by Chiah Wilder
Rock started to follow, but he saw Wheelie, Bones, Blade, and Tigger pushing the rich fuck back into the living room. Clotille was still striking him like a crazed woman, and she was still naked. Bones took the leash from her hand, took off his T-shirt, and handed it to her. She put it on, then sank down to the floor sobbing.
Bones walked over to Rock, who drew his brother into a bear hug. Pulling back, he said, “Fuck, am I glad to see your ugly face. I was too damn close to losing one of my best possessions.” Bones winced and stared at the garden shears on the floor. Rock walked over to Frederick and glared at him. “You sonofabitch.” He punched him hard, smirking when he heard the asshole’s jaw shatter under his knuckles.
Bones went over and put his face a couple of inches in front of Frederick’s. “You don’t know shit about us. We got one law, asshole, and it’s, ‘You fuck with one, you fuck with all.’” Then he hauled off and slammed his fist into Frederick’s nose, snapping it.
“Fuck, man. We didn’t know you were an Insurgent. You shoulda told us. Copperhead didn’t know Frederick wanted us to hurt an Insurgent,” one of the Gypsy Fiends said. The one Rock shot had been taken by a couple of his brothers back to their clubhouse.
Hawk narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, right. Tell Copperhead he owes us big for this fuckin’ mess. I’ll be in touch with him. Now get the fuck outta here.”
“You don’t believe that bullshit, do you?” Rock said.
“Not for a fuckin’ minute. I’ll use it to get the price lowered and have them enter into an exclusive deal with us for future arms. I don’t wanna have to haul my ass back to this humidity for a long time. I’m aching to get back to my woman.” Hawk moved closer to Rock. “Speaking of women, yours is in a bad way.”
“Yeah.” Rock glanced over at Clotille, who sat on the floor, staring at it.
“You want me to go over to her?” Hawk pressed his lips together.
“Nah, I’ll take care of it.”
“Your head stop bleeding?”
“Yeah. It was just a gash, nothing major.”
“You okay?”
“Not really. Some serious shit went down. I was right about Frederick being involved with my mom’s death. Turns out Clotille’s brother and mine did the murder-for-hire. Fuck, I can’t believe it.”
Hawk whistled under his breath. “Damn, dude… that’s rough.” He pulled Rock into a hug. “You know we’re all here for you. We’ll make sure the fucker gets his ass dumped at the badges’ station. You go take care of your woman.”
Rock tilted his chin and shuffled over to Clotille, who hadn’t moved since Bones gave her his T-shirt. He knelt beside her. “Come on. Let’s go.”
She looked up at him, her eyes wildly scanning his face. “Do you hate me?”
He shrugged. “Right now I want you to stand up so I can take you back to Isa’s.”
“I couldn’t stand it if you hated me. I did the best I could. Would I have done things differently if I could go back in time? Hell yes, I would. But I was a sheltered seventeen-year-old. I didn’t know anything. I was scared shitless.”
“You could have told me,” he said in a low voice. “You chose not to, and you have to live with that choice because you can’t go back and change it. I don’t wanna talk about it anymore. I have some other things on my mind. Let’s go.” He held out his hand and she took it. He wrapped his arm around her as they walked out of the house.
And neither of them looked back.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Rock watched Henri cross the street in the middle and head for the park. He’d been waiting outside Suzette’s apartment ever since Isa told him Henri spent all his evenings there, but never slept over. After two hours, his patience had paid off as he watched his brother disappear in the shadows of the cypress trees.
He quickened his step and soon he spotted Henri taking the path near the lake. He sped up and he could tell by the way Henri walked faster that he knew someone was behind him. Rock would bet the fucking wimp was second-guessing his decision to take the shortcut through the park. He was probably beginning to sweat, his blood pumping through his veins as he wondered if he should make a run for it. I want you to feel fear the way Maman did, you motherfucker. Rock clomped his boots loudly on the pavement just to make Henri shit his pants.
Henri whirled around, his eyes bulging and his chest heaving up and down. “What do you want—” He stopped short, then recognition spread over his face and he let out a long breath. “It’s you. What a relief. I thought it was someone who wanted to mug me.”
You’re going to wish it were after I’m done with you. “Oh yeah? I was just in the area and thought I’d walk by the lake on the way to my bike. What’re you doing in the park?”
“Suzette lives close to here, so I usually take a shortcut home. I live on the other side. Most of the time I drive, but she wanted to walk from my place to hers earlier today, so that’s how I’m here.”
Rock nodded. “Let’s go by the lake. Remember how we used to throw stones at the lake near us? Maman would always collect just the right size of flat stones so we could skip them easier. Do you remember that?”
Henri shoved his hands in his pocket. “Yeah. I always wondered how we had so many rocks on our dresser. For the longest time I thought there was a rock fairy. I haven’t thought about that in years.”
I wonder if you thought about it as you and Armand plunged the knife in Maman’s neck over and over. “She always thought about us. She was a great mom.”
“She was.” Henri stopped by the edge of the lake and bent over as if searching for something. “Let’s skip a few rocks in memory of Maman.”
Rock growled, hate riding up his spine. He stood behind Henri. “Why did you kill her?” he said in a low, hard voice.
Henri straightened up and spun around. “Kill who?”
Rock saw the fear and deceit in his brother’s eyes, and he wanted to rip them out so they’d stop mocking him. “Maman.” His voice was barely a whisper.
“Are you fucking drunk or stoned? I didn’t kill Maman, Pa did. You know all this. I have to get home.” He started to walk away but Rock blocked his path.
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me how you could kill our mother.” A steel edge had crept into his voice.
“I can’t believe you’d think I’d kill Maman! I was in St. Martin that night. Don’t you remember? I was watching the traps Pa had set up. I’d thought it was unfair that I had to waste another weekend at the bayou while you had fun at your senior party, but I went. Don’t you remember how fucking mad Pa was when I told him I didn’t want to go? You have to remember that. I’d never do anything like that to Maman. How could you think such a thing? I was just as shocked as you were that Pa had killed her. You weren’t the only one who loved her.” Henri rambled on without taking a breath, and Rock just stood there holding back his urge to break his brother’s neck. When he stopped to inhale, Rock said, “Are you finished?”
“You have to believe me, I—”
“That’s where the problem is. I don’t believe a fuckin’ thing you’re saying. I know you did it, so that’s not what I’m asking you. What I’ve been asking is why you did it. That’s what I wanna know. I’m real curious about that.”
Henri slumped his shoulders. “Madame Vincennes told you, didn’t she? I’d told Armand she’d be trouble, but he didn’t listen to me. The asshole always thinks he knows everything.”
“It wasn’t Madame Vincennes. I guess you killed her for nothing.”
“Armand offed her. I had nothing to do with that. If it wasn’t her, then who told you?”
“It’s none of your fuckin’ business.”
Henri nodded. “It doesn’t matter anyway. Do Isa and Lille know?”
“Isa knows Pa was innocent. I haven’t told her yet. I wanted to know why you did it. Frederick Blair has been arrested, as well as Armand. How in the fuck did you end up with Armand? He hated our family. He thought he was better than us.”
“I know. Greed is an evil seducer. He was involved with Frederick, selling the land in the bayou for him. Frederick paid him well for each sale. Everyone was more than eager to sell their land for big bucks except for Maman. She held out. You know Pa wanted her to sell, that they fought about it all the time. I’d told Pa how much we could’ve made, and he tried to convince her, but she was a stubborn woman.”
“Armand knew Frederick before his father died? Clotille said he didn’t know them until after her father died and left them broke.”
“Armand has known Blair for a long time, just acted like he didn’t. He fixed it up so his sister would meet him. Blair had seen Clotille and wanted her. Armand basically gave her to him in exchange for a fat monthly stipend. Like I said, greed clouds all loyalties.”
“You killed Maman for money?”
“Stop asking me these questions. Yes, I did, but it was her fault. If only she would’ve sold the land none of this would’ve happened. But she was selfish. Even if she didn’t want money for herself, she should’ve thought about us. We deserved a better life. She wanted to be poor. I didn’t.”
Rock tackled Henri and pinned him down on his back. Straddling him, he pummeled his face over and over. “You fucking sonofabitch! You killed Maman! You took the one person away from me who loved me unconditionally. I wanted to give her a better life and you fuckin’ took that away from me. You kept her from seeing Isa grow and have kids, from Lille becoming a young woman. You took her from us!” He panted heavily between his words as he continued to beat Henri senseless at the edge of the lake.
The scent of dirt wafted around him as he raised his arm to strike his brother yet another time. But he couldn’t bring his arm down; it was like something was holding it back. Then the aroma of magnolias and passion flowers overwhelmed him, and he felt his mother’s presence in the breeze, the rippling lake, the trees, the earth, and the flowers. He looked down and realized Henri was unconscious, his face bloodied and beginning to swell. Rock placed two fingers on the pulse in his neck and felt the strong beats.
He moved off Henri and sat on the ground, staring at the water as it reflected the moonlight. The lump in his throat grew larger until he rested his head on his bent knees and cried for the first time since he’d found his mother’s butchered body. His whole body shook as the sobs ripped through his bones, muscles, and gut, the sound of them filling the spaces between the leaves on the trees, the soft moonlight caressing the ground as it shone above amid the shimmering stars.
* * *
Poor Isa had been in shock ever since Rock had told her what really happened to their mother. He’d called the badges after he’d reached his bike and told them where they could find Henri. After being released from the hospital, Henri was formally charged. Rock doubted if he’d stay loyal to Frederick and Armand. He gave him a week or less before he squealed.
“You’ll be back for the trial?” Isa said.
She had dark circles under her eyes. It hurt him to see her suffering like she was. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Yeah. I’ll be back if there’s a trial.” He squeezed her hand. “Now that I’ve seen Aline and Michael, I’ll be coming back more often for a visit.”
Her eyes shimmered. “I’d like that. What about your son?” He darted his eyes to hers. “Clotille told me everything. She’s feeling awful about how everything turned out.”
“She should be. Hawk’s old lady is a lawyer. I’ll talk to her when I get back home to see about visitation.”
“Clotille won’t keep you from seeing him. She wants to bring him to Lafayette so I can meet him. She’s trying to make up for all the mistakes she’s made over the years. Can’t you give her a chance to do it? As a woman, I can understand to what lengths a mother will go to protect her child and give him a good life. You know, she loves you.”
“She has a fuckin’ funny way of showing it. Enough. I’ll figure it out.” He rose to his feet. “I’ll be back.” He left the room and ambled downstairs.
When he went into the bedroom, Clotille was sitting on the overstuffed chair. “Hi, Rock. I’m so glad to see you.”
“Hey.” He went to the closet, took out a small duffel bag, and began stuffing it with his clothes.
“What’re you doing?”
“Packing.”
“Are you going back to Colorado with the others?”
“Yeah.”
“When are you going?” Her voice hitched.
“In a couple days. I’m going to stay at the Devil’s Legions’ clubhouse until we take off.”
“I’ll leave. I don’t want to drive you away from here. I’m the intruder, not you. I’ll go to a hotel.”
“You can stay. Isa’s cool with it. I wanna be with my brothers.”
A tense silence engulfed them. He zipped up his bag and went to the bathroom to gather up his toiletries, coming out and putting his stuff in a black case.
“Are we okay?” she asked in a small voice.
He checked all the drawers in the dresser and nightstand, then turned to her. “No, we’re not. You kept it secret all these years that we had a son? You had all those years to enjoy him, watch him grow, be his mother. How the fuck did you think it was okay to deny me the same things? I can’t forgive you.”
Her face fell. “I was seventeen years old and pregnant, and you were headed to prison for God knows how long. Would it have been better if I would’ve had an abortion? Would that make you feel better?”
“I’m not saying that.”
“Then what are you saying? I had to give our baby a name, a chance at a life. You weren’t around so I married Luc, and he played at being a mediocre daddy for seven years. You never once contacted me from prison. You ignored all my letters. When you got out, you never looked me up. You keep saying I deserted you, but you deserted me too. I didn’t know where the hell you went. I’d heard at one of the high school reunions that you’d joined up with some biker gang.”
“You could’ve called Isa to find out where I was.”
“I guess I could’ve, but I barely knew Isa and I had no clue where she lived. I went to your house after I found out about the baby and it was boarded up. Your whole family scattered after you went to prison. I was trying to survive the best I knew how. When Luc and I divorced, I was a single mom working two jobs and trying to keep everything together. I’m sorry if you weren’t on my mind daily. During that time, the only thing that was on my mind was how to give our son a better life. I love him so much.” Her voice broke and she wiped her cheeks.
“Why didn’t you tell me when I was in prison?”
“What could you have done about it? Could you have married me? Given Andrew a life? Damnit! I didn’t even know if you were going down on an assault or murder charge. Your father was in ICU for a long time. I didn’t know if you were going to spend the rest of your life in prison. My family would’ve disowned me. Everything I did, I did for Andrew. I would’ve died for him if it meant giving him a better life. Do you seriously think I hooked up and stayed with Frederick for four years so my mother could have a big house and my insane brother could have Armani suits? I did it for our son. Every lash to my back, every humiliation Frederick threw my way, I did for Andrew. I knew if I told you, you would’ve charged in and rescued Andrew, but I also knew Frederick would’ve killed him before you got there. He held that over my head for all these years. Frederick threatened so many times, especially when I was with him in the beginning, that he’d make Andrew disappear. I couldn’t bear it if I lost him too. Whenever I went to visit him at his boarding school, I’d think how wonderful it was to have a piece of you forever. He means everything to me and I couldn’t lose him, even if it meant pretending you weren’t his dad. I could never let Frederick know that Luc wasn’t Andrew’s father. And you can bet my mother and brother held that fact over my head.” She took out a tissue and blew her nose. “Why didn’t you bother to write me or try to look me up after you got out of prison?”
He shrugged.
“Why would I? The way I saw it was that you left me. I wasn’t a pussy. I wasn’t going to beg after you.”
“So it was your pride?”
“Fuck, woman. Don’t be laying guilt and shit on me. You’re the one to blame here, not me.”
“I know,” she said softly. “But your actions weren’t exactly stellar either.”
He stared at her. “Where’s he now?”
“In Connecticut with a cousin of mine. When I left Frederick, I called her immediately and wired her some money to take him out of his boarding school. I knew Frederick would go after Andrew to hurt me, so I hid him with her. I’ve been planning to be with him before all this happened. That’s why I was hesitant about going back to Pinewood Springs with you. It wasn’t because I didn’t love you; it was because I didn’t want to be without Andrew anymore. I know you won’t believe me, but I’d planned to tell you about Andrew the night everything got so crazy. I’d texted you telling you I wanted us to talk. Before we spent this time together in Lafayette, I wasn’t sure. You’d told me back in Pinewood Springs that you weren’t ready for a family. You said you liked your life easy and free, but after I fell in love with you all over again, I made up my mind to tell you about Andrew even if it meant I’d lose you. I didn’t tell you right away because I didn’t want to mess Andrew up. He’s always thought Luc was his dad. How could I have told him that you were, only to have you walk away from him? Whether you believe me or not, I do love you and I’ll never stop loving you.”
“Too much too late, babe. I’m talking to a lawyer to find out what my rights are. You know, you’re a real fuckin’ piece of work. You crushed my heart years ago, and then you come back in my life and you fuckin’ stomp on it. Now it’s encased in steel, baby, and I don’t need any woman taking a blowtorch to it.”
