Vengeance: The Program Book 4

by N. M. Catalano

  That’s where I’m heading. Gringo and Snake are already there.

  The woods start to thin out as houses nestled behind lines of trees start to come into view. I’m almost there. Everything I own is in the back of my pick-up truck. A couple of bags of clothes, my helmet and my Harley pulled behind in the trailer. It doesn’t take much to hopefully start over again. Or at least leave the shit behind.

  As the surrounding area turns into a town, I feel my shoulders sag. Rock said to follow Main Street straight, I’d pass his tattoo shop, Inked, then make a right on Trout Street. His house is the fourth one on the right.

  I glance at the buildings and the people walking on the sidewalks as I make my way. The place looks nice, there’s hardly any traffic, and the streets are clean. It seems the world hasn’t shit on this place yet.

  Then we show up.

  I laugh at my own stupid joke.

  I make the right and count the houses. There it is and there are three motorcycles in the driveway in front of the single car garage. I park my Ford truck in front of the driveway behind a souped up Mustang and a pretty little Corvette.

  Must be Gringo’s and Snake’s.

  I can’t help but grin. It’s going to be good to see them.

  Putting the truck in park, I get out, stretch, and follow the front walkway to the door. There are kids riding their bikes on the sidewalk.

  “Hey mister,” one boy hollers at me. I stop and turn, push my sunglasses up, and look at him. “Is that your bike?” he points.

  “Yeah,” I smile.

  “Wow. You guys have some cool motorcycles. I want to be just like you guys,” he’s practically bouncing on his seat.

  That makes my heart drop. I shake my head. “No you don’t, kid.” I turn and continue.

  The front door opens and Rock’s filling the space. A grin explodes on my face.

  “Seems the small town life agrees with you,” I laugh.

  He looks good, really good. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s happy.

  “What took you so long? Oh yeah, I forgot you can’t read,” he laughs and pulls me in for a hug.

  “Didn’t need to. It looked like you just kept going straight until you ran out of gas,” I slap him on his back. “No chance of getting lost,” I laugh.

  Gringo and Snake are behind him inside.

  “Damn, I almost forgot how big you were,” Gringo punches my shoulder.

  “Been eating lots of pecan pies,” I can’t wipe the grin off my face.

  I turn to Snake. My smile falters. He’s got dark circles and his eyes look haunted. He’s not good.

  None of us are good.

  He gives me a wicked grin. “I know. I’m still beautiful.”

  “No dude, you ain’t. But that shit’s gonna change,” I tell him as I pull him in for a hug.

  “Hah,” he snorts, “you’re just jealous.”

  Damn, it’s good to see them.

  We move to the modest living room as Rock gets us each a beer. Except Snake, he gets a bottle of water. Snake tilts it up to me. “I had a party last night, Rock thinks he’s my babysitter now.”

  “Now you’ve got three,” I tilt my Budweiser to him. Rock settles into a chair. “Looks like life’s good for you here, Rock,” I take a swallow.

  He gazes around the room. “Yeah, no ghosts,” he takes a drink from his beer, then his eyes meet mine. “The shops doing really good. That’s why I asked you guys to come. I was hoping I could persuade you guys to stay.”

  Is he serious?

  “And do what? There ain’t no bulls or farms around here,” I joke.

  “Thank God for that,” Gringo drolls.

  “I’ll teach you to ride a bull one day. When you’re grown,” I bust his balls.

  He rolls his eyes.

  Rock sets his beer on the sidetable and leans forward with his forearms on his knees. “Seriously. I opened the place for us. It’s yours just as much as it is mine. Get your apprenticeship with me and do ink.” He drops his head down. “You don’t think when you’re working. There’s nothing but the hum of the machine and the design. No…,” his words trail off.

  None of us say anything but we’re all envisioning the same images, all of our memories and ghosts are the same.

  He lifts his head. “Come to the shop and spend some time there. You’ll see for yourself.” He picks up the bottle again and takes a pull off it.

  “I’ve been there. He’s right. He did it up nice,” Snake sips from his water bottle. Even his expression looks calmer from just a moment ago.

  “Sounds good. The four of us’ll go with you tomorrow. Now about those bikes out there,” I thumb in the direction of the door. “Looks like we’re going to have to take a little road trip.”

  Rock dips his head back and laughs again. “Wait until they see all of us rolling down Main Street. I think this place might have a collective heart attack. They’re going to lock up their daughters,” he shakes his head.

  “It won’t work,” Gringo adds slyly.

  “Never did,” Snake agrees.

  It feels good, really good being with my boys. Like I’ve come home.

  Maybe Rock’s right. Maybe we’ve had to come full circle. We might be four fucked up guys, but we’re here, we’d made it through some ugly shit.

  Maybe life’s about to change.

  Lord, I hope so.

  Vengeance

  Is coming.

  His name is Bull.

  BULL

  There are very few defining moments in a man’s life. Some mark their destruction; others their moments of glory.

  Every single moment in our lives has led us to right now.

  A war has begun.

  We lost one battle.

  That’s not going to happen again.

  We’ve waited, we’ve investigated, we’ve planned, and now we’re going to get our revenge.

  War is not always loud and explosive. Sometimes it’s silent and deadly.

  It’s patient and dangerous and mad as hell.

  She’s the only thing that matters, and they’ve threatened her. She can’t be mine, but that doesn’t mean I won’t destroy them. For her.

  Vengeance is coming. His name is Bull.

  GWENDOLYN

  He’s mean and rude and the biggest man I’ve ever seen.

  He is my protector.

  He comes every night, I don’t know why, but to me, it doesn’t matter. He sits out in the dark like some fallen angel. Four of them showed up out of nowhere, but he’s mine. I like to think so anyway, but he doesn’t even see me.

  They all think I’m pure and reserved. I’ve got a surprise for Bull because I refuse to be ignored. Not anymore.

  Something is happening, they won’t tell me what it is, but I’m sure it’s bad. They have secrets, but so do I.

  Get ready, Bull, I’m coming for you. You want a war? You’ve got one, and I don’t fight fair.

  CHAPTER 7

  Bull

  There are very few defining moments in a man’s life. Some mark their destruction; others their moments of glory. I hope I’ve put my destruction behind me and have moved beyond it.

  Every single moment in our lives has led us to right now.

  It’s true the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

  Damn straight.

  Seems like I haven’t learned my lesson yet.

  The first lesson hurt. It hurt real bad. Not for me. I wasn’t the one who had lost everything. I tried to stop it from happening, Lord, how I tried. I would have given my life, I gave everything I had, but it was useless. I lost, and they paid the price.

  That shit’s not gonna happen again.

  Life’s a gamble, one big ass bet. You play to win, and when you don’t, you cut your losses and move on to the next game. Some you win, some you lose. But when you’re playing for the highest stakes, you make damn sure you know who’s playing and find out exactly what’s at risk before you sit down at the table and get dealt your hand. And
never, ever forget who’s holding all the cards. Because the winner will take it all.

  The game has begun; the first roll of the dice has been thrown.

  We lost the first hand.

  We lost hard.

  When they took Sasha, they killed Gringo. Cut his fucking heart out of his chest. There’s nothing left of him that’s human. He is death walking. And as sure as my name is Bull, death will be the only thing left when we’re through with them.

  But the stakes are high. They’re absolutely monumental.

  The prize is priceless.

  Losing is not an option.

  This is one game I would walk away from if I could. If I had the choice to place the bet or turn away, I’d turn away and run. I’d run so damn fast. Even if I never got the prize. Even if I never experienced the sweet taste of Gwendolyn. Just knowing that none of this filth tarnished her purity, I’d die a happy man. I could live the rest of my days watching her from a distance, safe and protected. My only purpose for the rest of my life would be keeping her that way.

  Because it’s my fault she’s in danger. I’m not sure they know that Gwendolyn means anything to me, but I’m not taking any chances. They set up the game. We have to play; we have no choice. The fact is, we’re already playing. If we don’t, we’ve already lost. If we do play this game they’ve started, well, look at what happened with Sasha.

  The problem is we don’t know the rules.

  Fuck the rules, they don’t matter. But we don’t know who we’re playing against. We’ve got a mission. But is the mission a distraction to keep us from what’s really at stake?

  Regardless, we know what’s at stake for us. All of us. The people who belong to us are at risk. That’s the only thing that matters in this game we got set up in. They played us like chess pieces. Moved us around and put us exactly where they wanted us, and left us like sitting ducks. We never saw it coming. Not until it was too late.

  We shouldn’t have lost Sasha.

  The fact she’s missing is on all of us.

  Sasha’s missing.

  Saying she’s missing is like slapping some lipstick on a brutalized mouth, hiding the truth.

  The reality of what most likely happened to Sasha is worse than death.

  Gringo blames himself, but the four of us own it. We’re brothers, there is no other way. We take care of what’s ours. But we didn’t with Sasha. We let someone else take care of her. That is something I will never forgive myself for. Gringo is dying a slow death because of it.

  That kills me.

  I will not let that happen to anyone else. Especially not to Gwendolyn.

  When this shit is finished, If it’s the last thing I do, I’m finishing this, I’m going with Gringo and we’ll find Sasha. Or what is left of her.

  Then we’ll kill every last motherfucker responsible for this hell.

  “What’ve you guys got?” Rock. I don’t know if it’s possible he feels any worse than the rest of us. I know he thinks he dropped the ball. He was the one who received our first orders to return his girlfriend to the hell hole she ran away from. The Club, an exclusive community comprised of some of the most affluent and influential people on our continent. The place where they breed daughters to pimp out to the highest bidders.

  Sick fucks.

  That’s the life Summer had lived until she ran away. We’d been hired to retrieve her and return her to fulfill her part in a business transaction. Her in exchange for money and position for The Club and her father.

  She decided she wasn’t interested.

  The thing is we’d already found her. And claimed her. She belonged to us, and even if she didn’t, there was no way in hell we’d return an innocent woman to a life of human trafficking.

  We’d been warned that whoever is playing this game was going to take the four of them. They didn’t say who the four were, but it was obvious. There are four of us. That meant they’d take what was ours.

  Now Sasha’s gone, she disappeared with no trace of who took her or where she is.

  We have a pretty good idea.

  “It seems that Sasha got a divorce before she disappeared,” Snake responds dryly.

  What?!

  “You mean filed,” Rock corrects him. I see Rock’s as surprised as I am, but he doesn’t skip a beat.

  Snake shakes his head. “No, she got divorced. Filled out the paperwork and it was filed all in the same day. The last day anyone saw her.” His expression is hard; his tone is icy.

  How could that happen?!

  “There ain’t no way that’s possible,” I growl. “There has to be a year to satisfy the separation requirement before a divorce can be granted.”

  “What are the details,” Rock asks quietly. The fucker’s always quiet when he’s furious.

  Me, I’m a raging maniac.

  “Our sources say Dominic Fellini brought her in and they went straight to the judge’s chamber. They schmoozed behind closed doors for a little while, then left together. In his car.” Snake delivers the information straight and to the point.

  Dominic fucking Fellini.

  The man who doesn’t exist according to all of our sources. The man who seems to have so much power, he snaps his fingers and things are done. The man Sasha’s husband was in collusion with on a major land deal. A piece of land that has an abandoned mill that’s stuffed full of Russian merchandise, and a laboratory Marie Curie would love to have.

  “Interesting,” Rock comments quietly.

  What kills me the most is Gringo must already be aware of this information. It had to have gutted him. He was briefed earlier alone before he went next door to the coffee shop Summer owns, Rock’s girlfriend. Gwendolyn’s there with her grandmother, Mrs. Merriweather. Gwen works there as well. We don’t leave any of the girls alone anymore. Snake’s girlfriend, Raven, is waiting outside for him. That little she-devil would cut a man’s nuts off and shove them down his throat and wouldn’t bat an eye. I love that crazy woman.

  “Sasha never mentioned anything about a divorce,” I grumble trying to recall anything she might have said before she disappeared.

  Son of a bitch. What the hell is going on? This doesn’t make sense.

  “Fellini hasn’t been seen since then either,” Snake adds.

  The three of us exchange glances.

  Rock is the first to speak. “Dominic spent some time at Sasha’s house with her husband, isn’t that right, Bull?” he levels his gaze on me.

  Aw, hell no!

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean she ran off with him,” I blurt out angrily.

  Snake tilts his head and shrugs a shoulder. “Didn’t Gringo end it with her? That might be why.”

  “Maybe Sasha asked Fellini to pull some strings and expedite the divorce…in exchange for some favors,” Rock suggests.

  I’m so furious, I want to bitch slap the both of them. “NO, just fucking NO. She despised the guy. He scared the crap out of her.”

  Snake snorts, “Doesn’t look that way. Besides, the dude’s a good looking, rich guy. Very good looking. It could be he made her an offer and she took him up on it after Gringo cut her loose.”

  “Goddammit!” I grit out. “They loved each other. You know damn well Gringo had to break it off, he was ordered! She didn’t get the divorce to run off with Fellini, but to be with Gringo!”

  Gringo was ordered to cut ties with her. But this wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t part of the plan.

  I stare at them, furious that they’re insinuating this. “If ya’ll are finished wasting time, can we discuss whether or not the situation with Summer is linked with Sasha’s disappearance?”

  Because the clock is ticking.

  Rock strokes his chin, his gaze never leaving me. Not a muscle moves on Snake, not even his chest as he breathes. Every muscle in my body is tense, ready to attack. Not at them. I want to do something, anything to finish this.

  “We only wanted to be sure there wasn’t something you might have forgotten, Bull,” Rock
finally speaks.

  Snake adds, “To be honest, I believe without a doubt it’s related. Nothing we’ve found links them, but it’s just too coincidental, and…”

  “There is no such thing as a coincidence,” I finish tightly.

  They each nod in agreement.

  “What about Sasha’s famous husband, James Williams? What’s going on with him?” Rock asks.

  I push out a heavy breath. “Seems like his shining star is starting to peeter out. The land deal is at a standstill. The poor guy,” because the whole fucking thing reeks of bad shit of the worst kind, “acted somewhat prematurely on his stupendous achievement. There’s one stock holder who is refusing to sell.” I might be just a little smug about this.

  “Who is it?” Snakes questions.

  I shake my head, “Don’t know yet. There’s a ton of paperwork burying the title holder, all hidden behind lawyers and estates.”

  “When we find out who it is, maybe we can bribe them to keep from selling,” Snake smirks.

  If shit wasn’t so bad, we’d laugh.

  I lean forward with my forearms on my knees. “Have we gotten back the translations from the containers we photographed in the mill?”

  “Not yet. The translations may have been completed but we haven’t received them yet,” Rock replies tightly.

  “You don’t think they’re not going to tell us what the fuck is in all of those boxes? Are you kidding me? With that damn chemistry lab in there? That shit could be Anthrax or something, and we’ve got a town full of innocent people here who are like sitting ducks.” That just ain’t gonna happen.

  Rock nods. “They’ll tell us, but when they’re ready. Especially if everyone was in immediate danger.”

  A long pause passes.

  “Has anyone heard anything from Hawk?” Hawk. Another soldier from The Program. Lone, deadly, and hired to kill us.

  Rock shakes his head. “Not since Sasha disappeared. Seems like he vanished as well. Typical.”

  At the time, Hawk had opted not to fulfill his contract on us. That doesn’t mean he won’t.

  Shit just keeps getting better and better.