Tackling Her Obsession with the Tight End

Chapter 11: Connections

Sean

Taking a deep breath, I unlock the door to my childhood home. I got up really early after the party last night to have time for this considering our game tonight. They're expecting me or I'd knock. There are some things you do not want to walk in on and considering my parents are technically now empty nesters....ugh I shake the mere idea away. One of our teammates had that graphic reminder when he barged into his family home a few weeks ago.

"Mama?"

"We're in the kitchen." Dad answers me.

I move that way to find the men of Nutville standing with Mama in the middle holding out my coffee mug. "Here baby." She says sliding mine across. "Thanks Mama."

"We aren't going to like a word of this, I can already tell." Uncle Manny says as he leans against the cabinet.

Uncle Colby snorts. "Why we're glad our wives had other engagements this morning. Except for Peppermint Chaos here." He points to Mama with a grin.

"No you aren't." I take a sip of my coffee before I betray my brother's confidences. "Paul is back and he's bothering Sarah. Liam and she were meeting to talk things through at a cafe a few weeks ago and he showed up. She confessed he's trying to convince her to come back. Liam said she was terrified. Shaking and clammed up. He threatened to unfavorably blast Liam in all the newspapers and sports broadcast if she stays friends with him at some point. She confided that Paul verbally abused her during one of their dating stints. Liam thinks it's when she took him back after their date." I made the decision to do this whether it costs me Sarah's trust or not. Liam will forgive me. It might take him a while, but I'm not going to sit back and watch this play out.

"f*****g pricknut!" Uncle Baylor grinds out as his hands slap the counter. His eyes are flashing fire. "He's going to die this time. I warned him about going near my daughter again. I should have broken his f*****g neck instead of just his arm!" Ah so Harley Quinn aka Angry Dad Baylor was activated at some point. He's got an awesome collection of bats from when the girls played softball.

"We thought we did enough to get her away from him before. Guess he really did have a tighter hold than we thought." Dad says sadly. Why am I not surprised the whole group knew already?

"Had him and his f*****g family on the run for a while. They must have had enough judicial pull to get their f*****g necks out of it." Pop says angrily. When he gets mad and has no jokes along with f bombs, s**t has really hit the fan.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask confused.

Uncle Jared eyes me. "The Chadwicks are dirty Sean. Not just in character, but business. They traffic drugs. We tipped off a friend at the FBI years ago when Sarah became very withdrawn. We heard through some channels they were about to get a large shipment. They raided their empire during the big distributor event and arrested lots of people. The Chadwicks went underground for a bit. But it sounds like they are back again. Which means I need to go back to work."

I stare at them all as they nod. "f**k you really are the clean mafia."

Uncle Clint chuckles darkly. "We had to stay out of this one as much as we could. Too many risks for them coming after our families. We can't put you kids at risk sometimes."

Uncle Colby grimaces. “And that family makes good on physical threats. They have hired guns.”

Uncle Manny shakes his head. "Looks like I'm calling Quentin again. He assured me she was not in any danger from him the last time we talked."

"Who's Quentin?" I ask, sipping my coffee again.

"Special Agent Quentin Sharp with the FBI. Our friend put us in contact with him. Said he was working on taking them down. He has a personal vendetta against them after Paul got involved with Quentin's sister and broke her. She committed suicide. He hates them." Uncle Manny answers.

Uncle Bennett stands up straighter now. "I'll call Benson too. He's got a few friends in other places that might be able to help us. He's out of the country for a few weeks though on work business."

"What kind of friends does Benson have?" I have always wanted to ask. The man is a giant teddy bear with us kids the few times a year he comes around. He's got some interesting tattoos that I've noticed though and the one time I saw him angry, it was terrifying. Even to me at my size now, I wouldn't cross him. Yet my tiny Mama can walk up and hug the guy and he will bend down smiling at her like a kid.

"Benson is part of the Chaos Rebels Motorcycle Club. He's the sergeant at arms." Uncle Clint explains.

Dad nods at the understanding on my face. "Basically you don't f**k with him."

"Dare I ask how you guys are good friends with an officer in a motorcycle club?" I'm learning all sorts of fun today. Never think your parents are boring in this family.

Uncle Bennett starts in. "He opened a mechanic shop in Tarrant when he got out of high school and joined the Chaos Rebels. I took my truck in when I first started playing for the Tornadoes. We struck up a conversation and found we had a lot in common. Hannah and I would have dinner with him and his wife sometimes. They got married young, right after he joined the club. Benson used to travel a lot more than he does now when he was working his way up ranks in the club. He became a single dad not long after Bitty and Webb got married. His wife left him when she couldn't handle his lifestyle any more. His daughter, Lindy, was all he had. He lost it and almost went feral when he found out not only did his wife leave him; she left with another man, a former rival club member. He went crazy Sean. Drunken benders, causing fights, out of control. His Prez, Mack, forced him to go into therapy."

Mama takes over. "We would join them for dinner too. Andrea was his therapist and she recommended he go into rehab. Serious intense inpatient rehab. This was the year before you were born, sweetie. Benson didn't want her at the club while he was gone to repair his mess, even though he knew his brothers would take care of her. They were a smaller club at the time and he didn't want her to get lost in the shuffle or burden them that much. Also, he wanted her to have a mom influence while he was gone."

Uncle Bennett takes over again. "When he had to leave for six months in that rehab, he asked me, Hannah, Webb and Sofie if we'd watch over Lindy. Andrea vouched for us to him. He had us thoroughly investigated and said she felt safe with Sofie and Hannah. She came to stay with us until he got better."

"Wait.....did you say Lindy? As in Lindy Roberts? The sales and marketing chief for the Tornadoes?" I stare at my parents amazed. That woman has done wonders to make sure Noah was kept away from the press vipers. Offered him and Caylee any and all resources at her disposal.

"Yes. We always told you kids the ripples from your smallest act of kindness can spread so wide." Mama says simply.

Uncle Colby pipes in. "That's why she helped so much when Noah was taken by Shebitch Sharissa. She made sure to punish those who belittled him for being captured by a female."

Papa leans back further. "And that's how Benson became part of our collection. He still comes by for dinner sometimes. We should have involved him last time instead of the FBI like I argued for."

Pop nods grimly. "We tried to go the right route, Murphy. Won't happen again." I stare at them, noting the role reversal here between the lawyer who stays on the straight and narrow and Pop who likes to fight dirty.

Uncle Baylor agrees. "No, it damn well won't. Let me know when Benson's back in town. I'll go with you. Sarah said nothing yesterday. Only about her commercial."

"What commercial?" Mama asks interested. Which sparks off a whole new discovery.

"She made the hype video for the Tornadoes. It starts playing today and will debut Monday night in primetime during the game. Keep that quiet. Let her tell everyone. She was actually beaming with pride. Haven't seen that light in her eyes in a long time." He says sadly. "Except when the other oldest Jameson is around."

I nod sadly. I need to talk my brother out of his dating adventures and give Sarah some time for our family to deal with Paul.

"I'll handle Liam. Between Noah and I, we should be able to talk some sense into him."

"We need to get rid of Paul first, Sean. Otherwise, Sarah will continue to protect Liam and stay away." Mama says wisely.

Uncle Baylor agrees. "Yes, he knows her weaknesses, I would bet. They always do."

“Can we get her into counseling?” I ask tentatively.

“She’s been going. I insisted.” Uncle Baylor adds firmly. “She confessed the verbal abuse to Trisha and I. Begged us to keep it in our circle only. We agreed but only because everyone else here knew. And in return she sees a therapist twice a month now. At first it was once a week."

"So Operation f**k Paul is in the beginning stages on our end. You will stay out of it until we bring you in." Uncle Jared points at me.

Dad nods. "Instead you are on your brother. Keep him and his hotheadedness from getting into something he shouldn't with some girl. Let Noah help you. He's good at keeping Liam in line."

"Piper Harrell better be gone. She's a fame floosie." Pop adds dryly.

"He won't see her again. He figured out quick what she was." I tell them trying not to laugh. "Do you guys have spy cameras on us?"

"That's for us to know and you to worry about." Uncle Manny adds with a wicked smirk.