Relentless: The Legacy Rises, page 34
Dinah glared at him. “I refuse to allow you to come in and ruin my hard work. I’m a single mother alone. I’m training her to be a responsible child with respect for what I endure.”
He started down the hallway, loving the smell of fresh paint and upgraded hardwood floors. “I’ll help her. She’s a small girl. She shouldn’t—”
Dinah barreled in his path. “Stay here! My name is on the title. Not yours.”
“I paid for it, babe,” Joe said with a grin, trying to butter her up.
“Move one step where I don’t want you to go, and you won’t ever be welcomed back. This house belongs to me!”
That wasn’t quite the truth, but he wouldn’t argue. “Fine, babe,” he sighed.
The situation deflated him. Two weeks ago, he’d rode down to New Orleans with K-P. After spending ten days visiting Bailey, they’d left. K-P loved his daughter, but since Roxanne was married again, he wasn’t as happy in the city. Instead of returning to Hortensia with his brother, Joe headed to Seattle to visit Dinah and Meggie.
“Dinah, babe, I know it’s a lot on you without me here full-time.” He regretted the way their relationship had turned out. She was as different from Kimber as night was from day. Kimber had been a happy, carefree soul. Dinah had a depthless despair that she claimed began with the death of her parents. But he loved and respected her. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Move to Hortensia with me. I’ll buy you a house. Fuck, I’ll have one built—”
Her nostrils flared. “Hortensia is too close to Logan.”
Not liking her tone, he started toward her, but she stepped back and he halted. “Did Logan hurt you?”
She folded her arms, her eyes filling with tears. “Does it matter, Joe?”
“What the fuck—? Are you out of your fucking mind, woman? Of course, it matters.”
If Logan had laid his filthy fingers on Dinah, Joe would gut him, and finally vindicate Tess and Pattie. Finally, redeem himself for allowing him to live so many years ago.
“No, he hasn’t hurt me,” she said hoarsely. “And, even if he had, it can’t compare to how much you hurt me time and again.”
Her words struck him like a blow. “Dinah—”
“I don’t want to hear it, Joe! I haven’t seen you in a month. I can’t deal with the instability of your life. You’d been coming here every week for two months, then suddenly it stops again.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I…fuck, Dinah. I don’t know what to say, babe. I had a run to Los Angeles about four months ago to see to some business with Sharper.”
He’d volunteered because Dinah had just rejected another marriage proposal from him.
Things had been going so good between them again, so he’d quietly chartered a Seattle chapter with the intention of moving him, Christopher, K-P, and Joey with him. He’d talked to Patricia, who’d agreed to encourage Christopher to go with him. Of course he’d had to fuck her, because when didn’t she want payment of some type from him.
He'd felt so fucking guilty for betraying Dinah. Yet, Patricia wouldn’t accept money, clothes, another house, a better car, nothing except dick. Joe couldn’t see leaving Christopher to move to Seattle a second time. The first time the kid had been fourteen and still living at home with his mother and sisters. Now, at almost twenty-one, he was at the club full-time. If Big Joe relocated and headed another chapter, Christopher would be a sitting duck for Logan and Rack, so, yeah, he’d fucked Patricia, then prayed for penance and forgiveness.
Dinah didn’t deserve such disrespect. Since Meggie was three, he and her mother had been on again/off again. He rarely stayed at the house overnight because she never believed a word he told her and usually went into crying hysterics over the least little thing.
The one thing she loved was teaching. Her face lit up when she talked about her lessons and her students and her days in the classroom.
“You went to Los Angeles four months ago. What does that have to do with you not coming here for the past month?” she asked suspiciously.
Fuck, he’d forgotten he was telling the story. He nodded. “I don’t know,” he said morosely. “I had loose ends to tie up with Sharper, then I went to New Orleans with K-P. My head felt so much clearer.” Much clearer than it had in a while. Certainly more so than the times he spent with Dinah. He’d go to sleep, then awaken out of sorts and agitated.
“How is that black woman?”
The question snapped him out of his thoughts. “Her name is Roxanne, and you fucking well know it.”
“Whatever,” she said on a sniff. “She’s loud and uncouth. I don’t want her around my daughter.”
“Are you sure that’s the only reason?”
“What are you implying?” she gasped. “I have little black kids in my class. I…every year I volunteer for a shoe drive.” She touched her hand to her heart. “Oh, to see their little faces light up. Knowing they have a pair of shoes for the year!”
Joe squinted at her. “A pair of shoes for a year?”
She nodded.
“And this lets you off the hook how for whatever you thought I was implying?”
“It’s in a black neighborhood! I bring my little blonde girl—”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m not listening to the bullshit I know you’re about to fucking spout. Roxanne is a gorgeous woman with a wonderful soul. It might’ve helped you greatly if you’d befriended her, Dinah.”
Sniffing, she rolled her eyes. “I suppose you fucked her, too?”
“I wanted to,” he admitted with a shrug. “I didn’t fucking know how serious K-P was about her. Motherfucker probably fell in love with her the night he met her. I quickly found out.” Roxy had cursed him the fuck out and punched the fuck out of him. From that day to this one, she offered him quarters at the kennel.
He hadn’t meant to insult her. He’d been so regretful he’d told K-P and allowed him to beat his fucking ass.
“Did you hit on that woman before or after you seduced me?”
“I hit on Roxanne before we first made love, Dinah.”
Appeased, she relaxed her stance and rocked on her feet. “Wh-what happened to the last engagement ring you bought for me?”
Joe had been so guilty over Pattie, he’d added an extra carat to Dinah’s diamond and aquamarine ring. He’d been so heartbroken over her rejection, he’d given it to the girl Sharper sent to him while he was in Los Angeles. He shrugged.
“Asshole! You gave this one away, too?”
“I sure the fuck wasn’t keeping it,” he snapped.
She bared her teeth at him. “It’s your money. Waste it all you please.” Smirking, she glanced at the house he’d paid for in cash. It was in Dinah’s name, but it was meant for Meggie. “I need a little extra income,” she said sarcastically. “I might put this up for sale. Our apartment was just fine.”
“If that makes you happy,” Joe said. He’d just buy his baby girl a house when she turned eighteen. “I’d do anything to make you happy, Dinah,” he said quietly, meaning every word.
“Stop fucking your whores,” she spat, her eyes flashing with burning distaste.
“Babe, when we’re together, I keep my cock to myself. I swear.”
“And when we’re not?”
He drew in a heavy breath. “I use condoms. When we make up, I get tested before I touch you. But I’m lonely, babe. I miss you so fucking much. I miss Meggie.”
“Liar! We couldn’t live in Hortensia because of Logan and your son.”
“Then let’s see what’s in Camas, Dinah. Please, I’m begging you to consider—”
“No, fuck you! I’m sorry I ever met you. I’m sorry I had Meggie!”
Anger surged into Joe, but he held himself in place, so he wouldn’t shake her for her blasphemy. “Don’t ever talk about my baby girl that way. She’s the best fucking thing that ever happened to me and you, Dinah.”
“She isn’t! If she were a boy, you would love me because I bore your son. But poor, weak, pathetic me. I could only give you girls!”
“A girl, babe. A beautiful, sweet child that you should be so proud of. I am—”
“No, you aren’t!”
“Why don’t I take her with me for a bit?”
He’d find a place in Camas for them and hire Hopper to look after her. Maybe, he’d even tap Christopher. The boy loved his mother, Zoann, and Ophelia. Although he could take or leave Bev, Nia, and Avery, he’d protect them. Undoubtedly, Christopher would watch over Meggie if Joe or Hopper couldn’t.
Once Dinah declined his last proposal, he’d already installed another president in the new Seattle chapter. He was happy it worked out, though it didn’t solve his dilemma over Dinah and Meggie. “I’ll keep her safe so you can get a second wind, babe.”
“You’re not taking my baby and you’re especially not allowing her near those whores and your Christopher.”
The way she spat the name saddened Joe.
Dinah frustrated him to no fucking end. She strained his patience and tested his loyalty. So many times he thought of walking away and just giving up on her, them. Then, he’d remember their good times together. Her rare smiles. What a good mother she was to their daughter when she wasn’t stressed out and overwhelmed.
Sometimes, her mood swings concerned him and he worried for Meggie’s safety. Yet, whenever he called his baby girl, she sounded happy and well-adjusted.
He slid his fingers through his hair. “Babe, I know I could talk longer to you when I call Meggie, but she’s a little kid.”
“You find at least five minutes for her every damn day.”
“Yeah, babe. Exactly. How can you say I would’ve preferred a son?”
“Not for her, asshole. For me.”
Heaving in a breath, he gave her a wary look. He knew exactly the turn the conversation was about to take.
“I’m not your precious Kimber.”
Over the years, he’d watched how Sharper and Cee Cee treated women. As if they were nothing. When he met Logan, the motherfucker took that idea to a new level. To those three, the female persuasion was disposable.
But he remembered how his father respected his mother. He remembered their love for one another and their kindness to each other. His mom had been furious when his dad’s cheating was discovered with Kaleb Paul as the result. Once Kaleb’s mama gave birth to Quincy, she hadn’t wanted him, so Joe’s mother set aside her feelings and took him in. A year later, when Kaleb was eight and Joe was ten, his parents were killed. Kaleb’s mother called child protective services and they’d ended up in foster care. Joe refused to be separated from K-P, so they’d made the first of many pacts. They promised to behave so badly if they didn’t end up with the same foster family that the people would have no choice but to give them up. It worked. After an eight-month long separation, they ended up in a boys’ home, where they’d met the future Reverend Motherfucker, the madman, and the maniac. Cee Cee was thirteen, Rack was twelve, and Sharper was nine, all related and all there for eighteen months.
Cee Cee’s main goal was to buy a Harley and open a strip club. Sharper’s goal was to become wealthy at any cost, but he wanted a fucking biker club. Who knew the fuck why. Rack wanted to kill. The first week Joe and K-P arrived, Rack targeted Kaleb.
Joe had almost been kicked out of the home because he’d kicked Rack’s ass from one end of the building to the other, and swore he’d kill him if he looked at his little brother wrong.
His loyalty impressed Cee Cee. After he’d gotten out of solitary confinement, he’d found K-P safe because of Cee Cee and the five of them formed a friendship.
Cee Cee aged out first. Within a month of his turning eighteen, he’d gotten a girl pregnant and she gave birth to Bash. By the time Joe aged out, Cee Cee was a twenty-one-year-old single father with a Harley and a strip club. Joe never asked what happened to Bash’s mother and he never asked what he did to attain the money required to purchase his motorcycle or buy a strip club.
Logan wasn’t the only motherfucker Sharper convinced to form an MC. Cee Cee created the American Scorpions because of Sharper. Except Cee Cee and Sharper butted heads. They both wanted fucking control. Since Cee Cee was the president and Sharper’s name wasn’t anywhere on the charters, he couldn’t win. Cee Cee was Boss.
Rubbing his neck, Joe grinned. Kimber decided Joe was Boss and so he’d began to refer to himself as such. Other motherfuckers decided he was Big Joe. Depending on his fucking mood he was either. Both.
Yet, he was still Joe, the kid from Seattle who’d lost his parents and learned to respect women because of his father. It was one of the important lessons he wanted to impart to Joey, Christopher, and Johnnie.
Joe ended up crossing paths with Logan because of Cee Cee. Just as he had with Kimber. Cee Cee married Patricia to protect Christopher, then went to his club in Portland to celebrate by fucking every woman he saw.
Classic Cee Cee. Always a motherfucker.
Because he was a motherfucker and Logan was a bigger motherfucker, Joe rounded up K-P, returning to Seattle with Kimber’s phone number two weeks after Cee Cee’s wedding.
He feared no one and respected few, except women. He respected every one of them. He looked out for the club girls and made sure he kept them away from Logan.
Cee Cee’s motto was respect few, fear none. Joe changed those words and made it his own, respect all, fear none.
One day, when he’d info dumped his life story to Dinah and believed their parents dying in the same manner gave them a dismal connection, he’d told her about Kimber. He simply didn’t want to hide anything from Dinah. He never had with Kimber. They were his women, the mothers of his children, and they deserved his honesty.
Swallowing, he gave Dinah a sad smile. “You aren’t Kimber, sweetheart. She was beautiful and I loved her, but I love you, too, Dinah. I want to kiss the ground you walk on for giving me Meggie.” He glanced toward the staircase. He wanted to see about her so bad, but he didn’t want Dinah to bar him from seeing his little girl. “Kimber’s gone, babe. I’ll always cherish her memory. My time with her—”
“You were going to marry her!”
“Fuck, Dinah, I want to marry you, but you keep turning me down.”
“Ask until I accept.”
“When the hell’s that going to be?”
“When you leave your filthy club and those filthy whores. When you stop going on about that black woman. You have a crush on her! When you forget Christopher.”
“Then I guess you’ll never fucking accept because I’m not doing any of the above. I left my fucking club and I was miserable. All we did was argue. I want to please you, but a man has to be true to himself, babe, to be any good for anyone else. And I don’t have a fucking crush on Roxanne.” He did, but whatever. “As for Christopher—”
“As for Christopher, you put him above your own son! He reminds you of Kimber!”
Joe flinched. “Dinah, it’s true I haven’t been the best father to my son. Fuck, I was grieving. Cee Cee didn’t even let me go to her funeral. He wouldn’t return the engagement ring I purchased for her. He took his daughter, Celia, and barred me from her for a long time, then she had her first kid and Cee Cee sent me to take out the father because he beat her. K-P and me keep watch over her from afar.”
“I. Don’t. CARE! Fuck Celia and Kimber, and especially fuck Christopher.”
“You don’t even know that kid!” he growled. Dinah knew how to push his fucking buttons.
“You went back because of him. He took you away—”
“It was part of the reason, babe. Logan hates him.”
“I care how?”
“Because you’re a good, kind woman, Dinah. You don’t have all this hate and bitterness in you.”
“You turned me into this. You.”
“Fine, Dinah. Fine. I won’t…let’s just end it, babe. I don’t want to turn you into someone you aren’t.”
She blinked. “End it? You don’t want me?”
“Daddy!” Meggie yelled, flying down the hallway toward him.
Joe was so fucking glad to see her. It gave him a chance to muddle through Dinah’s reaction.
Crouching down and opening his arms, he laughed when Meggie launched herself into his embrace. It dawned on him she was soaked. He pulled her back and stared at her. Her T-shirt and jeans were wet and her hair hung in drenched waves. “What happened to you?”
“I fell in the water,” she explained.
“You what?” Dinah shrieked, hurrying to his side as he stood, lifting Meggie into his arms.
“I couldn’t reach the hot pedal on the other side of the water post after it fulled up.”
“Fuck, baby.” Joe held her tighter. “You could’ve drowned. No more filling up tubs for your mama.”
“She’ll do whatever I tell her to do,” Dinah said. “Meggie, for the umpteenth time, you turned knobs for the faucet to fill the tub. There is no such word as fulled. My god! The more I teach you, the more stupid you sound.”
“She’s six, Dinah! Her birthday was two weeks ago. If you don’t remember that, I sure the fuck do. Stop treating her like she’s fucking sixteen.”
Meggie covered his mouth with her little hand. “Shhhh, Daddy. S’okay. I sing you a lullaby.”
“Lullabies are for me,” Dinah said.
“Not Daddy?”
“No—”
“Of course they are,” Joe interrupted, his body pulsing with the overwhelming desire to kill Dinah. She was endangering Meggie. Instability as his old lady was one thing. Instability as a mother was dangerous to their daughter.
“Did you hear me, Joseph Foy?” Dinah’s shrill question sliced the heavy silence.
Roaring to his feet as he swept Meggie into his arms, he stared at Dinah, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Nope, and at the moment I don’t give much of a fuck about what you said.”
Dinah’s mouth dropped open, while Meggie laid her head on his shoulder, his leather cut a barrier against her wet clothes.
“Joseph…”
“Shut the fuck up,” he warned. “I’m about to lose my shit because…” Meggie could’ve drowned. He couldn’t bring himself to say the words. “My daughter isn’t your fucking nursemaid. You’re her mother. She isn’t yours.”
