Chapter Twenty-Three

Priest

The club was celebrating again.

Skylar had just given birth to a healthy seven-pound, two-ounce bouncing baby boy named Milo Kevin Montclair. Everyone was eager to hold the little boy, just as soon as Cameron handed him over. The kid was holding court on the bed, next to his sister, glaring at anyone who dared take his newest manly man away from him.

All around me, brothers and sisters talked animatedly, reveling in the joyous occasion. However, there was one person missing.

Phoebe.

She wasn't here.

Walking over to Scribe, I whispered, "Where is Phoebe?"

My brother frowned, looking around the room, before calling out to his mom. "Mom, weren't you with Phoebe earlier?"

"Oh yes. We tried to do a reading, but it went horribly wrong. First, we found out that she threw out her cards. You know, the ones Nana bought her when she was nine. Then your sisters got into an argument about whose deck was safer to use. Let me tell you that wasn't fun—"

Scribe groaned, holding up his hand. "Mom. Get to the point!"

"Oh." Stevie smiled warmly. "After the reading, Phoebe got upset and left. Why?"

Frowning, I exclaimed, getting everyone's attention. "Did anyone bother to call Phoebe and tell her that Skylar had the baby?"

When no one spoke up, I growled, heading for the door.

Just fucking great.

Here I was trying to get the woman to forgive me, make her see that I cared about her, wanted her around and no one called her.

Okay, so maybe that was my job.

But in my defense, when Cameron came out of the trailer shouting his sister had pissed herself, it got a bit chaotic and everything happened really fast after that.

I had just stepped out of the room when King stopped me.

"Priest, wait."

"What's up?"

"Do better."

Confused, I looked at one of my longest and best friends as he stepped closer. "You are fucking this up. Do better, Shaw."

"I'm trying."

"Try harder, because everyone is watching, especially the women. They aren't happy with you, and I gotta say, neither am I," King said before leaving me to ponder his words.

I was trying. I was giving Phoebe time like she gave me.

What more did they expect me to do?

Looking back... I should have immediately gone to find my wife.

But did I do that?

Fuck no.

Because if I had, then it would have saved me the headache and misery of what happened next.

"Called King. He isn't happy. Said he'll get here when he gets here. Gotta say, Priest. Never thought I'd see you in one of my cells."

Groaning, I turned to look at Mike, who leaned against the bars, smirking.

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"Want to tell me what the hell happened tonight?"

"I wasn't thinking, okay?"

"Oh, most of the town knows that. I'm more interested in the why?"

Yeah.

So was I.

As I headed for my truck, King's words still rattling around in my head, my phone rang. Seeing who the caller was, I answered it.

"Hey, Robin. What's up?"

"I got another body, Shaw. It's bad this time."

Rubbing the back of my neck, I looked around the almost-vacant parking lot, before taking a deep breath. I needed to find Phoebe and get her to the hospital. She was already going to be upset she missed the birth, but I knew I couldn't just leave Robin hanging.

So instead, I sent Phoebe a quick text telling her the good news before continuing the conversation with Robin as I drove my truck to the clubhouse.

Passing through town, I listened as Robin gave me the specifics of the new information, only to pause when I saw something that made me do a double take. Something I thought I'd never see in a million years. Slamming on the brakes, I stared as my beautiful wife smiled warmly and sat across from Jake Quincy in Beth's coffee shop.

"Robin, I gotta call you back," I muttered, disconnecting the call before finding a parking spot. Watching from my truck, I glared at the fucker who was sitting way too damn close to my wife as he talked animatedly about something I was almost positive was stupid.

However, whatever the fucker was saying seemed to interest Phoebe. She laughed and looked on with rapt attention. Slowly getting out of my truck, I headed for the front door when it opened and Beth walked out, placing her hand on my chest, halting me from entering her shop. "Now, Priest. I need you to promise me you will behave."

Glaring at the fucker who just reached for my wife's hand, I sneered, "I always behave."

"I mean it, Priest. They only came in for a cup of coffee. I've been watching them the whole time."

"That's good. Then I don't have to kill him," I grumbled, gently moving Beth to the side so I could enter the coffee shop.

"Shit," I vaguely heard Beth whisper as she quickly followed me inside.

The second I stepped inside, my beautiful wife looked up and gasped. Her eyes widened and her back stiffened. And when the handsy motherfucker turned and smiled at me, I did what any red-blooded all-American male would do when a serpent was encroaching in his territory.

I tackled the motherfucker.

I wish I could tell you that everything worked out, that Jake left town and Phoebe forgave me, but I'd be lying. Because the next thing I knew, Mike was dragging me away in cuffs and my wife was crying.

Hence, why I was currently sitting in Rosewood's jail.

God, I fucked up big this time.

Hanging my head, Mike opened the cell and dragged a chair inside.

"Look, I've been where you are now. I get it. You fucked up and you are trying to find your way back to her, but I gotta tell ya, brother, picking a fight with her date wasn't the way to go."

"I know."

"Did you know Beth divorced me once?"

Looking up, I slowly shook my head.

Mike sighed. "I'd just returned from back-to-back deployments. I was gone for eighteen months. That's a lot of time to be away from your wife and kid. Anyway, when I got home, everything was so different. Beth and Mike Jr. were doing their own things. I felt like a visitor in my own marriage. Thought I wasn't needed anymore. It caused a lot of fights, and eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I figured if my wife and kid didn't need me, at least the Corps did. So, I volunteered for another deployment. When Beth found out, she lost her shit. Told me to choose. The Corps or them."

"You'd already signed the papers, though, hadn't you?"

"Yeah." Mike nodded. "When Beth learned that little nugget of information, she kicked me out. Told me if I left, she and Mike Jr. wouldn't be there when I got back."

"What did you do?"

"Didn't have a choice. I had to go. I'd committed myself. I thought Beth was just blowing off steam, that she didn't mean it. I was wrong. I was coming back from patrol, three months into the new deployment, when I was called into my captain's office. That's when I learned Beth filed for divorce. That she wasn't messing around. I asked for emergency leave and the captain granted me two weeks' leave. Told me to go home and fix my marriage, that the military was a sorry substitute for a lifetime of happiness."

"I guess it worked out, ‘cause you and Beth are still together."

Mike shook his head. "That's where you'd be wrong, Priest, because by the time I got home, Beth and Mike Jr. were gone. They'd cleared out of military housing. I didn't know where they were. By the time I found them, I had to go back. I tried calling, writing, emailing, anything I could think of, to get her to listen to me, but she wasn't having it. She was done. She couldn't take it anymore."

"So, what happened?"

"I got the finalized divorce papers three weeks before I was due to return to the States. My wife left me. She took my kid and never looked back. Instead of going home to my family, I had no one. I was alone."

"What did you do?"

Mike grinned. "What do you think? I love Beth. She is my life. I am nothing without her."

"You left the Corps."

"Sure did, and it was the best decision I ever made. Woman still made my life a living hell for months, but I refused to give up. Gotta tell ya, Priest, fighting insurgents is a hell of a lot easier than going up against the woman you love, because, brother, you will lose every time. So, whatever you did to piss off Phoebe, do yourself a favor and just own up to it. Apologize, mean it, and beg her for forgiveness."

"I've tried to."

"Try harder."

"That's what King told me."

Mike chuckled, getting to his feet. "King is a smart man. I'd listen to him."

I watched the sun come up from the small window in my cell. Instead of bailing me out of jail, King left me locked up overnight.

I can't say I blamed him.

I would have left my ass in jail, too.

By the time he showed up, he was eerily quiet and refused to even look at me. Which was a first for me. He stayed silent all the way up the mountain, and the second he pulled into the compound and cut the engine, he jumped out of his truck and stormed inside.

I didn't know what was worse. King's refusal to acknowledge me, or Phoebe's refusal to forgive me.

Too damn tired to do anything, I grabbed a bottle of Hell's Breath and headed up to my room.

I was fucking done.

So, imagine my surprise, when I stumbled downstairs two days later to find my wife sitting on the couch holding Skylar's baby as the women of the club glared at me. I didn't need to be a genius to know that my ass was grass, and the women of the clubhouse were going to take turns on the fucking John Deere lawnmower as they ran me over.

"Digging that grave deeper, Priest," Bailey snarked, sitting next to my wife as she loved and cooed at Pyro's little boy.

Like King, my wife flat-out refused to even acknowledge me.

"I say we just take him out back and put him out of our misery," Jessica sneered, arms crossed over her chest while she glared at me from across the room. Freyja and Athena both sat at a table with Stevie, saying nothing as they shook their heads.

As for the other women, well, they looked ready to lynch my ass and not a single brother came to my aid.

Fuckers.

"Not cool, dude!" Cameron grumbled, snuggling closer to his sister.

"Look, I said I was sorry."

"We know you're sorry, Priest," Henley said softly. "But when are you going to put Phoebe first? Because from where I'm sitting, you are treating her as a second thought."

"Henley's right," Sugar added. "Phoebe should come first. Even when Eugene was pissed off and not talking to me, he still put me first and you know it."

"I am!"

"No, you're not," Bailey muttered, eating an ice cream. "You are still thinking about yourself first. We all know you have responsibilities to this club and to this case, but since you've been back, you haven't tried where Phoebe is concerned. Oh, you've been very vocal about what you want, but you've done nothing to back it up. Actions speak louder than words."

"She won't talk to me!"

"I wouldn't either if someone I loved ignored me for ten years," Jessica clipped angrily. "Face it, Priest. You are all talk. Either man the fuck up and do the right thing or let Phoebe go. You can't have your cake and eat it too."

"I'm doing the best that I can. I don't know what else she wants me to do."

"And that there is the problem," Freyja spoke up.

When she didn't elaborate, I threw my arms in the air and stormed off. I couldn't with those women. Not one of them spoke English, and I wasn't in the mood to decipher what they were trying to tell me.

Entering the kitchen, I stopped as King glared at me. "Obstacle course, now!"

"It's raining."

"Don't give a fuck," he growled, walking out the back door.

I really didn't feel like running the course today. After dealing with those women, all I wanted was to drink the day away and forget my latest fuck up. I didn't know what else she wanted me to do. For months, I'd endured her family, tried to reason with her, even tried to be there for her, but nothing I did mattered.

She kept pushing me away.

Following, I walked out the back door and headed straight for the course. I didn't know what King planned to do out here in the rain, but seeing all of my brothers standing around getting soaked, my feet faltered.

None of them looked happy.

In fact, all of them looked pissed.

Making my way closer to the course, I had just passed Scribe when King hauled off and punched me in the face. Slipping on the wet grass, I fell on my back, groaning.

Rubbing my chin, I looked up at my friend and growled, "What the fuck was that for?"

Removing his shirt, King threw it on the ground.

"If you have to ask, I didn't fucking hit you hard enough. Get the hell up, Shaw."

Blinking away the raindrops, I rolled to my feet, only for him to knock me back on my ass.

"For years, I've watched you drink your life away. Hold yourself back from this club. I didn't interfere, thinking you would come to us— to me—when you were ready, because the only one you were hurting was yourself. Then I find out that it wasn't just you that you were hurting. For ten motherfucking years, you allowed your wife, YOUR WIFE , to endure a world of hurt alone, with no one to help her, because you couldn't handle the truth. To make matters worse, you made her own fucking brother promise to keep your goddamned secret. But you want to know what really pisses me off? Your wife, one of the sweetest, most caring women I've ever met, stopped everything to help you do a fucking job you could have done yourself if you had your head screwed on right. And how do you fucking repay her? You ask her brother to file divorce papers!"

"My marriage is none of your business, King," I sneered, getting to my feet. "My wife is my business."

"That's where you are wrong, Shaw," King growled, getting in my face. "Your wife is part of my family. She is Scribe's sister. That makes her ours, and I'll be damned to hell and back before I allow you to fucking hurt her anymore. She deserves better. Better than you!"

"I KNOW!" I shouted, pushing him away from me. "I've always fucking known that."

"Good," King retorted before he hauled off and hit me again.

I'd fucking known this day was coming.

I wasn't stupid.

I'd seen the way my brothers distanced themselves, watching, waiting for me to dig my hole deeper and deeper. I'd just hoped that when I hit rock bottom, I would have Phoebe locked down again. But after what I'd done the other night, I wasn't sure she would ever forgive me.

No matter what I did, I couldn't get what I saw out of my head. She looked so beautiful sitting across from him. Happy and free. There was no worry or indecision in her eyes. Just the excitement of something new, untarnished, and instead of letting her have one second of happiness, I'd ruined everything.

I was good at that.

In the end, my former best friend consoled her as she stood looking at me, crying when Mike cuffed me and hauled me off to jail.

She would never forgive me now.

I knew that.

That's why after King showed up to bail me out of jail, I grabbed a bottle of Hell's Breath and locked myself in my room. The only reason I was downstairs was to get something to eat. Had I known an ass beating was on the menu, I would have stayed in my room.

My whole body hurt because King was relentless in showing me the errors of my way, and when he was finally finished, I laid there in the mud while rain pelted my aching body.

As he and my brothers walked away, King said nothing.

He didn't have to.

His silence spoke volumes.

I'd made this mess, and only I could clean it up.