Bane's Shadow

by KJ Dahlen

  Bane brought the bow up into firing position and then his finger tightened on the trigger. There was a tinkle of breaking glass but no other sound as the bolt he fired sank into the other man’s throat.

  He didn’t wait to see the bolt dig in deep as he knew his shot was good. Instead, he took his time breaking down his bow and putting it in the bag. Then he took his time getting out of the tree and when he turned, he walked away without a worry.

  The two heads in that box had told their own story.

  Bane knew enough Russian to understand Aloysha Petroff’s last words.

  My sons!

  In a way, Bane figured he did the man a favor, as no one man should be alone in the world.

  Chapter One

  The sun was just coming up the next morning when Bane crawled into bed with Sarah. He felt chilled to the bone and she was warm and willing.

  She turned to him and slowly opened her eyes. She stared at him then looked him over carefully. “You good?” she whispered.

  Bane smiled and nodded. “I’m good.” He leaned toward her and kissed her lips gently. She sighed then opened herself up to his touch. He wasn’t surprised she didn’t question him about what he did to settle the situation. He told her once he would never bore her with the details. When she told him she was happy with that, Bane took her at her word.

  He looked down at her eyes and couldn’t believe she was still here. He would never get tired of that look in her eyes, the look that said she thought he was her whole world. The look that hadn’t changed in the last two years. One that he hoped would never change.

  He carefully pulled her around and laid her on her back then he moved over her and settled into her cradle.

  Her eyes opened wide when she felt what he had for her and her eyes closed as she began moving against him.

  Bane hissed and growled, “Open your eyes, I want to see them.”

  Sarah opened her eyes and showed the love she had for him.

  He reached down and moved her underwear, her soaked underwear to one side. Then he lunged inside her. Once he was balls deep, he paused to allow her to adjust to his size then he began to move slow and steady.

  Sarah groaned at his slow movements but she played this game before. She lifted her hips and rotated them when he surged into her core. She wanted more of him. “Please Bane, more. I need you so much,” she whispered.

  Bane lowered his head then lifted it to stare into her eyes as he began pound into her.

  “Yyyyes,” she hissed.

  He let out a low growl and gave her all he had. He could feel her body tighten against his and he reveled in her response. When he felt the tingle along his spine, he reached between them and thumbed her button, watching her as she ignited under his touch. She clamped down on him so hard, he couldn’t help but explode inside her. Then she was making that cute little moan he loved when she soared over the edge of the abyss. He groaned and followed her as he continued to paint her walls with his seed.

  She wrapped her arms and legs around him holding him close to her, as they both rested to allow their hearts to slow down to a regular rate.

  Bane tapped her legs to release him and he slid down next to her. He brushed his lips on her temple.

  She snuggled down into his arms. “You’re supposed to call Bastian when you get back.”

  Bane snorted. “I will call him after I get some sleep. I need a nap now.”

  Sarah let out that sweet giggle of hers and wrapped herself around him

  Two hours later, Bane opened his eyes and found Sarah laying next to him reading a book. He smiled, the woman did like to read. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

  Sarah smiled turning to look at him. “You didn’t sleep very long.”

  “Long as I needed.” He stretched his arms over his head and sat up. He looked over at her and said, “I suppose I should call Bastian and see what he wants.”

  She nodded. “Maybe its good news.”

  Bane scoffed under his breath but didn’t say anything as he reached for his phone. The man never had any good news, except for that first day when he had found him dying under a tree.

  Bastian answered the call and said, “I have a message from a new friend.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Bane laid back against the headboard. “Well, I don’t have any new friends...”

  “It appears that you do...Leon Vincinti.”

  Bane froze. He’d known Leon a long time and the man wasn’t all that friendly. “Oh, yeah? What does he want?”

  “He said he needed to get a message to you. He’d like to see you before we leave town.”

  “Did he say why?” Bane was curious now. Leon wasn’t the type of man to issue such a request unless he had something rock solid and of importance. He wasn’t a man for visits and chit chats. All business. Bane sort of respected that in him. He wasn’t the social type himself.

  Bastian snorted. “The message was for you not me. He’s not the type of man to do that. Whatever it is... it’s meant for you and you alone. He chose me to be the messenger, not the receiver of said message.”

  Bane rubbed his hands over his face and groaned. “Ok, I’ll give him a call and see what he wants. Thanks.” With a sigh, he ended the call and looked over at Sarah. “Leon Vincinti wants me to call him.”

  “What does that mean?” she asked.

  “With Leon, you never know. But the man always means business, so it must be important.” He dialed Leon’s number and when he answered the call Bane said, “I understand you wanted me to call you.”

  “Si, I did,” Leon replied. “I was cleaning out my office a few weeks ago and I found something you might be interested in.”

  “Oh, and what would that be?”

  “A file I had put together years ago,” Leon explained.

  “And just what is in this file and why do you think I would be interested in it?” Bane was curious now.

  “I think you should maybe see the file for yourself,” Leon urged. “I’ll expect to see you this afternoon. The sooner the better I think.” With that, he ended the call.

  Bane growled at the dropped call. He glared at the phone in his hand and wanted to throw it but he didn’t. He did take a deep breath and hung on to his calm though. Looking over at Sarah he said, “We have to visit Leon. He said he found a file and he thinks I should have it.”

  “Did he say what was in the file?” she wanted to know.

  “No but knowing him, I need to see it.” Bane ran his hand over the back of his neck. “There’s a reason for everything that man does. So we will go to see him. If however, he’s yanking my chain, I’m gonna be pissed.”

  “Would he do that?” Sarah asked. “Yank your chain? That doesn’t seem like something he would do.”

  “Not normally no.” Bane thought about why Leon had called this meeting. “Fucking hell, now he’s got me curious.”

  Sarah sighed and closed her book. “Then let’s go and find out what the man wants you to have. I’d hoped for some peace and quiet, but with the life of VIM, that is a little impossible.”

  Bane turned his head and stared at her.

  With a shy smile on her lovely face, she actually blushed at his intense scrutiny.

  He shook his head. “You are so...”

  “I know, I know...Unusual...” She lowered her head.

  Placing his fingertip under her jaw, he raised her chin to look into her eyes. “No, the most beautiful angel in the world, baby. The most precious thing I have ever known.” He leaned close to kiss her lips gently, sweetly.

  When he pulled back, her eyes looked dazed. “And you are a power that never dims... I love all of you.”

  Bane caught his breath. He didn’t know if he could live up to her ideal, but he knew he would die trying. He shook his head and grasped her fingers, raising them to his mouth to kiss her knuckles, gently, reverently.

  The outskirts of Boston Mass

  An hour later, When Bane pulled up in front of the house where Leon,
Calderone and their families lived, he stared at the mansion and shook his head. It truly was a house built for a king.

  When he and Sarah got out of the car, the front door opened and a man stood there waiting for them to join him. When he and Sarah got close, Bane picked up on the fact that the other man was armed but he hadn’t reached for his weapon yet. The other man nodded and Bane nodded back.

  “I’m here to see Leon,” Bane told him quietly.

  The man smiled slightly. “I know, he told me he was expecting you.” He held out his hand and said, “I’m John, his son in law. I also work as head of security.”

  Bane took his hand and nodded. “Then you have to know I’m armed.”

  John nodded. “I do.”

  “But you also must know that I never go anywhere without being armed,” Bane reasoned.

  Chapter Two

  John just stared at him. “I know exactly who you are Mr. Jessin but I also know you pose no threat to the Vincintis. Leon isn’t one to invite a potential threat into his home.” Bane Jessin was a legend, but not dangerous to this family. Others may live in fear of him, but John wasn’t one of those. All he knew was this man was summoned by Leon.

  Bane nodded politely then looked over at Sarah. “Shall we?” He motioned for her to enter the mansion.

  John led them to Leon’s office then knocked on the door and opened it when he heard Leon bid him to enter.

  Leon sat behind his desk then glanced up when John ushered Bane and Sarah to enter the room. He got to his feet slowly when he saw Sarah. He met John’s gaze.

  John shrugged. He didn’t tell the man to come alone, did he?

  Leon motioned for the couple to sit down at his desk then he noted John stood against the wall. Leon raised an eyebrow but he didn’t order the other man from the room. Instead, he sat down on the other side of the desk and stared at Bane.

  John had decided that he would stay in the room. Just to be sure this meeting would go peacefully.

  After a couple of silent moments, Bane raised an eyebrow and reminded him, “You called this meeting, why?”

  Leon shook his head as he glanced at Sarah and asked, “Are you sure you want her to hear this? I don’t usually discuss work with women present.”

  Bane straightened his shoulders. “This is work related? You of all people know I’m not in that line of work anymore and that I haven’t been for a couple of years now.” He went to get up.

  Leon held his hand up. “Yes, I did know this but years ago when we first made contact with you, I had you checked out. I needed to know who I was trusting or if I could even trust a man like you.” He leaned back in his chair.

  Leon’s words had Bane sitting back down.

  Leon continued, “When the file came in, there was no time to look at in its entirety as at that time someone in the city was trying to make a name for himself and I had to make it clear to him that this was my city.”

  Bane sat there and studied the other man then nodded, “And just what did your minions find about me? There’s never been that much out there that I know of,” he paused. “Or there shouldn’t have been.”

  Leon nodded. “My men didn’t find much the first time they looked but I asked them to look again and the second time, they dug deeper.” He shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t have time to look at what all they had found and then the file they had on you got lost for years. When they didn’t say anything alarming about your reputation, I assumed the info was fine and we used your services over the years. As I said before, I was cleaning my old files out and I ran across the file I had comprised on you and thought I should turn it over to you. As far as I know, no one else besides one other person and myself knows what’s in that file.”

  Bane glared at him. “If you found it then, the information is still out there for anyone else to find. You know as well as I do that once the information is on the internet, its there forever.”

  “Si, that is mostly true but there are ways of burying some information and that’s what I had my men do. They shuffled the information they found so it would take someone a long time to find it again.” Leon shrugged.

  “So what do you think you found?” Bane finally asked.

  Leon opened his desk drawer and took out said file, sliding it across the expansion of his desk.

  Bane reached out for the file. He opened it.

  The first item in the file was a birth certificate. His birth certificate. But one he hadn’t seen before. Bane frowned and studied the certificate for a moment then looked up at Leon. “This isn’t mine,” he stated.

  “Si it is, Mr. Jessin. This is the first one, put out the day you were born. It was changed two years later but this is the real one, I assure you.”

  Bane went back to the birth certificate in the file. It listed his name, Bane Theo Jessin. First born son of Frank and Mary Elizabeth Jessin. First born. Then his eyes were drawn to the check mark that marked him as the first born of twins. He had a twin brother! He went to the second page of the many in the file, but the second birth certificate wasn’t there. He raised his glare to Leon. “What kind of bullshit is this?” He snarled.

  At his tone, Sarah sat up straighter in her chair.

  Leon stared at her then swung his gaze to Bane. “I would never lie to you, not about this. I couldn’t find any evidence about the second child born that day. It was like he never existed.”

  “Is he dead?” Bane asked.

  Leon shook his head. “There is no record of his death if he has in fact, passed away.”

  Bane threw the file on his desk. “I had one brother but Orrin wasn’t my twin. He was four years younger than I was.”

  “Si, I know that. I found his birth certificate as well. It is in that file. Whoever hid your twin from you, hid him from the whole world. That made me curious, so I looked into it. My men found he was living with your parents until he was two years old and that’s when he simply disappeared.” Leon glanced down at the file. “There was no information to be found of him after that time. Not even after your parents died and you and Orrin went to live with you grandfather when you were eight and Orrin was four.”

  “So where did he go and why did he not stay with us?” Bane queried.

  “That my friend is for you to figure out, if you’re interested in finding out the truth at all.” Leon placed his hands on the desk as he clasped his fingers together. “You could just ignore this information if that’s what you choose to do.”

  Bane sat there and glared at the man for a moment. “You know I had two other children don’t you? Cordelia and Michael. They were both single births. Orrin had a child, Cricket, she was a single birth as well. But she had a multi-birth family. They told her she was having twins and ended up having three children her first time. No one knew there were even twins in her family, or rather my family, as she was my brother’s child. But then of course, you know all of that, right?” Bane raised a brow at him.

  Leon nodded and almost smiled at the comment. “I don’t know where your brother ended up and I don’t care. It’s not my business but I wanted to share this file with you as you might care. And it is your business, your family history.”

  “Why did you investigate this further then, even after you hired me?” Bane narrowed his eyes at him.

  “Because I was in charge of what happened in this city. I had a need of your services but I wanted to know more about you before I brought you here. I wouldn’t have brought a maniac into my city if I found I couldn’t trust you. But then I had no choice. I trusted you to take care of my enemy without really clearing you the first time. After that, I used you because you were honorable and didn’t use what you did for me against me.”

  Bane just stared at him. “That was what I did for a living. If I were to blackmail my clients, I wouldn’t be working for long. I had a name to protect and I had a reputation to build, again it was my own but my grandfather taught me how to do both.”

  Leon nodded. “I heard of your grandfather and
his reputation was as far as I know, well deserved. That was why I took a chance on you in the first place.” He looked down at the file on the desk. “What you do with that file is up to you.”

  Sarah watched both men and glanced down at the file.

  “So why did you even bring this up?” Bane asked. “You could have just shredded it and not said a word.”

  Leon nodded. “Yes, I could have done that too.” He paused, “But if a man is going to turn the page and begin a new life, he first has to truly put his past behind him. You have managed to start a new life with your friends and a new woman. I can see that but before a man such as you can really start living again, he has to know all of his past and either deal with it or not. That’s up to you. You have a lot of ghosts in your past, ghosts you don’t really want to come after you. This is something you have to deal with in order to move on.” He shrugged. “Like I said, its up to you what you do with this information. Ignore it or deal with it.”

  Sarah watched him and gave a silent nod, as if summing up the man that was Leon Vincinti.

  Leon met her gaze and when he did, his eyes softened as if gauging her as a peaceful soul.

  Bane got to his feet.

  This caused Sarah to peer up at him.

  Bane then gently assisted Sarah to her feet. He nodded at Leon but grabbed the file on his way out. Before he left, he announced quietly, “You won’t be bothered by that little problem any longer. I took care of it. For both of us.”

  Leon didn’t say a word but then no one expected him to. He turned to Sarah. “It was an honor to meet you.”

  Sarah smiled. “We did not meet.”

  Leon paused to stare at her then he smiled. “It was still an honor.”

  Bane looked from Leon to Sarah. He then took her hand and went out to the hall.

  John followed them to the front door and watched from there, as Bane and Sarah got into his car.

  Bane gave John a slight nod of his head as he turned the car around and left the property.