CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Remy
“How’s it going?” I shuffle into Cash’s shop, shivering slightly as the cold weather affects me now that I’ve started to cool off from the game. Caelin, who’s his afternoon help sometimes when neither he nor Tatum can work the shop, is manning the front. His eyes are at half-mast as he looks up at me. A few minutes later and I may have caught him taking a nap.
“Boring as fuck.” He yawns, leaning over so that he reads something on his phone. He’s tall, much like Tyler, and when he straightens to his full height, I almost have to look up. “School was out today because of the ‘snow’.” He rolls his eyes as he makes air quotes with his fingers. “So I’ve been here since Tatum left, and only one person has come in to pick up their car. Most boring day ever. I can’t believe Cash is paying me for this.”
“You could be working across the street and actually having to work to get paid,” I remind him as I glance over my shoulder. Liam’s shop is still hopping, and it looks like most of what’s sitting over there will be there when I clock in tomorrow morning.
“Aww, fuck no, man. Not today, not today.”
I laugh because he seems to be so put out by the whole situation. The kid will learn soon enough, but at sixteen, he’s probably not gonna have that lesson for a while. “Go ahead and get out of here. I’m waiting on Tatum to meet me, so I’ll close up for you.”
“You sure?” His face lights up, a grin covering the darker skin. Chances are he’s got plans, and I’ve just helped him go meet whatever girl he’s messing around with right now for a good time.
“Get outta here.” I jerk my thumb to the door, shaking my head. I don’t know what I would have done, had I had a youth like his. Probably would have been much smoother in getting Tatum to say she’s mine. Reminding myself that it doesn’t matter how we came to be together, only that we are. I watch as he vaults over the counter and all but runs out the damn door.
After Caelin leaves, I play on my phone for a good fifteen minutes, and when it looks like no one is going to come in, I head to the back for a quick tidy up of my appearance. Using the toiletries Cash keeps on hand when he has to meet Harper, I do my best to clean up so I don’t completely stink when Tatum gets here.
As I’m changing my shirt, the bell rings indicating someone has entered the shop. Just my luck since it closes in the next ten minutes, but hopefully it’s Tatum and we can get out of here. “Be right there,” I yell, finishing up. My cut’s over on the other side of the small room, and I don’t want to waste time possibly getting whoever this is out, in case it’s not Tatum. I walk out wearing a plain shirt.
In case it is her, I have a smile on my face as I round the corner. I’m excited to see her, happy to be spending time with her tonight, and I want her to know it. “Hey beautiful.” The words break off in a whisper as I notice who’s in the shop.
Time stops, the smile on my face freezes, my heart drops, and I experience the worst panic I’ve ever felt in my life as I see the two people standing in front of me. This can’t be happening, absolutely can’t be fucking happening. Why now? Why when I’m getting everything I’ve ever wanted and piecing my fucking life together? Why now?
Keep it together, Remy. Don’t show fear. You’re the member of a motorcycle club. Show them who are you are now, not who you were back then.
“You’ve grown up so much,” the woman says, clasping her hands to her chest and looking at me with so much pride it almost makes me want to throw up.
I don’t answer her as I struggle for words, for breath, for a fucking anchor in this fucked up situation I’ve found myself in. Surely to God there’s got to be someone recording somewhere, and they’re going to jump out and tell me I’ve been pranked by someone with a fucked-up sense of humor. Honestly though, if that’s the case, I’ll be relieved.
“You do remember us, right?” the man asks, his gaze roaming around the shop. No doubt casing the place, trying to figure out how he can take everything Cash has worked for his entire life. I avoid his eyes, hating the way he looks at me and knowing the shit about me he does.
After what feels like years, I find my voice. “I know who you are. The question is why you’re here. What the hell do you want?”
The woman steps forward, a sick smile on her wrinkled face. If rode hard, put up wet were in the dictionary, she’d be the picture next to it. “We’re your parents, Remington, what kind of a question is that?”
“A damn good one. I haven’t talked to you since I was twelve years old, haven’t seen you since my graduation, and even right now, this is way too goddamn soon. Get the fuck out of Cash’s shop.”
Neither one of them budge as their eyes take in the life Cash has built for himself. “We’re family,” George Sawyer says, putting his elbows on the counter.
“No we’re not. Get the fuck out.” I point to the door again. “You may remember me as a little kid who couldn’t get out from under your fists, who hid in the dark because you scared the shit out of him, and who couldn’t take fifteen steps without taking a hit off an inhaler. I ain’t that kid anymore.”
“Yeah you are.” George gives me a smirk. “You’re always going to be that kid, doesn’t matter if your balls finally dropped or not. Seem to remember one particular night where you pissed your pants waiting for me to leave. That’s fear boy, and I can still smell it coming off you like a Pitbull smells fresh blood.”
Rage is a dark and red haze over my eyes. I’m fighting against the anger and desire I have rolling through my body to kill this motherfucker standing in front of me right now. My life was a joke to him, it was something to play with and make a place of fear. He succeeded for a long time, made me think everything was my fault and I deserved all the crazy shit he did to me.
Right now, I’d love to give him a taste of everything he gave me and all the other people he fucked over, but I can’t. Tatum’s on her way, and I don’t want her to be subjected to either one of these pieces of shit. Quite frankly, I don’t want them to know what she means to me.
“You may not know who I am now, but I wear a patch on my cut that guarantees I have backup whenever I need it.”
George shoots me a look of disbelief, chuckling as he moves his eyes up and down my body. Right now I’m sorry I was changing when they came in, otherwise I’d show him that cut. “You joined an MC? You?”
“Patched in member and everything, you bastard. Which means I’m one of the last people you probably wanna go head to head with. I’ve changed a lot since the last time you saw me.”
He stares at me, almost as if he’s seeing me for the first time. And maybe he is. He didn’t give two shits about me when I was a kid. All I was to him was a problem. A medical bill that landed in the hospital every few months. There’s a tiny sliver of fear in his gaze, and I grasp onto it, holding it tightly within my fingers as I welcome it. For once I hold power over him, and it’s a heady feeling.
It’s a hard thing to hold the rage back, to keep myself in control, but I do it, because I don’t want to be him. As much as I know the anger and darkness is inside of me, I don’t want to fulfill the prophecy. My gaze travels outside, and I see Addie dropping Tatum off. Fuck, I hadn’t wanted my parents to see her.
“You gotta leave, now.”
“Who is she to you, Remington?” my mom asks, her voice soft, as she gazes at me. “Your eyes lit up when you first saw her. You looked like a man in love.”
Using my body, I try to turn them toward the door, herd them out like the cattle they are. “She’s none of your business. I need you to leave. I have to close up.”
Tatum comes busting through the door, a huge smile on her face, completely oblivious to what’s taking place here. She runs into my arms, wrapping herself around my body.
“I’m surprised you aren’t closed yet. I thought Caelin was watching the shop.” She leans up, kissing me on the jaw, squeezing her arms around my waist.
My eyes are on the two people behind her. My mom looking like she wants an introduction, my dad looks like he wants to eat her up as his gaze travels to her ass. I possessively cup my palm around the curve, accepting her kiss. “They were just leaving and then I was going to.”
“We’ll be back to pick up our car later.” George’s eyes meet mine.
I see the challenge there. He won’t make me break, at least not in front of him, and he sure as hell won’t touch Tatum – not if I have anything to say about it. We’re having a conversation through clenched jaws and squinted eyes shooting daggers at one another across the room. If this were a movie, he’d be the bad guy with the shitty music playing in the background.
“It’ll be ready.” I mean those words, more than I ever have. Now that I have someone to back me, they won’t ever see me being the weak-ass kid I was back then. This is a shock, and I have no doubt that when they leave I’ll lose my fucking mind, but they won’t see me the way they remember me. I’ll make old Remy proud and stand toe-to-toe with these two.
And with that they leave, allowing my body to relax for the first time since they came in. I deflate, the adrenaline that had been coursing through my body is fucking gone. My hands shake and my knees knock. As I stagger, Tatum makes a noise in her throat, tightening her grip around me.
“Remy, you okay?” Tatum finally clues in that something wasn’t right about the exchange. Her eyes are wild as she watches me totally tuck into myself. It’s what I always do after I have a run-in with these two. It’s been my reaction since I was a little kid, and damn if being an adult doesn’t change it.
Trying to focus on my breathing, I close my eyes for a split second, but feel myself sway. “I gotta sit down.” I reach blindly for a chair, or anything I can sit on. “Lock the door so my parents don’t come back in.”
And it’s then I have the mother of all freak outs.