by Leela Ash
“Love you, baby.”
Michael looked over at the sleeping woman, her breathing already slowing down to indicate that she was already falling asleep. He knew then that leaving her was going to be the hardest thing he had ever done, even if she was the one that he had to leave for. If people like that gang were roaming around, people like Jessa were going to get hurt. There was no means that Michael wouldn’t use to keep her safe and he knew that it could cause destruction. But Michael didn’t care. All he cared about was getting revenge for his family and finally being able to come back to the woman he loved with a level head.
6
“What do you mean he’s gone?” Jessa asked, her voice frantic.
She tore through the house and out the front door, looking everywhere for him, but she knew that Michael was gone. There was no note, no trace that he had ever been there. He had taken his pack and everything he owned with him. A little part of her already knew that he was gone, but the rest of her was still hoping that it was some kind of mistake. He wouldn’t leave her like that, would he?
Milo had been the last one to speak to him the night before. He had wondered the same thing, what was going on, when he had seen Michael walking away with his bag on his back. Milo had been sitting on the porch enjoying the quiet scenery and keeping an eye out to make sure that they were not seen coming in.
He had asked him where he was going and Michael just said that he had to go for a while. Milo tried to get more information from him, but he was not giving anything up. There was a sadness in Mike that Milo couldn’t forget.
“Just take care of them while I’m gone,” Michael had told him.
“Are you going to come back?”
Michael nodded that he would. The last thing he wanted to do was leave them, but he had to. “Yes, I will be back. You guys just go on towards the coast and I will track you to wherever you are. I have to take care of something.”
Milo didn’t want to have to be the one to tell Jessa. While she was nice most of the time, he had seen her upset and the truth was that she scared the living shit out of him. “You can’t leave like this. Jessa is going to be devastated.”
Michael knew that it was bad form, but he couldn’t be the one to tell her. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he knew that he couldn’t be there when her eyes welled up and she would look at him like he was leaving her for good. He didn’t want to have to explain himself. Michael wasn’t sure how to explain it, anyway. All he knew was that he had to get revenge for his family before he could be whole again. Jessa had gone a long way at helping him see that there was life after all of it, but there was still the need for him to fix that one last piece of him that just wasn’t right.
“Just tell her that I will be back as soon as I can and that I love her.”
Milo had shaken his head. “It should be you to tell her those kinds of things, Michael.”
“I know, but I can’t. Will you do that for me Milo?”
He nodded reluctantly, indicating that he would, but he didn’t want to agree to it. Milo didn’t want to be the one to break her heart and Michael hoped in the back of his mind that he would actually do as he said he would.
“Yes, Mike, but I wish you would tell her yourself.”
He just shook his head. “If I could I would, but if I do, I will never leave. It is impossible to leave a woman like her. She has ways of making a man forget everything.”
“I’ve heard.” Milo got red-faced when he realized what he had let slip. He looked embarrassed and barely able to hold it together.
Mike slapped the boy on the shoulder and told him again to keep them safe. “I will be back soon Milo, just keep them safe and going east. I will be back before you know it.”
The memory was not serving Milo well at all. As Jessa looked at him with anger and that look that he dreaded to see, there was no way that he wanted to tell her what he had to. He had to tell her about it all and he just couldn’t find the words. The way that she kept asking wasn’t helping and Milo wanted to just run away. It was the first time that he had felt that way in his new group, but there was no way that he wanted to be in the middle of it.
Jessa could see his stress and tried to tell him that it was going to be okay. It didn’t feel like it was going to be okay, Milo and Jessa were both stressed out and the rest of the house was getting up from the commotion.
“What’s going on, mom?”
Jessa looked back at her little boy and she was as speechless as Milo was. “I’m not sure, baby. I think that Mike had some things that he had to do. I was just asking Milo if he was going to be back or not.”
Milo nodded that he would be. He had even more eyes on him and the young man was afraid that he was going to be back to stuttering again.
“He is coming …back. Just had to go.”
Jessa was not satisfied with the answer, but she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to get much more from Milo as upset as he seemed to be. It was clear that he didn’t want to be the messenger of bad news, but he really didn’t have a choice. It was a chore given to him and one that he had promised to take care of.
Jessa and the rest of the group waited for more, but there was no more forthcoming. Milo didn’t even know why he had taken off, no one really did.
Jason wondered about what the two had talked about before. Michael was very interested in the emblem that he had drawn for him and he wondered, even hoped, that it was those people that he was going to see. There was a capability about Mike that he did not possess and he too wanted some kind of revenge for what had happened to the rest of his family. He didn’t say anything out loud to ease anyone’s fears. Jason didn’t want anyone to try and stop Michael. He wasn’t able to take care of it, but maybe Mike could.
“Well if he says he is going to catch up, then I think we should keep on going,” Jason piped up.
Milo sighed with relief, thankful that someone had taken his side. Jessa was still not convinced, but she didn’t want to make her son upset any more than he had to be. There was something that she wasn’t being told and she was bound and determined to find out what it was. When she looked at Milo in such a way, he knew that he was going to have to tell her more. Neither one of them knew what Jason knew though.
The group got started a little later than the day before. Jessa looked back one last time at the place where she had last seen Michael. It was impossible to not feel abandoned. She couldn’t believe that he had left her. She had a few choice words to say to him when she saw him again. She sighed deeply. She was going to be lonely without him. In fact, she was already aching deep inside, feeling more heartsick than she had since her husband died. She hadn’t cared so much about another man since then, and now she felt like it was all falling apart again.
“It will be okay, mom.”
She nodded at her son with a smile that she hoped reached her eyes. “It will have to be.”
7
“So what are we going to do with him?”
Caston ran his hand through his white hair, studying the man on the ground. They had found him tracking them not long ago, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had seen him before. Still, none of his men recognized him. He was the leader though, and if he didn’t know him then how could it matter? Still, he had an uneasy feeling about the man. Where had he seen him before?
Caston wasn’t sure. Under normal circumstances, he would just slit the guy’s throat and leave him behind. But there was a quality about this guy that intrigued him. Even passed out on the ground he could tell that he was well-groomed. He didn’t want for anything, unlike most of the other people they stumbled across. It was clear that the man had somewhere that he was calling home and Caston wanted to know where it was. The Rough Riders were getting low on supplies, but if this guy had what they needed, then it was his responsibility to make sure that they took every last bit of it. The land was becoming less giving and Caston knew that he would have to find something soon to provide for his crew.
The only thing keeping his men loyal was a full belly and enough adventure to keep them busy. Without those, his men would surely turn against him like jackals.
“Why don’t we wait till he wakes up and see where it is that he is camping out? I’m sure that there will be something there.”
Caston went through the man’s bag and noticed a pink scarf tucked delicately inside. It was clear that the scarf wasn’t something that belonged to the rugged man who had been tracking them. Caston gave it a smell and the strong scent of lilac filled his nose. He was filled with excitement as he realized that the scarf belonged to a woman. It was something that they hadn’t run into in a while. Caston was more than willing to be patient if it meant that he would get one of his baser needs taken care of. He would have preferred a woman over food and he was sure that the six men with him would feel the same way. Only problem was that once they got their hands on one, they never made it very long.
“Do you want me to wake him up?”
He shook his head. “No Lee. We don’t have too much else to do but wait. The weather is looking like a storm anyways.”
Lee nodded, but wasn’t too happy about the order. He wanted to be the one that found out what was going on. He, like many of the other men, was getting restless. They were ready for something to make their hearts beat a little faster. They were long due for some excitement, and torturing the strange man would be enough for Lee.
Caston could see the way his men were starting to get restless. He didn’t show them the scarf, but stuck it in his pocket and had a couple of them help the man up. “Let’s get in for the night so we don’t get caught in the rain. I’m sure the guy will be up by then.”
“What do you think he was doing boss?”
Caston shrugged, not sure what to make of it. It had been years since anyone had gotten so close to him. The man was clearly searching them out, not something that the Rough Riders were used to. Most smart people stayed away from the motorcycle gang. They ran the turf around there and it made Caston sure that the dark-haired man was there for some kind of vengeance. Vengeance was something that he could understand. It was only when he considered the possibility that Caston started to relax. He could understand pride and ego, but he could also understand revenge. Caston was sure that he was owed some many times over, but not just yet.
“I think he’s here to get information, or maybe even take me out. I don’t know, but I want him tied up well so that when he does come around, there is no way for him to get a chance to do any of that.”
Lee nodded his head and started to smile. There was a chance that he was going to be able to hurt someone that day. It had been too long for all of them. It had been weeks since anyone had been stupid enough to fall into their path. Now that there was a chance of something happening, Lee was starting to feel like his old self.
They dragged him into the house that they were going to be staying in for the night. Even though Caston wasn’t sure what to do with him, he knew that he didn’t want him able to get free. He didn’t wake up as they moved him around, and that made Caston worried that they had hit him too hard from behind. He may never wake up, but if he did, he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.
***
Michael gradually came to and heard the men’s voices. He had woken up in a dark room by himself. There was a thick feeling in his head and though he wasn’t sure where he was, he recognized the emblem on a jacket that was left in the room with him. It was all that Michael needed to know. He had been looking for the gang and just when he had found them, someone had hit him from behind and he had seen blackness. It was rather strange to find himself right where he had wanted to be, though Michael had hoped for the element of surprise to be on his terms. He did get a surprise, but it wasn’t quite what he had been hoping for. Instead he was tied and gagged.
“I see you’re up.”
Michael’s face turned to take in the older man with the grey eyes that had haunted his dreams for years. He had seen them before in his past, and suddenly Michael knew that he had found the man he was looking for. But what was he supposed to do now?
He started to make noise behind the gag and the man shook his head. “There is no need to struggle. This will be the end for you. Tell me what I want to know and I will make sure you don’t suffer too much.”
Michael didn’t like the sound of that and he certainly didn’t like the idea of anything happening to him before he got his revenge. His mind went to Jessa for a minute and he wished he had never left. He wasn’t worried about something happening to him or him not being able to finish what he had set out to do. What would really bother him more than anything else was the fact that he may not be able to see Jessa again. It was in that moment that he realized she was the only one that mattered to him.
Another man took Michael’s gag off after a few minutes and he shot daggers with his blue eyes. “Do you know who I am?”
Michael nodded. There was no sense in pretending that he didn’t know exactly who he was and what he was capable of. Caston seemed to like the answer and smiled to himself, nodding his head.
“Good, then who am I?”
“You are the man that I am going to kill.”
Caston chuckled a little, but he didn’t like the look in the man’s face. Even though he was tied up and he was surrounded by several men larger than himself, the man in front of him was quite sure of his words.
“What is your name?”
“Michael Santino.”
“And why, may I ask, would you want to kill me M Michael?”
“Because you killed my wife and child.”
Caston sighed and nodded his head. “Yes I think that would do it, but why do you think you will succeed? Look at you.”
Michael didn’t care. He knew that he had not come all that way, walked all of those miles, to simply fail. It was his destiny, and though he didn’t know how, he knew that he was going to walk away from it all. He had to get home to Jessa and nothing was going to stop him from doing so. Not even the devil himself.
THE END
Finding Love in a Dark World: Book 5
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright © 2016 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
1
Jessa sighed, staring off into space. She missed Michael. He had taken off without even saying goodbye to her; he’d been a coward and had left the job to Milo. He had told Milo that he was leaving and he would catch up with the troupe. Jessa tried to let it go, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She probably should have listened to Milo’s message. It was from Michael. It would make her feel better to trust that everything would go as Michael said it would. He had never done anything for her not to believe him. But there was a rotten feeling in her stomach that told her something was wrong. She tried to push the feelings aside, but by midday, she was ready to take action.
Jessa and the group continued on their way, leaving behind the area where Michael had left them. When they rested for a time and got some water, Jessa walked up to Milo, who was sitting on the small creek’s edge. He looked serene and happy in the moment. At least, he did until he noticed that she was there. He got a forlorn look on his face as he realized that he had to answer to her. He could tell by the look on her face that she was in combat mode, and almost held up the white flag then and there.
“Jessa…”
She put her hand up. “We both know that you know more about what was going on with Michael than what you’ve been telling me. So what happened?”
“I really don’t know Jessa. He was talking to Jason about a group that he had seen before they met us.” Milo stopped and grimaced a little. Jessa scared him a little bit. Especially when she looked so angry. He hadn’t been able to help but throw Jason under the bus
. It was not what he had wanted to happen and he would have liked to have thought that he would have lasted a bit longer under interrogation. “I’m sorry Jessa. He doesn’t want you going after him. I don’t know what is going on, but I think we should just keep going forward.”
Jessa nodded absently and then bee-lined it to talk to Jason. She had known something was going on and there was always a part of Michael, before her that kept him up some nights. Jessa had a feeling that his most recent bout of change came from the same source.
Jason was less forthcoming, but was soon just as tongue-tied as Milo had felt. All he wanted was for the eyes pinning him to where he stood to change their focus away from him. All she had been able to gather was that Michael was after a group of men. Jessa wasn’t any closer to knowing why, but she knew that he was in trouble. She didn’t know what to do. They were already miles behind and Jessa wasn’t sure where he had gone specifically. The most information she’d managed to get from him was a general direction. Jason could tell her the spot where the people Motorcycle gang had originally settled down, but they had probably moved on years ago.
She had five other people with her now, though her son was still recuperating from their last run in with bad men. Jessa knew that she couldn’t take them with her to look for Michael. It would risk their lives. But leaving her son again was not an option. The last time she had, it had meant trouble and she refused to be separated from him again. Jessa didn’t know what to do, but something told her that Mike needed her.
Jessa sighed just as Carin approached her.
“When do you think we’ll be leaving from here, Jessa?”
Jessa didn’t have an answer.
Carin could tell that she was upset. “If you aren’t ready to leave right now, we don’t have to. Sorry to bother you.”