Page 208 of Remorseless

Christopher snickered. “The lil’ motherfucker ain’t kinky, Diesel.”

“Not yet,” Diesel said.

CJ didn’t even crack a smile.

“Your ma wantcha to graduate, CJ.”

Frustration darkened CJ’s face. “Seriously, Dad, if it wasn’t for Mom,you’dlet me drop out.”

Would he? Big Joe capitulated because Christopher was so unhappy, and Ma hadn’t cared, overwhelmed with raising all the girls.

“It don’t matter what my ass would do, boy. It matter what me and your ma agreed on.”

“The things I need to know—”

“You can’t learn in school,” Christopher finished as CJ spoke the exact words he had decades ago.

“See! You know what I mean.”

“I do. Your argument the same one I gave your grandpa. If I could go back, I woulda at least got my high school diploma. It makes a difference.”

“You’re brilliant without a diploma. Uncle Johnnie’s a college graduate and he’s still a stupid motherfucker. Education doesn’t make the man.”

Until his children began to grow up and enter young adulthood, Christopher never realized how much he wanted them to be proud of him. Megan’s opinion was the one that mattered the most, always and forever. His kids were his legacy, though.Theywould be the ones to tell his grandchildren and great-grandchildren about him.

Christopher’s grandfather left a trail of tears and violence. No one could mention Big Joe without remembering the brutal addict and girl killer he’d become. Hear the name Cee Cee andrapistimmediately came to mind. Sharper equaled murderer, sex trafficker, money grabbing motherfucker. Rack, that big balled motherfucker, equated to torturer, manipulator, and abuser. K-P had been the best of them. Often, Christopher felt as if he’d hung around for Big Joe. And, after Boss’s death, K-P stayed to guide Christopher and watch over Mortician.

They bred a culture of death and destruction, rape and torture, where women were little more than disposable objects.

In spite of all the money Christopher, Johnnie, Mortician, Val, Cash, and Stretch had made from their criminal enterprise and the lives they gave their wives and children—and brother in Digger’s case since the motherfucker would be lost without Mort—their children were destined to bethem.

Not only bikers with a large territory and vast network, but killers with targets on their backs. Their daughters would become Ma, Dinah, Roxanne, Megan, Zoann, Bailey, and Kendall all over again.

It had already manifested in Mattie.Yearstoo fucking early at twelve when Billy and Eric began molesting her. But still like their mothers and grandmothers who had been fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…twenty…when they were either introduced to sex or touched by club life.

“CJ, you graduating high school as important to me as it is to your ma,” Christopher said. “I want more for you than I had.”

“But—”

Shoving his hands through his hair, Christopher blew out a breath. “It might not seem like it. If that was the case, I woulda took your ma and our lil’ motherfuckers away, huh, boy?”

“I don’t blame you for raising me in the club, Dad. I can’t imagine any other life. I just…” CJ bowed his head. “I feel old. Like I’ve outgrown school. It’s useless to me.”

“If this is about Ember, why don’t you text her and make a date to see her away from school,” Diesel suggested.

“Fuckin’ cure a lot,” Christopher agreed.

“You should meet up with Ember, CJ,” Diesel encouraged. “. It might improveyour outlook.”

His boy’s near death experience was haunting him, but perhaps his immediate problem was much baser.

“You know how to use a cock cover?”

The memory of Meganrecentlylearning rose in Christopher’s head and desire punched him in the gut. Her pussy lockout was fucking killing him. Cum backed up to his fucking ears.

“I’ve never used one,” CJ admitted. “Couldn’t she do it?”

“Never give a cunt the chance to trap you with a baby,” Diesel said coldly.