I force myself back to what’s going on in time to hear Prez’s next words.
“I want everyone here on lockdown.” As Demon brushes his hand over his face, I wonder if he’s worrying whether Major will up his game and take someone else. It’s bad enough my teenage son disappearing, but if Major got his hands on Theo, fuck knows what twisted plans he’d have for a young child. “Need to get the rest of the brothers in on this. Leave the businesses in civilian hands. I want every man, woman and Theo here under our protection. I’ll risk no one else falling into his hands.”
“What can I do?” My head drops into my hands. “What can I fuckin’ do? Cas…”
“We can’t do anything,” Demon says. “I know it’s fuckin’ killing you brother, but all we can do is wait until Major gets back in touch.”
“The man’s sick,” I scream at them. “Who knows what he’s doing to my son.”
“He won’t touch him.” Beef tries to sound reassuring. “If he wants Shayla back, he won’t harm him.”
Yet. The unspoken word hangs in the air.
“Liz is right, he’s sick. And this time Demon, you won’t stop me. He’s fuckin’ going in the ground.”
The look I send Mace shows I’ll be right there beside him.
“Not going to argue with you there, Brother. Now Major’s attacked us directly, this is war. Mace? Will you go get everyone on standby, soon as we get the next message from Major and know his proposal for making an exchange, I want everyone in church. We’re not fuckin’ giving him Shayla. We’ll get the kid back and take him down. Cad, make sure our security is sewn up tighter than a virgin’s ass. Beef and I will make some calls, try to drum up some support. Liz…” Prez doesn’t seem to know what to say to me.
A shuddering sigh wracks my body. How I don’t know, but, “I’ll try to get Vanna locked down. She can’t leave the compound.”
Mace offers me his hand, but I get up by myself, adrenaline fuelling my body to get moving.
Once in the corridor, I rest my head against the wall. Mace’s hand lands on my shoulder.
“Brother…”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I tell him quietly, so my voice doesn’t carry into the clubroom. “If he harms Cas, it’ll destroy Vanna.” It will destroy me too. The thought of not seeing my boy growing into a man. Not even knowing what was happening to him. No. That’s never going to happen. I’ll move heaven and earth to find him.
“He won’t harm him, not while he’s a bargaining chip.”
“But he’s not getting Shayla back,” I remind him, adding quickly, “Not that I think we should make the trade. Not for a fuckin’ second, Brother.”
“And you know, beyond me sacrificing my ol’ lady, there’s nothing I won’t do to get your son back.”
“Liz?” Vanna’s tearful voice reaches me. Of course she’s hovering, waiting for me to emerge. “Lindy called. There’s still no sign of Cas. It’s as though he’s disappeared into thin air. I’m so worried about him.” She sobs, but there’s strength in her voice when she adds, “I’m not waiting any longer, I’m going back to Denver right now, with or without you.”
I exchange a quick look with Mace. She’s obviously been thinking I’ve been dealing with club business, which I have. She just doesn’t yet know it’s about the boy everyone’s out seeking.
Mace’s lips thin and his eyes signal he’s not envying me this conversation. I raise my chin, knowing it’s equally difficult for him, and then take Vanna’s arm.
“Where we going?” I notice then her car keys are in her hand.
“Upstairs, we need to talk.”
Her eyes narrow. “Talk? We can talk on the way, Liz. Or if you can’t be bothered to come, I’ll go by myself. I’ve done enough talking, now I need to do something.”
“What the fuck do you think you can do? He’s not a dog trained to come at a certain whistle.” Harsh, I know, but she’s got to see sense. I’m worried sick about Cas, but Vanna’s going to be destroyed when she hears even half of what I now know.
We might have been parted for years, but it appears she can still read me. Her body stills. “You know something,” she accuses, her gaze settling on my face. “You know something about my son. Tell me, Liz.”
“Vanna, come upstairs now.” I can hold her with one hand, but not also hold onto the stick and pull her where I want her to go.
She shrugs off my hold easily and so fast, I take a moment to regain my balance. “You tell me now, Norton James.”
The use of my legal name tells me she’ll take no nonsense from me. “Vanna, please. I need to speak to you in private.”
“You tell me this moment, or I’ll go to Denver by myself. Cas is everything to me, Liz.”
“And to me, Vanna. Look, babe—”
“Use my office,” Cad, walking past suggests. “Steph’s not there so it’s empty.”
I jerk my chin in thanks, and point to the door he’s just come out of. “Please, Vanna. There’s something you should know.”
“Two minutes. That’s all you’ve got,” she warns, following me into Cad’s office. There are two desks and three times that in the number of monitor screens. One desk is neat with everything in its place, the other a total mess. All wires traversing the floor are carefully taped. Even if I hadn’t had prior knowledge, it’s easy to tell which station is Steph’s.
I wave my hand toward the doorway that Vanna’s only just cleared. She turns, shuts the door, and stands with her back against it.
“A minute and a half,” she informs me.
Christ. I have to think fast. I can’t have her running off on a wild goose chase, not with the slightest risk Major might be waiting for her to do just that and scoop her up too. Instead of a well thought out argument which stops her running off while keeping her out of club business, the way she’s starting to reach for the door handle has me blurting out, “Cas isn’t in Denver. Well, he might be, but he’s not anywhere where you’re going to be able to find him.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What do you know about this?” With each word, she moves closer. When she’s right in front of me, her finger starts poking my chest, punctuating every word. “What do you know about Cas?”
“I’ll tell you as much as I can—”
“You’ll tell me every fucking thing, Liz. He’s my son,” she screeches. “I’ve a right to know where he is.”
“I don’t know where he is,” I shout back. “Don’t you think I’m as fuckin’ cut up about him being missing as you are. I’m his father.”
“You didn’t know he existed for ten years. Denied he was yours for two before that.” Her hand covers her heart. “You have no idea how I feel, don’t pretend you do. You tell me everything, you hear me? Leave nothing out. Or I’m going back to Denver, going to the cops and I won’t be coming back!”
How do you deal with a rightfully distraught woman? Fuck if I know. I rake my hands through hair no longer there, and grimacing, knowing I’m about to betray my brothers to put my true family first, I take a deep breath. “You know Shayla?”
“Mace’s woman, of course.”
“You know anything about her background?”
She’s impatient to hear my explanation but her face grimaces. “I can guess her past isn’t pretty, from the little she’s said, but she hasn’t told us any of the details, and none of us old ladies have pushed it. I know Vi’s working to cover a tat up, but not what it is or why. An abusive boyfriend perhaps.” She goes still. “That can’t be it, that her old boyfriend wants her back? Has he taken Cas? If so, why? Why would he go after Cas? He’s nothing to do with the club.”
Should I let her go on believing it’s one of Shayla’s old flames? Tempting, but what if she goes straight to Mace’s woman and demands to know who it is? That’s what I’d do in her place, and with the independence that’s grown in her, she’s not going to sit back and let me drive at my pace.
“It’s not an ex of Shayla’s. Sit, Vanna, ple
ase.” My leg, after the exercise and tension in my body, is beginning to shake. I wait until she does what I ask, though she’s perched as if still in flight mode on the edge of the seat. I pull up the other chair, the one Cad uses. “Vanna, please… Darlin’, look the club’s going on lockdown, everyone is being called in. All Shayla can know is that the club’s on general alert. She can’t know this has anything to do with her.”
“Why not?” Vanna looks unimpressed. “If someone’s taken my son because of her, surely she’d want to help sort the mess out? Maybe she could talk to him—”
“It’s not an ex,” I interrupt. “He’s an abusive pimp who branded her with his tat and who forced her into the sex trade. For nine months, she worked on her back for him.” If only it was just that, it’s so much worse. “He sells women to men to do anything, any-fuckin’-thing to them, Vanna. He took Esme for the same reason.”
Vanna’s mouth drops open. She’ll have read about such things happening on the news, feel sorry for the people involved, but something like this will never have touched her life. Her face goes completely white before she breaks down in front of me.
“He’s the one who’s got Cas? This evil motherfucker’s got my son?” She launches herself at me, her fingernails drawing blood from my cheeks, and screams, “Because if that’s what you’re telling me, you better get out there and find him, Liz. I want my son back! I. Want. My. Son. Back.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Mace
Jesus. Everything’s going to hell in a handbasket.
I brought Vanna onto the compound and invited Cas. If I hadn’t done so, he’d never have been in Major’s sights.
I confronted Lizard with his wife and child and possibly caused his tumour to make its effects known. Although he’s making a good recovery, he’s still physically not the brother he was.
I convinced Shayla to stay. If I hadn’t, had I given her money and helped set her up someplace else, Major would have had no reason to take any of us.
Me. Me. Me. Me. Every mistake can be laid at my door.
Except for one. I didn’t want Shayla to know, but Lizard had told Vanna, and like any woman told her son was in the hands of a dangerous man, she’d become distraught and vocally so, running out into the clubroom and shouting for Shayla.
It was clear she didn’t blame her, just wanted to know all about the man who’s kidnapped her son. But as soon as Shayla heard about it, she’d done exactly as I’d predicted and without a second thought, had offered herself up. I’d had to physically restrain her from running out of the clubhouse though fuck knows where she thought she would go. Her only thought was to save Lizard’s son.
Now she’s shaking, trembling in my arms as I try to reason with her.
“We don’t know, Shay, baby. You running off with no direction isn’t going to help. Even if I had the slightest intention of giving Major what he wants, we don’t know where he’s proposing to make the exchange. If he’s watching the compound, you might run straight into his arms, and then he’ll have both of you. There’s no guarantee Major would keep to his bargain and let Cas go. Major might have clients who like boys…” My voice trails off, and unintentionally my arms tighten around her.
“W-w-w-hen, w-w-hen is he going to call back?” she asks, her voice stuttering.
“I don’t know, babe.” It’s been a few hours now. “Guess he’s keeping us dangling.” He must be pretty confident that we won’t be able to find him and ramping up our anxiety about bringing the boy back home. “He’s probably thinking a mother’s worry will persuade us to make the trade he wants. But nothing could do that, Shay, I promise you. Even Vanna wouldn’t want that.”
“Yes she w-w-ould. If she truly understood what M-M-Major could do with him. That sweet b-boy, Mace. I can’t believe he’s taken Cas.”
Neither can I. It’s hard for any of us to wrap our heads around. I know Lizard’s berating himself for not watching out for him or moving him to Pueblo before his school year was up, education be damned. But it hadn’t crossed any of our minds. We’d been concentrating on protecting Shayla and all the women, not thinking Major would come at us via the back door and take something so precious to us, a brother’s kid.
As she sobs into my chest, I think over the events of the past few hours since we heard the news. After an hour and we still hadn’t heard back from Major, Demon had called all the brothers in. Church consisted mainly of ranting and raging, making me think if there had been a swear jar in the room it would have been overflowing. Brothers have all taken a liking to Cas, and of course, there wasn’t any suggestion we should give in to Major’s demands. Shayla was mine, and by extension, one of theirs.
The meeting had come to an abrupt close when there’d been screaming from the clubroom, and it had been then I’d had to restrain Shayla and stop her from leaving.
Now it’s a waiting game. Major is making us sweat.
Christ, how I feel for Lizard and Vanna, they must be at their fucking wits’ end. They’ve no idea where their son is, or how he’s being treated and must be thinking the worst.
Lurking at the back of my mind is the fear that Major’s torturing or abusing him, and the next picture we’re sent will be constructed to make sure he’s got our attention. But I don’t even whisper this, not allowing myself to dwell on what Cas could be suffering.
I knew we should have hit back at Major before this, fucking knew it. But also knew without any leads—the man doesn’t seem to exist as no one can find him—there wasn’t a target to put in my sights.
But we should have been doing something, anything more than we have been, to smoke him out before he got a hand on one of our kids.
A gentle tapping at the door has me standing. Shayla tenses as I stand, walk over, and open it.
“Demon wants to talk to you, Mace. I’ll stay with Shayla.”
I nod at Vi, noticing Nails standing in the hallway behind her. He raises his chin. Good. Looks like he’ll be on guard too. I’m not the only one anticipating Shayla attempting to run for it, to attempt to make the exchange, her life for Cas’s. Sometimes, I wish my old lady didn’t have the strength she does possess. She was prepared to sacrifice everything for Esme and would do it again.
“Stay here, Shay,” I instruct her. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“If there’s any news…”
“You’ll be the first after me to hear it.”
Stepping aside to let Vi in, I close the door behind me.
“I can’t take this.” I hear Liz screaming as I descend the stairs, and the sound of a chair being kicked over. “What the fuck is Major doing, leaving us hanging like this?”
“Calm the fuck down, Lizard.”
“Prez…”
“Yeah, Liz. I expected him to call before this, but hey, I’m not in his head. You’re no good to Cas if you get yourself riled.”
“I’m no fuckin’ good to him sitting on my ass doing nothing,” Lizard shouts back.
“Brother…” I step toward him, but he pushes my arm away before I can get close enough to put it comfortingly on his shoulder.
He swings around to me. “I’ve been thinking. Let Cad put a tracker on Shayla. Let her go back to him. We get Cas back then go after her.”
“Not going to happen, Lizard,” I growl menacingly. “We don’t use women to fight our battles. We’ve covered her tat, he could kill her for it.” Shayla’s already told me he’d done that before, set a woman on fire as an example to others. “She’s my woman, Liz. She’s not going back.”
“Cas is my son,” he screams.
Vanna’s sitting with glazed eyes, tears streaming from them. Every couple of moments she dabs at them with a tissue, but she seems out of it. “She okay?” I ask no one in particular.
“I gave her a sedative,” Rusty explains. “Had to fuckin’ force it on her, but she wouldn’t calm down.”
“Can’t you do the same for him?” I jerk my chin toward Liz.
“He’s not fuc
kin’ drugging me. You hear that? Soon as we know where we’re heading, I’m riding out.”
I bite my tongue to say he can’t ride yet, as something tells me he’ll give it a damn good try, and probably succeed. Nothing will keep him away from his kid. I don’t blame him. Cas, who I like as much as I would a blood nephew, is innocent in all of this, and if we can’t save him could be facing a short lifetime of misery.
“What’s the fuckin’ time now?” Liz cries out.
“Almost midnight.”
“If he’s waited this long, he might not make contact until the morning,” Judge remarks.
“I’m not fuckin’ waiting for morning.” Liz spins around on his new target. “Cad, why the fuck can’t you trace him?”
Cad’s fingers are flying over the keyboard of his laptop and my guess is that he’s doing everything he can. Soon as he has something to go on, he’ll tell us. Trouble is, Liz can’t see straight right now, and no one here blames him one bit.
“What?” Prez barks into his phone, then asks tersely, “Is it Major?”
A car horn sounds from the front of the clubhouse, then sounds again and again. Now it blares continuously as if someone’s leaning on it.
My gun, like everyone else’s is in our hands, chambers have already been checked and we’re cocked and loaded and ready for whatever’s coming at us. Lizard is already moving, but I’ve got my eyes on the Prez.
“There’s a fuckin’ older, but expensive, model Cadillac outside the gates. Engine running, fucker won’t turn it off. Dirt’s refusing to open up.”
Correctly too, until we all get out there.
“Where d’you want us?”
“Thunder, Judge, go after Lizard. Fuckin’ tackle him if you have to. If that’s Major, then this will be some kind of trick and there’ll be others with him. Mace, Beef, you’re with me. Sparky, Muff, and Beaver, stay in here and shoot out the fucking windows if you have to. No one is getting in. Rest of you pan out and make sure we’re fully covered.”
Devil's Spawn: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #6 Page 40