Chapter 15

15

Acid – One Month Later

“Shane admitted to stealing from the till after closing, once the employees left, after Piston found the proof we needed,” I state to the brothers sitting around the table.

After watching the account books and scanning through the cameras, we caught Shane, our top cook, in the act, but after Natalie was targeted by the Killers and put in a coma for a few weeks, it got pushed into the back burner.

She’s awake now, with thanks to Perrie, who let out a shit load of secrets, including Piston and I allowing Natalie’s little brother Cooper to ride a fucking dirt bike. Cassidy explained there was nothing medically keeping her in the coma, and suggested angering her to wake her. Perrie managed it. I also believe the only reason we still have our balls is that my niece or nephew is hanging in strong, keeping Nat at bay.

Steal’s face reddens as he demands, “And what was his excuse?”

I smirk. It took for him to lose Cassidy to stop jumping to conclusions before getting the facts straight. We still don’t know what happened to Brute, and may never.

Piston and I both have our suspicions, we just need Cass to open up.

“His wife has cancer,” I supply, and Steal slumps back. I nod and say, “Yeah, Piston looked into it, and it’s legit. According to her oncology notes, she has roughly five months left to live, but there’s a new study, and he wants in on it. It’s groundbreaking, and if she gets the medicine, basically using his wife as a test subject, it could save her….”

“How much?” Cannon asks, raising a dark brow.

“Thirty-thousand,” Piston answers him, and he whistles.

Steal shakes his head and mumbles, “Men under fucking pressure to keep their loves,” then looks around the room, “All in favor for Shane losing his job?”

I sigh, hating this, but I lift my hand along with the brothers. The fucker stole, end of, when he knew he could have come to us.

Steal nods and bangs his gavel on the table, then looks around again, and asks, “All in favor of funding his wife’s treatment?”

One by one, we all put our hands up again, and I smile.

Steal smiles, bangs the gavel again, and then looks at me, stating, "After church, contact him and let him know our decision. I know he probably thinks his life is on the line.” I nod before he looks at Piston and asks, “How’s the security looking?”

I close off, ignoring what my brother says, my mind going back to Perrie. One month and I haven’t set eyes on her. Cass refuses to tell me where she lives, and I feel like I can’t fucking breathe.

I shove my tongue into her mouth, tangling it with hers, and I groan, holding her closer….

I blink, looking down, my heart physically breaking.

“He’s going to get you, Sweetie!” John shouts from the sidelines, and I chuckle as I dodge the fist coming my way.

Perrie growls, “Not helping, Dad!”

I grin as I dodge her fist again and taunt, “Is that all you’ve got, Tinker? Old man Harris can fight better than you….”

She narrows her eyes, and I know I’ve hit my mark when she runs at me. I bend, her stomach going to my shoulder, making her grunt before I flip her over. Perrie lands with a thump on the ring floor, and John laughs from ringside.

I grin and lift my arms in victory before I feel my feet being knocked out from under me, and I land opposite Perrie on my back.

“Fuck’s sake,” I groan as everyone laughs.

“Shouldn’t have gotten cocky,” Perrie says with a hint of humor, and I look at her, narrowing my eyes. She grins, but it soon fades when I raise a brow, and her eyes widen before she scrambles to get up. I quickly chase after her, John's laughter echoing in the gym.

The brothers banging on the table snaps me back, and I blink.

Fuck, I miss her. I miss her so much I can’t take it, but between Andrea and my past….

“Good. We have a fun run next month, so we need to start going to local shops and trying to raise funds for the children’s hospice downtown, and the sister one in Texas. The Devils and the Untamed are also taking part,” Steal announces, getting my attention, and everyone nods before Piston adds, “Natalie has connections in the school, so she can get the word out.”

Steal grins. “Perfect.”

His grin drops when Piston drawls, “She can also get Cass to get people involved at the hospital….”

Steal mumbles, “Fucking perfect,” and we all chuckle. He gives us all the finger before asking, “How is Natalie doing, brother?”

I smile at the concern in my prez’s voice for my sister-in-law before Piston admits, “She’s gone to Adam’s gravesite the past two days in a row. Cam sent me their location on her first day back at school.”

My smile drops. Poor fucking Nat; she’s never going to stop blaming herself for his death.

Anchor speaks up, "The girl wears her heart on her sleeve. She feels guilty, but she has nothing to be guilty about. It could have been any of us in that guardhouse, and we all would have left its safety to get to her. She’s family, brother.”

Piston smiles and replies, “I know, and deep down, she does as well. She’s just struggling a little, and going to his grave, talking to him, it helps….”

“Was it just me, or did she look like she had glitter in her hair this morning?” Pitbull asks, and Piston grins wide, and I drop my head.

Fuck’s sake….

“Ah fuck, what did you do, brother?” I ask with a groan.

In college, Nat was standing in front of a shelf, and the idiot decided to shake it, not realizing it held cans of paint and glitter. Safe to say she fucking jumped when the whole lot covered her, and until last month, she believed she knocked into it.

Piston holds his hands up and confesses, “Nothing…she came home two days ago fed up. The kids were extra excited after summer break, and she was covered in glitter and couldn’t get the stuff off. It turns out she knocked into the shelf, and the whole fucking tub of glitter fell on her, and I’m not talking about a small tub either, I’m talking about a paint can sized tub.” We all laugh.

“Fucking woman is clumsy as shit,” Steal mumbles.

That’s a fucking statement and a half.

The Untamed Hell Fire’s women love to play jokes, but Nat doesn’t even mean to, and her clumsiness makes her even worse than them.

Shaking his head, Steal looks down, murmuring, "Alright, that is everything on the agenda, money-wise.” I sigh and look down. I wonder if I got on my knees, Cass would give up Perrie’s address.

“Ready?” Steal says and I look up, confused as to why he’s not banged the gavel, only to frown when Piston stands.

He looks at everyone, our eyes briefly connecting before he says, “Two days ago, my wife messaged Steal,” he looks at our prez, “something I’m still pissed about, by the way, especially the two kisses at the end.” Steal grins, not at all bothered, before Piston clears his throat and looks at me. Guilt shines in his dark green eyes as he admits, “Perrie doesn’t want you involved.”

What the….

I sit up straight and demand, “Involved with what?”

He winces and says, “Involved with the person that left her a threatening note on her car windshield.” Anger like no fucking other consumes me as I stand quickly, causing Pitbull to move swiftly toward me, knocking my chair out of the way.

Okay, so I throw a chair in church once, just fucking once, and suddenly I’m labeled a chair thrower? I’d just found out someone was threatening my sister-in-law, my fucking father at that, so in my defense, the chair kind of had it coming.

Pitbull grabs my arm as Piston puts his hand up and states, “If you get involved, she’s threatened to buy a gun and shoot the fucker herself; you need to sit this one out.”

I growl, “Like fuck am I sitting this one out, Elijah….” using his legal name so he knows I’m serious.

Whoever left that note is dead, fucking dead!

Piston’s throat bobs before he admits, “Andrea told Perrie you got her pregnant.”

No!

I feel the blood drain from my face, and he nods and continues, “As I said, you need to sit this one out.” I squeeze my hands into fists as he looks around the room. “I found CCTV near where her car was parked outside the grocery store. A man placed the note on her window and then left. He was a prostitute who was paid to put it there. He thought it was a love note when, in reality,” he looks at me, “he’s threatened to kill you if you keep sniffing around her. It’s the only reason she went to Nat about the note. I hoped to investigate it without the club, but that’s obviously impossible.”

Fuck that shit! My body vibrates, and the need to hit someone becomes so fucking strong, Pitbull grabs my shoulder.

"She hates me so much that she doesn’t want me to get involved, yet she’s trying to protect me?” I snap.

Anchor chimes in, “She doesn’t hate you, Oliver. She’s loved you since she was thirteen, something you knew. You fucked her, and she thought she finally had her happily ever after, but instead, you broke her heart and fucked her friend, the same friend who has now declared she’s pregnant with your baby.”

I flinch, and Steal states, “Andrea saw how Piston made Nat his old lady, unwilling to allow his unborn child to be born in a broken home like you two were brought up…. How sure are you she’s pregnant?”

That was my first fucking thought , I admit silently before I run a hand through my hair and say, “Pretty sure. She showed me a sonogram and claimed the baby was mine.”

Not that I believe her about any of it, but I can’t exactly come out and say, “Hey, I think she drugged me and assaulted me,” now can I, not without my past coming up.

Piston scoffs, “So what was your plan, brother? String Perrie along and make her your mistress while the woman you fucked, hurting her, has your child, a you force her to watch you play happy families forever and ever?”

I narrow my eyes at him. He’s my fucking blood brother, he knows me, he knows Perrie is my priority, she always fucking has been despite my past; if she hadn’t, then I would have made her mine instead of protecting her from my filth. He should fucking know I wouldn’t willingly fuck that bitch, but I guess his resentment of me continues to fucking cloud his judgement.

I growl, “No, Elijah, I wasn’t. I don’t even know if the baby is mine. She says it is, yet she won’t do a DNA test.”

The brothers all shake their heads at me as Piston snaps, “And what am I, Ollie?” I furrow my brows, and he sighs. “I can hack her medical records, you idiot!”

Fuck….

I clear my throat before I murmur, “Fuck, I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me….”

The men look between us like ping pong balls as Piston snorts. “Ollie, it's not my disappointment you need to be concerned about. It’s the woman who you want to win back, the woman you have loved since you were fucking sixteen.”

I wince. Win her? That’s never going to happen.

I may not remember what happened that night with Andrea, but it still may have happened, and she’s still claiming to be pregnant, and I’m still dirty, tainted….

“Tell me I’m your favorite, baby….”

I swallow hard at the voice echoing in my head from when I was thirteen as Piston sits forward and says, “You’re my big brother, and yeah, at times, I resented you for leaving home as soon as you did, but I was also happy, because it meant you were safe. I love you, Ollie, but you are a fucking idiot. Perrie doesn’t deserve this shit. Not only did Andrea seek you out, claiming to have argued with Perrie and encouraged you to fuck her, but she also went to her so-called best friend to gloat about being pregnant. How sure are you she is, brother?”

Well, tell me how you feel, little brother.

Safe, I wasn’t fucking safe. I did everything in my power to ensure he didn’t have the same fate as I did. Beatings, he can overcome, rape, he wouldn’t….

Anger hits that he still resents me when I did everything for him, and I snap, “I saw the sonogram, Eli….”

He huffs, grabs something out of his cut, throws it on the table, and asks, “Did it look like that?”

I frown and pick the picture up before tilting my head. Nat is maybe eleven weeks pregnant, and the scan photo that bitch showed was clearer than this one but had no markings on.

Shocker.

“Not really. It didn’t have any of this writing on it, and the baby was bigger, which is why I didn’t believe her claims. I just needed proof she was lying,” I admit.

Piston sighs before turning in his seat and grabbing his laptop.

Everyone stays quiet as he does something. He leans forward, chuckles, and shakes his head. With a smirk, he turns his laptop and shows me as the brothers all crowd around. My eyes widen in shock as I read the words on the screen.

That fucking bitch….

“So, big brother, what was that about not wanting to ask for my help?” Piston asks, raising a brow. I glare his way, but he ignores me and says, “Perrie doesn’t want anything to do with you, and this is one of the reasons why. Andrea has ensured she’ll never want you in her life again, and honestly, brother, you’ve only got yourself to blame for fucking the bitch.”

If only he knew the truth.

I scoff, “So what am I supposed to do, leave her be? Walk away?” I can’t, I fucking can’t. I need her in my life, one way or another.

He smirks and says, “I didn’t say that, brother.”

Steal cuts in, “What he’s trying to say is that you have one hell of a battle on your hands, brother, because this shit is fucked up.”

More fucked up than he knows, I think to myself before I go to speak, to ask for help, and to explain what really happened with Andrea, but I’m interrupted by a knock on the door. A few seconds later, the door swings open, and we all look with a frown as Cam’s head pops into the room.

Steal groans. “Fuck’s sake, what did the Untamed women send this time?”

Cam winces. “Thankfully, nothing, not after the dildos we received yesterday. A woman at the gate got past Killian after hitting him on the head with a large stick and is currently having a standoff with, uh, Natalie, who may be holding a stool, ready to swing. I tried to stop her, but she threatened my balls, and I like my balls….”

Ah fuck….

We all stand, and rush into the common room to see Natalie holding a stool above a shocked Christy, who is holding her head. Christy is her step monster, who used to hit her growing up—Nat looks ready to hit her again.

Cam groans, “Dammit, we missed the first swing….”

I smirk and lean back against the door frame to watch the show. I'm proud of Nat for standing up to her demons, and I wish I could stand up to mine. Then maybe I’d get the girl.