“Time to pull yourself together and stop being selfish. Your man lost his shit today, and he needs you. He’s doing what he can to hold it together for the both of you, but girlfriend he’s fucking falling. He got a call last night about Maverick that rocked him. He went off the deep end, and your ass needs to pull him the fuck back so he can get your son!”
“What do you mean? What call? Tell me what the fuck you’re talking about, Princess.”
“Nice to finally have your damn attention. We need coffee and I’ll explain everything to you.”
Hours pass as he sleeps, and I pace the clubhouse like a caged animal. Princess was right. I needed coffee, and then I needed her to hold me while I broke again after hearing what Puppet told Night. And then I became angry. It’s what’s keeping me going right now waiting for Nightmare to wake up. He freaked his brothers out so badly, they fed him a mild horse tranquilizer. Thank God the man’s the size of a mountain or they could’ve killed him.
“Ermmm,” he mumbles, waking from his own fog. He’s been asleep since last night.
“I should fucking punch you for letting them knock you out. Really, Nightmare, a whole bottle of Jager?”
“Huh?” His sleepy gaze meets mine, bloodshot to hell. “You’re up?”
“Well one of us had to be since they put you out.”
“They put me out?”
“Yes, sleeping beauty. Now wake the fuck up and find our son, it’s been long enough.”
“What happened to your face?”
“The new shit? Princess.”
“Jesus, I don’t even want to know.”
“It was my wake-up call, now here is yours. Get up, get your shit together or I’ll be the one stabbing you in the throat.” I hold my hand out, coffee cup near the brim. He’s going to need it just like I did.
“I can’t believe you’re out here.” He sits up from one of the couches in the bar.
“In the flesh.” I hand him the coffee and take a seat beside him. “We need a plan, Night. This self-destruction shit we’re doing to ourselves is getting us nowhere. We’ll be stronger together and our son needs us to save him. No one else will.”
“All right then, what did you have in mind?”
You put your arms around
me and I’m home.
-Love Quotes
“You think your plan will work?” Prissy asks, sitting across from me in the kitchen.
I haven’t eaten in days, and I’m trying to choke down some soup to get some strength back. We’re failing Maverick, and he doesn’t deserve this. He needs to have two parents he can count on who will go into battle for him. We have to fight for him; I’ll never forgive myself if we don’t.
I can only imagine how scared he must be, away from everyone and everything he knows. And I have no idea if Puppet is being nice to him or even feeding him. I have to have faith with what we know.
Puppet said that he wanted to keep Maverick until he was grown, so I have to think that he’s feeding him. I need to keep telling myself that he’s okay so I don’t lose it again and go off the deep end.
“It has too. We don’t have any options, and I refuse to let this shitbag keep my kid. I don’t care if Nightmare killed his son or not. Shadow was a grown-ass man and knew what he was doing. Maverick is a three year old little boy; he has no part in any of this. I can’t believe we missed his birthday. That piece of shit not only stole Mav from me, but his third birthday. The first one Nightmare was going to get to celebrate, too, and it was stolen away.”
“I know it, B; I wish we could freaking gut Puppet for this. I don’t normally want such evil to touch someone, but I hope this guy slowly rots for what he’s done. If the brothers have any say in how Puppet goes, we can have faith that they’ll make it very painful.”
“I want to do it myself, Prissy. I told Nightmare that they need to catch him alive because I want to be the one to end him. He says we have to wait, though, and that as much as he wants him gone, the Fists are more than what they originally thought. Nightmare believes our revenge will take time to get.”
She remains quiet, picking at her sandwich. I’ve never had hate for someone like I do for Puppet. I want to take his life like he so easily has taken mine.
That evening we crawl into bed; this time, together. It’s the first time since Maverick has been missing. After seeing Night so messed up over everything, I know he needs me. I have to show him that he’s loved and that I believe in him. Without him on his game, none of this will work the way we need it to.
“I spoke to Spider; he’s going to hack into the phone company to get me the number that called before I broke my phone.”