“Is that what you want?” I scoot forward, placing my elbows on my knees and resting my face in my palms.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. But we both know this isn’t working. And with the way things are right now with everything…we need a break. Maybe once I graduate.”
I scoff. Opening up a box on the table I pull out a joint and fire it up. “Alright, Coralie. You go back to college with your rich fuckin’ friends and I’ll go to Texas and lay with every fucking whore I can stick my dick in.” I smirk and take a hit and she smacks the fucking joint out of my mouth. It falls to the floor, burning a hole in the rug as I stare at her.
“Fuck you, Axel. I don’t care what you do.”
I should say something, but I don’t because she’s right. This isn’t fucking working and I don’t have it ion me to fight for a bitch who doesn’t give a damn about me. I grab the left-handed cigarette up from the floor and stick it between my lips and blow a ring of smoke at her.
Tears slide down her cheeks, but they aren’t genuine. Coralie doesn’t give a shit about me. All she worries about is pleasing Mommy and Daddy and keeping her perfect appearance up.
**
“You can’t leave before Christmas, Axel. It’s the holidays. You know how much it means to me to have the whole family together. Your sister is going to be here. Sara is coming with her twins. We all want to make this year special.”
I know what my mother is trying to do, but her guilt trip isn’t working.
“I don’t feel like celebrating, Mom. I just want to go down to Texas and che
ck shit out. Abel will be coming down right after New Year’s. Me leaving a few days early doesn’t make a difference.”
“You can’t spend Christmas alone.” She grabs my hand. “Please, son. Reconsider. Harley is getting married on New year’s.”
I shrug her off. “Harley won’t miss me. Besides, I’m not a kid and I won’t be alone. I have a truck full of moonshine and I am sure company won’t be hard to come by.”
A smack thwacks the back of my head. “Just like a man to think with your other head.”
“Ow, damn,” I gripe. That earns me another thump.
“Leave him alone,” my old man intervenes, thank the fuck. I love my mother but damn. I don’t want to be here seeing everyone all happy and shit when I just got fucking dumped. Mom crosses her arms but shuts her mouth. “Your bike is on the trailer. You got everything?”
I look around my apartment. There’s still photos of Coralie and me on the wall. I frown and stare down the dark hallway that leads to the bedroom and the bathroom. It’s time to let go and move forward. There’s nothing left here for me. “Yeah. The rest of this shit can go to the dump or charity.”
I give my mother a hug and a kiss to the cheek.
“You better check in along the way.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Call in at the halfway point and again when you arrive. I mean it,” my old man growls.
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 3
Ainsley
Somewhere, Texas
Pulling up to my father’s house feels strange. I haven’t spent a day of my life in the place, but my stepmother insisted I come home for Christmas break. She thinks it will be good for me to try and connect with the man who raised me. Like she has any freaking idea what I need. My whole life I was hidden away like his dirty secret because he said it was safer for me that way. My father was not a good man. He was a criminal. A cartel boss. That was the impression he gave to all who knew him but to me he was my dad. He never missed a thing going on in my life. He was there for every important moment and yet I feel numb.
The men who killed him decapitated him and I buried my father without his head. The police claim to be working the case, but they know, and I know they won’t find his head, nor will they arrest the men responsible. In their eyes my father got what was coming to him and maybe he did.
I shut off the car and grab my bag from the backseat. I have never met my stepmom. Her and my father only married a few months back. She’s in Tennessee. Something to do with her ex. I guess he is in the hospital or something. I really don’t care. Those people are nothing to me. I’m on my own as usual. I’m used to it. As much as my father was there for all the big moments in my life, he was missing in action for the little things in between.
I take out the key from under the fake rock that was left for me and unlock the massive door. The house is warm considering no one has been living here. Aside from the maid coming in to clean and to stock the fridge for me. Speaking of food, I am starving. Dropping my bag on the floor by the front door, I give myself the grand tour. Stephanie said I could have my pick of any of the bedrooms on the second floor. This isn’t the home they shared. My father had several properties. The fact that they all belong to her now bothers me, but at the same time do I really want my father’s blood money. I stand to inherit thirty million dollars I will receive half upon my eighteenth birthday a few days from now and the rest when I turn twenty-one. I will never have to work a day in my life. My father made sure of that. He left me well supported but now I am unprotected. I don’t expect anything from Stephanie nor should I. From what I hear she is as cold and evil as my father could be.
She’s in bed with the Devils Rejects and only out for herself. Though can I blame her? It’s a man’s world and we just exist in it. My father had a lot of enemies and I can’t help but wonder when they will come for me. I am sure my existence and DNA has been made known. No sense in dwelling on things out of my control. I continue to wonder the halls of the house. I make it to the lavish kitchen that has state of the art everything including a fully stocked bar.