Page 8 of Selah's Wish

“Then what have you done?” I ask as he passes the bottle to me and I chug a shot glass worth down my throat. “Because that sly look that you and Wrecker shared, says it’s something. I don’t like not being in the know when it comes to my blood, Cuda.”

“She begged me not to tell you, and I agreed. Not lightly, it took a lot of convincing on her part for me to keep my lips sealed,” he vows. “I gave her a timeline two days ago; she has until the day after Christmas to confess what’s been going on to you.”

“You’re my brother, Cuda. There should never be any secrets between us,” I growl. “Never. Otherwise, the circle of trust is broken, and when that happens, a lot of people die because there are doubts where there shouldn’t be.”

“I know,” he murmurs, downing his own shot once I pass the whiskey back over to him.

“Tell me now,” I encourage, doing my best to reign in my temper.

“Okay,” he sighs. “It started like this?—”

SIX

Butcher

“Repeat that,”I demand through clenched teeth. During his first round of confessions, I went numb and my brain blurred. That motherfucker is going to end up on the wrong end of my knife for what he’s done to my sister. And Joce, she’s going to get the tongue lashing of her life. His head hangs as he recenters himself to retell the same story he just spewed. Before I react, I need to make sure I didn’t imagine some of the shit he informed me was happening.

“I went to meet a few of my clients at the bar inside of the Blackjack Inn. They traveled to see me so when they asked me to join them, I didn’t want to say no. As I was walking through the parking lot, I saw your sister crying over her steering wheel. I knocked on her driver's side window and made the motion for her to roll her window down. When she did, streaks of mascara were staining her cheeks and I noticed that the kids were in the back of the car, buckled down in their car seats. They were fast asleep so I kept my voice down when I asked her what was going on. When she whispered to me that she just saw her husbandwalking into the lobby with another woman on his arm, and it wasn’t the first time she’d caught him cheating, I listened. It was then that I saw the fading bruises on her cheeks, as well as fingerprints embedded in her arms.”

“So let me get this right, not only is that shitstain is not only cheating on my sister, but he's also laying hands on her?” I thunder out the question, my entire body quaking with anger.

“Yeah, and after speaking with her, I found out those are only the bruises you can visibly see on her skin. After a bunch of probing and prodding and her clutching her ribs, I forced her to lift up her shirt just enough for me to see what was going on. Dude, there were shoe prints painted on her ribcage. It was then and there that I pulled my phone out to give you a call, only she stopped me by placing her hand on top of mine, keeping me from dialing your number.”

“What was her reasoning for not wanting you to place that call?” I inquire, my fists now clenched in my lap.

“Blackmail. He's blackmailed her,” he confides.

“With what?” I ask because my sister is as wholesome as one can get. At least to the outside world. She’s somewhat involved in our lives with me and Dragon being her brothers, but nothing that should be traceable. There should be nothing he has that’d keep her stuck in that sort of abusive relationship.

Only, Cuda says the one thing that I was hoping he wouldn’t. “You.”

“Explain,” I rumble.

He tilts his body sideways so we’re facing one another and says, “From what I could gather from her, he’s had a privateinvestigator on her tail since the day they married, and during that time, he managed to get a few photos of unlawful things that could damage a few people in our club.”

“He has intel that could send us away?” I confirm.

“Yeah,” he admits. “I’ve been helping her track down this investigator, so I could rid him of the evidence and she’s been searching through his office and files while he’s at work or off playing with one of his mistresses. We’ve managed to find a few things and destroy them, but we haven’t been successful in getting our hands on anything having to do with you, Butcher.”

“That’s not good,” I say, blowing out a heated breath. “That’s why she’s keeping her mouth shut and staying in a home where that piece of shit is laying hands on her? Y’all should’ve come to us, Cuda.”

“I’ve been working on her telling you, Butcher. She’s determined, at all costs, to protect you and Dragon. Even if it’s detrimental to herself. We’ve had a few blow ups over it, but I didn’t want her to not trust me and confide in me anymore. I feel like I’ve been stuck in the middle, but hear me out on this, Butcher, I’ve never been against you or the brothers. If anything, I’m working in the background trying to protect you and the club as a whole.”

“I’m seeing that, Cuda. However, in a roundabout way, you’ve gone against the club. As your VP, I’m ordering you to have a sit down with Brick and Dragon. Tell them everything,” I stress. “We could end this and free my sister from her chains.”

“If I do that, she’ll know I betrayed her,” he sighs.

“How did Wrecker find out?” I probe, because if he’s kept things close to the vest as he claims, there’s no way that fucker should know anything about this.

“How do you think?” He raises his eyebrows at me and it’s then that everything clicks.

“Fucking dreamwalkers,” I snap. “Which means there’s a reason, spiritual or otherwise behind why he’s kept his trap shut.”

“He sees things that we don’t. If we jump the gun things could have a different outcome than if we play it the way it’s been set into motion,” he concludes.

“New plan, don’t say jack shit until I have myself a little chat with my brother-in-law. In the meantime, it’s in your best interest as her friend, or whatever the fuck you are to Joce, to let her know I cornered you. She knows if I want to know something, you don’t have a leg to stand on until I get the information I want.”

“Alright. I’ll send her a message in the morning letting her know when she’s able to, she needs to call me,” he promises.

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