by KJ Dahlen
Cin caught her breath and her eyes got huge in her face. Her hand began dropping down as she was stunned by the news. “Eleven years?” she whispered. “It’s been that long?”
He nodded. “Who are you and how do you know this place?”
Cin raised the gun again, as she glared at the man in front of her. “Who I am doesn’t matter. I came here to do something and I did it. I’ll be leaving now. I didn’t come here to start trouble.”
“Why did you come here at all?” He wanted to know. “If this property still belonged to the Dogs and they caught you, you risked your own death by showing up here tonight,” he told her harshly. “It would’ve been rape and then pass you around time with that MC.”
Cin scoffed. “Those stupid bastards never would have seen me. They were as dumb as they come.”
He shrugged even as he held his hands up. “Now there, I would have to agree with you. Morons, every last one of them.”
She wondered at this agreement from him, but they were like their name, dogs. Violent and fairly stupid dogs. Not the domesticated kind. She wanted to laugh at this analogy, but couldn’t as the memory of those men wasn’t pleasant in the least. This man though, he was smart...maybe too smart. She stared at him for a moment then had to ask, “How did you find me so quickly anyway?”
He shook his head. “We got this land wired for intruders. No one here will hurt you but we need some answers as to what you’re doing here.”
Cin nodded. “I see. Well, as I am leaving, I don’t have to answer any questions you got. I’ll just be going now.” Then she surprised him by twirling his gun on her finger and holding it out to him.
Looking surprised, he took his weapon and holstered it. Then before she could protest, he grabbed her and began dragging her toward the club house.
“No you bastard, I can’t go with you! I have to get out of here.” She fought him all the way but he dragged her anyway. She tried to do a move on him, but he was seemingly prepared now. He had her over his shoulder as her head hung down his back. Damn, the man was strong and tall as he saw the ground was a good ways down now. Dammit, why hadn’t she just shot him? Maybe in the knee or something then run off? But no, she had to be ogling all that muscle and that smirk he had. Dumb, dumb girl! “I have to go home.”
He simply ignored her protest as he carried her through the woods like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder.
She fought back all the way. “You can’t do this to me. I wasn’t gonna hurt nothing here. You can’t keep me here, dammit!”
When they stepped out of the wooded area into the parking lot of the compound Cin began struggling even more. Oh shit, this would not be good. To go inside? No way! “No, I won’t go in there and you can’t make me. Let me go.” She began actively fighting his carry hold now. Kicking and screaming against his hold, she fought him the whole way to the door. Pounding on his hard back did no good, as he didn’t even lose his stride. What is this man made of Teflon? Steel? Her panic grew.
If it was possible, he was even stronger than he looked. Panic set in. She could not be caught here in this place. But caught she was and she needed to figure a way out of this. He was impossible to fight now. Oh, why had she not done this right? Getting caught might be the end of her.
Beast had to fight hard to keep her within his hold. He didn’t want to hurt her but keeping hold of her was getting hard. She was all curves and a pleasure to carry, well she would’ve been, had she not been pounding on him. None of it hurt really it was just annoying to him, like a mosquito. One kick hit his hard stomach and he gasped a little. Okay, maybe a bee sting. He grinned as he stepped up to the door.
The door opened and she froze, her body finally stilling.
More than a couple of the brothers came out and crowded around Beast.
“What you got here?” one of them asked.
Her body shook in fear. She froze as they began crowding them. Then anger flared. She wouldn’t go down easy. “Put me down you fucking beast!”
The men all paused then they laughed.
“So, what Beast? You gone caveman and just couldn’t wait to have her or what?” Cobra asked.
The rest of the men laughed.
“Yeah, she knows you for sure, so why couldn’t you wait for maybe a better time and umm. Place?” Hades asked.
Beast ignored their jibes and said to her, “If I set you down, you better know that there are more men here than you can take down, little girl. So are you gonna be good?’
The men all laughed.
“That is a loaded question!” one of them hooted.
Then again, all of them laughed.
She seemed to be stone still.
Beast glared at them. “Stop being so fucking stupid.” Then he spoke to her again as she hung over his shoulder still, “Look, no one here will hurt you, ok?” he stated.
Finally, she answered quietly, “Yes I... Just set me down.”
Beast slid her down to the ground.
The woman got her footing and took a place next to him. Sweat beaded on her forehead and then she swayed as the men came closer. Beast turned his head to stare at her as he felt her move closer to him then frowned as he saw her fear. This woman had taken him down without fear. What the fuck? He opened his mouth but then shut it as she crumbled to the ground. He caught her before she hit and gathering her into his arms, he moved through the men and went inside the clubhouse.
He peered down at her face and frowned. He wasn’t sure what just happened but she was out cold. Hadn’t she heard him tell her no one here would hurt her? The men were only curious about who she was and what she was doing here. Yes, they weren’t on their best behavior, but still...
Then he remembered she had thought this compound was under the Dogs control. He didn’t know why she was so afraid of them but he would find out. He laid her out on the sofa.
Then he called Jackal. He grabbed his cell and tapped the screen. He would need to know what was going on.
“Yeah. Beast?”
“Um prez, I caught a...” His voice slowed.
“Yeah? A what, Beast?”
“An intruder on the land. A woman.”
Silence.
“She was staying in a cave.”
“A cave?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, secure her and I’ll come.” He ended the call.
Beast heard the others come back into the clubhouse and gather around him. He stepped closer and put a blanket over her. He didn’t like them looking. He couldn’t think why that was, but he damn well didn’t.
“So who is she and where did you find her?” Cobra wanted to know as he stared down at the girl. “I can see now that she didn’t know you. Sorry about that.” He gave him a small smile.
“The sensor caught her at the south fence line. I found her coming out of a cave we didn’t know was even here.” Beast nodded at her. “She won’t tell me who she is or what she was doing on the property and she thought this was still under the Dog’s control. She was shocked when she heard we’ve been here for almost eleven years now.”
“So what are you thinking?” Jackal’s voice called out as he came through the front door and joined them.
He mulled this over. Apparently, she had been here at one time. But that was before the Advocates, so he knew who they should ask. “I’m thinking Silas or George might know more about who she is than she’ll ever tell us. If I remember correctly, they knew the old owner, Edward Shay. They might give us a head’s up about this and how she got in without us knowing?”
Jackal nodded. “You might be right about that.” He stepped to the side and got his cell out. “I wonder why they never told us there was another way onto this land?” He swiped the screen then typed in a text.
“Maybe you never thought to ask before now,” Noelle stated as she came in behind her man.
Jackal swiped his screen shut and turned to look at his woman. Her simple answer was right on the mark. They hadn’t thought to ask befo
re now. He turned back to Beast and the girl he found. “Is she ok?”
Beast nodded. “Yeah, she was fighting like crazy coming back here but it wasn’t until we reached the front door and a couple of the guys came out that she panicked and fainted. I told her no one here would hurt her and she was ok with just me but when the guys came out, she fainted. I have no idea what’s going on with her.”
Noelle snorted and when everyone turned to look at her she said, “Do you guys have any idea how intimidating you are when more than one of you shows up?”
“Meaning?” Jackal raised an eyebrow.
“Meaning, you guys make a statement and more than one of you at a time would be more than any woman can handle.” She smiled at him.
Beast was troubled by this as he turned to look at the woman on the sofa. “I told her no one here would hurt her but that we would need to know who she was and what she was doing here. She fought me all the way back and let me tell you when I first caught her she really pulled some moves on me. It was...” He wouldn’t tell them that for now. “Then when the boys came out to see what the ruckus was she took one look at them and fainted at my feet.”
Noelle rolled her eyes. “Point made.” Then she knelt down beside the young woman and studied her. She was probably a few years older than her own 24 years but she was beautiful. The struggle with Beast had loosened the tight braid her hair was in and she had a few strands curling around her face.
She looked at the woman’s eyes and noted they were cracked open. The brilliant green studied her back. Noelle sat back on her feet and smiled. “Hello.”
The woman did not smile back nor did she echo the greeting. She just stared at Noelle then turned and saw the others standing behind her. The expression on their faces was hard and unforgiving and that made her swallow hard. She looked back to Noelle and finally she whispered, “Hi.”
Noelle backed up a bit and motioned for her to sit up.
The woman did but she wrapped the blanket that covered her around her shoulders tightly. She refused to look anywhere but at Noelle’s face.
“My name is Noelle, who are you?”
Cin studied the other woman. She would speak to her but none of the men. “My name is Cin.” She didn’t want to say her whole name, it was better no one knew who she was. She would escape the first chance she got and she didn’t want them to find her even if they searched for her. She knew that was the best way. No sense in courting trouble, her grandmother used to tell her.
Noelle’s eyes clouded over for a moment then she smiled. “Cin huh? Well, that’s a unique name.”
“I didn’t come here to cause any trouble,” Cin explained. “In fact, I came here to return something. I would have left without even letting anyone here know I was trespassing but then the big guy caught me. I hope I didn’t hurt him.”
Noelle’s eyes widened at this statement. This small woman hurt a man like Beast? How could she even think that? “What do you mean, you hope you didn’t hurt him?” Noelle looked over at Jackal, then at the huge beast.
Jackal raised a brow at her.
Cin flushed red. “Well, he came up behind me and grabbed me around the waist. I didn’t even think to scream I just reacted.” She hung her head then looked up at Beast. “I’m sorry.”
The big man shook his head as he smiled. “Don’t worry about it sweetheart, at least you tried.”
“This is interesting Beast,” Jackal remarked as he studied the other man. Knowing he was just about the largest here and a wall of hard muscle, he wondered at this story. “What exactly did she do to you?”
Beast shuffled a bit and looked around. “Prez, it wasn’t nothing, really.”
The men all stared and they all looked shocked.
“Okay, dammit...” Beast turned red as he admitted what happened, “She stomped on my foot, elbowed me in the belly, headbutted my face then tossed me over her shoulder. I was damn well on the ground for a few seconds, looking up at the fucking stars. It was impressive. I have to admit.” He shrugged his wide shoulders.
The sound of shock echoed in the room as gasps came from every man standing there. Then came the sound of surprised chuckling.
Then a soft giggling sounded.
Turning his head, the Prez saw the sound coming from Noelle and he had to grin.
Okay, so Cin had figured out that it did sound a little uncommon for a man like Beast to be bested by a woman. Her shock at the fact that... Beast was his name was still setting in. That was actually his name? She stared at him. Yeah, she could see why though.
The Prez grinned as he turned to look at him.
Beast even had a smile on his face. Shrugging his broad shoulders, he commented, “She caught me off guard. I never expected her movements. Got my gun too.” He again, flushed red. “Guess I need to work out more?”
The men in the room all laughed. If he worked out anymore, he wouldn’t fit through the damn doors in the compound.”
“I doubt that.” The Prez laughed too, as he turned back to Cin. “Okay sweetheart, we would like some answers now. What are you doing here and who are you?”
Cin buried her face deeper into the blanket but couldn’t bring herself to say anything. For a moment then she looked at this prez person and whispered, “I don’t want any trouble. I did what I had to do. If you let me go, I’ll leave and you’ll never see me again. I give you my word. I’ll leave and never come back here again. I got no reason to now, anymore.”
Before the prez could say anything, the front door opened and two men came inside. They were both older men and they seemed to be friends of this MC. They walked over to the man they all called Prez and stared at him in question.
Cin startled and gazed at the newcomers. She didn’t say anything but her eyes got big in her face. She stared at one of the older men that just arrived and couldn’t seem to look away.
The man ignored everything and everyone in the room looking only at the prez. “What’s up Jackal? Why are we here?” he finally asked.
Jackal nodded his head to the sofa. “Yeah Silas, do you know her?”
Silas turned to look behind him and studied her for a moment, then his eyes widened and he took a step back.
George who stood next to him gasped too.
Silas had to swallow hard like there was a lump in his throat. “Cin? Is that you baby girl? After all these years, you finally came home again?”
Cin stared at the two men in disbelief. She could hardly breathe. They were still here? After all this time?
Chapter Three
Cin nodded slowly. Then she jumped off the sofa and threw herself into Silas’s arms. She burst into tears as she called out his name, “Silas!”
Silas held her close to him for a moment while tears gathered in his eyes. He buried his face in her hair and just held her tight for a moment. “Oh my lord, I never thought I’d ever lay eyes on you again, not after what happened here so long ago,” he murmured in her ear.
Cin pulled out of his embrace and he could see the tears rolling down her face. “I didn’t either,” she whispered. Looking over at George, she smiled. Leaving Silas, she wrapped her arms around the other man. “I missed you guys.”
George pulled her into a tight hug earning a growl from Beast.
Cin broke the hold and turned to gape at the big man behind them. She was even more flabbergasted when Beast pulled her away from Silas and George then pushed her behind him. Then he growled at the two men.
Silas and George stared at him in shock. They both turned to Jackal.
He shrugged. “He found her trespassing on the compound. Guess he’s protective of her?”
Silas frowned as he glared at the men. “She wasn’t trespassing. As a member of the Shay family, she still owns this farm.”
Jackal glared at the man. “What?”
“Her name is Cinnamon Shay. Her grandfather was Edward Shay and the Dog’s leader George killed him when he wouldn’t give him the land we’re standing on,” Silas explained
.
Jackal snapped his head over and glared at Cin. “Why didn’t you tell us this?”
Cin just glared at him without saying anything at all.
Jackal turned back to Silas. “How do you know all this?”
Silas stood a little taller and glared right back at him. “Edward Shay, George and me been friends a long time. When the Dogs came here looking for a place to stay and set up their camp, they began hearing rumors about this place.”
“We’ve heard this before,” Beast stated.
“Edward Shay bought this place almost forty years ago now. When he moved here from Texas and he had a family secret. They made moonshine and it was the best of the best. He had an old family recipe and he began making his own shine here. When the time came, he began selling it to whoever wanted it. He even got a couple of men from town to distribute it. But it was a cash only kind of deal. Now Edward didn’t believe in banks as his daddy lost everything in the crash of the big depression so he hid the money from his shine sales. People used to wonder how much money old Edward was making and where he was hiding it. They figured he was burying it on his farm but no one could get him to admit it or find out where it was.”
George snorted and took up the story, “Believe me, plenty of people trespassed on this place to try and find his stash, but no one ever could. Edward was forced to put up fences and the like to keep the people out. But the rumors continued to make the rounds. When his boys grew up, one of them enlisted in the service. His oldest son, Ethan died in Desert Storm. Edward never quite got over that. When the military brought his body home, Edward and Ms. Katie buried him on the property and Edward said he would never give up this land because now his blood was buried here.”
Silas looked over at Cinnamon. “Then his youngest son, Elijah fell in love with a young woman from town. They got married soon enough and within a year, their daughter Ms. Cinnamon was born. Unfortunately, her mama died bringing her into this world. Elijah was devastated along with the rest of the Shay family. Ms. Katie was a grandmother and mother to Ms. Cinnamon until she was ten years old.”