Both of them were exhausted from everything that went down and the long trip home.
A lot of tears were shed in that rental. That alone had to be draining on the girls. It had been draining on him, too, since he struggled the whole drive back to Manning Grove with keeping his own shit together.
After Maya passed out from exhaustion on the couch upstairs, he and Syn had gone back downstairs to the empty bar to discuss shit.
Like the couch, Maya living in the skoolie wasn’t going to work, either, whether Syn thought differently or not.
They needed to have a serious conversation about where things would go from here. Maya sleeping on his couch was okay for a few days, but not permanently. The apartment was already cramped and had no bedrooms, so them all living together in it wouldn’t work. Maya deserved privacy as much as Syn and Dodge did.
He wiped his hand over his mouth. “They do, they’re gonna regret it. We also got Reese on our side and she’s a fuckin’ Pitbull.” He’d normally say Cujo, Rook’s Chihuahua, but he didn’t know if she’d remember the little shit from the garage. “Believe me, she can argue someone to death.”
When Dodge had walked into the Danzig’s master bedroom, Lyle Danzig had been curled into a ball on the floor.
He was way past begging for mercy, crying or even whimpering.
Shade and Deacon stood guard by the man’s wife, making sure Cara Danzig didn’t intervene with the lesson Sig taught her husband and Syn’s former adoptive father.
The VP’s knuckles looked like ground meat and blood was splattered everywhere Dodge could see. Including Sig’s clothes and face.
“Syn get her out?” Deke asked him.
“Workin’ on it. We’ll keep these motherfuckers occupied ’til she does.”
“How long?” Shade asked next, flicking his eyes toward Sig and raising one eyebrow.
Dodge saw the same as Shade. Sig was currently lost in his own head, standing over a man he’d beaten close to death using only his fists. By the blood on his boots, maybe he’d gotten in a good shot or two with those steel tips, too.
Dodge scratched the back of his neck. “Let’s give ‘em five. Gotta get her dressed and finish packin’ some shit.” He glanced at the motionless ball of bloody flesh and red-stained pajamas. “He still breathin’?”
Shade shrugged casually, most likely because he couldn’t give a shit if the man was or wasn’t.
Dodge glanced at Syn’s former adoptive mother, who sat frozen with fear on the bed, staring at her husband with tears streaming down her cheeks. He had a hard time mustering up any sympathy for the woman who didn’t give a flying fuck about her supposed “daughter.”
The one she accepted into her home as an infant to raise, protect and love.
The only feeling he had toward her was disgust, disappointment and the urge to punch her right in the fucking throat. He curbed that urge since he didn’t hit women, even when they were total pieces of shit and deserved it.
Dodge stepped up to the bed and got into her face. “Those tears? How many d’you think Syn shed for her daughter?”
“She doesn’t deserve her.”
Dodge’s fingers curled into his palms. “And you do?”
“We gave her a good life. Syn can’t give her nearly what we can.”
“You kept Syn, and then Maya, in a house where a child rapist had access. You didn’t give a shit about that?”
“Sam made a mistake. As soon as we found out, he never did it again.”
Dodge wanted to laugh at what she said, even though it wasn’t funny but totally fucking absurd. He and Shade shot each other a glance. The other man was good at hiding his expressions, but Dodge could see it in his eyes. He’d like to slice the bitch’s throat.
Shade wasn’t the only one.
Dodge turned his attention back to the woman. “How many times did that sick motherfucker come over to this house after he knocked up a thirteen-year-old?”
Cara Danzig blinked. “He assured us he’d never touch her again.”
“And you believed a fuckin’ child molester?”
The woman’s mouth gaped open. “Did he?”
“You don’t fuckin’ know?” Dodge just about roared. Maya could still be in the house, he needed to keep himself under control.
“If she says he did, she’s lying,” the woman hissed.
“Just like you lied to her about Maya’s legal guardianship?”
Cara’s mouth snapped shut.
“That’s what I fuckin’ thought.” He swallowed the fiery ball of anger back down his throat. “You didn’t do shit. You didn’t report it. You didn’t have that motherfucker arrested. Worse, you allowed him in this house with two vulnerable girls. So there’s no misunderstandin’… Gonna only say this once so listen fuckin’ carefully…” He had his nose almost pressed against hers and held that bitch’s eyes when he growled, “Maya belongs to Syn. You do anythin’ to try and take back a child that does not fuckin’ belong to you, we will come back down here for another visit. One that he,” he tipped his head toward the bloody balled-up mess on the floor, “and you will enjoy a lot less than this one. You got me?”