Page 18 of Redemption

Lex looks at the man they’ve both known since grade school, and Colt reads the betrayal wash over her face. It stirs up a strange emotion within him, but he quickly finds it replaced with disdain. The nerve! “She took the tracker off. Both of them. I have no idea where my kids and wife stay, and I get them on the weekends. And she’s pissed because I decided they could have a sleepover with their cousin.”

“You’re a fucking dick, you know that, Colt?” Lily snaps.

Melanie moves towards Lex, but she steps back. “Lex? Talk to us.”

The room stares in silence, no one quite sure what to say. “Stay the fuck out of my marriage. I mean it!”

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” Phoenix Hankinson asks, standing to get in Colt’s face.

“You realize how fucking stupid that sounds, right? Because had you actually been a part of your marriage, this conversation wouldn’t even be happening,” Lily says.

“This is a shit thing to do, Colt. Was your goal to embarrass her in front of everyone? Because the only one looking stupid here is you,” Melanie says.

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, either, so shut the fuck up.”

Jace Conway stands to his full six foot six height and wraps an arm around his girl and stares at him with angry, wide eyes. “Watch it, Colt.”

“Watch it? Both of your women are bitching at me for trying to figure out a way to con my own wife into talking to me after she took my kids and moved the fuck out to wherever the hell she wanted to. With no way to communicate with them. Because she refuses to fucking talk to me!”

“You’re the reason she’s been avoiding the clubhouse,” Heidi says. “Oh, God, it makes so much sense now. Lex, are you good? Do you need anything?”

“No!” he shouts. How can they all miss the point? “No! The one everyone keeps asking about and saying we need has let us down. Avoided us. Decided she doesn’t need the club anymore because she’s better than all of us.”

Jace catches Melanie as she leaps in the air towards Colt, and he jumps back in surprise. She may be small, but damn if she isn’t a loose cannon. “Fuck you, Colton Nichols!” she shouts and fights with her boyfriend to get free. “Go to fucking hell you soul sucking pathetic excuse of a man. You’re nothing but a fucking piece of shit!”

“Mel, stop,” Jace says and struggles with the woman less than half his size. “Jesus, you’re strong when you’re mad. It’s like trying to give a cat a bath.”

“Lex never does anything without a good reason, and you know it. If she left, taking his kids and not telling him or the rest of us where she is, he did something to cause it. Husbands and fathers of the year don’t lose their families. Shitty motherfuckers who treat their families like shit do. And that’s what he is. A shitty motherfucker I want to claw the fucking face off of.”

Lex crosses her arms under her chest and looks at the ground. For some reason, her unwillingness to bite back both pisses him off and makes him nervous. She always fights. Maybe Karmen was right.

“Say something,” Felicity says, looking at the blonde. “Is this true?”

“This is the humiliation I was trying to avoid,” she says, her voice quiet.

Her eyes refuse to look up at his face, and he wills her to even just give him a glance. To give any indication she’s not completely gone. “Lex-”

“Everything that’s happened was forced by your hand. By your decisions. I wanted to do this when things were more settled, and I knew I had a better handle on everything. But like usual, it’s all about you and what you want. Are you happy now?”

“This is why you’ve pulled away from the club?” Jennings asks. “Why you haven’t been around?”

Sniffling, she wipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “Yes.”

“What the fuck did you do?” Shep shouts.

“Nothing,” Colt says. “I swear-”

“I’m done with this conversation, and I’m not doing this here in front of everyone. I understand why Karmen and TK are still married. It’s to protect the club. I’m willing to do that because it’s in our kids’ best interest.”

Shep stands up. “Forget the club. What the fuck happened, Lex? What’d he do to make you turn away from all of us?”

Colt looks at her, the anger rising. “Yeah, what the fuck happened? Oh, wait, I remember. You think I fucked and knocked up a club bunny from Black Valley.”

“That’s crazy, Lex,” Autumn Sims says. “Colt loves you.”

“Are you sure about this?” Tripp Molloy asks, his eyes glancing to his father. At least he has a few people on his side.

Brock raises his eyebrows. “We can get this cleared up quickly.”

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