Page 65 of Karma
“Too little, too late, huh?” Colt says. “I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with the men in your family, but you can go fuck all the way off, as my wife would say. I’m done with the lot of you.”
The comment confuses him. He knew there was tension with VP based on what Brock mentioned to him after Lex was admitted to the hospital, but he didn’t know it was this bad. “VP, too?”
“Your father’s barely holding onto his leather at this point.”
“What did he do?”
“It’s what he spent his entire lifenotdoing,” Colt says.
Lex reaches out and rests a hand on his bicep, and she motions to the house with a slight tilt of her head. “Why don’t you go and help Lucas? I’ll be inside soon.”
He glares at Zane before kissing her cheek and heading up the porch. He turns and says, “I’m watching.”
“What did Dad do?” Zane asks, his stomach sinking.
“So many things,” Lex says and moves to sit on the steps of the house. “There was a rat in the club, and it wasn’t a member. Your name got brought up, and he was adamant it wasn’t you.He believed I would turn on the club before you ever would. He almost died on that hill.”
Eyes wide, Zane juts out his chin. He’d gone off the deep end, sure, but his father has to be out of his mind to think Lex would ever turn on the club. “Shut up.”
“There’s more, but that’s the majority of the tension.”
“I’d never rat, no matter what happened, but between you and me? Fuck, I’d be the one to turn first. Member or not, you are that fucking club. How can’t he see that?”
She smirks. “He doesn’t see a lot things when it comes to me. Especially when you’re in the mix. And then, when we figured out the De-Identifier was our big brother… Let’s just say his true colors really came out.”
“Who?”
“Uh, you might not remember, but there were women being found in Griffin’s Beach who couldn’t be identified because they were so mutilated. It started before Lane… Before I moved back.”
It sounds vaguely familiar, but Zane honestly paid little attention to the world outside Lane and Margaret when the C word came around again. “I kind of remember something about it.”
She tells him about Brock and Beckett getting arrested, and then Gerard Buchanan. Then, Undertaker’s ex-girlfriend Nina’s box of information being sent to them. His head spins as he realizes he’s missed so much while he was gone.
“How did Nina get that information when Brock and Grayson couldn’t?”
“That’s a great question. All I can guess is she’s creative and determined. Then again, if someone killed someone I loved, I’d stop at nothing to find them, too.”
“I saw the pictures of us out in the shop,” he says with a shake of his head. “I don’t… Have you started processing all of this? Because I can’t quite wrap my head around it all.”
Shrugging, she sighs. “It’s par for the course for me. I mean, I’ve already almost died at the hands of one brother, so it’s only fitting another wanted to kill me, too. But I still can’t get over how VP was only concerned about you when it all came out. That’s when I knew he doesn’t love me.”
“I don’t know why he was so worried about me. I was fine.”
“But he didn’t know that. None of us did.”
“Yeah, he did,” Zane says as he scrunches his face. “I talked to him at least once a week. Even though I was gone, I wanted to make sure Margaret was doing okay while I figured my shit out. He knew I was fine.”
Her eyes widen. “Well, if that’s not just a punch in the…”
“Lex, I’m really sorry.”
“I gotta get inside. Like I said, that’s the only other letter she gave me to give to you. I hope it helps with the dilemma I know wages a war in your mind.”
He chuckles. “You saw it, huh?”
“I’m pretty perceptive. It’s a flaw.” Pulling herself up with the railing, Lex walks to the house but stops at the door before turning to face him again. “Margaret really misses you. It’s been incredibly difficult for her, so please don’t break her heart again. She barely survived it the first time.”
His sister disappears inside, and he wishes she’d just slap him. Punch him. Let Colt or Lucas beat the shit out of him. The kindness she still shows him, even after she says she’s through with him, hurts.
