Page 10 of Ruptured

“I have it handled, Kendall.”

Cocking her head to the side, Kendall squinted and studied Brooks. “What do you have handled?”

“The little Charlotte knows didn’t sit well with her. She’d intended, uh, she’d intended to invite Meggie to dinner.”

An unusual circumstance. Lifting her brow, Kendall waited for Brooks to continue.

He rocked on his heels. “She found Bash’s contact information,” he mumbled, unable to meet her.

He added nothing else and instead allowed those two seemingly innocuous and unconnected bits of information tohang between them. Kendall knew Charlotte, though. She’d backed off her hatred of Johnnie and all things club related. She laughed and smiled with Meggie and Christopher, but terrible memories hid underneath the goodwill.

“Taking care of Charlotte is a phone call away, Brooks,” she said coldly, so angry she could chew fucking nails. “How fucking dare she? Meggie doesn’t deserve to be handed over to Bash or anyone else. Charlotte stays out of club business or else and if you cannot impress that upon your wife, I certainly will.”

“She’s concerned about me,” Brooks said dully.

“Not enough,” Kendall snapped. “Outlaw would killyouafter you watched her die. Meggie isn’t a fucking scapegoat.”

“I know. Charlotte is aware.”

“Make sure she is,” Kendall grumbled. She wasn’t as close to Charlotte as she once was. On the surface, everything seemed fine, but Charlotte was still hurt at Kendall’s attachment to Roxy. “I’ll talk to her tonight, Brooks. I need to know myself–”

“I promise you have nothing to worry about. If Charlotte knows I confided in you, our arguments will start again.Please. Just trust me.”

“Famous fucking last words.”

“She was at the hospital, Kendall,” Brooks argued. “She wouldn’t have gone if she was still upset with Meggie.”

“Fine,” Kendall relented, “but know this. If I get the smallest whiff after this that she is holding anything against Meggie, I’m not calling Outlaw. I’m calling Diesel. My family has had enough heartache in the past ninety days to fill one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. You keep that bitch in line or I’ll see her goddamn head on a pike.”

“H-have you restarted your meds?”

She threw him a putrid look.

“You s-seem a little v-v-violent.”

“I’m on the motherfuckers,” she screeched crossly. “I promised Christopher.”

Brooks swallowed, drew in a deep breath, then released it in slow degrees. “Who…who is he? Outlaw or Christopher? You don’t seem sure.”

“I don’t fucking know.” Her petulance didn’t concern her. Brooks seemed to have recovered but she hadn’t. She couldn’t believe Charlotte. “I want to call him Christopher. He invited me to. Meggie loves it as well. But it’s…it’s Johnnie.” She was suddenly exhausted all over again and all her outrage fled. “I tell myself if I go back to calling my brother-in-law by Outlaw, my husband will relent. He’ll help me with Bash. Tell me what he knows. I’m not trying to ignore his wishes. I just want to save his life.”

“You can only do that if you’re at your optimal, my darling girl. If referring to Outlaw as Christopher helps you, then don’t let Johnnie change your mind. We know how stubborn your husband is. He’s going to want you to meet all his demands before he eases up. Are you willing to do that?”

“No.”

“Speaking of D-Diesel…” Brooks folded his arms, an unhappy frown marring his face. Firmly back in Outlaw’s good graces, he’d resumed wearing a more stylish wardrobe, though far from the custom-made suits he once enjoyed. He didn’t hide his fine lines behind cosmetic procedures, which Kendall appreciated. “His filing for a legal separation puts me in a precarious predicament. What should I do about Tabitha? Poor dear was too distraught to come in today and I didn’t want to push her.”

“Let me. I’ll push that bitch. Out the window of a ten-story building. Off a cliff. From a balcony.”

“Forever Kendall,” Brooks chortled fondly, then grew serious, pressed his lips together, and buttoned his suit coat. “That isn’t an option.”

“Fine,” she huffed. “Let me talk to Diesel. He’s my nephew. We do what he wants. Fuck that bitch.”

“He’ll complicate matters, Kendall. I heard he’s moving some woman in with him at the house.”

‘The house’ meant Meggie and Christopher’s place.

Removing her glasses, Kendall rubbed her temples. “He’s guided by his cock,” she said crossly. “And Tabitha’s motivated by money. All she needs to hear is he’s living with another woman and she’ll pounce. What the fuck is he thinking?”