Page 5 of Karma (Deranged Drifters MC #23)

Chapter Five

Griffin’s Beach Lex

T aking a seat outside the cafe, Lex opens up the newspaper and scans the classifieds. As much as she tells people she’s fine without her Mustang, she misses it. That car was her first baby, and she loved that car.

If given the choice, she will always choose to have her kids safe over a vehicle. Lucas and Noah could have died, and she’ll never regret having to give up her car to have her boys safe. But that car had been with her through so much of Lex’s life that it was hard to say goodbye.

Driving the SUV Colt bought when they were separated to haul the kids around in just isn’t the same as cruising in her ‘stang. It’s tall and spacious, but she’d prefer to be low and fast in her little sports car.

“Nothing,” Lex mutters as she runs through the few cars listed for sale.

The internet has proved to be just as fruitless. They’re either heaps of junk, too expensive, or too far away to purchase. She refuses to settle for a Camero or some type of Mopar. And the new Mustangs just don’t have the same appeal as the old ones.

“I guess it’s pointless to keep torturing myself. It’s a miracle I found it back when I did.”

The kids are at school, including Calla, who just started preschool. When she finishes her coffee, Lex plans to take advantage of no parental responsibilities and join Colt at the clubhouse for a little fun before he leaves for his run.

“You!” someone shouts.

Glancing up, Lex sees Hailey and Lucas’s stepfather, Harold, storming over to her. “Holy shit, I figured you’d burst into flames if the sun touched your skin. How’d you get out of that shithole you call a house?”

“You tried to kill my son!”

HIs odor hits her before he’s reached ten feet of her, and she coughs. This man needs to be dropped into a tub full of bleach. Even then, that might not be enough.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she asks, not even bothering to stand up from her spot. “Wait, you have a son?”

“Lucas!”

“That boy is not your son.”

Her neck tingles with the familiar feeling telling her she’s being watched, but she’s got bigger things to worry about right now as Harold stops before her and shoves a finger in her face.

His fingernails could rival a sloth, and the white powder on his pinky nail could either be powdered sugar or coke.

Either could have prompted the strange burst of energy to leave his mold infested home.

“You tried to kill him!”

Lifting an eyebrow, she covers her nose. “No, that would be you who has done that. Seriously, dude, do you even know what a shower is?”

Customers nearby quickly scurry away as the wind picks up and disperses his stench all around them. Some cough and gag, while others cover their coffees and pastries.

“Don’t try to change the subject!”

“I didn’t do anything to Lucas, you degenerate freak show.”

“Then why the hell was he in the hospital after a car accident?”

Rolling her eyes, she leans back with her hand still covering her nose and mouth. “Because he got into a car accident.”

“Ah ha!”

“ Ah ha nothing. He was driving with his brother, and he swerved to avoid hitting a dog.”

“In your car!”

This guy has no clue what’s going on right now, and Lex regrets coming to the cafe after drop off. How long has he been waiting to attack her in the streets?

“Well, considering he’s not old enough to have a car in his own name, yeah, all of the cars he drives are technically mine. And my husband’s. He took the car, in our names, to get ice cream with his brother.”

“He doesn’t have a brother. He has a sister.”

“Actually, he has a brother and two sisters.”

Harold shakes his head and runs a hand over his greasy hair. Dandruff falls onto his shoulders and flutters off into her coffee mug. “Hailey’s his only sibling.”

Cringing, she pushes her coffee to the other side of the table and suppresses the urge to dry heave.

“Well, you see, Harold, when someone gets adopted, they become part of the family they’re adopted into.

Since I have two biological children, they became his siblings when he became my son.

It’s really very basic, so I don’t know why you’re struggling to understand the concept. ”

“You didn’t even call to tell us he was in a wreck!”

“Again, you’re nothing to him, so why the fuck would I need to call you? If he needed blood, it’s not like you or your wife could even attempt to donate. And I guarantee, not even a desperate man would want any of your organs. Assuming they all work.”

Harold attempts to rest his hands on the table, but Lex kicks a chair out to force him backwards. “My wife has been a crying mess since she heard about Lucas’s accident. The least you could have done was call to let her know he was okay, you fucking bitch.”

“If you find it necessary to continue talking to me, you really need to back up further than that. Your odor is atrocious. Seriously, shower. Soap. Hell, a dip in the ocean couldn’t hurt at this point.”

“You can come to the house right now and explain to Iris how you almost killed her son.”

Shaking her head, Lex leans back, waving the paper in front of her face. The headache begins to form behind her eyes, and she needs fresh air. “No.”

“I didn’t ask.”

“And I’m never stepping foot in that science experiment you call a house ever again. I’m willing to bet money that a hazmat suit would melt if left in there for a day.”

He attempts to grab her arm, but he’s pushed away and slammed against the building by a tall stranger.

“Don’t fucking touch her!”

“Who the fuck are you?” Harold shouts and presses a hand to his forehead. “Fuck, you hit my head on the building.”

The man chuckles. “It’s not like you need it much. Do you have any brain cells left after the years of drug and alcohol you consume?”

“Fuck you!”

Pushing him again, he smirks when Harold’s head bounces off the brick again like a basketball. “No, fuck you!”

“Is he one of your biker bitches?” Harold shouts at Lex.

Blood drips from his head, and she finds a sick pleasure in it even though her body vibrates with caution warnings.

“I have no idea who this man is,” she says and stands.

“But he might’ve also just taken offense to your smell.

Seriously, shower. I know it’s hard to believe, but your house smells better than you do, and it’s really only tolerable with a gas mask. ”

“Touch me again—”

This time, Harold rolls onto the ground, his yellowed tank top tearing and popping his beer belly out. It’s so swollen and large that his belly button is barely a dip, and Lex can’t stop herself from staring at it.

“Holy shit, I just realized he’s wearing pants,” she says, taking note of his dirty jeans hanging halfway down his legs to expose dirty boxers.

“You normally see him naked?” the man asks with a look of pure disgust. “And you still have eyes that you haven’t gouged out yet?”

“Shit-stained boxers, actually,” she says. “I think I understand why his wife stays high as a fucking kite. It must deaden her sense of smell.”

They both laugh as they watch Harold roll until he’s on his front and can climb to his knees. Grabbing onto the building, he hoists himself up and staggers back towards the direction he came from.

“I could’ve handled him, by the way,” Lex says. “I’m more than capable of holding my own.”

“I’m sure you could have, but he needed a decent beating.”

Crossing her arms, she lifts an eyebrow. “And you think I couldn’t deliver that?”

“Oh, I know you’re capable. You just shouldn’t always have to,” he says. “Your reputation is very well known, Lex.”

She looks into his eyes, and she’s surprised at the sense of familiarity. Hazel eyes and dark hair with a bone structure that reminds her of someone. An eerie feeling washes over her as it dawns on her that he knows her name.

“Wait, you know me?”

“Alexis Dalton. Well, that’s your original name. You’re the daughter of a founding member of the Deranged Drifters.”

“Do I know you?”

Shaking his head, he smirks. “I doubt it. I’m Nero. Nero Sanders, but I go by my middle name. Phillip.”

“Why do you go by your middle name? Nero’s kind of a badass name. You don’t really hear that one much.”

“Because it was given to me by my father, and I fucking hate his guts.”

She laughs. “I feel you there. I’m not the biggest fan of mine at the moment.”

“Is that right?”

“He favors my brother over me to the point that he’s just completely blind to any wrongdoings. Like the time my brother tried to kill me. That was just me overreacting, and he knows my brother would have stopped. Which, he would have. When I stopped breathing.”

Phillip’s eyebrows lift, and Lex can’t quite place who he reminds her of. “You’re kidding.”

“No, my dad could make a fortune off of the rose-colored glasses he wears if he could find a way to sell them.”

“I think we feel the same way. Different reasons, but we both would be better off without knowing the man. Luckily for me, I’ve spent most of my life without him.”

The way he says that sounds like he knows VP. Then again, if he really knows Lex, he probably does.

“I spent ten years without mine, but it would have been better if I spent most of my life with him gone. It’s kind of a shitty place to be because there’s so much in my life I wouldn’t have if things were different, but no one can hurt you quite like your father.”

He smirks, and that familiarity becomes stronger. She knows him. She has to know him. It’s like they’ve met before, and she can’t remember it. Something screams at her to run, but she’s too captivated to listen.

“What?” he asks with a smile. A crooked smile. On she knows she’s seen before.

“You look really familiar. Are you sure we haven’t met before?”

The chuckle sounds like someone else’s, too. She can’t place it, and it’s driving her crazy. “We don’t know each other, but I have seen you before. And we have something in common. Something we share.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Our father.”

Holy shit, that’s it! He looks like Zane. And VP. “Excuse me?”

“I’m Nash Dalton’s firstborn. Never wanted to be my father, although he did try for a few years, to his credit. But he didn’t let my mom put him on my birth certificate. As far as he’s concerned, I died the day he walked out on us. But I have some unfinished business to attend to.”

“Who’s your mom?”

“Kelly Sanders.”

The name doesn’t sound familiar, but she can’t stop staring. Phillip has the perfect mix of Zane’s and VP’s features. There’s no way he’s not related to them, but how has she never heard of him before?

“Oh, I am going to lose my shit on him,” Lex says.

“Be careful, Lex,” Phillip says. “He’s going to lose his mind when he finds out I’ve talked to you. I’m not supposed to exist. He made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with Mom or me.”

“When did you last see him?”

Biting his lower lip, he suppresses a laugh. “My fifth birthday. He knocked up my mom when they were pretty young, so we have a pretty big age gap between us, Lex.”

“How young?”

“They were fifteen. He walked away when he was barely twenty. Mom struggled to support me, and she tried to keep him in my life. He’d moved on with another woman he married, and he had another kid by then, though. I was old news.”

I have another brother. Considering my history with men related to me, this doesn’t feel like good news. Great. Just fucking great.