Page 44 of Priest’s Sunbeam (Renegade Souls MC: Next Generation #2)

Dwayne emitted a prideful snicker and took a long slurp of the beer.

“That was spontaneous, with the help of a friend from jail. Just to see how well you’d deal with it.

I never would’ve shot my boy. Just a bit of fun to fuck with the bikers.

Got them scrambling, didn’t I? Few can say they did the same. ”

“My wife could have been fucking hit!”

“If the little girl can’t care for herself, that’s her problem. Something I always told your mom.”

“The mother you killed.”

Dwayne smiled. “I was framed for that. We were trying to get the insurance money for the house. I didn’t know the dumb bitch had fallen asleep. She should’ve laid off the smack.”

Insurance for the house Ruby had rented. This dumbass was rewriting history, but he wasn’t going to argue with him.

“Is that what those prick bikers told you about me, huh? Never forget you’re my son, not his. That bitch Ruby stole you and wouldn’t even let you visit me.”

His verbal abuse went on. Seb hadn’t known he could hate someone he didn’t know, but the loathing burned alive in his gut.

“You’re just like me, boy,” Dwayne sneered, opening a third bottle. He walked to the window, peeping out from behind the blinds, then sat down again.

“I’m nothing like you.”

“The way you annihilated that little girl on the phone was stone-cold and vicious. Just like me, no relationship ever stuck with me, either. I like to be free.” He toasted Seb.

When the feeling came back in his hands and arms, Seb said nothing. Allowing Dwayne to continue with his one-person bloated show, showing off how he’d tricked Seb for months.

“The way I see it, those bikers stole my fucking life and my son. They owe me.”

“What do you want? A check or a wire transfer? My Prez will get right on that.” Snarked Seb, curling his lip.

Dwayne found him hilarious. “You got my fighting spirit, that’s for damn sure. Once we wash the bikers off you and you start your new life with me, you’ll be set, son.”

“Is that how you see this going?” he had to ask as his legs loosened up. No matter that he wasn’t in full health, he had to do something about Dwayne soon.

Several hours went by. Once more, Dwayne brought out a needle and stuck his thigh with a sedative, checking Seb out of consciousness for however long. When he roused, Dwayne was still there, drinking and reminiscing about a life Seb didn’t remember.

“You were a whiny little shit,” he laughed.

“Gave you a few bats around the head, didn’t do you any harm.

Kids need to be put in their place. Your mom was useless with that.

Now I gotta knock the biker out of you, get you out of that fucking gear.

We can burn the jacket. See about changing your surname back to mine. ”

Over Seb’s dead body. He blinked away the fog and felt clarity returning to his brain as the light outside the window changed, showing the time that had passed.

Sunny must be going crazy, and his heart bumped harder.

She was his motivation for fixing the situation.

Dwayne’s drunken tirade against the Souls, Ruby, and Seb fueled his plan for retaliation.

Dwayne’s first mistake was not tying Seb up. He was counting on the sedatives to keep him incapacitated long enough to agree with the madman. Seb abandoned any thoughts of escape when Dwayne leveled a handgun at him, placing it on the bed.

“You think I can’t read your mind, boy? It’s not nice to think about leaving when I’ve waited to be around my kid again. Don’t be stupid, yeah? Not when I’m sitting here proud as fuck as a father could be for the man you’ve become.”

“What do you think you’re gonna get from this?”

“It’s already happening. Spending time with you.”

“I don’t know you,” Seb told him. “You don’t know me. The last time you saw me, I was four years old, being pulled out of a house fire.”

“You got my blood in them veins, boy.” Dwayne’s face twisted angrily. “You can’t scrub that away so easily just by sliding on a leather jacket and someone else’s name.”

Seb hated having any connection to him, but he didn’t deny it. His bloodline didn’t determine him. His upbringing, shaped by parental love and his environment, defined him. Not the jerk in front of him.

“So what? Do we play a little ball? Work on an engine together? Then what? You shake me down for some cash?”

Dwayne sneered. “Why? You got some?”

“I already have a father and a family. If you need money to fuck off, tell me how much.”

“You think those biker trash are family? Boy, you need a reality fucking check. Blood is thicker than any of the bullshit they’ve been feeding you.

” Dwayne jumped and pitched the half-full beer bottle at the wall, and the glass exploded.

“You don’t give up on family. I thought about you all these years. ”

He was right. You didn’t give up on family.

Only the family who deserved it. He looked on impassively as the gray-haired man threw a tantrum, pacing from one side of the room to the other.

Then he pierced Seb with a stare, pointing a curved index finger that looked like it had been broken at some point.

“I gave you life. That means nothing to you, huh? Ungrateful little bastard.”

Seb laughed and pushed himself forward in the armchair, testing out his equilibrium, and when the room didn’t spin, he stayed in that staring position.

“Yeah, that’s me. The kid who was starving and neglected was so fucking ungrateful.

You weren’t even a father when you were around, asshole.

Don’t be one now.” He used his arms to climb to his feet.

Dwayne rushed to grab the gun and pointed it at Seb.

“It’s your move, old man. What you gonna do, shoot me?

Because I’ll tell you, it’s your only goddamn option.

The fantasy you’ve cooked up for us to have a reunion is not gonna happen.

Do you think I want anything to do with you?

Fucking funny. Even if you hadn’t been fucking around all these months.

If you’d knocked on my door or called, my answer would still be the same.

” He curled his lip, holding himself up from sheer will and anger.

The gun in Dwayne’s hand trembled, and playing devil’s advocate, Seb advanced toward him, holding the stare.

“Not another step. You do, and you’ll be sorry.”

“I’m sorry for a lot of things, but walking out on you isn’t one of them. You thought you could fuck with my life and then take the pedestal as a father. You’re out of your damn tree, old man.”

The vicious snark and lunge came, and Seb expected it as Dwayne grabbed him by the jacket and shoved Seb against the wall, his spine rattling, and a gun pointed at the side of his face.

“I waited twenty-fucking-years for this!” Dwayne spat. His eyes were bloodshot with rage and liquor. “You do not get to act like you’re better than me, boy. You’re nothing! I should’ve fucking left your ass in the fire.”

Seb’s irritation snapped savagely. Ordinarily, he would have outweighed Dwayne, but physically, he wasn’t firing on all cylinders.

His legs were shaking, trying to keep him stationary, and his brain was still clouded.

He reacted by elbowing Dwayne in the side of his head, and the gun dropped from his hand and bounced across the floor.

And then his birth parent began grappling with Seb.

He aimed to stop Seb by any means necessary, attacking him aggressively, but Seb’s height and strong will to live gave him an advantage.

His wife was foremost on his mind as he fended off staggering body blows.

Dwayne was spitting a monologue of obscenities the whole time.

Seb’s hand flew out to brace himself, connecting with the dresser and knocking over a large table lamp.

He yanked hard and latched a hand around it, detaching the plug from the wall.

Though weaker, Seb’s fighting spirit prevented Dwayne from overpowering him when they both fell.

He wasn’t even aware he’d done it until he felt the tension radiating down his forehead with the force of wrapping the cord around Dwayne’s neck in several loops. Dwayne’s face pushed into the floor, and Seb’s knee pressed hard into his back to hold him down while he struggled like a beached whale.

“I am Asher fucking Priest’s son, you murdering cunt.” He spat, exerting the only burst of energy he had left as black spots danced in his vision. But fuck if he’d let go.

He couldn’t lose. That was all he kept repeating in his mind.

The moment Dwayne walked himself back into Seb’s life was as good as signing his death warrant.

As he felt the man beneath him go slack all over, Seb’s muscles burned with exertion, the wire cutting into his hands, but he didn’t let go for long minutes.

The heavy strain was on his face, arms, and legs from forcibly holding the man beneath him.

As he loosened his grip and fell back, the veins in his forehead throbbed, a wave of nausea and dizziness overwhelming him.

Dwayne lay motionless, his face pressed against the grimy motel carpet.

Rolling to the side, he crawled to his knees, heavy breathing, sweat dripping into his unfocused eyes, he knew he was on borrowed time before his brain kicked him out again, and with the last dregs of strength, he grabbed his phone, waiting until it powered up, he pressed the contact for his father.

“Dad…” he croaked, holding onto the dresser. Now, they’d be able to trace him.

His vision dimmed, and he tried to blink it away.

Hold on. One minute more . And his brothers would come.

“Need… clean crew. It’s…” he wavered and dropped to his side on the floor. “It’s done.”

Before he checked out, he heard Preacher saying they were coming and to hold on.

He trusted the Souls with his life, and that’s when Seb let his eyes shut, knowing they were coming to do what they did best: having each other’s backs.