Page 112 of Remorseless

“Enough, Harley,” Bailey said sharply.

“They’re all lying on me. I swear! Rebel attacked me for no reason.”

Bailey rubbed her temples. “You haven’t learned a thing in the weeks you’ve been barred from the house,” she said, giving no indication if she believed Harley or not.

Meggie was firmly on the side ofnot.

“Have you learnedyourlesson, Mommie?”

“I’ve learned a lot, heifer,” Bailey snarled. “You better hope Zoann still wants your ass at her house because you can’t come home.”

“Mommie, please! I don’t have enough clothes. I miss my room. All my stuff is home and—”

“Come back long enough to get more things,” Mortician said. “But that’s it because I agree with your momma. Until you learn respect, you not welcome home.”

“Mommie! Daddy—”

Bailey raised her hand. “No. I don’t want to hear anymore.” She ran to the door and threw it open, a sob floating behind her.

Axel nearly fell in. He must’ve been leaning against the door, listening. He threw Meggie a guilty look, grinned, and stepped out of Bailey’s way.

“Mom!” Kaleb called.

“I’m leaving, Kal,” she said around tears.

Once Bailey turned into the hallway, Kaleb darted out of sight, going in the same direction as his mother.

“Let’s go home, Lou,” Mort said sadly.

“I’ll walk with you,” Digger said. “We’ll see to Bailey and the boys, then go have a drink at the club.” He looked at Harley and shook his head.

“Harley, you, Ryan, and me need to talk,” Zoann said.

“It was just a stupid kiss, Aunt Zoann. Get over it.”

“That applies to you, Harley,” Mort said. “You need to get over it and stop using people to have yourway. If you threw your kiss with Ryan in CJ’s face, then you just used Ryan to make CJ jealous.”

“You don’t know nothing, Daddy,” Harley said, on the verge of tears.Again.

Grudgingly, Meggie agreed. She suspected Harley and Ryan engaged in more than kissing, but needed the full story to forestall the coming storm.

Chapter Nineteen

Instead of following the crowd to explain why Rebel briefly knocked Harley the fuck out, Ryan rushed upstairs to the second floor of the Caldwell mansion. Destination: Rebel’s room. He had the camera in his jacket pocket as well as an interceptor that would interrupt firewalls, wiretaps, and other devices to breach security. He’d programmed his camera and interceptor to work on the same signal and bypassed the interruption capabilities in the software by adding it as ‘safe’.

So far, the club performed a system sweep for outside technology once per quarter. Or if the need arose whenever new motherfuckers started hanging around. Strange girls, too. The chapters were expected to do the same. Every six months, Stretch did his own checks.

All of it was time-consuming, requiring not only forensic searches of the technology, but sweeps of the entire club, their houses, and all club-owned businesses. Pops performed that task. Ryan remembered how proud his father was whenever he used to explain shit and boast that Ryan would inherit that job, too.

Once, hemighthave been excited. He barely remembered, though hedidrecall the growing resentment he’d felt whenever he saw CJ with Harley, usually tagged by Rory.

By his twelfth birthday, Ryan felt invisible. Val expected him to be his mini-me; Harley glued herself to CJ’s side; Devon preferred Mom’s company; Rebel and Rule were lost in the special orbit reserved for twins; Mattie hung on every word of Uncle Stretch and Pops discussing technology; and Rory worshipped CJ.

Ryan sought ways to get under CJ’s skin and draw him into fights. The motherfucker seemed so happy-go-lucky and lame, especially his want to mimic Outlaw.

One day, they were at the club and Ryan sought to show CJ who was boss. When the motherfucker went for a piss, Ryan confronted Rory and Harley. He shoved her to the ground and gut-punched Rory. Until then, it was one of the few times Ryan saw Harley cry. Diesel walked into the clubhouse and asked what was going on.

It was the first 4thof July where they’d paid homage to Meggie’s old man at the annual picnic in the backyard. CJ went into the clubhouse for the bathroom, and Harley and Rory accompanied him. Ryan followed to be a fuckhead. Diesel came to check in on them and was the first indication dude was a psycho.