Byron

by KJ Dahlen

  She rolled up her sleeves and began breaking open boxes then placing the pieces and parts on a table nearby. She took off her outside shirt and revealed a tank top underneath. Her hips began swaying to the music and she didn’t notice everyone else in the shop watching every move she was making. She was concentrating on what she was doing so hard... nothing else seemed to matter.

  ~*~

  Twenty minutes later, Wes’s eyes widened and he swung his confused gaze over to the old man bent over the engine with his granddaughter. He wasn’t sure but he thought he remembered something vital. But he couldn’t remember the whole thing.

  Dante and Mountain moved over at him and it was Dante that asked, “What’s bothering you old man?”

  Wes shook his head. “I’m not sure but there’s something about that old man that reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago.” Shaking his head, he added, “I just can’t remember what or where the memory is from.”

  Mountain wandered over to his other brother Byron and nudged him not so gently with his hip. “Looks like she just might know what she’s doing under the hood, huh?”

  Byron snapped his eyes over to his older brother and growled. “I don’t know that yet and neither do you, asshole.”

  “Oh, I’m the asshole?” Mountain grinned and he motioned to his chest with his hand. “You might have challenged the wrong person here, little brother.”

  Byron looked over at Kelly and her grandfather and almost agreed out loud with Mountain. He watched them work together and they fell into an easy pattern, almost like a well oiled machine. The comfort of them working together could be seen by anyone looking at the pair.

  They both looked toward the parking lot when they saw a shiny car pull in. Byron growled and stood up, grabbing the rag on the bumper he began wiping his hands as he stomped toward the door.

  Mountain frowned and followed him. He had a feeling this was trouble. Two men got out of the car and Mountain recognized one of them. Jack McGee. Mountain scowled and stood as tall as he could. At 6’9” tall, he made an imposing figure when he wanted to.

  “What the hell do you two want?” Byron growled.

  “I’m looking for my sister and my grandfather.” Caden snarled. “She was supposed to call me last night but she never did.”

  “And you came here because...?” Byron crossed his arms and stared at the younger man.

  “Where else would she be but here?” Caden sneered. “She’s always here or at the diner.”

  “He has the right to be concerned about his family,” Lightening Jack stated.

  “Go away.” Mountain growled at the kid. “Get the hell off this property. And take him with you.” He pointed at Jack. “Neither of you are welcome here.”

  “She’s my sister,” Caden argued with the bigger man.

  “And as of now, she and your grandfather are under our protection.” Mountain glared at the other men. “In case you don’t know what that means if you come after them, you’ll deal with us, all of us.”

  Caden scoffed. “You don’t worry me. You can’t touch us. We’ll call the law on you and your brothers. They’ll sort you out soon enough.”

  Mountain began laughing. He turned to his brother Dante who was standing behind him. “Call the brothers.” Then he turned and glared at the two men standing beside the car. It was a Mexican stand off for ten minutes then the silence was shattered by the sounds of three dozen motorcycles entering the property.

  Caden’s eyes widened as he saw the bikers circle the car. Sweat began running down his face and even Jack looked a little worried.

  Two men parked their bikes and swung their legs off their rides. Making their way over to Mountain and Byron, Deke looked around and took note of Caden and Jack. “What’s going on here, Mountain?” Deke asked.

  “This little pissant thinks he can come here and push us around. Thinks all he has to do is call the cops on us to get us shaking in our boots.” Mountain nodded at Caden.

  Deke and Sam threw their heads back and laughed out loud.

  Sam wiped the tears away from his face and nodded. “Well, hell kid, let’s see if he’s right shall we?” He reached for his phone and made a call.

  Moment later, a police car pulled in behind Jack’s car, and two police officers stepped out. They approached the group cautiously. “What’s the problem here, Mountain?” one of the officers asked.

  “These two came here to start trouble.” Mountain motioned toward Jack and Caden. “This kid seems to think its ok to demand to know if his sister was here. He’s pissed she didn’t call him last night but after what he did to her yesterday, I wouldn’t have called him either.”

  “Oh?” The officer looked over at Caden and took note of his face to see that his bottom lip was swollen. “What did he do to her yesterday?”

  “He busted her lip open,” Byron told him. “So, I hit him back.” Shaking his head, he added, “I guess his daddy never taught him not to hit women.”

  Caden glared at the other man. “My father was murdered when I was five years old, so no he didn’t teach me a fucking thing.” Then he looked over at the officers. “I came here looking for my family. I’m worried about their safety. These men could be holding them hostage or something.”

  The officers looked at the group then looked back at Cade and Jack before they burst into laughter. “Son, if your thinking these guys would hurt your sister, then you couldn’t be more wrong.”

  “I still demand to see her.” Caden all but stomped his foot. He motioned toward another car in the lot. “That’s her vehicle and I know she’s here.”

  “Demand all you want.” Mountain told him. “I asked you to leave this property and you have yet to do so, so I guess I’ll have to ask the cops to remove you. You and your friend are not welcome here.” Shrugging, he told the police officers, “I’m sure she can hear him screaming like the little bitch he is and if she wanted to see him, she would’ve come out here.”

  Just then, Kelly stepped out the darkness of the shop. Coming into the sunshine, she focused on the man she called her brother.

  The men all around her growled as they saw her face where her skin was bruised from where Caden had struck her yesterday, then they growled a bit louder when they saw the bruising on her upper left arm where he’d grabbed her the day before.

  She went silently toward Caden, locking her blue eyes on him. In her hand was a thick envelope and when she got close enough, she tossed it at his feet. Hundred dollar bills spilled out and the wind began scattering them.

  Caden grunted and bent down to gather the bills up before the breeze scattered the bills too far. When he got back up, he sneered at her.

  “There’s your fucking money,” she told him quietly. “There is enough there to get you started but don’t come around us anymore. You want your freedom? Well, here it is. You are no longer my brother.”

  “This is nowhere near my half of Dad’s money. Consider this a down payment but I’ll be back for the rest of it,” Caden called out.

  Kelly turned on him so fast he had to back away from her. “No, you miserable little shithead. This is all that’s left of his insurance policy. Gramps had to raise us for fifteen years and the money is gone.”

  “What about mom’s money? Where did that go?” Caden demanded.

  “Mom’s money?” Kelly laughed out loud. “That money goes to widows of drivers and not to the women who killed their husbands. Mom never had any money after she was convicted, you dummy. Besides, they weren’t even married when dad died.” She looked over at Jack and back to her brother. “Ask your friend about the quickie divorce his dad paid for. The bitch you call mom took the fall for what they both had a hand in doing. She got nothing but what she deserved in the end.”

  “That a fucking lie!” Caden screamed as he watched Kelly turn and walk away from him. He knelt down and scooped up a handful of gravel then threw it at her unguarded back.

  Byron growled and stepped toward him but Mountain held him b
ack.

  Byron turned and watched as Kelly winced when the rocks tore at her skin but she never stopped walking into the safety of the shop and her grandfather. As soon as she stepped inside, Joe was there to gather her into his arms and carry her deeper into the garage.

  Mountain turned his glare to the cops. “Get him the fuck off our property. Tell him if he comes back without an engraved invite, I have the right to put a cap in his ass.”

  ~*~

  Jack didn’t need to be told twice, he got back into his car and Caden growled as he got in the passenger seat. Jack spun around in a circle throwing gravel at everyone standing there. The fact they didn’t dodge or cringe at the throwing gravel lessened the point Jack was trying to make.

  Jack gripped his steering wheel and glared through his rear view mirror.

  Caden turned to him and asked, “What did my sister mean when she said mom wasn’t married when my dad died?”

  Jack glared at him for a moment then put his eyes back on the road. “Well, how the hell would I know? That you might want to ask your mom about.” He nodded at the envelope of money in Caden’s lap. “How much did you get?”

  Caden glared at him. He looked down at the envelope in his lap and began counting the hundred dollar bills. There were two packets banded together that were stamped with ten thousand dollars on them and another stack of loose bills. He counted out five thousand in loose bills. “There’s twenty-five thousand here.” He crumbled the loose bills in his hand. “This can’t be all there is. The old man got over a million when dad died.”

  “Says who?” Jack snorted.

  “My mother said the racing commission paid out a million dollars in life insurance.” Caden swung his gaze over and glared at Jack. “And what the fuck did she mean when she said ask your dad about the divorce he paid for?”

  “I have no fucking clue.” Jack shrugged. “Why don’t you ask your dear old mom?” Jack was thinking about something while he drove down the road. “Did your sister have grease on her hands? Like she’d been working on a car or something?”

  “How the hell am I supposed to know? I can’t stand to even look at the bitch let alone care if she has grease on her hands,” Caden grumbled. “Did my mom know your dad back in the day?”

  Jack snorted. “Yeah, I think that’s safe to say. Your dad and mine were rivals back then. Dominick was good but my dad beat him every time.”

  Caden glared at Jack. “I heard your dad had to cheat to win nine times out of ten.”

  Jack shrugged. “He may have bent the rules but he never broke them or he would have been kicked out, wouldn’t he?” Jack looked back in his rear view mirror. The Morgan’s shop was in the far distance and he had to wonder what the hell Kelly was doing there of all places.

  ~*~

  Joe sat Kelly down on a stool and began looking her over for any injury she might have after Caden threw the gravel at her. Kelly just sat there stonily when he cleaned off the smattering blood from the tiny cuts the rocks had given her.

  A few minutes later, Mountain and the others joined them. No one said anything until after Joe got her cleaned up.

  Finally, Deke leaned back against the wall and asked, “So that was your brother huh?”

  Kelly looked over at the man and nodded. “I guess you could say that.”

  “I think you better tell us what he really wants and why he’s hanging out with Jack McGee,” Mountain stated.

  Kelly looked over at Joe.

  Joe nodded as he cleared his throat and began telling them, “Fifteen years ago, my son Dominick was murdered. We were just making a name for ourselves in the racing world and Jack McGee’s father was one of my son’s biggest competitors. Ted McGee was not a clean racer. He used any means possible to win and often cheated to get what he wanted. He’d do just about anything to get in the winner’s circle and he damn near cost five drivers their lives while running the race.”

  “You’re Joe Abalone aren’t you?” Wes stepped up. He snapped his fingers. “I knew I knew you from somewhere!”

  Mountain looked from Wes to the older man and back to Wes again. “Who the fuck is Joe Abalone?”

  Wes snorted at the other man. “Only the biggest legend there ever was in the racing world.”

  Joe shook his head. “Boy, that might have been true twenty years ago but not anymore.” He turned to Mountain and the others. “When my Dom was killed in a race against Ted, it broke my heart.” He turned to Kelly. “She was there in the pits that day. She saw the accident and the crash that killed her father and I had to get her away from that life. I knew I couldn’t stay around the track anymore. I had to put her and Caden first. I was the only one left to raise them, you see. Their mother Candy was convicted of tampering with Dom’s car and she was sent to jail for his murder. I left Daytona and came here to this town, thinking it might give us a fresh start.” He paused to exhale. “We changed our last name and tried to get by. We were doing good though until recently. Caden was always more like his mother while Kelly got the best of her dad. From the moment Dom put a wrench in her hand, she knew instinctively what to do with it. Even at the age of four years old. She used to watch her dad and I tear apart a motor and put it back together. She remembers everything she’s ever done and she knows by just the sound of a running engine if there’s anything wrong with it or not. Hell, this girl is better than me or Dom could ever dream to be.”

  “What changed then?” Deke asked.

  “Candy was released from jail last week. I didn’t know it but she’s been sending Caden letters the last few years. Letters he was hiding from us. Letters filled with nothing by lies.” Joe shrugged.

  “What kind of lies?” Mountain asked. “And how do you know about the letters?”

  “Because I found them. I was shoveling out his room because the boy is a slob when I found a bundle of letters. I sat there and read them all.” Joe shook his head. “Oh some of what she said was true, she claimed I never liked her, never gave her a chance to be the mother she wanted to be. That was true in part. I never liked her. Thought she was a whore the first day I met her and I was right. Then she trapped Dom into a marriage he never wanted by getting pregnant with Kelly before they were even married.” Joe shook his head. “But he did the honorable thing and married her. But three months after Kelly was born, she was out running the streets again, staying out all night and other things. When she was out drinking with her friends, she would forget she was a married woman with a kid at home. Things weren’t so good between them for awhile then just about the time Dom was ready to kick her to the curb, she ended up pregnant with Caden. She stuck around for a few more years then she walked out om her husband and kids. She walked away with no regrets and no looking back. Dom asked me to come back and help out with the kids and that’s when we got into racing cars.” Joe shrugged. “I was born to be a mechanic and I taught Dom a decent trade. He loved working on cars with his old man. Then Ted McGee came along and wanted to buy one of our engines for racing. It had been our best seller up to that point but he wanted some modifications to it. He wanted it just a little bigger and bolder. So we did it to his specs, thinking after we were done we could patent it and set up the kids for the rest of their lives. Only problem was Ted beat us to the patent office. He had all the specs we drew up and he changed the name on the patent from our name to his.”

  “He cheated to win huh?” Mountain shook his head.

  “Yup, and this wasn’t the first time.” Joe nodded while looking disgusted. “When we found out what he did, Dom wanted to confront the bastard but Kelly had a better idea. She suggested we make another engine, even better with more power and then use that engine to beat the pants off Ted.” Shaking his head, the old man began to smile. “She was only seven years old and we worked night and day on her design but we did it. We built the Mach One engine and it changed racing for the rest of the world. We patented the engine in secret and then Dom showed up on race day. Ted thought he had the latest, most powerful engi
ne there was. Dom saluted Ted before the starting flag came down and Ted just smirked at him. Then that flag came down and my Dom left him in the dust. Ted quickly caught up and it was a royal battle on the track until the last round, Ted thought he got the best of Dom at that point but my Dom had been playing him all along. They were head to head and Ted thought he was gonna win, then Dom gave him the finger and pulled away from him straight into the winner’s circle. He was more than two car lengths ahead of Ted and Ted just hated that.” Joe just shook his head.

  “Yeah, he is whiney just like his son,” Kelly added

  Joe laughed. “That stupid fucker called in the judges and demanded they check over Dom’s engine. He complained that his engine should have been faster and wanted Dom’s checked for boosters and nitro. The judges had to check the engine but there wasn’t anything there that shouldn’t be. That was when Kelly asked the judges to check Ted’s engine. She told them if they had to check her daddy’s engines they should check Ted’s engine cuz it...” He air quoted her words, “...just didn’t sound right to her.”

  They all looked over at Kelly.

  She shrugged as she smiled.

  Joe chuckled out loud. “She heard something no one else had that day. The judges looked under the hood despite Ted saying that they didn’t need to listen to a damn kid. He really tried everything he could to divert the judges until they got curious about what he might be trying to hide. Sure enough, the judges found a small canister of nitro.” Joe turned his head and gazed at Kelly. “Old Ted was pissed as hell. He got suspended for the next three big races. She cost him the championship that year. I don’t know how he didn’t lose his sponsors but the next year he was back and that year he had a grudge against Dom and went out of his way to turn the racing people against him. He demanded the officials to check his engines every race, then when Dom passed inspection he liked to play cat and mouse with him on the track. That bastard caused several spectacular crashes that year and caused quite a stir. That went on for two years then the bastard found a way to get rid of Dom completely.”