Page 87 of Rebellious

Yet…

She hadn’t fucking cared. She’d left at six this morning as if she wasn’t planning to start proceedings to end their marriage without his knowledge.

If she served him before he took her to Colombia, he’d contest. They were still having marital relations. Well, not last night. He was still a little hurt that she all but called him a rapist. He hadn’t slept in another room, but he’d kept his back to her.

As he walked into his hotel room in Seattle, slammed the door shut, and set his overnight bag aside, he wished he could wait until Dartine finished the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom in Colombia. But Johnnie had to take Kendall now to talk sense into her. She couldn’t hate him anymore than she apparently already did.

A few more weeks to prepare would’ve been ideal and gave him more time to undo the damage he’d created at the club by insisting on peace, instead of trusting that Christopher would find a solution. Maybe if Johnnie hadn’t forced the issue, the clubs still would’ve found common ground and resolved their differences in the same way they had after all his betrayals.

Johnnie had planned to spend more time at the club. Before he took Kendall, he wanted to help his supporters reintegrate themselves back into the club’s day-to-day life and get back into Christopher’s good graces.

He’d wanted to get back into Christopher’s good graces. Watching Christopher laugh and joke with Bash hurt Johnnie’s soul. He’d planned to stick to Christopher like glue and force a reconciliation. Kendall was seeing a divorce attorney, though. Nothing else mattered except winning back his wife.

Plopping on the edge of the king-sized bed, barely aware of his surroundings, he thrust his fingers through his hair, the enormity of his actions hitting him full force. Here and there, he’d thought about the havoc he caused, the damage he’d done, but knowing Kendall turned to another man and thought the worst of him, seeing Christopher freeze Johnnie out and confide in Bash and Mortician, hearing Megan say she didn’t care if he lived or died…

Talking to someone from the office of Kendall’s divorce attorney angered him yesterday. Remembering those agonizing six months when Kendall left haunted Johnnie. He wouldn’t survive another such separation.

His phone rang. Sighing, he snatched the phone from the pocket on his dress shirt and frowned.

“What the fuck do you want, Bash?” he barked, the perfect hello for a motherfucker who’d created the havoc. “Haven’t you done enough?”

“Good late morn to you too, little brother,” Bash greeted, disgustingly cheery.

Scowling, Johnnie glanced at his Rolex. 11:48AM. It was damn near afternoon. “What do you want?” he repeated, in no mood for Bash. Not his snark. Or his voice. Or his threats. “Tell me now or I’m hanging up.”

“Touchy, touchy, John Boy. We both know hanging up would be a mistake, so save your fucking breath.”

Johnnie jumped to his feet, thinking of that DNA test. Of Hopper. Paz. Kendall. “A mistake? What the fuck do you mean a fucking mistake? Fuck you. The mistake was that DNA test you passed off as legitimate.”

“Forever a brainless fucking blond,” Bash growled. “Are you fucking telling me you would’ve preferred Jana squirting out of your cock?”

“What? No! You know that isn’t what I mean. She isn’t a fucking Donovan. She doesn’t belong to me or Logan—”

“Logan? An improvement from Grandda—”

“Shut up!” Johnnie roared, wishing Bash was nearby. He’d kick that motherfucker. “You were just as enamored of Logan. It was why Ryan wanted so much information.”

“Guilty,” Bash said, snickering. “But was I really so fond of a man who Daddy hated? You tell me, little brother.”

Floundering for a moment, Johnnie dropped back onto the edge of the bed. Nothing Bash said in those early days of their acquaintance was reliable. Johnnie didn’t know what to believe and, yet, he’d insisted they bring this snake into the fold. “I want another DNA test,” he said.

“That’s between you and Christopher. He coughed up the cash. But to what end? Isn’t Logan being the father the best possible outcome for Kendall?”

“I beg your pardon?” Johnnie turned those words over in his head. “Did you fuck with the samples?”

“You wound me. Would I do something so underhanded?”

“Yes.”

Ice cubes clanked because Bash was forever drinking. The wet sound of smacking lips traveled through the phone. Johnnie frowned.

“Did I have access to the fucking samples, fuckhead?”

Bash might not have, but Christopher did. Sliding his fingers through his hair, Johnnie heaved in a breath.

“I didn’t call for this bullshit, but suppose my little brother and your big brother made Logan the father of Jana. If that’s true, he did it for you, but he especially did it for your wife.”

“I didn’t ask for his help.”