her dad and his girlfriend solidifies how much Zane needed to move on. He’s no good alone, and they look happy together. A family.

“I’m sure I will,” Lex says. “Just, please tell me the cake doesn’t have my face on it. It’s one of the few things I actually agree with VP on. It’s kind of awkward having people cut into your face before eating it.”

“Oh, it has your face on it,” Zane says with a shit-eating grin. “A lot of your faces on it.”

“Oh, God,” she says, getting up to look at the cake. She bursts into laughter when she sees the stalker wallpaper from Phillip’s shop. “Okay, this is kind of worth it.”

Laughing, Zane nods. “I thought you’d get a kick out of it.”

“I’m okay cutting into my many faces now.”

“Can we give Mom her present now?” Lucas asks as he bounces on the balls of his feet.

Her eyebrows lift as she looks at them. “Oh, so you knew this was going on?”

Hands in the air again, Colt gives her a naughty smirk. He wants to be punished in the bedroom again. “Hey, he asked if he could do it, and I said it would be a bad idea. But I also said yes, and he did all this.”

Rolling her eyes, she sighs. “Which gift is from you?”

“It’s not in here. It wouldn’t fit,” Lucas says. “You have to come outside.”

Her eyes widen as he runs outside with Noah and Calla behind him. “I was joking when I said I wanted a highland cow. Please don’t tell me you got me a cow.”

“Come on, birthday girl,” Colt says with a wink.

Her stomach drops, and she tries to plaster on a smile, fully expecting to find a fully grown cow in a trailer outside. As if she didn’t have enough to take care of at home already.

Colt disappears into the shop, and she looks at her mom. “I feel like throwing up right now. Do you know what it is?”

“I have no idea,” she says with a chuckle. “I kind of hope it’s a cow. They’re so cute.”

“We’ll keep it at your house, then. That sounds good to me.”

One of the garage doors opens, and she gasps when Colt comes out with her present. Her hand flies to her heart as she stares in total shock.

“Happy birthday, Mom!” the kids shout.

“No!” she gasps. “How… No!”

“Happy birthday, baby,” Colt says as he steps out of the black Mustang that looks just like her Black Beauty.

Running her hand along the fender, Lex gapes. “You found another one?”

“It’s yours.”

“Shut your mouth,” she says, whipping around. “How? The engine was in the passenger seat.”

“Creeper did a lot of work. We’re not getting into the specifics, but it’s your baby, baby.”

It’s the best birthday present he could have given her, and she lets out a sob as she covers her mouth. “I can’t believe you did this.”

“What happened to it?” Zane asks.

“Lucas ran us into a tree because of a dog in the middle of the road,” Noah says. “We hit a tree, and they had to cut us out of the car. It was awesome!”

Everything looks exactly the same. The dash. The seats. “I’ve been looking for another one for months.”

“I know, and it’s so damn hard to find,” Venom says. “Cinder said she still owed you for, you know, not killing her, and she helped Creeper get the parts needed.”

“I changed my mind. I love my birthday. This is the greatest present ever,” she says, bending down to hug the hood. “Welcome home, baby.”

A motorcycle pulls into the lot, and Lex stands up immediately when she sees a man she doesn’t recognize wearing a kutte she’s never seen before.

“Who the fuck?” Colt mutters, reaching for his gun.

“It’s okay!” Jennings shouts. “It’s okay! I know him!”

The guy hops off the bike and looks to be about twenty-five. He wears a Vice President patch, and he’s part of the Hellfire Daredevils MC from Nevada, according to his kutte.

“Woah, don’t shoot!” he calls, hands in the air.

Jennings hugs the guy tightly before walking him back to the rest of them. “This is my nephew, Zeppelin Molly. He’s part of the Daredevils out in Nevada. My sister’s kid.”

Walking up, Tess gives him a big hug. “What are you doing out this way? You never come to visit.”

Zeppelin looks at the ground. “Uh, had to head up to Seattle.”

“Why?”

“Johnny’s dead,” he says. “He wanted his wife to have half of his ashes, and Lainey didn’t want to see her mom.”

“Who’s Johnny?” Lex asks.

Smiling, he looks up. “My dad. Basically.”

“Johnny was the President of the Daredevils,” Jennings says. “I’m sorry, Zep. What happened? How’s Jolene?”

“Your sister’s taking it pretty hard. And you know exactly what happened. It was the fucking Venom who took him out. Can’t prove it, though. Police call it a hit-and-run accident, but we know it was Butch.”

Lex looks at Colt, but he doesn’t seem to know anything more than she does. “Butch?”

“Head of Black Venom in Nevada,” Jennings says.

“He’s technically my father,” Zeppelin spits out. “Bastard.”

Butch is Zeppelin’s father, and his mom is Jennings’s sister. He considers the guy married to a woman in Seattle his father who, by assumption, shacked up with Zeppelin’s mother.

“And I thought I had a complicated family,” Lex says with a smirk.

“Nice car.”

“Thanks! It’s my birthday present,” she says. “We have an awkward cake inside with my face on it. Just don’t ask where the pictures came from.”

He smirks. “Uh, sure. I’d love some cake. Can’t stay too long, but I’m glad I stopped on my way home. Figured Mom would’ve called you about Johnny.”

“So, what are you going to do about Butch?” Jennings asks as they walk inside.

“I don’t know yet. I’m hoping something comes to me on the ride home.”