“What do you mean? I need more than that,” Bull pushes, his soft tone gone.
“I mean, I’ve been hanging around the trailer park I shouldn’t be around. I know you guys said there were rivals there, that I needed to stay away, but I just,” she closes her eyes and clenches her jaw, “I just couldn’t.”
“What the fuck, Cherry!” Bull roars. She shoots him a look, her expression of sadness replaced once again with anger.
“I couldn’t. You don’t understand.” Cherry pushes the words out through gritted teeth, tears filling her eyes.
“Why don’t you clarify it for us then?” I state, getting tired of these back-and-forth games.
Cherry shoots her beautiful gray eyes to me. They hold a sadness, like a person telling someone they love goodbye. As if they were going away to war and you may never see them again.
“My little girl lives in that trailer park,” she mutters, tears falling from her eyes. I wouldn’t have even heard her if I wasn’t watching her lips. I stand from my chair, my heart pounding dangerously.
“What the fuck do you mean your little girl?” I seethe.
“Just that, my little girl. Eric took her from me, did it just to hurt me. To prove a point. After I lost her in court, I went to talk to the judge. I walked in on Eric and his lawyer paying the judge and my lawyer off so I would lose the case. I told them I was taking them down and getting my girl back. They tried to kill me, I ran and haven’t heard anything since,” she rambles, her eyes flicking between mine and Bull’s.
I throw my chair back, anger filling my chest.
I turn and glare at her. “Who the fuck are you? How can you keep something like that from me?” I curl my lip in disgust.
“Me? Who the fuck am I? Who the fuck are you, Lip?” Cherry shouts.
“I think this charade has played its course, Lip. I think it’s time we tell her.” Bull sighs, and my head whips in his direction. The anger that was filling my chest turns into dread.
“What?” I mumble.
“Tell me what?” Cherry shrugs.
“Just know, I ordered this. Me, and I did it to protect you.” Bull pulls a cigarette from his pack and lights it. Shadow sits back in his seat and exhales a long breath. A vein pops out of my neck with the sudden amount of blood racing through my body. I feared this day would come. I never knew what I would do when it did come though, because I know I let things go too far with Cherry. But it’s here, and now she’ll hate me. She’ll loathe me.
“Just fucking tell me already,” Cherry demands, her brows furrowed.
“The judge to your case, he came and saw me. Asked me to take care of you. To kill you in short. He’s dirty, if you haven’t learned that already. He’s on our payroll, as we’re in his. When he told me his predicament, I told him no. I wasn’t getting involved in his dirt. Judge Calhoun threw the cash on my table and told me I had twenty-four hours to reconsider my offer or he was tearing my club down and he’d have another club off you. Next day, the local PD ambushed our club. I got my arm broke and my nose busted. Let’s just say I took that reconsideration he offered. I told him I would take care of you, and he’d better have my back with any cases turned his way,” Bull explains.
The words Bull is about to spew have my pulse throbbing in my ears.
“He handed me your folder after I accepted the order. It contained the usual. Photos, birth certificate, where you lived, what you drove, everything. When I saw your photo, I thought you looked familiar, but I didn’t know how familiar ‘til I looked closely at your birth certificate. I knew your father. We went way back, but he got on that juice and he was never the same after that. You – I only barely recognized you because you were barely knee-high to a grasshopper when I last saw you.” Bull’s face pulls together with sorrow. “Your father was an angry drunk, Cherry. I busted his jaw when I saw him get rough with you one time. That was the end of our friendship, and I never saw him again.” This is all news to me. I didn’t know any of this, didn’t know anything, in fact. I was given my orders, and where to find her. That was it. I’ve tried to get him to give me more over the years, but he just told me what I needed to know was what I knew.
“How did you take care of me? ‘Cause you didn’t kill me? I’m confused.” Cherry frowns, tears streaking her rosy cheeks. I have to curl my fists to curb the urge to wipe them away. To care for her. Old habit. Bull slowly takes his eyes from Cherry to me.