Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

DIABLO

"We're all here now, Diablo. What is it you wanna talk about?" Reaper asks once the door closes behind Azrael.

Glancing around the table, I lean forward, brace my elbows on the edge of it, and interlace my fingers. "You all know about my parents now."

"Brother, you ain't gotta tell us this shit if you don't want to," Styxx remarks, stopping me from going further.

"I know I don't." I nod. "I'm not gonna go on about the past, but I'll say this. Living on the streets was better than living with them. If I'd stayed, I wouldn't be here today. Wayne would've killed me a long time ago."

A silent tension fills the room. The good thing is none of them show a sign of pity in their expressions. They didn't think anything less of me for my decision to run away as a kid or that I lived on the streets. They all knew this part of my life just not the reason behind it.

I give them a brief explanation before leaning back in my seat. It's only then that I get to the reason for the meeting. "London's dad, you all know, was coming for Thanksgiving."

"Yeah, we know he's coming. He should be here any time now, thanks to my woman's invite," Reaper grumbles, knowing good and well he'd give Ivy whatever she wanted.

In Ivy's eyes, we're all family. It's the first Thanksgiving London would be with me, and she wanted me to have my family around me. I get it and appreciate it. It's why she made the call herself to Liam and asked him and those he'd have at his place to come up.

"Yeah, well, he was at the house when London and I went for her to get a change of clothes," I tell them.

"Thought he was coming here, didn't know he knew where you lived," Beast remarks, brows furrowed.

"Man knows everything when it comes to his daughter." I grunt, shaking my head. "Anyway, he had something he wanted to share personally with me.

"What's that?" Angel asks, tapping his fingers on the edge of the table, his body seeming relaxed, but the man is nothing if not on alert at all times.

"That Teresa went back to Wayne. As well as the lawyer has paid them a visit at the house." I explain the rest of it. Telling them about my grandfather's will and the clause within it. Everything they need to know, I give it to them. I am not leaving anything out. "Reason I'm sharin' all this is, I don't intend to give them the chance to come at me. I won't let them get their hands on London. I'm not about to give them a chance to strike."

"You plan to strike first," Hellhound states.

"I plan to kill ‘em and put an end to all of this." I give it to them straight. "I'm telling you this because I'm not just going for them, I'm going for the lawyer too. He's in on whatever it is they're gonna do. Teresa might be sick and dying, but she'll do anything Wayne tells her. That's exactly what I think was behind her coming here. Thinking maybe I'd have heart enough to take care of my momma." Those words leave a bad taste in my mouth. I hate thinking of either of them more than an egg and sperm donor. I raised myself. I took care of who I am.

"Give us the plan, we've got your back," Reaper states as each of my brothers nods in agreement.

Taking a breath, I do just that. I tell them what I have in mind. What I'd need from them and how I didn't want London to know any of what's about to happen. She doesn't need to know I'm capable of taking out the two people who brought me into this world. I don't want her to look at me any differently than the way she does now. If she were to find out, she'd probably think I was crazy and want to leave me. I can't let that happen.

For the next two hours, we go over every detail of what I've planned so far. They like it. Thought it was a damn good plan, and it didn't take too much change to perfect it.

"We'll head out tonight. Get it done. The sooner it's taken care, the less time they have to try and pull anything on us," Reaper mutters, nodding and banging the gavel down. "We better get out there before Ivy decides to storm in here and demand we march our asses out there."

"Prez, you knock that woman up or something?" Tombstone asks. "She's been going nuts. Sutton said Ivy was going crazy."

"Woman hasn't admitted it yet, but she's knocked up," Reaper answers, grinning. "I know my woman's body, and she thinks she can hide the truth of it from me."

Laughter fills the room, and I can't help but join them. Ivy pregnant again, we can only brace. Who knows what to expect from her. We'll just have to wait and see. It's going to be interesting for sure.

"Maybe she's got something planned for you." Angel snorts and gets to his feet.

The rest of us follow, leaving the room. Later, after we finish this dinner thing, we'll head out. For now, the focus needs to switch to the women and family. My attention needs to be on London . . . on making sure she has a good time. I'll deal with the rest later after she's gone to bed.

Once this is all over, then I'll switch complete focus to what I intend to do to her body and show her once again how much I want that sweet body of hers. I crave to touch her, just as much as I need her to touch me.

Her touch is everything to me. It calms a part of me I didn't think was possible. I refuse to lose that touch. It's why I've got to do what I gotta do to keep it. I'll do what it takes, no matter the consequences in the end. Bringing my brothers in on it is what's going to keep everything from going to hell. Or I hope it will. If it doesn't, we're all fucked.