Page 11 of Rebellious

“Am I still on speaker, Outlaw?”

Heart pounding, Christopher nodded at the phone, then realized Easton couldn’t see him. “Give me a second, Megan.”

Megan’s lips trembled. Before he switched off the speaker, she snatched the phone. “Where’s my baby? Is she alive?”

“Let me talk to—”

A sob escaped Megan and she swayed. Christopher wrapped an arm around her waist and tucked her close to him. She clung to him, weeping.

Once he had the phone to his ear, he said, “it’s just me.” Though his gut roiled, he sounded calm. Too fucking calm. He held his shit together by a fucking thread. “Talk to me, Easton.”

“Rebel’s alive, but she’s badly injured. They tried to drown her.”

They…tried to…drown her…? “What the fuck you mean?” he roared, catching himself before he blurted too many details. “She was at the motherfucking mall.”

“I don’t know the full story. I was with Diesel and Rebel called him because his card declined. We headed to the fucking mall, but neither she nor Jana were there. Their guards were. The girls were not. We found them at Turn Creek. Jana is beaten, but I don’t think she fought back. Rebel did. They beat her and they tried to drown her in the fucking creek.”

“Who the fuck is ‘they’?” Christopher demanded.

“Three dead fuckheads. Diesel shot the fuck out of them.”

“You at Hortensia General?”

“We are,” Easton confirmed.

“We on the fucking way.” He hugged Megan. “She alive, baby. Rebel hurt, but she breathin’. Hear me, Megan?”

Sniffling, Megan nodded against him, tightening her hold on his waist.

Easton heaved in a breath and released a long sigh.

Panic filled Christopher. “What?”

“She wants to see Kaia.”

“Rebel asked to see Kaia Riggs?” Christopher asked to be sure.

Megan lifted her head, hope breaking through her despair.

“She did.”

“Then that’s the motherfucker she fuckin’ seein’,” Christopher said, kinda happy he hadn’t gutted that fuckhead yet.

Life was strange. It was rarely easy. Even when it was easy, a hard edge wrapped around that soft core. Usually, though, it was brutal and unfair. Forever and always uncertain. No one knew what tomorrow might bring. Your end days, misery, or success. Yet, somehow, life was still beautiful. Until recently, CJ had never truly considered life’s vagaries. He and his family were alive. The end.

Considering the world he’d grown up in, he hadn’t thought much about death either, especially his own. He just knew he’d die one day and cease to exist. It hadn’t frightened him because he it was an inescapable fact that he’d one day face.

Until a few months ago, his existence had been simple, straightforward. Charmed. He’d never worried about clothes, food, the love of his family, or a roof over his head; he’d had it all in excess. He’d had dreams of joining the club, marrying Harley, and following in his father’s footsteps.

Then…

He’d met Molly Harris, a sweet girl with a motherfucker for a father and a drug-addicted mother. Molly didn’t have much except for her pretty smile and big heart. She didn’t have a lot of safety, money, or love.

The day their science teacher paired them on their big project ruined CJ’s relationship with Harley. She’d already broken his heart once. Jealousy toward Molly made her rip that motherfucker clean out of his chest and stomp the bloody shreds.

As much as Harley’s rebellion devastated him, he never regretted not going to Mr. Billson and requesting a new partner to appease her. He’d been guilty of nothing. During one of his many reflections on that situation, he realized he would’ve seemed guiltier if he had gone to the teacher and asked to switch. Or, maybe, he would’ve seemed weak.

He and Molly worked diligently on their project until her fuckhead father destroyed it in a fit of motherfuckery that CJ still hadn’t forgiven, even after discovering his uncle, Bash, killed that fuckbag.