***
I got off my bike at the playground and called Tanner.
"Talk to me."
"I'm at the old playground we use to light up at. Dani is bringing the file over. Come get it and get the fuck out of my life."
"No trick? No jokes? No guns?"
"Just a file and a tired old man, you bitch." I glanced up at the stars and said a silent prayer. My mother always believed in God. Maybe her God would hear me and grant me a little bit of grace in what I was about to do.
"I'll be right there, Jon."
I dropped the call and slipped my phone in my back pocket as a cop car pulled up. Dani.
She got out as I walked toward her with a serious look on my face. "You got the file?"
"I did." She shut the door and walked around the car, extending her hand to me. "Is he on his way to get it?"
"Yes. Get in your car and get out of here." I pulled her close and leaned down, kissing her a couple of times. "I don't want you anywhere near Tanner when he gets here."
"No. I'm not going anywhere without you."
"Yeah. You are." I nipped at her mouth. "Go get our hotel and wait for me. I'll be there before you can blink twice. I'm not able to protect me and you. Don't put me in danger by staying here. Go."
"Johnny." She shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. "What if something happens?"
"Something is going to happen. I'm going to clean up the mess I helped make. Tanner was my best friend, and if I'd done things a little differently back then, I maybe could have saved him. He's mine to put out of his misery. He's not happy. He's not human anymore. Get out of here, and I'll find you as soon as it's done, baby. Now." I patted her ass and kissed her again, taking a lot longer than I should have.
"Fine. Call the minute it's done." She jogged towards the car, her long brown hair dancing behind her as she left. "Promise?"
"Yes. Get outta here, you needy bitch." I winked and turned away from the car. I needed a few minutes to think.
Unfortunately, I didn't get more than a minute.
"Where do you think she's going?" Tanner smiled and walked out of the forest at the edge of the property with something in his hand.
"Hopefully far away from here." I pulled out a pack of cigarettes. I hadn't smoked in ages, but my nerves were completely fried. I lit up a cig and offered it to him. "Want one?"
"No. I smoked a joint before coming up here." He glanced around and lifted the item in his hand. "I knew you would win the girl over. I tried, you know, to get her to bend a little. To come to the dark side."
I snorted. "I live on the dark side, Tan. She's already here. She's the worst cop I know. Well, maybe outside of some of those bastards you have working for you."
"Maybe." He ran his thumb over a bright blue button on the panel. "You know it's not your fault that things turned out like this, right? It was my mother's fault."
"I should have been there for you, but I was lost in the grief over losing my brother and my father so close together." I took a deep drag from the cigarette as I watched him.
He nodded. "Your father I had nothing to do with, but your brother... he was my fault."
"I'm sorry?" I tossed the cigarette toward a puddle of water on the ground. "You couldn't have had anything to do with Roberto. He OD'd. You know this."
"Yeah. I know real well." He looked up, his dark eyes filled with hate. "Did you sleep with my mother, Jon? Was that you I saw between her legs, fucking her the day my dad shot himself?"
And there it was.
I nodded. "I was a kid, Tanner. Your mom was a whore and a beautiful one. I got toked up and came to see you. I had no idea what I was doing."
"Right." He was far too calm. "I had no clue what I was doing either the day I sat on Roberto's chest and fed him pills until he convulsed and threw up blood all over me." He shook his head, his eyes dead. "I was high just like you were."
"You didn't do that. You wouldn't." I gripped my hands into fists. I wasn't going to shoot him. I was going to strangle him until he died under the pressure of my fingers.
"You fucked my mother!"
"I thought she was Candace, you bitch!" I moved toward him aggressively as he held up the device.
"Well, the score isn't settled, asshole. You made me kill my sister. I'm one down."
"You did that shit because you're a sick mother fucker." I glanced down to the device. "What is that?"
"Let me show you." He lifted it and hit the button.
I charged at him as something exploded from behind me. The sound and smell left me with one conclusion. Dani's car. He had to have set a bomb on Dani's car.
"You sorry bastard." I took him down and straddled him as I wrapped my hands around his throat. "You're a disease that has spread all over my life, taking everything I love and destroying it."
He flipped us around and pulled out a blade, jamming it in my chest before I could get to him. "No, you're the one destroying it. You saved my life only to change the entire course of it in one afternoon." He twisted the knife and pulled it out, preparing to stab me again. "Did you read the goddamn note that my dad left?"
"Tan. Stop it. You know I didn't do that shit on purpose."
"He put your fucking name in there." He pressed down harder, and my arms shook as I tried to hold him away. "He put in the note for me to tell you that he fucking loved you like a son. You sorry son of a bitch. You were the one he found her with." He laughed maniacally. "He just didn't know it was you, Jon. He killed himself over you and then left a note reminding me to tell you that he loved you."
"I loved him too, and I loved you, bastard." I pushed back up, but the explosion the day before had me weary, and the thought of Dani being dead down the road gave me very little to fight for.
I saw the faces of my family. My friends and the MC. I heard the sound of Dani's voice, but I couldn't tell where it was from so I didn't try to.
A gunshot rang out, and the pressure of Tanner subsided as he dropped to the ground beside me.
"Tan?" I whispered and rolled on my side as blood covered my fingers from the stab wound. It was too close to my heart. Maybe it was time to go. My mom and dad would be waiting anyway. Roberto. Candace.
"Johnny." Dani dropped down beside me and got into my face, her tears coating my skin as she cried uncontrollably. "Hold on, baby. The ambulance is coming."
"But your car," I took a painful breath and groaned. "He blew it up."
"I'd already gotten out of it, Johnny. I was running back to hide in the bushes and shoot him. He's dead. Please don't leave okay? Just hang in there. Please. For me."
"For you," I whispered and reached up to touch her silky hair one more time before the darkness took me under.
Peace. For the first time in my life... I knew peace.