Judge

by KJ Dahlen

  Zipper got up and walked over to where they were all standing and handed Deke a piece of paper. He looked a bit grim as Deke read the paper in his hand. It was the research he found on Simon Grant.

  Deke read the information and swore, then crumbled the paper in his hands. He glared at Sage then looked at his men. “We found our connection between Simon Grant and the Lords of the Devils.”

  “And what would that be?” Sam wanted to know.

  “Simon and the President of the Lords are brothers. Their president’s name is Aiden Grant.”

  “Do we know where the Lords call home?” Gator asked.

  “Their base camp is Glen Falls,” Zipper informed them.

  “That’s only about forty-five minutes from here. An easy enough ride.” Sam ran his hands through his hair. “But now, we have to prove it somehow. All this shit went down a long time ago.”

  “The house is still there,” Sage told them quietly.

  “Well, that’s just fine but a house can’t talk, little girl.” Sam raised a brow at her.

  Sage sighed heavily. “Maybe these walls can.”

  Chapter Seven

  “What the fuck does that mean?” Deke demanded as he snapped his head around to glare at her.

  “My mother was nobody’s fool. She kept a record of the times the Lords came around. She hid the records from everyone and when we left we left in a hurry in the middle of the night, I don’t think she had time to get her records though. They might still be there.”

  “Why did you leave in the middle of the night?” Gator asked.

  “A couple of months before we ran, something happened. Somehow, the Lords suspected her of stealing from them and that was trouble for her and she knew it.” She shrugged. “We stayed hidden for a couple of months then Simon found her. He beat her bad before she convinced him she didn’t steal from the club. He went after the real thief and found him and the stuff he took from the club. He literally beat the man and took him for judgement to the club. No one has seen him since.”

  “And who was this guy?” Deke asked. “And just what was it he took from the Lords?”

  “Kyle’s dad, Jason Brecker.” Her eyes got huge in her face. “He must have known who turned his dad in to Simon, no wonder he hates me!” She swallowed hard. “He took a small box of guns and a couple kilos of heroin. My mom didn’t know it was even taken until she remembered Luke and his friends had been there around the time the things went missing. That was the only time Jason had come along with them and then she remembered Luke distracted her long enough for the stuff to go missing. When she confronted Luke about the stuff, he told her he didn’t take it but that Jason might have. That’s when Luke got pissed off because Jason turned around and sold it to Luke and got a hell of a lot of money for it.” Shaking her head, she turned her face into Judge’s chest and tried very hard not to cry.

  “You didn’t do anything wrong, baby,” Judge reminded her.

  “Again, I am being judged for her sin’s.” Sage shook her head. “Is this ever going to stop?”

  “It stops here and now,” Judge assured her.

  “Is that why you guys ran out in the middle of the night?” Deke asked.

  She shook her head. She couldn’t tell them the real reason they left that night. She had never spoken of the incident before, the nightmare and it was hard for her to even bring it up now.

  “So, if your mom didn’t get to take her records where would she have hidden them?” Sam finally asked.

  Sage turned her head and stared at him. “I’d have to show you, it’s kind of hard to explain.”

  “We need to see if that stuff is still there,” Sam insisted.

  “I know you do,” Sage whispered. “But I don’t want to go back there. That house gives me nothing but nightmares.”

  “We’ll be there with you Angel,” Judge whispered in her ear.

  “Promise?” she begged.

  “I promise.”

  “Ok, I’ll go,” Sage reluctantly agreed.

  She went to get up off his lap but Judge held her back. He looked over at Deke. “Give us some time to get her some new clothes. She can’t wear my clothes forever and she needs some new things, like shoes.”

  Gambler nodded. “Yeah, they really trashed her house and left her with nothing. They dumped bleach on her clothing and tore everything else up.”

  “But she shouldn’t be seen in town, not just yet anyway,” Black Jack insisted.

  Sam nodded. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean somebody else can’t get her some clothes and shoes.”

  “I can go,” a woman piped up from the kitchen. “I just got here but I can go get her some clothes and stuff.”

  Gator looked at Sage. “My wife, Reva.” He walked over to his wife and wrapped her in his arms. “Are you sure baby?”

  Reva smiled and patted his arm. “Yeah, I’m sure. Nobody will bother me.”

  “Well, I’m going with you to make sure.” He nodded.

  Reva knew enough not to argue with her man when he had his mind made up so she got a slip of paper and handed it to Sage. “Hey, um Sage. I’m Reva by the way. I’m married to Gator. Just write down your sizes and what you need.”

  Judge reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Handing her some cash, Sage blushed red. When he noticed her face, he whispered, “I take care of my own and you belong with me. That’s just the way it is now, so get used to it.”

  Sage stared at him and read the truth in his eyes. “But no one has ever taken care of me before. It might take a while to get used to it.” With shaky hands, she quickly wrote down a few things and handed the list back to Reva.

  “Ok, we’ll be back soon.” Reva and Gator left.

  Deke motioned for everyone to come back to the table.

  When everyone was seated Deke told her, “You know we’re going after Nichols and everyone associated with him. We need to know whatever you can tell us about his affairs. What he was doing and what your mother was involved in. We can’t have any secrets here. Secrets could get one of us killed and I’m not going to let that happen.”

  “You’ve said that before.” Sage nodded. “But I really don’t know anything more than what I’ve told you. I was ten years old. I never knew my mom was getting money from Nelson at all. She lied about that my entire life.” Shrugging she said, “You hear shit on the street all the time but every time you hear it, the story changes just enough you don’t know what’s true or not.”

  “We know that sweetheart,” Sam said. “But each rumor has at least a kernel of truth in it. We just need to weed out what the truth really is.”

  Sage rested against Judge’s chest. “Well, all I can tell you is the people on the street are getting nervous about something.”

  “About what?” Deke frowned as he looked around the room. No one else seemed to know about this either.

  “Well, that’s the thing isn’t it?” She suggested. “Over the past week, I’ve heard rumors about our Mayor bringing in new jobs but the company that wants to come in might be associated with the mob. Then I heard that he was opening up a new shipping route, for what I have no idea but the people are afraid of what he wants to run through here.”

  “We should get Amos to see what he can find out,” Deke suggested.

  Sage bit her bottom lip.

  Sam noticed it. “What else have you heard girl?”

  “I’ve seen some new people hanging around town. Others have noticed them too.” She looked over at Deke. “People are getting scared. That is never a good thing. Mistakes are made when people are afraid.”

  “What kind of people?” Deke wanted to know. “What are they doing?”

  “That’s just it, nobody knows who they are or what they want but they are watching the whole town.”

  Deke got up and walked away to make a phone call. He was calling Amos to find out if what she said was true. He returned and sat down staring at Sage the whole time. “I just spoke to someone in town and he confirm
ed what you just told us. He has a finger on the pulse of Troy. He’s going to have his men check out the newcomers and see what they can find out. Meantime, we have to solidify our position and get more bodies here. We’ll need protection for our businesses and around here. We all have families to protect and if war is coming to Troy, we need to get our numbers up.”

  Sage bit her lips again and was wondering if she should tell them what else she knew.

  Deke looked at her and sighed. “More bad news?”

  She shook her head. “Not really. I might have a friend who knows more about the strangers. His name is Angus Neil and he hangs out at the southside gym. He’s a janitor there.”

  Deke grabbed his phone and relayed the message to Amos. When he hung up, he nodded at Sage. “Amos knows who Angus is and he said he would check with him right away. Maybe between the two of them, we’ll have some answers soon.”

  Just then, Deke’s phone rang and when he answered it, he frowned as he listened to whoever was on the other end of the call. When he hung up, he looked over at Judge and Sage. “That was Cody down at the police station. Your landlord Mike just called in a disturbance in which he said you just tore up your place. He said when he got there you ran off, so he went inside and saw all the damage. He said he wants you arrested for destroying his rental.”

  “Fuck him and the horse he rode in on. She hasn’t been there all damn day.” Judge growled. “We found her unconscious on the floor early this morning.”

  Deke nodded. “I know but the warrant is being written out at the courthouse as we speak. Nelson made a call and got Judge Helcourt back to the courthouse to sign the warrant.”

  “Well then, we’ll just have to make sure the cops can’t find her until this is over,” Sam concluded. “The cops won’t come here looking for her and no one else has any right to cross our lines. So all we have to do is just keep her here under wraps until this blows over.”

  “Who is this Mike guy?” Mountain asked.

  “His name is Mike Benson.” Sage sighed as she told them. “He’s friends with Luke and he’s been a bastard to me and the other neighbors around my place for years. Because he hangs with Luke, he thinks he’s protected and can pretty much do what he wants to. I think Luke is using him to keep an eye on me. Of course, I can’t prove it but how else would he know where I lived? It’s not like I advertise my address or anything. Most people can’t find me because I don’t want to be found. Yet, he finds me every time I move.”

  “What kind of stuff has this Mike tried to pull?” Deke asked. “What’s he done to you?”

  “He doubled my rent in less than a month,” she explained. “He comes and goes from my place when I’m not there. He claims someone told him I was having loud parties and wanted to see for himself. I found him there on several occasions looking through my things. I think he was looking for something in particular. I always know when he’s been there because he isn’t a tidy searcher and he always leaves my place a mess.” She looked away and added, “I’m sure he told the police how I went on a rampage and broke all my windows and bashed in my own door. Then went out and wrecked my own food cart and just walked away.”

  “That’s exactly what he said!” Deke exclaimed. “How did you know?”

  “This isn’t the first time he’s done this.” She sighed in disgust.

  “Have you been arrested before because of him?” Judge growled.

  Sage nodded. “Twice so far. The first time the courts charged me a cleanup fee. It took every penny I had to pay it. The second time, it happened I got 40 hours of community service. I was told if it happened again, the judge said I would go to jail. Mike just smirked at the hearing and walked out of the courtroom thinking he was hot shit.”

  Judge and Black Jack both looked furious at her news.

  “You let us worry about Mike Benson.” Black Jack growled. “We’ll set him right.”

  “But we can’t do anything yet,” Gambler stated.

  “He’s right, dammit,” Black Jack agreed reluctantly. “We have to wait and lower the boom on the whole fucking bunch of them, all at the same time. Otherwise, Mike will have a chance to let Luke and his dad know and then we’ll lose the element of surprise, and right now that’s all we got.”

  Deke nodded. “Yeah and we still have to verify the reports Sage’s mother left behind for us.”

  “Don’t forget we need to find out who these strangers are and what they want in Troy,” Sam added. “And why our Mayor is letting them come here. You can bet they aren’t here to spread good around town. Not when the people are getting nervous.”

  “Ok,” Deke nodded. “I’ll have one of the brothers keep an eye on Mike while the rest of us collect more information to use against them all. I called Pappy earlier today and Trudy said she would get back to us as soon as she got anything.”

  Sage turned and looked at Judge. “You really need my mom’s records don’t you?”

  “Yeah baby, they would help fill in the holes so we don’t miss anything.”

  She planted her forehead against his chest. “I really hate this, you know that right?”

  “Angel, we all hate this,” he assured her. “Sometimes we don’t have a choice in what life tosses our way though and this is one of those times. We have to see this through. Win or lose, we have to protect this town and our families, not necessarily in that order.”

  She looked at the window and noted the lateness of the day. Soon it would be dark outside and she knew that old house would be waiting for her. She really hated that house and if those old walls could talk, she knew they would spill her secrets too. Along with her worst nightmare. She didn’t know if she could face that in the dark but she knew these guys wouldn’t or couldn’t wait for daybreak.

  She glanced at Judge and nervously licked her bottom lip. “Maybe I should just tell you guys where mom hid her record book. I mean if the cops are looking for me, I maybe shouldn’t be going anywhere they can find me.”

  Judge just looked at her for a long moment. He could see she was upset but he didn’t think it had anything to do with the cops looking for her, or Mike or Luke. No, this went deeper than that. He had to find out what was going on in her head. “What’s wrong baby?”

  Sage shook her head but didn’t say anything.

  Judge pulled her into his arms and asked again, “What’s wrong?”

  Sage just soaked in his heat for a moment then shook her head. “That house has bad juju. Nothing good ever happened there.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Bad things happened there,” she repeated as her body shook.

  “What bad things?”

  “I can’t talk about it,” she whispered. “It’s a bad secret. One I’m not allowed to talk about.”

  Judge looked at her and saw nothing but fear in her eyes. “Angel, are you all right?”

  Sage began to tremble. “No I don’t think I am.” She tried to distance herself but Judge wouldn’t let her go. “I can’t go back there. I can’t go into that house again. He’s waiting there for me in the dark place.” She was becoming hysterical now and everyone was gathering around her. The fear she’d lived with for sixteen years had finally broken out of her subconscious and as hard as she tried—it wasn’t going back in.

  Her heart was racing as she flipped back in time to when she was a little girl. Her breathing increased and sweat beaded on her forehead. “Nooo...” she whimpered as her eyes glazed over as more memories burst from her subconscious. She wrapped her arms around her belly and began rocking back and forth.

  Judge was concerned about her and held her tighter.

  Raine knelt down on the floor in front of them and reached out to check her pulse but she reared back from him in fear. “I didn’t want to do it! I didn’t want to do it.” She whimpered, so lost in her memories she couldn’t think straight.

  “What didn’t you want to do?” Judge whispered in her ear, hoping to get through to her. “It’s ok Angel, we know you didn
’t want to do it.”

  Sage turned her head and snuggled her face into his neck. This was now the point where she needed to get it out. The nightmare. The night she knew what death looked like. “That bad man was hurting that girl, she was screaming and he was laughing and I couldn’t stand it anymore. Mom just stood there and let it happen, she wouldn’t even try to help but I couldn’t let him hurt her anymore. When... he threw down the knife to hurt her some more I picked it up... then there was so much blood. Mom was screaming at me.” Sage pulled her hair down almost to the point of pulling it out of her head.

  Judge grabbed her wrists to stop her from hurting herself.

  Sage was so lost in her own nightmare she didn’t realize it, instead the words kept coming and memories spilled out, “... the girl was screaming and crying, all covered in blood and the man— he just stared up at the ceiling. Mom began slapping me and when I hit the wall, she dragged me to my room and locked me in. A few hours later, she unlocked the door and made me help her drag his body to the basement where we—dumped him in a hole and then she made me watch her shovel dirt on him. She was screaming at me the whole time. She kept telling me I did this, so I should be the one who buried him. W-when she was done, she made me promise to never speak of him again ever.”

  The men in the room all looked troubled as they listened.

  “The whole house was so quiet. And dark. I hated the darkness. Nothing good ever happened in the dark. She told me I did a bad thing and if they caught me, they would kill me. That she wasn’t gonna die because of something I did. She slapped me again and told me she would hand me over to them if they came looking for him. She said this was my fault and she wouldn’t hide my sin, not from those men. T-then we had to leave our house and find a place to hide and how much she hated me for making her do—that.” Her words were broken and barley loud enough for everyone to hear but they got the general idea of what happened that night sixteen years ago.

  “Where did she take you?” Sam asked her quietly.

  “We moved to Albany for a while. She found us a place to stay but she told me I couldn’t be seen because if those men found us, she would hand me over to them and they would really enjoy hurting me before they killed me.”