Page 99 of Remorseless

Ryan was a dickhead and Harley was an idiot. This time, CJ felt as if she’d done it out of loneliness. Ryan fucked her for the same reason as Nardo. To use her. To get back at him.

“I’m not a virgin,” Rule said.

“How the fuck—”

CJ’s glare at Rebel shut her up. She’d only rile Rule up all over again.

“How the fuck you call Rebel a slut when you’ve fucked three club girls?” CJ growled, taking up the question he suspected his little sister intended to ask. It deserved an answer.

“Who ratted me out?” Rule demanded.

CJ stayed home from school today to help with the rest of the cleanup. Reb pulled him aside and showed him the footage Mattie sent. Instead of giving in and agreeing with Reb that she should show Dad what happened, CJ honored his mother’s wishes and ordered his little sister to stand down. During a break, he’d talked to Bishop, Narci, and Torrin and asked if they were out of their motherfucking minds treating Mom with such disrespect. He warned them if he got a fucking peep from anywhere of repeat behavior, he was telling Outlaw.

After they swore allegiance to Mom and promised they had nothing against her, Diesel joined them. A single vicious look from him and the mild words, “Rebel showed me a very interesting video,” had them willing to give uptheirmothers to save their own asses. They blabbed Rule’s sexcapades pretty easily.

Once Diesel ordered Narci and Torrin back to work, and the three men walked away, Bishop still looked shook. Not that it mattered. CJ expected better from a guy he considered his friend.

“I was lost in the moment,” Bishop had explained when CJ expressed his outrage.

“Then you should’ve walked away to find your motherfucking ass. That’s my mom. You want to associate with me? Don’t ever fucking disrespect her.”

“CJ—”

“Or Dad…Outlaw. You did it on two fronts. With Mom and just now, when you changed your tune because Diesel confronted you.”

“That’s not true! I respect Outlaw to the highest. I don’t want to die. Now that sanity is back, Iknowhe’d kill us. But that’s it. He’d just kill us. Diesel would torture us, CJ. He’s a fucking maniac. He has no mercy. No empathy. No sympathy. I went to the meatshack once with Diesel. The gore was out of a horror movie.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I have nightmares about that shit. Why do you think he’s so enamored with The Crusades? The violence and the torture. And the violence. If I ever cross the club and I discover Diesel is coming after me, I’ll turn myself into Outlaw and let him shoot me dead.”

CJ hadn’t been impressed. “Outlaw shot Torieafterhe fucking strangled her. When it comes to my mom,nothingis off the table. If you didn’t learn that the other night, then you’re a stupid motherfucker.”

In a different way from Diesel, a fuckhead who had no fucking cause seeking Rebel out and every reason not to. Family ties. Age difference. And sadistic motherfuckery.

Now,Rulewas breathing down her throat.

Not on CJ’s watch.

He glared at his brother, not giving up Narci, Torrin, and Bishop as his sources.

“Fine,” Rule cried. “It’s true, but it’s different for me. A prudentwifeis from the Lord.” The tension left his body. “It’s in Proverbs 19.”

“Yeah, Jesus Boy, so’sWalk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fillful the lust of the flesh,” Axel said.

“Fulfill,” Mattie corrected.

Sitting up and forcing his little body between Reb and Mattie, Axel glared at Rule. “You’re not the only man that knows stuffs inthe bible.”

Rebel wrapped her arm around Axel’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. “Stuff.”

“Ewwwwwww.” Axel jumped up, scrubbing his cheek furiously. “Girls got cooties! I’ve been poisoned.”

“Mom kisses you, dummy,” Rebel said.

“Mom’smom,” Axel told her, a ferocious frown on his little face. “She’s exempt from being a girl.”

“Perfect segue, big head.” CJ walked Rule back to the loveseat and shoved him next to his bible. He pointed to him. “Behave.”

Although he turned his back on Rule, CJ still felt the weight of his stare. It made the hairs on his arms stand on edge. Rule’s presence also unnerved their cousins.

For the first time, unease prickled CJ, too. Just as quickly, he dismissed it.