Harry

by KJ Dahlen

  “That was a bit dangerous wasn’t it?” Boone asked. “To go after information on those people?”

  Annie shrugged. “You gotta understand. We lost our mom to that bastard and his foul deeds and to the cartel. Well anyways, Becky grew up and found her own way in life and while we were close, I knew she had to be on her own at some point. I did the best I could for her and then my worst dream came true and she was taken off the street.”

  No one said a word when she was done. “Do you have any other secrets to share with us?” Gunner asked.

  Annie grabbed Harry’s hand and held it tight. “There might be one more thing.” She bit at her lip.

  “And what is that?” Boone asked.

  “Three years ago, I witnessed a hit by a Russian mob guy. This guy was big and boy, was he mean.” She rested her head on Harry’s chest.

  Gunner glanced over at Boone then back at Annie. “Do you know who this mean Russian is?”

  “I have since then learned who he is. I’m good at hacking and finding in formation.” She nodded. “His name is Yeta Kobanash, he claims his branch of the Vory V Zakone is from the Ukraine but that isn’t true. That night he was in such a rage, his eyes were wild. Or so it seemed. I was too far away to see them clearly. I do remember his eye were cold, almost as if he had no soul. They battled with knives and the cartel man he was fighting gave as good as he got. He did manage to slice the side of Yeta’s face wide open before Yeta sank his blade into the other man’s belly.”

  Dana began to tremble at the description of the man’s scar. “Daddy, oh my god that could be the man with Yvette in the warehouse!”

  Gunner got to his feet quickly.

  Everyone heard his chair slide back and they watched as he went over to Dana.

  Grabbing her arms, he held her in place. “You’ve seen this bastard? He’s here in Jasper?”

  Dana nodded. “He and another man were there when we got there to the warehouse and I knew just looking at them I was never meant to survive. They would have snapped my neck as easy as taking a breath.” She shivered in dread. “I thought I was going to die in that warehouse and that you would never know it.”

  “If he’s here, Yvette won’t be too far away,” Annie interjected. “They are twins, brother and sister and it’s hard to tell which one is more vicious, Yvette or Yeta.”

  “Well shit, boss.” Boone growled as he stared at Gunner. “We’re sitting on a powder keg here and someone’s about to light the damn fuse.”

  Chapter Five

  Gunner released Dana and ran his hands over the back of his head. Looking over at Tate and the others he told them, “We’re holding Yvette downstairs. Along with Blacky and Arizona.” He turned to Annie and asked, “Did this Russian bastard kill the cartel man?”

  Annie sat up and tucked a curl behind her ear. “Not quite but he came very close to it. After he stabbed the man in the belly, he tossed him in the river and started to walk away. He didn’t know I was there until I went in the river after the man. He must have seen me or heard me. Anyway, he started shooting. I didn’t know for a while whether I was going to drown or get shot before I could get away or out of the water. He must have seen my face at some point because when the cartel came looking for their man, Yeta lied to them and told them I killed him. He told them he saw me push his body into the river but that he was too far away to stop it. He said the river carried the body away but that he wanted the cartel to know what happened. He still thinks the cartel has a price on my head.”

  “And does it?” Boone demanded shortly.

  Annie shook her head. “I was able to get ashore with the other guy, the cartel guy. He wasn’t quite dead yet. Becky and I got him back to his own people and the cartel has been looking for Yeta ever since. It was through them that I found out his name.”

  “So if your name isn’t really Annie, who the hell are you?” Moose finally asked.

  Annie looked around at them all stonily and asked, “Does my proper name really matter? I changed it for my own protection, as I didn’t want to suffer for my father’s sins. He stole from the cartel and the Horsemen. I didn’t and I haven’t seen that bastard since the day he walked out on us.”

  “Just curious about the initials, that’s all.” The huge man shrugged.

  Then a voice called out gently from the hallway, “Our real names are Rainy and Ava Jane Sheen.”

  Everyone turned and saw Patriot standing there. He was holding Becky in his arms. Then he walked toward the table with her in his arms and sat down beside Harry and Annie.

  “The tats we got were to remember who we were once upon a time,” Becky added quietly.

  Annie turned her head and gazed at her sister. “I’ve missed you baby girl.”

  Becky smiled. “You came to find me? You really came to find me?”

  Harry chuckled. “She never quit looking for you. From the day you disappeared, she’s been looking for you.”

  “You remember me?” Annie asked.

  Becky nodded. “I remember everything.” Reaching out, she grabbed Annie’s hand and held it tightly. “You were what I remembered the most. I knew as soon as Wilder took me that you would come for me. I just had to hang on until you could find me.” She swallowed hard then added, “It wasn’t easy, but I did it. I survived and now—you’re here.” She hung her head. “I forgot for a while but I never lost the idea that there was someone out there possibly looking for me. I was praying you would come for me.”

  “How is it that you remembered everything when a few hours ago you couldn’t remember anything but your own name?” Tate asked curiously.

  Becky blushed red. “Annie.”

  Harry looked down at his woman and frowned. “What did you have to do with it?”

  Annie ducked her head. “I read this article once, Ways to survive a trauma. The article suggested many times it was easier to allow your mind to overcome a nasty experience if you can close off the bad stuff by putting it behind a door. To avoid losing your mind altogether, you can train yourself to put certain stuff away for safe keeping. You have to train your mind to open that door again with a certain sound or phrase that only you or someone close to you knows. I don’t know what Becky’s phrase was but she must have remembered it finally and that’s what brought back her memories.”

  “I guess it was the name Rueben James? I knew only you would remember it because of the record we wore out as kids,” Becky admitted. “When the beatings started that was the only thing I could do to stay alive. I played that song so loud in my head, every time he would start in on me. It kept me alive in that hell for three months.”

  “You always were a stubborn kid.” Annie chuckled.

  Winona and Lucille began bringing in a hot meal for everyone to eat and Gunner watched Lucille carefully. He didn’t trust the older woman but with the threat of the Russians, he couldn’t allow her to leave at the moment. He also didn’t like the fact that her safety bothered him so much.

  The clubhouse had always been a place he’d worked to keep safe and now he felt uneasy about the possibility of there being someone inside these walls that could betray them all. Then he remembered there had been someone inside all along.

  Blacky.

  Blacky had been here since day one almost and he was the one who presented the worse threat of all to this club.

  Gunner had a thought and snapped his head around to Annie. “Did you ever find your father after all these years?”

  Annie slowly turned her head to face him. “Yes, I found him. I know where he is and what he’s up to, why?”

  Gunner smiled slowly. “Good, the cartel has a long memory and so do the Horsemen. They began rebuilding their club about a year after the war between them and the cartel was over. I think they both would like to see the end of Randy Sheen.”

  “The world would be a better place without the likes of him in it,” Becky agreed.

  Annie looked over at her sister. “Are you sure that’s how you want this to play out
?”

  “Don’t you?” Becky demanded angrily. “He walked out on us, leaving our lives in the balance between death and living like a rat for the rest of our lives. Why should we protect him now?” She sobbed. “H-he took everything away from us not just once but every time we had to sneak out of town in the middle of the night because he fucked up again. He broke our mom to the point she didn’t care anymore, not about us, not about her own self and finally—she gave up her own life because of him.”

  “Why now boss?” Moose wanted to know. “Why bring him up now?”

  “Because I just don’t like the man, okay?” Gunner growled. “A man only has one thing to protect and cherish and that’s his family. He brought two babies into this world and he didn’t cherish or protect them from the day they were born. As Becky said, he abandoned them time and time again. I can’t stand men like that. After hearing this story, don’t you want to rip him apart with your bare hands?”

  Every man there nodded as they grumbled their ascent.

  “We’re about to go to war against a group we don’t know that much about,” Gunner continued his tirade. “We don’t know their numbers or their weakness, we only know what they want and the fact they are willing to kill us to get it. And we know this club and everything we stand for has been betrayed.”

  “Actually,” Annie told them. “We know a lot more about them than they would like us to know.” She got up off Harry’s lap, walked over to where her backpack was and retrieved her laptop.

  Bringing it back to the table, she opened it and began searching her files. She brought up the file she was looking for and there on the screen was the face of the man with the scar all the way down his face. She pushed the screen to the middle of the table and sat back in her chair.

  Gunner looked around. “We need our IT guy.” He called out, “Rigger? Where are you?”

  Annie gasped and stared around. Then she looked over at Harry.

  Harry stood up. “We got a call from a man with that name about Becky a few days ago.”

  “Yeah, that would’ve been me.” Rigger came into the room. “I’m sorry I never got back to you but the girl was out of it and slept more than she spoke.”

  Annie went over to him. “Thank you though for calling.”

  “Yeah, but you never called back,” Harry added with a glare. “It broke Annie’s heart all over again.”

  “I told him to hold back until Becky was at least awake and aware,” Gunner admitted.

  Harry shook his head.

  Rigger sat, pulled the laptop over to him, and began going through the information Annie had complied on the group. After a moment or so, he looked up at Gunner then over to Annie. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he growled at her.

  “What’s the matter?” Gunner asked quietly.

  The men in his club froze. They knew that tone of his voice. It meant that all hell was about to break loose. Gunner was known for being even tempered but he was also known for his temper.

  “These bastards aren’t Vory V Zakone at all, boss. They have no affiliation to anyone,” Rigger announced. “This group is fourteen men who are acting on their own.”

  “Question is who let it be known they were Vory V Zakone the first time?” Boone asked. “They might only be guilty of letting the lie come forward.”

  “It doesn’t matter if Blacky thought they were Vory V Zakone or not.” Gunner challenged. “He still took money to betray us.”

  Cobra grinned. “So if we smoked these bastards, no one would be overly upset.” He stretched his hands and cracked his knuckles. “Good to know. This way, we don’t have to hold back when it comes right down to it. No one will miss these bozos.”

  Harry looked down at Annie and noted she looked almost relieved at this point. “What is going through your mind woman?”

  “I wasn’t sure anyone would notice the Kabonash’s weren’t Vory V Zakone,” Annie admitted. “I searched high and low for some kind of connection but I never found one. The only reason I could think of was there was never a connection in the first place.” Shaking her head she admitted, “I didn’t want to be the only one who noticed.”

  Tate looked over at Annie. “Do you have a photo of your dad at all? A recent photo?”

  Annie nodded slowly. “I do but why do you need it?”

  “Because if I’m right, your dad is still ripping people off and is responsible for the death of two people, ten years ago,” Tate dropped his bomb. “When you first said his name, I thought might have had a run in with this Randy Sheen ten years ago. I just need to see your father’s face.”

  Chapter Six

  When she heard this from Tate, Annie froze then turned to Becky.

  The sisters were stunned.

  Then Becky whispered, “Show them his picture. Either he is or he isn’t but I don’t doubt he is.” Hanging her head tears dripped down her cheeks.

  Annie took her laptop for a moment then brought up her dad’s file with a few quick clicks. When his photo came up. she could barely look at his face but instead she turned the laptop toward Tate and the others.

  Tate snarled when he saw the picture as did several of the others. “That’s the lousy bastard.” He pounded his fist on the table and the laptop jumped. “I’ve been looking for this fucker for ten years, ever since he murdered my brother in a conflict with the Devil’s Own. He instigated the war between our clubs and after he shot Todd, he rode away in the middle of the fight.”

  Annie and Becky gasped and looked at each other. Tears ran down both their cheeks as they heard his words condemning their father. Annie got off Harry’s lap and went to Becky. The girls moved over to the corner and held each other as the Lost Sons grumbled and growled.

  “Oh Annie, what are we going to do?” Becky whispered. “We can’t go back there, not now.”

  Annie nodded without saying a word. “Except I’m carrying Harry’s baby now.”

  “Well, that sucks.” Becky wept. “Are you going to keep it?”

  Annie turned her head. “No, it doesn’t suck, but yeah, I’m going to keep it. He or she is an innocent and if his/her father wants nothing to do with her because of me then he doesn’t deserve to have the baby in his life. You and me, we didn’t do anything wrong and neither did my baby. We’ll have to change our names again and find a safe place, then start all over again but we’ve done it before.”

  Becky wrapped her arm around her sister. “As long as we’re together you and me, we’ll be fine.” Hugging her close Becky said, “You and the baby won’t be alone, I’ll be right there with you.”

  Annie nodded. “But first we have to see this through. We have to stop this bastard Blacky and Yeta from taking over this club.”

  “Then we’ll simply disappear when we’re done.” Becky nodded. “Which means I have to get my strength back fairly quickly.”

  Annie brushed a curl of dark hair off her forehead. “Oh B, no one will ever hurt you again, I swear.”

  “No one will ever hurt you either.” Becky assured her. “I got your back, sister.”

  Annie helped Becky back to the infirmary and to her bed. Becky was running out of steam and she needed to get stronger.

  The older woman Lucille brought them both a plate of food and stayed a moment to chat. “How are you girls doing with all of this?” she asked. “Sorry I could help but overhear what was going on out there. Gunner thinks he’s quiet but he’s really not.”

  Annie nodded. “Yeah neither is Harry or his family when they get riled up.” Tears ran down her cheeks. “How bad do they hate us right now?”

  “Oh sweetheart, they don’t hate you girls, they hate your dad,” Lucille insisted. “They don’t blame you two at all.”

  “But dad actually killed Tate’s brother,” Annie whispered.

  “Yeah and Gunner isn’t too fond of him either,” Lucille warned her. “I didn’t stick around to find out why but I have a feeling it wasn’t a good thing.” She reached out and patted Annie’s knee. “You two
girls eat something and get some rest. I think you’ve both been through enough.”

  “That’s true,” Annie admitted as her hand went to cradle her belly. She looked over at the tray of food and reached for a sandwich.

  Lucille went to the door but paused before she went through it. “These men are hard men, but they are good men. They would take a bullet for you without regret but they also do not forget or forgive betrayal. But it isn’t you girls who have betrayed them. It was your dad. Gunner is a hard man and he doesn’t give his trust easily, nor does he forgive easily. Please don’t make the mistake of dismissing their trust. You can’t ever get it back if you do that. I know that for myself. I lost the best man I could ever find, because the one thing these guys hate is secrets.”

  Annie nodded. “I’m finding that out the hard way. My dad is someone we just don’t talk about much. He turned his back and left us a long time ago. Seems like a lifetime ago now ‒ but in the minds of the men in that room ‒ his betrayal happened yesterday.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s true.” Lucille nodded. “But I really feel you girls will be okay. So try not to worry so much.” She walked out of the Infirmary and left the girls alone.

  Harry and Rigger were reviewing Annie’s files. He was surprised how detailed her file on her father was. She had been tracking him for a number of years and had recorded every place she’d been able to find on him. Why he never knew about this he couldn’t imagine.

  Rigger cleared his throat and brought Harry’s attention to him. “Your girlfriend is good.”

  Harry nodded. “Yeah, she is. Better than she ever let on.” Shaking his head, he told the other man, “I never saw half her files.”

  Rigger kept reading. “Where in the hell did she get this information from? These are top secret records and half these files would get her killed if anyone knew she had them.”

  “She’s never used any of this stuff against anyone.” Harry defended her actions.