Page 235 of Remorseless

Turning, Christopher watched as Huck and Zephyr gripped the handles of a coffin and carried it to him. They dropped it in front of him.

“I thought you’d want to see this,” Huck said grimly.

He flipped both lids open, where bright red blood stained the satin cushion. Strands of long brown hair clung to the interior.

Crouching down, Christopher touched the biggest blood stain, the one on the pillow where a head would lay.

It was still damp. Fresh.

He stood and stormed to the short motherfucker, grabbed him by the scruff and lifted him off his feet. “Where the fuck Molly at?”

“They t-t-took her, Outlaw.”

Christopher wanted to question him. He hadn’t seen Gnome or Scorpion cuts inside, but when Wally confronted Megan, she’d seen Scorpion insignia. Yet, this motherfuckerwore Gnome colors. There was no fucking way Bash would patch over only part of a fucking club.

“Where the fuck they took her?” Christopher demanded. “And who the fuck took her?”

“Outlaw!” Sparrow called. “You might want to look at this.”

Dropping Nugget and shoving him to Diesel, Christopher turned just as Sparrow reached him. He handed Christopher a cell phone.

In his heart he already knew whose phone he held. Taking his own phone from his pocket, he searched until he found Tom Harris’s number and pressed the button to dial the number. Immediately, the phone Sparrow found began ringing.

The phone belonged to Tom Harris. Whether he’d been here or it was left here to throw off Christopher didn’t matter. It still meant Molly’s whereabouts, her well-being, remained unknown.

Growling, Christopher stormed to Nugget, yanked him off his feet, and carried him to the coffin.

“No, no, no!” Nugget screamed. “No! Don’t kill me. Don’t kill me.”

“Where the fuck Molly at?” Christopher demanded.

“I don’t know where they took her,” he sobbed.

“When the fuck they took her?”

“I don’t know!”

He was a lying motherfucker, but Christopher knew he wouldn’t get any satisfaction. Punching him and knocking him out, he tossed Nugget into thecoffin and nodded to Potter, who slammed the lids shut.

“Diesel, follow Val to the funeral home,” Christopher instructed. “I’ll call Lewis and tell him to fire up the crematorium. If Nugget give you more information, fuckin’ ‘A’. If not, oh-fucking-well. Either way it go, throw that motherfucker into the fuckin’ furnace.”

Chapter Forty-Four

February 21st

Although Rebel didn’t see Kaia for the next week after their dinner at J’s, she floated on a cloud. Time slowed until the next moment she texted him or spoke to him late at night after she got to her room. Whenever she talked to him, whether it was through messages or over the phone, the opposite happened. Hours seemed like seconds; time flew by.

She couldn’t wait to see Kaia again. It didn’t escape her that he’d stopped with his ‘poetry’. To her, that was a win. She felt as if their next face-to-face meeting would go much smoother. He wouldn’t rely on his stupidity to hide his nerves and she wouldn’t have to pretend she enjoyed the nonsense he spouted.

Diesel stopped his late night visits. The two occasions he came to the house, he barely spoke to her and seemed angry. His hand seemed to be healing nicely, relieving her. Sometimes, she worried about infection setting in.

Rule was another issue. Whenever Rebel was in her twin’s company, which was nightly for dinner then family time in the den, Rule fixated on her. She ignored him, since no one else seemed to notice. At school, she avoided Rule as much as possible.

During lunch, she went to the auditorium to watch Harley practice, preferring her over running into Rule. That alone told Rebel how much he creeped her out. She never knew when, or if, CJ would be at school, so she solved the problem by pretending interest in Harley’s rehearsals.

Some time, during the weeks of Momma’s recovery, a passenger van was purchased to transport the younger kids to and from school.

Momma was back in the rotation of aunts who picked up and dropped off the older kids. Another sign things were getting back to normal, allowing Rebel to breathe easier and relax. The first two days Momma picked them up, only Rebel and Mattie got into the Lexus. On the third day, Harley sat on the bench across from them. Rebel had an inkling she’d ride home with them, but didn’t bother to ask, still angry with Harley. She had yet to apologize for any of her bullshit.