Page 15 of Ruin (Hell’s Mayhem MC: Maine Chapter #2)

Chapter Fourteen

Kolton

“You’re sure about this?” I ask, hovering over Noah, who’s got the office desk covered in stacks of invoices, bank reports, and receipts.

“Absolutely.” He nods. “I’ve been here long enough to see the day-to-day in this place, and even on its busiest day, it’s not bringing in more than twenty-five hundred.

” Shaking his head, he grabs a bank receipt, pointing to it.

“There is no way in fuck he was depositing thirty grand on a weekly basis. I don’t even think this place is capable of that with the capacity and food prices.

Maybe if we double the meal costs, but even then, business would slow down. ”

I grab the receipt from him, and see where it says close to thirty grand was deposited.

On the line reserved for a note, it gives dates for one full week.

I grab a few others, flipping through them too.

All are roughly the same, which is a red flag in itself.

The place never had a bad week? Holidays weren’t worse or better? Doesn’t make sense.

“And no one has come by?” I ask .

“Nope. And I’m here every day.”

“So either Norman told them what happened or they’re watching the place. Either way, Norman is a dead man.”

Noah huffs out a laugh. “Yeah, likely.” He looks up at me. “So what do we do?”

“That all depends,” I say carefully, putting the receipts back on the pile on the desk where they were so he doesn’t lose them. “On who he was working for.”

“I don’t follow.”

“You don’t need to,” I say. “Make copies of everything here and bring them to the clubhouse. Don’t let anyone see you do it.”

“You think someone will try to take this shit?”

“I think people do things when they’re desperate. They know we’re bound to catch on at some point, and they may want to cover their tracks more. Best we get a one-up on them before that happens.”

“Got it. I’ll have it all over there in a couple hours.”

If there weren’t so many papers, I’d tell him an hour tops. But the printer here sucks, and it’s going to take him a while.

“Keep the door locked,” I say as I move toward it. “You got us on speed dial?”

“Sure do.” He points to the phone on the desk. “And the piece.” He gestures underneath the desk.

I flip the lock on the office door and close it when I leave.

The kitchen smells like grease, but it’s a lot cleaner than it was when we first took over.

The whole diner is doing better overall.

The workers are happier and we’re bringing in more money, according to Noah.

That kid’s got a good head on his shoulders.

Hopefully life doesn’t take it too hard on him.

“Afternoon, Snapper,” Christian says as he dumps some fries into the fry-o-later basket.

“You know anything about that?” I ask, giving him a stern look.

Christian has been working here since the place opened. He should have been the one to take it over, but he’d rather flip food on a grill.

“News to me,” he comments, keeping his attention on the food.

I watch him for a moment. “Make sure it stays quiet.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Christian is trustworthy enough that I believe him.

Had he known something like this was going on, he’d have told us right away.

Meaning, Norman was working alone and he was good at whatever the fuck he was doing if Christian didn’t notice.

He’s here every day, open to close. This place is his life.

Kinda fucking sad, but I’m not one to talk.

My life is no different. I’m especially ashamed of myself after the fight I put up against Lucian earlier—or lack of.

It wasn’t a fight at all. It was pretty fucking pathetic.

I’d gone there to tell him to leave, hoping with everything in me that I was wrong and he wasn’t the one who’d bought it. But the moment I stepped inside, I just… felt di fferent.

We were alone together in a house. There wasn’t a single person there, but us. No one who would come looking for us. No one to interfere. No one to judge or try to stop it. It was just us. I finally had him all to myself.

But that isn’t really the truth. It’ll never be the truth, because he’s married and I’m sure it’ll only be a short time before his wife moves in with him here.

How fucking dare he.

I should have chewed him out the way I’d planned, but I couldn’t find my words.

Something that never used to happen with him.

He was the easiest person to talk to and it’s something that made him so easy to love.

Lucian made it so I didn’t hate everything about myself.

He made me realize that it isn’t me who is the problem. . Things weren’t a fight with him.

At least, nothing but having him .

It doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter.

Lucian and I are done with, and I need to stop thinking about him.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me Lucian moved into town?” Kaison barks when I walk into the clubhouse.

“Because I have more important things to worry about. ”

Kaison walks up to me, getting nose to nose. “What’s going on?”

I shove him away. “Nothing, and I don’t appreciate you assuming.”

His eyes narrow and he looks both ways before lowering his voice and saying, “Did you and him—”

“I will fucking stab you if you finish that sentence.”

It’s unfair because his assumption is true, but the words still come out of my mouth.

Kaison’s eyes narrow more before they widen in realization. “I’m going to kill him,” he says through gritted teeth.

He turns toward the door, but I grab his arm and yank him back. I should let him go. Let him do his worst. If I can’t scare Lucian out of this town, maybe my brother can.

“It was mutual,” I blurt out, hating myself for it.

This is none of his business and I shouldn’t have to explain a goddamn thing.

But I can only imagine what Kaison is thinking after knowing what our father did to me.

Does Kaison think they did it together? He couldn’t be more wrong about Lucian, and even though I hate him, I don’t want people to think that about him.

“Mutual?” he bellows, pulling his arm out of my grip.

“Mutual?” he repeats. “He’s twenty fucking years older than you, Kolton, and you’re telling me it was mutual ?

When did it start?” He steps up to me again and I don’t back down.

I’m not afraid of Kaison, I just wish he wasn’t in my face.

I don’t like people so close. “When the fuck did it start?” he seethes, his words slow and deadly.

My brother is ready to go to war for me.

He’s ready to gut Lucian, if I were to say something he didn’t like.

If I were to lie, right this very second, and tell Kaison something awful, he would kill Lucian without a second thought.

That has my respect for him growing. And maybe I like him a little bit more.

The beginning of the summer is always the worst for me when it comes to my trauma.

It’s like the warm air brings in the haunting memories because the abuse from my father was always worse then, since I wasn’t in school.

He didn’t have to worry about hiding bruises or going easy enough that I could sit down.

I was home. No one had to see me. It was safe.

This year is no different. Summer comes, and so does my foul mood.

Had Kaison not pushed me so hard this year, maybe I’d never have told him my secrets at all.

Maybe I should give Kaison more of a chance. He is my brother. We share DNA. He’s ready to murder someone for me, more so than he would for anyone else in this club. I don’t have anyone at my back and though I don’t want to spill all my secrets to him, I could give him something.

“Nineteen.”

His face turned confused. “You sure about that?”

I nod. “Positive.”

I remember it vividly. And I wish I didn’t.

He lets out a whoosh of air before looking up at the ceiling. “Kolton,” he starts before looking down at me. “You gotta tell me what happened, man. This is big and I can’t ignore it.”

“It’s nothing,” I say, turning and walking over to the cabinet I keep my laptop in. I pull it out and set it on the table, then take a seat.

“It’s not nothing.”

I hear his words, but I don’t acknowledge him.

I need to figure out how I’m going to say this, if anything at all.

My laptop loads up, I put in my password, and open the program I need.

Kaison is still standing there, staring at me.

I know it’s only a moment before someone else shows up. This place is never quiet for long.

When there’s nothing left for me to busy myself with, knowing I won’t get any work done with him staring at me like this, I speak.

“I started it. He fought it at first, but eventually gave in. We snuck around for years. Then it ended.”

“Whoa,” he says, taking a step forward. “Slow down and give me more than that.”

“No,” I grit out, flipping through the tabs on my spreadsheet just to do something.

“Kolton—”

“I gave you all I can give you, Shark. I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to remember any of the shit that happened to me then. Not him. Not dad. Nothing. So please, just fuck right off with this brotherly bonding bullshit. ”

Kaison stumbles back as if I’ve wounded him. He doesn’t even try to pretend he isn’t offended. But he does nod and leaves me alone.

Problem is now I’m so pissed off I can’t focus on what I need to do.