Page 1 of Crucified By the Dark
Five Years Ago
Morry held up her finger as Judd walked into her office without knocking. Typical.
“I told you that I don’t care what you think. Kyle is still my son, and until a judge says otherwise, you can’t keep him from me, Andrew. I will see my son for the weekend,” she said into the phone, happy that she chose not to video call. There was no way she could keep things moderately civil if she had to look at her ex’s arrogant face.
“You came back and decided to become a fucking biker. Our nine-year-old son doesn’t need that kind of influence in his life. He’s already influenced enough by you. Do you know what he told me the other day? Kyle said he wanted a leather jacket for his birthday and that when he grew up, he wanted to join the army just like his mother.”
“Nothing wrong with either of those things. My entire family has served this country, and leather is stylish. Not that you would know anything about that. You’re lucky if your socks match in the morning.”
“Oh, so funny, always the comedian, then you wonder why we divorced. The point is, you’re a bad influence. I never wanted you to leave for the army and now look where we are.”
Her anger burned white hot, and even though she wanted to keep the peace and knew she shouldn’t, she couldn’t hold back. “No, I’m pretty sure your cock in my used-to-be best friend got us to this place, Andrew. No one forced you to fuck her while I risked my life for our country. Or do you absolve yourself of any part of the shit that went down between us?”
“Holy fuck, are we on this again? I said I was sorry,” his temper flared as it always did whenever she pointed out why they got divorced in the first place. At least this way, they both lost their cool. Andrew had proven that he wasn’t above lying or exaggerating the truth to get what he wanted. She almost felt bad for Lindsay…almost. She’d learned through a couple mutual friends that Andrew had been spreading around that she was not only gone for the long stretches of time, but that she was sleeping with the men on base. It was bullshit. She didn’t sleep with TK until after Andrew had been outed with his sleeping around.
“I’m pretty sure the fact you brought up the topic of my deployment automatically includes what you did to get us to this point,” she growled into the phone as her hand gripped the cell tighter. “There are always two sides, you just seem to like the version where this is all my fault.”
“Whatever, Mores. You want to argue in circles, go ahead, but I’m not going to,” Andrew said.
She would’ve reached through the phone and pummeled the shit out of him if she could. Why did they ever get married? How had they gotten to the point that a simple conversation couldn’t stay civil?
“It’s not a circle, it’s called the truth. You really should try it sometime, you might find it refreshing.”
“Wow Mores, you’ve really become a bitch. I’m happy we’re divorced and thank god we only have one kid to fight over.”
That was cheap shot and hurtful since she’d had to have a full hysterectomy after Kyle was born due to complications. He knew it was still a wound, and one that took a long time to move past. She could feel the limit of her boiling point coming and she was going to completely lose her mind shortly.
Andrew twisted any conversation to the point that everything that came out of her mouth was snide, snippy, or sarcastic. She honestly felt the same way about him, but the difference was he never saw cheating with Lindsay as something he did wrong. He placed that blame at her feet.Shechose the army over her family. Deployment was too difficult forhim.
She was done being blamed for his shit. It was time Andrew owned his part in their failed marriage. Meaningless half-hearted apologies didn’t count.
“Don’t fucking call me Mores. I always hated that nickname and let you get away with it because I loved you. We can clearly say we are both past that point. I’m coming over Friday night to take Kyle for the weekend, whether you like it or not, and if you try to stop me, we can get the police involved again. I’m sure that will look great in front of the judge. You once more refusing to hand over my son and needing the police to step in and making a scene to get it done.”
The cops getting called had become an almost bi-weekly occurrence and she could tell by the looks on their faces when they arrived that they were sick of coming to the calls as much as she was having to make them.
“Fine. What time?” Andrew sighed like she was the annoying one.
“Seven o’clock. And Andrew, he better fucking be there. If you pull the same shit as last time….”
“Are you threatening me?”
Judd leaned up against the door and signaled to hand him the phone. She shook her head no. The one time Judd answered the phone in the office when she was out hadn’t gone swimmingly.
“Of course, you’d go there. You always did manage to make yourself the victim. I’m done with this conversation. Seven o’clock, Friday night, don’t forget.” Morry hung up before she said something that really would get her in trouble with the judge handling their messy divorce. They weren’t even supposed to be talking now, but arrangements for Kyle had to be made. “That man may drive me to day drink. Sorry, Judd, what’s going on?”
“We’ve got one of your fancy Humvees approaching. Should be reaching the gate any second.”
She couldn’t recall a meeting with any Righteous members, but that had to be who it was. Someone mentioned that Dean called, but he was a day’s drive from here, so that seemed unlikely.
“You want us to let them in or not?”
“Tell them to let in whoever it is. I’ll come out.”
Grabbing her gun, she checked the clip and shoved it in the back of her cargo pants. Morry caught sight of her reflection on the way past the small mirror in her office and wiped at the grease mark on her face, but it was useless. That would need a hard scrubbing later. Whoever it was, better not give a fuck what she looked like because she’d seen a dog’s asshole look more appealing than what she had going on. That was probably Andrew’s plan in the first place. Make her look rundown and crazy so he could look like the golden boy.
She followed Judd outside. His massive six-seven height almost forced him to duck under the door frame. He was her second-in-command. He was a little more than that from time to time, but it wasn’t anything serious. She wasn’t ready for anything serious, not after all her heart had been through in the last year. Fuck, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted anything serious ever again.
It was almost dark, but she could easily see the cloud of dirt that rose in the air behind the black vehicle coming through the gates. The guys outside looked at the Humvee, their eyes wary of the newcomer. Only a handful of them knew about the Righteous, Judd was one of them. She knew every single one of her gang would pull a gun and fire if they thought she was in danger. They were a cutthroat group, the most she’d ever encountered, which said a lot, but they were loyal fuckers. It had taken some time to get them there, but now she’d trust them as much as her boys, Dean, Trev, Arek, Kes and Wolf.
