“Why the hell would you want to hear about that dumb bitch?” He scoffs, crawling forward to collect the bottle of water.
If he makes it to tomorrow morning, he’ll find a different kind of surprise in his fluids.
If he’d like to be cruel, then I can match his energyperfectly.The only thing worse than being chained in a cell is experiencing it while being given high doses of laxatives.
If that doesn’t do the trick, I might take his eye. Then a few fingers. After that, each one of his toes. I’m officially bored of playing the cordial host. He hasn’t been a very good guest, so I see no point in continuing to be civil.
My teeth grind together, and I take several calming breaths. “Humor me.”
“She fucked my president back in the day.” He cracks the bottle of water, taking a long sip. “Then she fucked him up real good.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask, pretending to be clueless.
“She stabbed his ass—something like fourteen times.” McCarthy grabs the pack of peanut butter crackers, ripping into it. “Damn near killed him. He won’t ever be the same.”
My eyes flutter behind my glasses, but I ensure he gets no further reaction. “And he wants revenge.”
“He wants to rip her apart piece by piece. To watch her bleed and listen to her beg for death.” McCarthy shoves a cracker into his mouth. “And that was before we knew she ran off with his kid. Candy better pray he never gets his hands on her.”
That won’t be a problem.
My brothers and I would never allow that to happen.
Poor Charlotte.
She believes she was successful in killing him, and she still carries guilt about that. I can only imagine how frightened she would be if she understood that he’s still alive.
There are times when I hate learning secrets.
Now is one of those times. I’m going to have to decide when and how to tell her.
If I knew we could take Blade out without her ever needing to find out that he’s still alive, I believe that would be the moremerciful option. Unfortunately, I don’t have confidence that Charlotte would feel the same way. I don’t like the idea of being sneaky, but goddammit, I also don’t want to hurt her by telling her.
I hate this.
“How did you find her after all these years?” I ask.
“Someone fucked up somewhere.” He shrugs.
My eyes narrow. “I need a bit more clarification than that.”
“It took an entire year until Blade was healed enough to start looking,” McCarthy says. “He hired a private investigator and put out the word to have all the other chapters look out for her. Nobody found shit for a while. Not until he hired a new PI. Someone fucked up somewhere, and instead of using her new information, the hospital ran her old social security number. Blade was mighty fucking surprised when some more digging determined that hospital stay was for a woman giving birth.”
“I see,” I say as my mind races.
Little does he know he’s talking about my bonded mate.
Blade may have donated a small amount of DNA to aid in Lukas’s conception, but the boy belongs to us. As soon as we convince Charlotte to marry us, we’ll legally adopt Lucky. That, or we could have his birth certificate falsified to say he belongs to Patrick. I would volunteer, but Lucky naturally looks the most like Charlotte and Patrick.
There’s also the fact that no one would find it shocking to learn Pat fathered a child while we were technically still under contract with the Chapmans. At least to my knowledge, he stopped dating and hooking up three years ago, which was around the time we really started to notice the changes in Malachy. Still, I’m not sure if any of the other families know that.
The contract even covers what would occur if Malachy came to the wedding day with a child from another relationship. It would allow the Chapmans to back out, but rather than owing usthe full amount, we would lose twenty percent repayment as a penalty.
If Malachy had a child, and the Chapmans chose to go through with the marriage arrangement, we would owe them twenty percent of the original payout, and that child born out of wedlock would lose all inheritance rights.
I don’t believe for a second that Vanessa’s father added that to protect his daughter. More than likely, he included it as a way to save twenty percent.
Though, technically, the penalty wouldn’t apply to me or Patrick, because we weren’t specifically named in the contract. At the same time, if either of us had a child, I know we would honor the agreement in the same way as if Malachy had a kid.
