Tripp’s large form practically bowled me over as he rushed to get to his wife, grabbing her arm and pulling her away from Marek and her friend. His words to her were harsh in tone but because he spoke quietly, I couldn’t hear what he said.
Sully peered around her husband and made eye contact with Kaden. “I was asked to come.” The second I saw Prez start to twist his head around, I knew to get the hell out of the way because if I didn’t, I’d be on the ground in two seconds from the force at which Marek was gonna rush toward the three of us, his son being the target.
“We better move,” I whispered to Linc, which was unnecessary because he’d already shifted to his left as I did to my right simultaneously, leaving Kaden all alone in the middle.
“She needs to be here. She needs to weigh in,” Kaden blurted, shifting his feet while keeping his eyes pinned to his ol’ man.
As Marek moved to come at him, Sully grabbed his arm. I had no doubt her hold on him wasn’t strong, but he didn’t move.
“I told you not to involve her.” Marek’s face reddened, and it was the first time in a long time I didn’t want to be around any of them, mainly because of the uncertainty swirling through the air.
So many things could go wrong now.
Marek could kill Tag on principal.
He and Kaden could feud amongst themselves, allowing that shit to bleed over into the club.
He and Sully might fall out. Then he’d be one constant sour motherfucker to be around.
“I don’t agree,” Kaden said after inhaling a fortifying breath, no doubt trying to gather some semblance of strength.
“What did you tell her?” He never waited for his son to answer before swiveling his head back toward Sully. “What did he tell you?”
“Just that I needed to come here and help. I don’t know what that means, though.” She pushed a strand of her dark hair away from her face, looking more nervous as the seconds ticked by.
Sully was a small woman in stature, and while she was typically docile, she was also fierce when she had to be. I’d witnessed it once when she confronted Stone after he attacked Kaden in Ryder’s downstairs bathroom. And even now, with Marek standing beside her, bristling in anger, she remained calm, her brown eyes bouncing between her husband and her son.
“Reece, take my wife home. Now.” His raised tone put both women on alert, as well as Tripp.
“Tone.” One word was all Tripp said in response, straightening to his full height of six four, not that he could intimidate Marek, but his puffed-out chest was to show our prez he didn’t care for the way he talked to his wife.
Marek ignored Tripp, his eyes never leaving Sully’s. “You need to leave. I don’t want you here.”
“What’s goin’ on?” Her brows pinched tightly together. “Somethin’ tells me I should stay. There’s a reason Kaden asked me to come.”
“He was misinformed.”
She moved to sidestep Marek, but he moved with her, blocking her from advancing toward their son or even from getting a clearer visual of him.
“I wanna talk to Kaden.”
“No.” Sully tried to move around him again, but she had no such luck. “I want you to go home. No more questions. No more tryin’ to figure out what’s goin’ on. I’ll deal with him for involving you in this.” I watched Marek’s hands clench into fists so tight he lost some of the color in his knuckles. The man struggled not to rant and rave at his wife, but he was slowly slipping, and if she didn’t leave, taking Reece right back out that front door… well, let’s say I’d rather be back in the basement with Pike, holding a gun to his head myself. That’s how much less tense that situation was compared to what was slowly unfolding in front of me now. In front of all of us.
“Sully, just go,” Hawke yelled from behind me.
“I got this,” Marek grated, the muscle in his jaw pulsing under the weight of his barely simmered anger. Hawke held his hands up as a sign he’d stay out of Prez’s business.
The silence in the room thickened, the tick of the clock in the kitchen sounding so damn loud, I was waiting for some sort of explosion.
Sully and Marek stared at each other. Reece huddled closer to Tripp, exchanging quiet words between them as they waited right along with the rest of us to see how this scene would unfold.
Would Sully listen to her husband and leave, or would her curiosity about why her son called her all the way out here win in the end?
Finally, with an audible sigh, Sully gave her husband a quick nod and turned to her friend. “Let’s go.” Tripp leaned down and gave Reece a quick kiss before releasing her hand. Both women moved back toward the front door, but as Sully wrapped her fingers around the handle, Kaden hurriedly brushed past me, stopping only when he was a few feet behind Marek.
“They’re gonna kill an innocent man if you leave,” he uttered, ignoring his ol’ man’s expression, which had morphed from shock to rage in two seconds flat.
4
Never had I wanted to be someplace else than right now. As I watched everyone’s reaction to Kaden’s outburst, I became more uncomfortable, choosing to step back in order to put additional distance between me and the man who was gonna rage at any second. I was simply a spectator, waiting… watching as the scene unfolded in front of me. I had nothing of value to offer to the situation. Let me correct that. I had my opinions, of course, as to what should happen to Tag, but being in such close proximity to a ticking time bomb, aka Marek, I was smart enough to keep my fuckin’ mouth shut.
Tripp’s head dropped in defeat after Kaden spoke, his shoulders slumping forward, as he waited, just like the rest of us, to see what happened. Hawke had moved closer to his brother, but unlike his older sibling, he looked intrigued. I’d even go so far as to say the nomad appeared amused, the edges of his mouth curving upward, his grin frozen in place as he watched everything unfold. Rez, Miles, and Nash looked on with interest, but they didn’t appear to be uncomfortable, and I suspected that was because they’d never witnessed one of Marek’s outbursts. And while I’d only seen a few, they were a few too many, in my opinion. When my eyes finally made their way to Linc, his head was lowered a fraction, but his interest in the outcome of Kaden’s words was high. He peeked at everyone, watching… waiting, mirroring my curiosity.
“What is he talkin’ about?” Sully asked, her focus on her husband before moving to their son. “What do you mean? Who is gonna be killed?” Her attention bounced between both men before she finally looked over at Tripp, and if she thought he was gonna answer instead of Marek, she would be sorely disappointed.
Waiting was the shitty part. Not only did I not know who would say what, but I didn’t know if there would be some sort of physical altercation as a result of what Kaden divulged to his mother. I’d never seen or heard of Marek putting his hands on his son in anger, but his fierce protectiveness for his wife’s emotional state could rival any sense he had over striking Kaden.
Anything was possible at this point.
“That’s none of your concern,” Marek finally said, addressing his wife’s questions. “You just need to leave. Now.”