I rolled my eyes. “Great speech. Now, where the fuck is my girl!”

Sadie laughed and stepped to the side of the door. “I’ll tell you. But you need to move, outside. NOW!” she ordered, and when neither of us budged she fired at the light fixture, sending glass raining down around us.

Chop moved first, and I followed. Sadie stayed out of arm’s reach, as we stepped through what was left of Gus and made our way out to the balcony of the second floor, which overlooked the courtyard where sporadic gunfire was being exchanged.

A monster of a man wearing overalls with no shirt underneath walked casually beside the pool on the floor below, holding a semi-automatic in each hand, and I could have sworn I heard him whistling, but when I looked down again, he was gone.

“On your knees,” Sadie ordered. I lowered myself to the ground but only because she still hadn’t answered my question about Ti, and Chop did the same, because we were cuffed and he didn’t have a fucking choice. “I’m on my fucking knees, bitch, now tell me where the fuck my girl is.”

Sadie clucked her tongue and moved to stand beside us. “Unfortunately for you, I needed the girl in order to get you here, and since Gus was so insistent on joining me here tonight, he hired outside help to do the sick shit he wanted to do her and tape it. I’d show you the tape, but something tells me you won’t be around long enough to watch it.”

“I’ll fucking kill you!” I shouted, rising off my knees. She fired, sending a bullet straight through my thigh and sending me crashing back down to the floor.

Chop remained silent, only watching as I flailed around on the floor, clenching my teeth together, warring against the agony tearing through my leg. “Where was this girl when I needed her?” Chop suddenly asked, drawing my attention away from the pain. I managed to sit up on my good knee and with my free hand I pushed against the wound to slow down the blood loss. “Where was this girl twenty-five years ago?” he asked. “Why, my Sadie girl? Why did you turn on me? You could have come to me. You could have told me what was going on. What you wanted to do. You had a choice, and you made the wrong fucking one. It’s your fault. You made me pull that fucking trigger!”

Sadie turned to him, her eyes rimmed with red like she was on the verge of tears. “I did what I thought could get us out from under your shit,” she spat.

“But don’t you see?” he asked. “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill you even when I should have after what you did. So I kept you. I kept you all to myself because you were mine.” Chop shook his head. His face reddened. “You were a rat who deserved to fucking die but I didn’t kill you!” he said, raising his voice to a scream. “You claimed to have loved your kid, but I can see right fucking through you. You never once asked to see him in all the years I had you. You didn’t love him, you were jealous of him. Of the club. Of anywhere else my attention was besides you, and you couldn’t fucking handle that, so you ran to the law with your tail between your fucking cunt like the bitch you are.”

“You still don’t get it do you Chop-Chop?” she asked. “None of that matters now.” Sadie stood behind me and pressed the gun to the back of my head. “I’ll kill your precious son first, so you can watch him die. Then it’s your turn, baby.” She blew him a kiss.

She leaned in and whispered in my ear. “I may not have had the chance to raise you up, baby boy, but I’m not going to pass up the chance now to put you down.”

“Let me do it,” Chop said. “Give me a gun. You can still kill me after. Just let me do this one thing right for you.”

“Fucking pussy,” I muttered.

Sadie was quiet and my head wasn’t blown off, but I couldn’t believe she was even considering what he was offering, and even after all the shit Chop had done, I was mad at myself for being surprised at the offer.

I couldn’t believe it even more when Chop raised up to his feet and was suddenly the one standing behind me with a gun, my arm that was cuffed to his was pulled backward at an awkward angle. “This is for you, baby,” Chop said with a sadness in his voice I’d never heard before.

Chop pulled the trigger.

The sound of the gun shot was fucking deafening.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Bear

THE ENTIRE COURTYARD rattled like a cannon had been fired. So did the inside of my head. Wet and warm liquid poured thickly over my head and shoulders. The heaviness that was Chop’s lifeless body descended over me, forcing my face against the rusted railing.

I pushed Chop off of me, his body falling through the broken railing. If King hadn’t appeared and grabbed on to my legs I would have went over with him. “Thia, keep the gun on her,” King ordered, and at the mere mention of her name, I found the strength to hang on. King laid next to me on his stomach leaning out over the balcony under the railing as far as he could stretch. “Pull up as much as you can,” he said. I felt my arm separating from the joint. I pulled up as hard as I could, straining with everything I had in me until King could reach Chop. With a guttural roar he pulled his fat corpse back onto the balcony. My arm and shoulder felt instant relief.

King pulled a machete style knife from his boot and hacked away at Chop’s wrist, blood spurting into the air and all over his face and shirt, until it was severed, and King and I were so covered in blood it looked as if he just starred in a horror movie.

Our horror happened to be very real.

“Noooooooo!” Sadie screamed, and while she was momentarily distracted, I grabbed the gun Chop had dropped and turned it on her. Sadie’s mouth was wide open as she looked from the railing to the pink-haired girl holding the gun.

Ti.

“Thank fucking Christ,” I muttered.

“You bitch!” Sadie screamed at Ti, “What did you do?”

“Same thing I’m about to do to you if you don’t put that fucking gun down.”

I’d thought King had fired the bullet at Chop, but I’d been wrong. It was my girl who’d saved me.

“You leave her the fuck alone,” I said, standing between my mom and my girl. “Put your fucking gun down.”

“Abel,” she pleaded, taking a step toward me.

“Stop,” I warned. “Don’t fucking call me that. You don’t get to call me that.” Without turning my head away from Sadie I called out to Ti, “Are you okay? Did this bitch hurt you? Did Gus hurt you?”

“I’m fine, baby,” she said, her voice snaking it’s way inside of me, making me feel centered, grounded.

Complete.

Sadie looked down at Chop’s handless body. “He’s really gone?” Sadie cried, covering her mouth with the hand that wasn’t holding the gun. A tear fell from her eye and ran down her cheek. “I mean, that’s what I wanted. Him. Gone. But now…he really is.”

“What the fuck did you think was going to happen?” I asked.

Sadie shook her head and took a step back. Her gaze went from me to Ti and then to King. “Don’t know what you were thinking,” I said. “But there ain’t no way you’re walking out of here,” I said, and I meant it.

Sadie wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. “Oh, my Abel.” she said, sniffling. “I never planned on walking out of here.” She looked over to Ti. “Take good care of my boy,” she said before placing the gun in her mouth.