“Where is he?” I didn’t feel the need to explain who he was. I was antsy, impatient, and I wanted to get this visit over with. The longer I stayed on the Lockwoods’ territory, the more agitated I became.
Her eyes widened as she took me in, looking me up and down like I’d come from the fucking zoo. Harper’s grip on my arm tightened. She’d noticed it too. What was this woman’s deal?
“Erm, Jensen or Chase?” She bit her lip and started stalling for time. “Jensen went out a few hours ago.” She peered behind her. “I think Chase is in his room-”
“We aren’t here for a social visit,” I snapped back. “Where’s your husband?” I was losing it fast.
Just as I said that, Chase sauntered down the staircase behind her and scoffed like a little bitch when he saw us. I’ve got to admit, I was surprised to see him. I thought he’d have been back at the gym after watching his brother get his ass handed to him. Obviously he hadn’t gone to watch. Maybe he was worried he’d be next, so he’d ducked out of that one. Fucking coward.
“What the fuck do you want?” He scowled. Little shit was ballsy when he had Mummy at his side to defend him.
“Language!” his mum barked at him and we all chuckled.
That’s right, little bitch. Do as Mummy says.
“They’re here to start trouble, Mum. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass what language I use.” He tried to sound hard, but the blush on his cheeks showed him for the pussy he was.
Ma Lockwood turned to look at us and then gestured to where Harper stood.
“I don’t think Harper is here to cause trouble. She couldn’t upset anyone, even if she tried.” She gave Harper a kind smile, which I’m guessing Harper returned. I don’t know, I didn’t look. I was too busy staring Lockwood mark two down and imagining what it’d feel like to smash my fists into his face.
“We don’t want any trouble, Mrs Lockwood,” Harper said with a kindness I knew would be wasted on people like this.
“It’s Karen, dear. You know that,” Mrs Lockwood replied, beckoning Harper into the house.
She stepped forward and we all followed. But I made sure to stay by her side. I wasn’t letting my guard down any time soon. She might have been kind, but I wasn’t. I was there for one thing and one thing only. To show these people that no one fucked with us.
“Thanks, Karen. Is Don around? We need to ask him about a few things.” I let Harper take over. She’d already got us access into the house, so I figured she was best placed to get us an audience with the main man. Use the angel to lure out the devil.
“He’s in his study. I’ll take you through.” Karen went to walk away, but she stopped suddenly and turned to face me. “Do I know you? You look awfully familiar.”
Yeah, like I mixed in the same circles she did.
“I came here a few weeks ago.” I shrugged. Woman obviously had a shit memory.
“Yes, I remember that, but I mean I recognised you from before then too. What’s your last name? Maybe I know your mother.”
I highly doubted that Mrs Lockwood knew my mother. If she did, she wouldn’t want anyone to know about it. It wasn’t the type of acquaintance you’d brag about.
“Mathers. My name is Brandon Mathers.”
She frowned as much as her botoxed face would let her and tried to recall the name, but came up empty.
“No. I don’t know anyone by that name.” She laughed to herself. “Maybe it’s my age. You all look a bit familiar.” She grinned down at Harper, then said, “Of course, I know you. I always loved it when you came round here with Brodie. I’d always hoped you and Jensen might hit it off one day.” She winked then swallowed, looking embarrassed at what she’d said.
I gritted my teeth and held back the scathing words I desperately wanted to unleash on her for insinuating anything could ever happen between Harper and him. Harper just held my arm proudly and stated, “I’m with Brandon.”
“Yes, I can see that now.” Karen gave a fake chuckle. I was starting to see how well she fitted in with her husband and sons. They were all as phony as each other. “How are your mum and dad? Give them my love, won’t you? I know how rough it’s been for them lately. Well, for all of you, after Brodie, and …” she cut herself off and started to walk away. Her incessant chatter followed by her clamming up showed she was nervous. Either that, or she’d remembered how disrespectful her family had been to Harper and the Yates’.
We followed, assuming she was taking us to see her husband. Chase tagged along too, despite me eyeballing him. Fucker always did have balls of steel when it came to pissing me off.
When we came to a pair of oak panelled doors, she stopped and asked us to wait outside, then snuck in through the door, no doubt to warn the occupant inside of the firing squad that’d come to pay him a visit. Or were we the suicide squad? I always did relate more to The Joker than any of the other superheroes.
“I thought you had a fight tonight?” Chase piped up. “Did he beat you that fast? Or did you run away again like a little pussy?” He crossed his arms over his puffed-out chest and rocked back on his feet. I balled my fists at my sides as Harper gave me another reassuring squeeze.
“I knocked your brother the fuck out. Didn’t see the point in staying around to watch the clean-up operation.” Chase’s eyes flickered like he was surprised to hear what I’d said. Did he really think I’d left, or that his brother had beaten me? I didn’t have a scratch on me save for the bruising on my knuckles. And to think the Lockwoods were supposed to be smart. Obviously astute observation and powers of deduction weren’t their strong point. “I’m surprised you didn’t come to watch. What’s up with that? Afraid you’d get your ass kicked too?”
Chase flared his nostrils, but he didn’t get to say anything else. The door flung open and Karen walked out looking paler than she had when she went in.
“He said to go right in.” She stood against the door to hold it open for us and we filed into the warm study like lions entering the colosseum. Prowling slowly and gauging our surroundings for any possible threats.
The room was dimly lit by picture lights on the dark wood-panelled walls and a study lamp that sat on the highly polished mahogany desk. The wooden floors creaked as we moved into the centre of the room and stood in front of the roaring open fire. There was a bookcase the height of the whole room running along one wall. Had he read all of those? There must’ve been hundreds of leather-bound books up there. Who had time to read that many books?
The atmosphere was strangely relaxing, with its smoky whiskey smells and the burn of the fire behind us. The soft crackle as the flames danced over the wood. But I wasn’t about to let this lull me into a false sense of security. The devil that sat behind the desk in the high-backed winged chair made sure that I kept my wits about me. If we were the lions, he was the gladiator, and he carried himself with an air of importance, full of cunning and pride for how he thought he was about to play us.
He watched each of us in turn as we took our places side by side, standing on the Chinese rug laid out in front of the fire. His face didn’t give anything away. If poker were an Olympic sport, no one else would compete because what would be the point? This guy had fucking nailed it.
The room was silent as he picked up his tumbler of whiskey and took a swig, then he placed it back carefully on a coaster. He leant back in his chair with his arms outstretched on his desk, tapping his fingers and sizing us up. It was like we were standing in front of a headmaster, if the headmaster was a cold-hearted sadistic liar who only thought about himself and only kept people around him if he thought they could do something for him.
He must’ve got bored tapping his fingers and decided to thread them together and rest them on his paunched stomach.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” he said in a low drawl, looking at Harper then the others, but not me. He either didn’t see me as a threat or he was avoiding poking the biggest beast in the room.
“You know damn well why we’ve come here,”
I said on a snarl, and he pinned me with a stare that was supposed to unnerve me. It only made me want to goad him further. I didn’t cow down to anyone.
“If I knew what you wanted, I wouldn’t have asked. I don’t play games. I don’t have time. Some of us have a serious business to run.” He stayed still as he spoke, but the tic in his jaw showed he was on edge; more so than he wanted to let on.
“God forbid we should interfere with your business. Isn’t that right, Don?” I opened my legs to stand firmer in my place and crossed my arms over my chest.
“I take it from your tone that you have something on your mind. So, spit it out, boy. I don’t have all night.”
My back went up as soon as he called me boy. I knew he’d said it to belittle me. But it also made me want to settle this the only way I knew how. With my fists.
“Call me boy again, and I’ll show you exactly how wrong you are.”
He huffed out a laugh and moved forward to lean on his desk, his fingers steepled in front of his face.
“You’ve got fire in you. I like that.” He turned to glance at Chase. “Do you have any idea what they want? Seems like we need to play twenty questions to get it out of them.”
Chase rubbed over his chin and chuckled.
“I’m guessing it’s to do with Jensen. He had a fight tonight and-”
“It’s got fuck all to do with Jensen,” I cut in angrily. “I wanna know why you’re sending threatening texts to my friends, trying to get me to throw the fight tonight and involving my girl in this. If you want a war, you come after me, not them, and certainly not her.”
Don Lockwood’s head whipped back around to me so fast he almost gave himself whiplash.
That’s right, I’m calling you out. You come for my friends, you come for me. I would take anyone on who disrespected us.
“What the hell are you on about?” He screwed his face up in disgust. “I haven’t sent you any messages. What is all this?” In his defence, not that he deserved one, but he did look totally clueless.
“We traced the phone records. The number was registered in your name,” Zak added.
We had proof. We weren’t going to let him worm his way out of this so easily.
“Show me. I want to see these messages I’m supposed to have sent.”
Don Lockwood stood up from his chair and walked around to the front of his desk. Then he leant up against it and held his hand out for one of us to hand our phones over. Zak did the honours, and when Don started scrolling, his brow furrowed so deeply he looked like a fucking pug. We all stood firm, ready to jump into action.
“I didn’t send these.” He scowled at us and handed the phone back to Zak. Then he glared right at me. “What number did they come from?”
Chase shuffled backwards as Zak read out the numbers and Don’s face got redder by the second. Dude was a prime target for a heart attack at any minute.
“That’s your new number, Chase,” he barked. “Care to explain to me why you’ve been sending those?”
I threw my head back and let out a growl as I glanced at the ceiling then back at Don fucking Lockwood. All this time we thought we were dealing with some dangerous gangsters or criminals linked to him, and all the time it was his punk ass son doing his attention-seeking bullshit. I needed to kick more Lockwood ass tonight. This was getting out of hand. No way was Chase going to get away with playing us like that. He needed to pay.
“I didn’t,” Chase replied, doing a really shitty job of sounding sincere. The guy needed to own up to his mistakes. He was playing with fire and now he’d gotten burnt.
“Well, they came from your phone. Why did you send them?”
The room went quiet as Chase just stood there, ignoring his dad as he burned a hole into him with his glare.
Suddenly, we jumped out of our skin as Don picked up his tumbler of whiskey and threw it against the wall. “Fucking answer me! I haven’t got time for this! What the fuck did you do, you no good sonovabitch?”
Chase started spluttering over his response and Don marched over to where he stood and slapped him hard across the face, sending Chase crashing to the floor. Harper gasped and I reached out to take her hand in mine. Obviously, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Using their fists on people weaker than them seemed to be a family trait. They were all bullies.
“Get up.” Don leant down and shouted in Chase’s face, spit flying from his mouth as he hissed, “Stop lying there like a pussy and get the fuck up.”
Chase did as his father told him; struggling to stand as he clutched his cheek, wincing.
“Now, explain to me like the fucking man I brought you up to be.” He leant right into Chase’s face as he spoke through his clenched jaw. “Why did you send those messages?”
Chase took a few deep breaths and looked at us with vengeance in his eyes. “They needed teaching a lesson. They get away with everything. The parties, the fights, the bullshit they pulled on Uncle Alec…”
Don held his hand up to stop him.
“He isn’t your Uncle Alec. For fuck’s sake, boy, stop acting like the world owes you something. Alec Winters fucked up. And so will you if you keep up this spoilt little brat charade every time things don’t go your way. Your eighteen years old. Start fucking acting like it.”
We stood watching as Don Lockwood tore his son a new one. For a family that liked to keep their shit hidden, they weren’t doing a very good job of maintaining that.
“They should be locked away for what they did.” Chase argued back weakly, trying to justify himself after he’d made such a shitty move. “They scam people, Dad. They’re the scum of Sandland. Didn’t you say you wanted to clean up this town? I was helping you. I wanted to get rid of the filth as much as you did,” Chase begged like the loser he was. He could see he was failing in his dad’s eyes and he was desperately clawing onto anything to make what he’d done sound right.
“If you want to say something to us, say it to our faces. Don’t hide behind your daddy like a little bitch,” Ryan spat.
Hearing Ryan’s voice gave Chase an injection of bravado and he sprang to attention.
“I’ll happily tell you to your face what I think of you.” He went to charge towards Ryan, but Don held his hand over his chest and pushed him back, making Chase stumble. His bravado fizzled away fast beneath the shadow of daddy’s disappointment.
“Grow the fuck up. There are ways and means, son. Ways we do things. We don’t hide behind messages and play games. I’m running a legitimate business here.” I couldn’t stop myself from scoffing at his attempt to sound like a middle of the road businessman. He tore his gaze from his son to glare at me, but I just grinned back. “I don’t want the police knocking on my door because you can’t control your jealousy over some cheap pussy you lost out on because of these jokers.” He shoved Chase one last time, then smoothed his hands down the front of his expensive suit jacket like it’d been nothing.
Ryan darted forward, the fury rolling off him was palpable. The reference to Emily wasn’t lost on him, and the fact he’d called her cheap pussy was like a slap in the face. Even I wanted to knock the shit out of him for that one. Who did these people think they were?
“That’s my girlfriend you’re talking about. Your ex-best friend’s daughter.” Ryan could barely hold back as he glared at them both, baring his teeth like a wild animal.
“Ex being the operative word,” Don snapped, pacing forward to try to intimidate Ryan into backing down. “We don’t speak to the Winters family anymore and we certainly don’t condone what they did.” He held his nose up in the air as if his shit didn’t stink. The thing was, we could all smell it, and he was the biggest liar of them all. I was getting tired of their phony bullshit.
“Your filthy hands were all over that deal,” Zak said, making us all turn to face him. “We know that. Everyone in Sandland knows it too. You can argue all you want in here, but we all know the truth.”
Don swerved around like a monster ready to attack an
d focused all of his poisonous venom onto Zak.
“What happened to Winters was his fault. Nothing to do with me, my family, or my business. So, if that’s all you came here to say, you can leave.” He marched back to his desk to sit down and dismiss us like some kind of demon headmaster. “My son won’t be texting you again. You’ve got what you came here for. Now go.”
Like we wanted to stay for a moment longer than we had to.
“Why didn’t he text Brandon?”
We all stopped dead when Finn spoke. Don’s eyes grew wide as he peered over at Chase. Chase froze and swallowed nervously as if he was trying to gulp down the lies he knew would spout out of his mouth at any minute. And we all waited. Finn had hit on something here.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and every muscle in my body tensed up as a gravelly voice at the door said, “Yeah, Dad. Why didn’t he text Brandon?”
We all turned to face Jensen, who stood at the door to the study. His face was bloody and swelling up badly. From the way he was leaning in the doorway, I could tell he was in pain, and that fact made this shit show slightly more bearable. I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face seeing how much he was suffering, but at the same time, I was pissed. He knew something about what was going on and I didn’t like him holding any cards. I should’ve finished the fucker off when I had the chance.
“What the fuck is going on?” I asked, looking between each of the Lockwoods. From what Jensen was implying, this went deeper than a grudge between Chase and the rest of us.
“You need to go the hospital, you’re a fucking mess,” was all Don Lockwood said in response, but Jensen wasn’t going to be deterred that easily. He hobbled further into the room and then put his hands onto his father’s desk as he leant forward to speak to him. The way he leered over him to try and get the upper hand was laughable with how broken and injured he was.
“Tell them, Dad. Tell them why Chase didn’t message Mathers. Why all of us were told to stay the fuck away from him.”
I frowned so hard my face hurt, and I balled my fists to keep myself in check and not lash out. I needed to hear this.
Tortured Souls (Rebels of Sandland Book 2) Page 29
