Chapter 9: SOUTHPAW

Nine

SOUTHPAW

A nna stops my hand before I grab the handle of the basement door. Steel and Condom are already downstairs with Oske, but she can't help herself, my wife has to get involved. It feels fucking good calling her my wife. It doesn't feel good having her lecture me on how to conduct torture.

"Give her the benefit of the doubt, Wyatt."

Anna. The perfect woman. The second I laid eyes on her in that Flying J, I knew I had to have her. I knew I would kill anyone who stood in my way. Yet, for all the ways I had to have this woman, I have caused her immeasurable heartbreak too. It makes me want to obey her commands now that she has this twisted titanium ring on my finger and a tattoo on my chest.

"She coerced Tamiya into some hare-brained plot that could have ended with Mackenzie Sinclair killed or worse. Sold into some kind of infant sex slavery."

"That really isn't as common as you think," Anna says, although I'm not so sure. When I get to drinking and playing cards with the guys at the clubhouse, you hear stories about what they see on the highways and you wonder…

We know other clubs deal in human merchandise. Mostly immigrants and Indians. Sometimes black chicks from the inner city. People who most Americans don't give a fuck about, if I'm being honest. Anna's hand on mine stops me, but she can't prevent this from happening. When I offered Oske protection and promised to keep her secret, she promised to stay out of trouble. To keep her ass out of club business. She has higher status than the sluts who hang around the clubhouse… on this condition. Her goddamn loyalty.

If we need someone to break her tonight, at least we have Hog. While Cash lays low, Hog represents the Hollingsworth family. He got his club name because he'll fuck anything. I never wanted things to get to this point between us but after all I've done for her… I can't show weakness. I can't let Oske or anyone else think they can get away with this.

What if someone kidnapped Junior? I would burn down every square mile of the old Route 66 highway without a second thought.

"I won't kill her."

"That's the bare minimum, Wyatt," Anna says.

"She doesn't deserve your protection."

I grab Anna's face and pull her close for a kiss. The mother of my child is still so soft. So perfect. I want her lips so fucking badly. The ache spreads through me. I hold onto her from her hips and kiss her forehead. I would much rather spend the night making love to my wife but sometimes… you have to torture a family member instead.

This is my father's shame, not mine. But I can't bear looking at Oske's face. It's impossible for me not to see the family resemblance. How could he have done this? It would have been just once. Just one time. But that was enough.

"Go to your room, Anna," I command my wife as gently as I can. "I'll handle everything downstairs."

"It's not her fault. Her connection to your family isn't her fault."

But it feels like it is.

We all have our demons in this club but my father's demon haunts me in ways that others don't. She sits in my basement threatening to destroy all of us. He kept Oske's true connection to our family hidden from us for years. He lied to me. To my brothers. To our mother.

If she learned what he did now, it would kill her. I want her to have that perfect memory of him. Her honest husband.

"I love you, baby," I whisper to my wife. "I love you so fucking much."

I always say that to Anna before I do some fucked up shit. Just in case it's the last straw with her. I need her to know that I love her ass more than she will ever know and that is never gonna fucking change.

Magnum Sinclair somehow got the short end of the stick so when I get downstairs, he has a shotgun pointed right at Oske, who has her tongue stuck out and an expression on her face like she's trying to get her ass shot. What the fuck is wrong with this woman?

"Oske, stop that," I growl at her, which causes her to promptly suck her tongue back in. Condom and Steel must have worked on her a bit, because she doesn't look like she's in the best shape.

"Let me hit her, boss," Condom asks. "Please…"

"Minnow dick," Oske ‘mutters' loudly enough for us to hear. She doesn't express the slightest shred of remorse when I glare at her. Condom turns bright red but I can't tell if he's pissed off or drunk. Maybe a mixture of both.

"Quiet, Oske. I have been more than generous with you but you have pushed it too far. What the hell possessed you to convince Tamiya Simmons to kidnap Juliette's baby? And I want a real answer."

Her expression falls away and thin-lipped stoicism returns. She's so full of shit, playing up the calm Indian stereotype as if I can't recognize the fire behind her dark eyes. I don't know what the hell my grandfather was thinking. It's not just that Oske's here… It's what he did after she was born.

"Is this about the past?" I growl at her. "Is that why you're fucking with me?"

Nothing.

"Give us an answer," Steel says. "You took my niece from the safety of her home and unlike my cousin… I won't ask the boss for permission if I get the urge to smack you across the face."

Oske ignores him, keeping her gaze angrily fixated on me. I don't want to stop them from punishing her. Being the bad guy often offers you the easy way out. One bullet would get rid of this problem and I wouldn't have to keep this unpredictable fucking firecracker on such a short leash.

It's my damn fault for having a heart.

For wanting to be a different man than my father.

Her mother didn't deserve what happened to her.

"You owe me," Oske says.

"I have given you everything I can. I promised I would look after you and I have kept that promise. Obviously, Oske, I have to reconsider my commitments to you now that you intimidated someone to kidnap an infant."

She remains cool despite the tension in my voice. Steel and Condom unconsciously respond to my firm tone, trained by years of riding and working together. They both tighten their grasp on their weapons. Oske feels the energy in the room shift.

"You could give me the benefit of the doubt instead of kidnapping me and tying me up in a basement."

"You ran," I remind her, gritting my teeth and reminding myself that she's still five years younger than me and less mature. That I owe her. She's right. Anna's right.

If Oske needs forgiveness… maybe I shouldn't deny her. After all, I have my share of screw ups.

Never hurting a child. Never something so fucked in the head.

I need answers. Real answers.

"I can't imagine why I ran," Oske says. "You and your gang of thugs are all responding so rationally."

"How do you tolerate the mouth on this bitch?" Steel grunts, grabbing one of Oske's braids and yanking on it hard. She tries to bite his forearm like a rabid coyote as he laughs and stumbles back.

"Fuck you, you racist piece of shit," she says. Condom lunges forward to hit her across the face, but I step between them.

"Enough. All of you. Oske. If you insist on causing trouble, I will leave you down here without food until you speak. If you give me a good reason for what you did, I will give you the benefit of the doubt…"

"Why?" Condom grunts.

Steel and I make brief eye contact. He knows the Shaw family secret because his brother is my best friend, but I'm not close enough with Magnum Sinclair that I spilled my family's dirty secrets out to him.

"Because… if she lies to me, she knows we can track her down and kill her."

"White people," Oske spits with genuine disdain. "You think violence solves everything."

I glare at her.

"Fine," she says. "Although I should stay quiet and let you assholes figure it out."

"Oske…"

"I sent Tamiya to kidnap Juliette's daughter because I knew she would never hurt the baby, and it would create a diversion long enough to distract them."

"Distract who?!"

"I don't know," Oske says. "Something happened at The Fire Spot during my girlfriend's shift. She recorded the conversation and sent it to me, but we couldn't make out all the details. But you dumbasses have enemies. Lots of enemies."

"Elaborate."

"Mackenzie's kidnapping pulled in all the senior members of the Rebel Barbarians. I think some or all of you are going to be targets of some kind of attack or assassination."

"Who would want to kill us?" Magnum asks.

Oske glares at him. "I can think of a few people who might want to."

It doesn't take long for her to turn her anger back to me. She's right about the club having enemies and the way she looks at me causes me to twist up with guilt that shouldn't be mine to bear.

Why should I have to pay for what white men did long before I was born? As much as I believe that, I can't look into Oske's eyes, know her story is true, and toss her into the Wild West with nothing. She might be trouble, but that girl is my trouble… Anna would never forgive me for abandoning her. Or for unjustly punishing her.

"Do you still have the recording?" I ask her.

"Right," Steel says. "Make sure the bitch ain't lying."

"I'm not lying," Oske says. "Someone is after you and I can prove it."

"Who?" Condom asks. "You keep saying this shit, but you can't say who."

"Don't you think I know that, asshole?" Oske says. "I can't help not having answers. All I know is that I stopped half of you from getting your asses shot at or blown up."

"Fine," I tell her. "Then prove it…"