Vengeful Soul by Emma Creed
“How was it last night?” As I open the door, it disturbs Brax from where he’s propped up against the wall sleeping. He grunts me an answer as he wakes himself up, stretching his arms out and cracking his neck.
“Drink.” I take the tape off Abby’s mouth and offer her some water, which she gulps down desperately. And when I go to tape her back up, she begs me not to.
“Please don’t, I promise I won’t scream.”
“You got one chance,” I warn her, lighting up another cigarette and checking my phone for the time. I’m getting married in less than a fucking hour. I should be having a drink at the bar with the brothers and celebrating, not dealing with this.
The door creaks open and Jessie strolls inside, looking pretty fuckin’ sharp in the tux he’s wearing.
“Got your message to pick up Brax’s su… what the fuck?” He grinds to a halt when he sees the girl tied to the chair.
“Nyx, why is there a girl tied to a chair in my fucking basement?”
“Jessie, meet Amber.” Brax gets up from the floor and takes his tux out of Jessie’s hands.
“Abby,” Ella’s ex best friend corrects him, at least starting to sound a little more like herself again. I don’t have a lot of respect for her anymore, but the state she arrived in last night got me freaked out. I’m not prepared for Ella to suffer any more heartache, which is why I’m real fuckin’ pleased Brax came through for me.
“S’up,” Jessie lifts his head up at her, then turns his attention straight to me.
“She’s Ella’s best friend.” I watch Brax hang his suit up in the small window. Time’s getting on and I doubt he’ll have a chance to go home and take a shower. He’ll have to use the one upstairs, that’s why I called Jessie to bring it down here.
“Prez know about this?” Jessie asks, pushing back some of the strands that have fallen loose from his ponytail.
“He’s about to.” Tac looks at the ground as he steps into the room, followed by a very pissed looking Prez.
“Someone wanna tell me why I’m down in Jessie’s fucking doom room on the day of my daughter’s wedding?” Prez’s harsh tone has us all turning around, and I watch out the corner of my eyes as Tac passes Jessie his hip flask and Jessie knocks back a huge mouthful.
“What the fuck is that?” he asks, staring in front of him at a pretty fucked up looking Abby. I’m actually shocked at how well he scrubs up. I've never seen Jimmer Carson look so smart.
“Amber, Abby. I don’t fucking know,” Jessie says, handing the flask to me and I knock it back. Whatever it is, tastes like shit, but it’s needed.
“She was Ella’s best friend before she came to the club, the witness of my attack on Luke,” I explain.
“Ahhh, the one we sent Rogue to talk to,” Jessie catches up quickly.
“She isn’t here is she?” the girl suddenly looks worried.
But she gets ignored, and I explain to Prez and Jessie why she’s here.
Prez nods thoughtfully when he’s finished listening, and I can’t tell if he’s pissed at me or not as he moves to crouch in front of Abby.
“You wanna get straight?” he asks her, and after a long few seconds, she nods back at him.
“Okay. Then we’ll get ya straight.” He promises, his tone softening a little before he turns to us. “Ella don’t hear about this till you’re back off you’re honeymoon,” he warns me. “Tac, go get one of the girls from the bar to fix her up something to eat and drink. Marilyn’ll be busy at the lodge helping get Ella ready.
Brax, you go get Tommy, he can be on watch today while we figure out how we’re gonna deal with this, and for God’s sake, take a fuckin’ shower before you show up at that weddin’.
Jess, you make our guest a little more comfortable, she stays down here out of the way for the time being, but surely you got something more humane than ropes to keep her tethered?”
Jessie looks doubtful, but sets to work going over to his cabinet and opening the doors in search of something he can use.
“Ain’t nothin’ here. I’ll give Grimm a call.” He heads out the room after the others, leaving me alone with my soon to be Father-in-law.
“And what about me?” I ask him.
“I get why you kept this from Ella, I’da done exactly the same thing. But why’d ya keep it from me?” He sounds sore about it rather than pissed off.
“It wasn’t intentional. I thought I had it sorted. Danny was taking care of her and I just got complacent. I forgot about her,” I answer him honestly.
“Well secrets tend to creep up on ya when you least expect ‘em, you got any more you wanna tell me about before I let you marry my daughter?”
“No, but I got a request.” This is the moment I’ve been trying to catch with him for the last few days, and each time I’ve got the chance I’ve jibbed. Prez has given me so much, I shouldn’t expect any more from him but this feels like the right thing to do, and Brax and Tac not being in the room makes this a hella lot easier.
“I never knew my father. According to my social worker, my mom put the name of the man she thought was my dad on my birth certificate. But he never stepped up.”
“Ya asking me to be ya daddy, Nyx?” Prez mocks me with a smug grin.
“No.” I shake my head back and humor him, before I turn things serious again.
“But I am asking you for ya name.” Prez’s eyes widen and I wish I could gauge what the old man’s thinkin’.
“Ella was born a Carson and you had to hide that for years. That girl don’t take no shit but she loves with all her heart. She deserves the name she was meant to have, and I want my son to have it too.” Prez swallows thickly and nods his head.
“Problem is, I ain’t having them have a different name to me. So it leaves me with one option. I become a Carson with ‘em. I already asked Maddy to get the forms filled out after today, I just gotta take ‘em to city hall and get ‘em legalized.”
Prez stares back at me, his expression unreadable.
“So what d’ya say?” I ask nervously.
“I say that’s the most sense you ever spoke, son,” he croaks back, and I see it in his eyes. That same hint of pride that I saw when I was feeding Judge Jackson’s fingers into his garbage disposal unit.
“You know, I’m only gonna admit this to ya once, but I think my girl did alright,” he confesses.
“Even though I keep fucking up?” I look over to Abby as an example. I’d forgotten she was still in the room and the smile she offers me shows she still cares about Ella, and that she might be able to redeem herself.
“The only fuck up you made here was keeping it from me and not letting me help ya. We may be different but we’ll always agree on one thing, and that’s keeping our girl happy.” He grips my shoulder and squeezes.
“Thanks, Prez, not just for this, but for everything. You didn’t have to forgive me for what I did and I don’t know what I’da done if ya hadn’t of,” I admit.
“Pains me to say it, but you're a good kid and a better father than I ever was. I’m trying to make up for all those years I fucked up, Nyx, and breaking my little girl’s heart wouldn’t have been a good start now, would it?”
“Guess not,” I smirk back at him.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this… but let’s go get you married to my daughter.” He pulls that hard look back on his face and gestures his head to the door.