Beard Up(59)

"Goddammit," Sebastian got up then hauled ass out of the room.

I winced.

"Fucker's gonna give us all the shits and pukes by the time we're done here," Cleo muttered darkly.

I looked at him, and his eyes were still on me.

His narrowed, and I steeled myself, letting him study me straight on.

He took his time, and it was a few long, uneasy moments for me.

"Son of a fucking bitch!" Cleo exclaimed.

Lynn walked in with Silas behind him.

The minute that Lynn sat down, the entire room quieted. Conversations that the others were having quieted, and I tensed. But not because this was about to go down, but because Cleo was now standing.

He leaned over the table, his hands steepled on top of it, only a few feet separating us.

"I can see you've figured it out," Silas drawled.

The tension didn't break.

"What out?" Kettle asked, looking at Silas.

"Tunnel, you mother. Fucker."

Every head in the room swiveled around at that, and I scooted my seat away from the table and stood up.

"Everybody, sit the fuck down."

Nobody listened. 

"I said sit down!" Silas bellowed.

Cleo was halfway around the table now.

I was turned to face him, waiting.

And the others in the room from the Benton Dixie Wardens were now standing as well.

"Fuck me."

That came from Torren.

Cleo didn't stop until a clearly just-puked-his-guts-out Sebastian came back in.

The moment he realized what was going on, he stepped in the middle of Cleo and me, all the while hugging a trashcan.

Cleo's hands were fisted tightly at his sides, and he was staring at me with such betrayal on his face that it was hard to watch.

I held his glare, though.

I deserved the hate.

A gunshot rang out, and I looked over at Silas, who was standing with his gun in his hand.

Above his head was a forty-five caliber hole in the drywall.

We all stared.

"I said sit. The. Fuck. Down," he repeated, this time his tone clearly allowing no room for argument.

I didn't sit until everyone else did, but this time, it was with my back to the wall, and nowhere near the goddamn table.

If I was within reaching distance of any of these boys, they were going to fucking stab me, likely with the pen or pencils that were gathered in a cup in the middle of the table.

God, this goddamn room was giving me heartburn.

This was the Benton chapter's clubhouse.

This was the place where I finally felt at home for the first time.

This was the place of my rebirth.

"Everyone needs to fucking listen to what I have to say before they go off all half-cocked," Silas growled, his eyes on Cleo.

Cleo didn't bother to move his gaze off of me.

"Show ‘em the pictures," I told Silas.

Silas grunted. "Ghost … "

"His name isn't fucking Ghost," Cleo said through clenched teeth. "Let's go ahead and call him Tunnel. I mean, that is his fucking name, right?"

Hearing my name out of anybody's mouth but Mina's was enough to make my heart race.

It felt wrong. It felt like that was the only link that my parents needed to have to take the last little bit of my life that I had left to me.

"No," I said, purposefully coming off as hard and unyielding. "That's my name now. Nobody calls me Tunnel anymore, and before you get all pissed off, you need to understand why I had to do what I did. If you still want to kick my ass afterward, fine, so be it. Do what you have to do. But until then, save your judgement."

Cleo's eyes narrowed. "My wife still has nightmares about having a part in your death, and she still carries that guilt," he hissed. "She has my loyalty. At one time, you did, too, but you no longer do."

I looked over to Silas.

"Show them the goddamned pictures."

Silas didn't hesitate. He pulled up the pictures, and then set them on slideshow.

I'd seen them, of course, but each time I did, it was enough to make a sickness roll through me that left my belly rolling for hours.

The pictures were not your everyday pictures. Ones you'd share with your family on Facebook.

They were ones that you shouldn't fucking share, because you shouldn't even have pictures like this.

The first photo filled the screen, and every eye in the house, including a very pissed off Cleo's, went to it.

It was a picture of my baby, Sienna. She was lying on her back in the water. The plastic tub that she was lying in was bright green, and it wasn't one that I'd ever seen before. It had a yellow rubber duck floating up by her head, and the bubbles were floating around her body. Everything was covered with bubbles except for her privates.


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