Page 88 of Road to Absolution

Not giving a shit, to Art, I seethed, “Why. Were. You. At. That. Party?”

With shame, he looked to his father approaching slowly. “I wasn’t supposed to be.”

Diesel’s arms were tense and his hands agitated like he was trying to reel in his own explosion before it detonated. He growled, “You were supposed to watch her from afar,you dipshit.”

With an inner bomb of my own ready to explode, my upper lip curled. “Why was he there at all?”

Diesel rolled his neck. “Giver had gone MIA. He had been spotted in DC.”

Wait. What? “And was coming for Lilah?”

More secrets…

“Yeah, kid. He was.”

Yet again, Lilah had needed to be protected by others… Fucking Hell!

Diesel and I both looked back to Art for answers.

“Once the threat was over, I had every intention of leaving, but…” Art groaned, rubbing his hands down his face, “she was so lonely.”

Right eye twitching, my tongue sucked at my teeth. Then, feeling the need to defend myself, I sneered, “I was busting my ass to continue a dream I shared with my father.” I said ‘father’, digging at Diesel for having a piece of shit for a son. I was also reminding him I no longer fucking had a father. It wasn’t kind, but neither was this prick moving in on my girl while I’d been working so damn hard. “I was earning my education so I wouldn’t be in debt when asking Lilah to marry me.”

Diesel bit at his son, “We will talk about this later.”

Blink. Blink. “Are you fucking kidding me, Diesel?” Shocked, I took a weak step back as if he had just punched me.

Prez was frustrated. This was not how he wanted his younger men to start off. “I need to get the full story, then I’ll come talk to you about it.”

“Behind my back?” Looking away from his dad, I looked at Art. “Too much of a pussy to do it in front of me? Her fucking husband?”

Art snipped, “What do you want, Maverick? Huh? For me to admit, in front of the men I look up to, that I had a cowardly moment? That I was hoping like Hell she would leave you and come running back to me?”

I begged my fist to stay by my side and not strike as Sadie’s past words blew through me. You’re losing her, Maverick. “How close was she to leaving me?”

He looked away.

I roared, “How close?” and the officers surrounded us.

“Easy, Maverick,” someone warned. I was too pissed to know who.

“Fuck that!” I replied to whoever. Thinking out loud about my wife’s claim, I said, “Art, seems you have no balls after all.”

He growled, “After the party—” then blew out a breath as he finally admitted, “The next morning.” His answer hurt, and he knew it.

His dad’s eyes slid shut. “Jesus. H. Christ, boy.”

“With you?” I asked Art, my ears ringing.

As if anticipating what was coming, he rubbed his mouth along the short sleeve of his shirt. “Yeah. The next morning, we were packing up her stuff and pulling out.”

Just like that. Lilah was going to leave me in college, for another man. Just like that.

And the fucker was in front of me.

Pop! Like working out with a speed bag, to not knock out his teeth, the front of my knuckles popped him, in the lips that had kissed my girl. I had moved so fast, not one biker in the room could’ve stopped me.

Not that they were going to allow it again. The circle around me tightened, pissing me off because I felt they were also now getting between me and my girl. But Scorch stepping in front of Art dug deep in the forming wound. “You can’t hit a member, Maverick.”