Unattainable (21 page)

I wanted to be mad at her, for not
telling me, but at the same time, I wasn’t in any position to judge
her. I’d run away from my problems. She was hiding from hers. We
were both guilty of the same things.

“
You want me to take you
home?” Cage asked, his expression full of concern. “Sounds like you
and her need to talk.”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know
what I would say.”

Looking thoughtful, Cage nodded, then
suddenly he was grinning.

“
You remember who gave you
that first ride, Teacup?”

“
Yes,” I said dryly,
fighting back a smile. “You gave me all my first rides.”

Cage gave me a look that suggested he
was about to haul me off my stool and give me another ride when
Deuce’s office doors suddenly slammed open and everyone in the main
room turned to watch him storm out. He took in the occupants of the
room and stopped his angry gaze on Mick.

“
Call in all the boys,” he
said. “Tell ’em to bring in their families. We’re going on
lockdown, startin’ now.”

Seeking out Eva, Deuce pointed at her.
“Babe, go pick up D and bring her ass here.”

Wait. What? Lockdown? D?

Shit.

Oh hell, no.

I jumped off my barstool, slapping
Cage’s hand away when he tried to grab me.

“
Tegen!” he hissed. “You
know lockdown means you too!”

“
I’m leaving!” I shouted
in Deuce’s direction, ignoring Cage as I quickly hurried toward the
door.

“
Tegen!”

I kept walking.

“
You ain’t goin’ nowhere,”
Deuce called out. “This is club business.”

Bucket was suddenly standing in front
of the front door, shaking his head at me, blocking me from
leaving. I stopped walking and glared at him.

“
Move,” I ground
out.

Bucket grinned. “Ain’t no way in hell,”
he said.

“
Move!” I
shouted.

“
TEGEN!” Deuce
bellowed.

Bucket spun his index finger in a
circular motion, signaling that it was time for me to turn around,
something that only pissed me off even more.

Flipping Bucket off, I spun around. “I
am not part of your damn club!” I yelled. “And either is my
mother!”

As Deuce stalked toward me, his booted
steps heavy and deliberate, his nostrils flaring, I did everything
in my power not to shrink under his angry glare. Deuce angry was
not a pretty sight; it was in fact absolutely
terrifying.

“
Listen to me,” Deuce
growled quietly, having reached me. “I ain’t got time for your
mouth right now. We got a problem with the local law that I ain’t
got a hold of yet. So if you think I’m gonna let you walk out that
fuckin’ door only for somethin’ to happen to you because shit’s
goin’ down right now, you’re stupid as fuck.”

Deuce pointed to the bar. “March your
mouthy little ass back on over there, sit the fuck down next to
King Stupid, and keep on doin’ whatever the fuck it was you were
doin’. And get damn comfy doin’ it, ’cause you’re gonna be here
’til Wednesday.”

My jaw dropped. “Wednesday!” I shouted,
forgetting in my anger that Deuce’s temper was not something anyone
wanted to mess around with. “I have to be back at work on
Tuesday!”

“
Tough fuckin’ shit,” he
said, already turning away from me. Ignoring me. Treating me like I
was one of his motherfucking leather-clad minions.

“
You fucking asshole!” I
screamed, forgetting myself entirely. “You are not my prez! You are
not my father! You are not my fucking boss! You cannot tell me what
the fuck to do anymore!”

Slowly, menacingly, Deuce turned back
around to face me. “I ain’t your father?” He sneered. “Who’s been
keepin’ clothes on your back and food in your belly all these
years? Who’s been payin’ for that expensive-as-shit apartment in
Cali? Who’s been sending cash your way, keepin’ you and ZZ ahead of
the motherfuckin’ game?”

“
I’ve told you I don’t
need your money!” I screamed, uncaring that my voice was bordering
on shrill. I was trembling from head to toe and tears were forming.
“I tell you every goddamn week when you call and so does ZZ!
Whatever jobs you’ve been sending him on, he seems to be doing just
fucking fine! But you have to stick your fat head in where it
doesn’t belong because God forbid you don’t control every single
little thing around you! Well, I don’t need you, Deuce! I don’t
need this club! I never fucking did!”

Nostrils flaring, his face red with
rage, Deuce stared me down. “Cage!” he bellowed, his eyes still on
me. “Get your latest piece of ASS the fuck outta my face before I
start blowin’ fuckin’ holes in skulls!”

“
You sexist,
self-righteous FUCK!” I screamed, and lunged forward, lunging for
Deuce. I didn’t know what I was going to do once I got to him, but
I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. I wanted to get to him, punch
him, strangle him, kick him in the balls, something, anything. I
just wanted to hurt him.

But I never reached him. I was tackled
from the side, lifted straight up off the floor, and carried
quickly from the room.

“
I hate you!” I screamed
in Deuce’s direction. “I fucking hate you!”

• • •

Cage threw open his bedroom door,
stalked inside, kicked it shut behind him, and tossed Tegen’s
thrashing body onto his bed. She immediately scrambled into a
sitting position and made to jump off the bed but he was on her in
a flash, yanking her legs out from under her, straddling her hips,
and holding her arms out at her sides.

His heart thudding erratically inside
his chest, Cage glared down at her. He couldn’t care less that
she’d gotten in yet another verbal brawl with his father. He
couldn’t care less that she’d been only inches from slugging Deuce
in the face and subsequently getting her ass kicked for it. He
couldn’t give two motherfucking shits that Tegen was never going to
change; she was always going to act before thinking, mouthing off
to anyone, anywhere, not realizing the consequences. He didn’t even
care that she hated the club.

All he cared about, all he could think
about, the one thing that stuck out over everything his old man and
she had shouted at each other was…

ZZ.

No one, not one fucking brother, not
even Mick knew where ZZ was. Deuce had told everyone awhile back
that ZZ wasn’t their concern anymore and to stop asking questions
because he wasn’t going to answer them.

Who’s been sending cash
your way, keepin’ you and ZZ ahead of the motherfuckin’
game?

What did that fucking mean? That ZZ was
in Cali? Or that ZZ was in Cali with Tegen?

“
Get off me, you stupid
fuck!” Tegen screamed, trying desperately to pull her arms out from
under his grip.

Stupid. Fuck.

He lost it. He just fucking lost it.
His head was already a mess, feeling all sorts of crazy shit he
wasn’t familiar with, and Tegen’s last stab at him sent him over
the damn edge.

“
ZZ!” he roared.
“Motherfuckin’ ZZ!”

Tegen blinked up at him.

“
What?” she
whispered.

“
You heard me,” he gritted
out. “Now, fuckin’ spill. You and ZZ in Cali together? Livin’
together?”

She hesitated; just a tiny shift of her
eyes, a movement so small he wouldn’t have caught it if he hadn’t
been staring directly at her. Cursing, he shoved off her and got to
his feet. Running his hands through his hair, he turned around and
before he could think, he just reacted and sent his booted foot
straight into the wall. Feelings were coursing through him,
feelings he couldn’t decipher, along with a sudden rage he couldn’t
control.

He spun back around and found Tegen
sitting upright in his bed, glaring at him.

Tegen. ZZ. It wasn’t
computing.

It was Tegen, for Christ’s sake. The
bitch had been obsessed with him her entire fucking life and now,
this weekend, with everything that had happened…

He was feeling her. He was
motherfucking into this. And all along she’d had someone back home,
not just anybody but one of his motherfucking brothers.

He’d been so sure she still loved him.
How the fuck had he read that wrong?

“
You fuckin’ him?” he
demanded.

Her green eyes blazed with pure rage;
she was working up to launching herself straight off his bed, nails
ready to claw his eyes out, whatever it took. He had to hand it to
her—for being such a slip of a woman, she had balls of steel. But
what the fuck ever, he didn’t give two fucks how pissed she was
about anything anymore. All these years he’d been taking flack for
something he’d done while she’d been secretly shacking up with one
of his brothers.

Her bullshit was going to end right the
fuck now.

“
Answer me, bitch!” he
yelled.

She glared at him, unblinking,
unmoving, without remorse. He could see it in her eyes. She didn’t
give a fuck that she’d just jumped beds. She hated the club that
fucking much. She hated him that much.

“
Answer me!” he
roared.

“
Yes!” she
hissed.

SHIT! Why did he even care?

She hadn’t been Teacup in a long time,
she was just another bitch, another fucking whore who jumped from
brother to brother.

So he’d liked fucking her, so fucking
what? So ZZ liked fucking her too, who the fuck cared?

He was going to puke. He was going to
motherfucking puke.

For the first time he actually wanted a
girl to stick around and despite all the fighting, he liked
spending time with her. Jesus. He’d wanted more. He’d stupidly
wanted what his brothers had, he’d wanted it for a long time now,
and he’d stupidly wanted it from Tegen.

He was a fucking moron. His old man was
right. He was King fucking Stupid.

“
Looks like you turned out
just like your fuckin’ mom after all,” he spat, hitting her where
he knew it would be the most painful.

He didn’t wait for a response, her eyes
went saucer-wide and he whipped around, yanked open the door, and
stormed off down the hall.

“
You knew!” he yelled as
he passed into the main room, pointing to where his father stood.
“You fuckin’ knew Tegen was in Z’s bed,” he continued, “and you
didn’t say a motherfuckin’ word to me!”

“
What? Tegen and ZZ
what?”

Cage noticed for the first time that
Danny and Ripper had shown up along with their daughter, and Danny
looked…not happy.

“
Tegen’s what?” she
demanded. “With who?”

He ignored her. He was too pumped up;
he felt inside how Tegen had looked when facing off with his old
man, trembling with rage, ready at any moment to explode and hoping
like fucking hell when he did explode he’d be taking his father out
with him.

Deuce’s eyes narrowed. “You for real,
right now? Am I a fuckin’ datin’ service? You been stickin’ your
shit in any hole that’ll take it, so what the fuck makes Tegen any
damn different?”

Cage imploded.

“
BECAUSE SHE’S TEGEN!” he
roared. “She’s fuckin’ mine!”

His father’s unapologetic, unwavering
stare did nothing but further upset him.

“
Are you gonna fuckin’ say
something’?” Cage demanded. “Or you just gonna stand
there?”

“
Where is ZZ?” Danny
interjected, shoving in between him and their father. “In San
Francisco?”

Cage opened his mouth, ready to tell
her to go fuck herself, when Ripper beat him to it. Glaring, Ripper
grabbed Danny’s arm and yanked her out from between
them.

“
Why do you give a fuck
where ZZ is?” Ripper growled.

“
Oh, shut up!” Danny
snapped, yanking her arm from his grip. “We’ve all been worried
about him. Don’t act like this is about anything more than
that!”

“
Z lives with her,” Deuce
said and all eyes shot to him. “When he’s not on the road, and he’s
on the road more often than not.”

“
On the road doin’ what?”
Ripper asked.

Deuce turned to Ripper, staring at the
man but didn’t so much as blink. Cage, Ripper, and everyone else in
the club knew exactly what that meant.

“
Jesus,” Ripper said under
his breath. “Z? Z’s doin’ that shit?”

Nobody said a word, because everyone
already knew what “that shit” meant. Deuce had Z on the front
lines, taking care of all the dirty business and overseeing it
firsthand. It was gutter work, mostly bid out to nomads who
couldn’t give a fuck if they lived or died.

“
How long?” he demanded,
referring to Tegen and ZZ.

Deuce stared at him. “Does it fuckin’
matter?”

“
HOW FUCKIN’ LONG?” Cage
yelled.

“
Years,” Deuce replied,
his voice tight with anger.

Years. Motherfucking years.

The nausea came back, this time
worse.