Page 7 of Remiss

Of everything he’d learned over the months since Bash contacted him, Johnnie found nothing indicating Rack’s involvement with Aunt Patricia’s death.

“Let me give you the annotated version of that clusterfuck,” Bash said sharply. “A cunt named Ellen contacted Sharper. She wanted Meggie iced to return to the status quo. Sharper sent Snake to handle the situation. Meggie was eighteen and Daddy stopped his bounty just as planned. Snake didn’t have time for bitches like Ellen who betrayed the club.”

“Hewas betraying the fucking club!”

“He was trying to take what he saw as his rightful place as Big Joe’s son. It was an attempted coup not a fucking betrayal, asshole. There’s a difference.”

“No, you’re wrong. A betrayal is a betrayal, motherfucker. I don’t understand what the fuck you mean.”

Bash stepped back and studied Johnnie from head to toe, then met his eyes and shook his head. “Suppose you wanted to head the club because you’re Logan’s grandson and Christopher was still a shoo-in to win? What wouldyoudo? How wouldyoufeel?”

The explanation made sense. “Oh,” he conceded. “Right.”

“Unfortunately, the bitch with Ellen got fucked up, too. Snake intended to ice Christopher and send Meggie’s head to Sharper for his trophy room.”

“I beg your fucking pardon?” Johnnie asked faintly.

“Sharper had a trophy room. A collection of heads. Patricia added some.” A pained expression crossed his face. “One of my nieces as well as Daddy’s favorite bitch. She killed them to avenge Zoann. After Big Joe’s death, Patricia was alone, so it was only a matter of time before her sins caught up to her.”

“There was K-P,” Johnnie croaked. “Me. Christopher.Sharper.”

“Sharper had one true love,” Bash said with a smirk.

Johnnie stiffened, understanding the motherfucker’s insinuation.

“Patricia discovered information. Shit she was threatening to expose to Snake and Outlaw.”

That meant one thing. “About Big Joe.”

“Yeah. Sharper…he wanted Meggie and Big Joe was intent on getting clean. Sharper worked hard to stop that.” Bash scowled and brushed a hand over his head. “Fuck, Big Joe had eighteen or twenty fucking bumps the day he died. Hear tell, he’d gone to take a downer to sleep. Then…Did you have members named Tax and Sinner?”

“Tex. And, yes, there was also Sinner.”

“They found a young throwaway on Sharper’s orders and brought her to Big Joe. They were in his room, fueling his paranoia about Christopher’s intent to kill him, and egging Boss on to fuck that slut.”

“She was a fucking child!”

Bash ignored him. “Just working the motherfucker up, then they left, with Boss swearing to go to Christopher’s room and killhim once he fucked the bitch. Fifteen minutes later, Christopher heard the screams. You know how the fucking story ends.”

“How do you know this? How did Aunt Patricia find out? Val wiped the cameras.”

“Rack told her a version of the story where Christopher killed Big Joe in cold blood.”

“It was to save his fucking life,” Johnnie barked.

Sighing, Bash nodded. “Patricia was fucking furious, so Rack showed her part of the video.”

“We wiped—”

“Sinner and Tex planted a fucking camera. Snake knew Outlaw killed Boss because he was shown the same clip as Patricia.”

“Why film something and risk discovery?”

“Why the fuck did Sharper do anything? Not that it matters. Know what the kicker is? Christopher taking Meggie to Long Beach. That set off the rest of that shit.”

“You’re a fucking liar. Christopher didn’t stay long enough to set off anything.”

Bash scowled. Johnnie didn’t care. The bucket of lies were thrown out by a madman looking to toss their lives into even more chaos.