by K. J. Dahlen
Michael gazed at his father for a moment then turned to look at Cricket. Bane had spoken to him about the daggers before they came here. He said they were part of his family’s history going back hundreds of years. His grandfather had left them to Orrin but Orrin never wanted them. Bane told him the only reason Orrin took them was because Bane wanted them. His grandfather had left Bane something of equal value- a collection of medieval aged swords, some dating back hundreds of years. Bane had them on display at his home. Michael had admired them greatly then Bane told him about the daggers.
Now Michael wanted his father to get the daggers back. He hadn’t had a real family up until now, and these daggers were a part of his family’s history. Something that could be his someday. All he had to do was convince Cricket to give them up. His eyes narrowed as he stared at the only person standing between him and his father. When Bane found him a couple of months ago and told him who he really was, Michael felt everything in his life fall into place. Bane’s shoes would be hard to fill but he knew he could do it. Bane was the best for now, but Michael had a secret dream too. He wanted to show the world he could be better than his father.
Michael felt his blood run hot. All his life he had these feelings, feelings of uncontrolled rage. Rage that pushed at him so hard, he had to kill to settle the beast within him. Until now, it had been animals that died when the fury got too strong. Michael was proficient with knifes and a bow and his last kill had been a wild wolf he’d taken down after tracking it for days but now this anger was looking for new blood. He turned to study the one person who shared his bloodline but not the rage within him. He’d been told his real sister Cordelia had shared it but not Cricket.
The corners of his lips curled slightly. It wasn’t a smile per say, but an acknowledgement of his next quarry.
~* * * *~
Utica, New York
Bastian watched the monitor on his desk. From the angle of the camera inside the room next door, he could see Sawyer’s every move. She’d been awake for an hour now and was growing restless.
She held the secret of finding the item Max hired him to retrieve, he just had to dig deep into her mind to get to the memories of this. More importantly, if he failed, the Council would take her someday and their men would torture her for the truth. He’d never failed a job, unless the info wasn’t there in a mind. With this one, he could not fail or Sawyer would suffer horribly, then lose her life in the end. He just couldn’t let this happen.
He silently he walked to the door that separated the two rooms. When he closed the door behind him, he locked it and slipped the key in his pocket. He went to the bed and sat down beside her. She was awake but still groggy. He leaned toward her and began whispering in her ear. The drug he’d given her while she slept was a truth serum. He knew from experience how the drug worked. She would sleep for a while then just before the drug wore off, he could ask her anything and she would tell him. He had used this method before and it had gotten him what he wanted.
Now, he needed to put her into a hypnotic state of mind. He wanted to take her back to the age of nine and to the day, her mother had been taken to Max’s mansion. “Sawyer, I want you to listen to the sound of my voice. Nothing here will hurt you, just listen to my voice.”
Bastian shifted his position and got more comfortable. He laid down beside her on the bed. “I want you to remember the day you and your mother were taken to a big house outside of town. Do you see the big iron gates?”
Sawyer frowned as she tried to remember. “No I don’t want to go there. It’s a bad place.”
Bastian leaned in. “Why do you think it’s a bad place?”
She shivered. “Bad man lives live there. Mama doesn’t like him.”
“Who lives there, Sawyer?”
“Max lives in the big house,” she whispered.
“Did you ever go inside the big house?”
Sawyer shook her head.
“Are you sure you never went inside?” Bastian pressed the issue.
Sawyer began to cry. “Mama told me to forget that day. We went to church and she talked to Father Riley. She cried when she went into confession. Father Riley forgave her for her sin. He told her she must never do it again and he forgave her. Then she sat and prayed for hours. She cried the whole time. She held me so close, I couldn’t breathe. She kept rubbing her cross and begging God to bring him back to her.”
“Who did she want back?” Bastian frowned.
“My daddy. He told her once that no matter what, he would come back for her one day. He would save her from herself if he had to. He gave her the cross and he swore before God, he would never give up on her.”
“I thought your father left when you were two? How do you know all this?”
“My mother told me. She told me stories about my father every night before I went to bed. She loved him so much.”
“If she loved him why did she send him away?”
“It was the only way she could save his life.” Sawyer’s voice shook. “Max wanted her but she didn’t want him. He threatened to kill my daddy when I was little, then years later he threatened to kill me if she didn’t give in.”
“But she didn’t give into him. What changed all that?”
“I’m not supposed to tell,” Sawyer whispered in a small voice.
“Why?”
“The bad Max told me to keep the secret.”
“When did Max threaten your life?”
Sawyer began to shiver. “I don’t know!” she cried out. She tried to bring her hands down but they were still tied to the headboard of the bed. The more she struggled the more she cried out. Bastian didn’t know if she was reliving something from her past or just trying to free herself. “Shhh, don’t struggle so.”
Sawyer didn’t seem to hear him. She began screaming and fighting in earnest against the ties that bound her. The zip ties bit into her skin breaking it, causing her wrists to bleed.
He reached for his knife and cut the ties. Then he grabbed her wrists and held her down. “Don’t struggle so much. I won’t hurt you.”
“Mama, don’t let them take me! Mama please don’t let them hurt me.” She kept crying out.
Bastian knew she was caught up in her past. He had to bring her forward in time again. “Shhh, Sawyer listen to the sound of my voice. I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help you. You and your mother are safe. Max is gone and he won’t be back.”
Sawyer couldn’t stop shaking. Her fear seemed so great it threatened to overwhelm her. “You don’t understand. Max isn’t gone, he’s just hiding. His mansion has secret rooms where he goes sometimes. He hides and he watches. He has evil eyes. One Max has green eyes but the other Max has black eyes.”
“The other Max?” Bastian whispered as he frowned. “There is more than one Max Bordeaux?’
Sawyer nodded. “One Max likes to hide and watch. He only comes out when something bad is about to happen.”
“Something bad? Like what?”
“I’m not supposed to tell anyone,” Sawyer confided. “It’s a secret.”
“Does your mother know this secret?”
Sawyer shook her head. “He would kill Mama if she ever found out.”
“Who would?”
“Max number two.”
Bastian frowned. She spoke as if there were two separate people. “How do you know he would kill her if she found out the secret?”
“He told me. He came into my room the night after we’d been to the big house. He was all bloody and he leaned over my bed. He told me I must never tell anyone about him or he would kill my mama. To always keep his secret or he would come after me. Then he drew a symbol on my sheet and he left. I was so scared I didn’t talk for a long time.”
Bastian frowned at her words. He didn’t understand what they meant. He told her to sleep and when she woke up she would feel happy and everything would be okay. Her body relaxed into unconsciousness. Then he went to the bathroom and got the first aid kit. As he dressed her wrists, he
thought about what she’d said. He couldn’t help but wonder if she was just confused or did she really believe it?
The serum he used on her had never brought about this type of reaction before. The person under this drug was supposed to tell the truth. Was this the truth? Or something she only believed that happened when she was a young child with a vast imagination? He gently wrapped her wrists and left her unbound.
Going to the kitchen, he made her a sandwich and took a tray to her room. When she woke up, she would need something to eat. Before he left the room, he checked her again. She would wake with no memory of what she told him. She was breathing okay and her heartbeat was normal. He wouldn’t hurt this woman for all the world. He halted for a moment. Odd…to care so much for her. He shook his head. He couldn’t explain it at all.
When he left the room, he made sure to lock the door behind him. Then he went back to his office and for a long time, he just watched her sleep. His mind was racing with possibilities of what he’d learned from her.
Bastian got out his laptop and fired it up. Then he began delving into the past. He needed answers and he needed them quickly. After all this was his job and do it, he would.
~* * * *~
Sin’s Bastards Mc Compound
Michael felt someone step up close to him. He looked up and smiled.
Cricket stood there studying him. Then she sat down at the table with a cup of coffee in her hand. “You’ve been watching me all morning and again, you look like you have something to ask me.”
Michael shrugged. “I came here wondering about my mother, something you have yet to tell me about.” He hesitated then stated, “I grew up with something missing in my life. I felt the people around me weren’t the right people. That I had no connections to them at all. I was very lonely growing up, never feeling like I belonged there.” He shrugged. “Then a few months ago, I found out I didn’t belong there. That my mother gave me up days after I was born. My father didn’t even know I existed until then. My whole life had been a lie.”
Cricket swallowed a sip of her coffee and stared at him. Frowning, she looked away. “I don’t know what you want me to say. My mother didn’t have a whole lot to say about that time in her life. She certainly never told us about you. I didn’t know about you until Bane found your birth certificate that day.”
“Why didn’t she love me like she did you?”
“She loved you,” Cricket replied.
“Why do you say she loved me?”
“You were part of her,” Cricket explained. “She may not had loved your father but you were part of her too. No matter what the circumstances of your conception, she wanted you to have the chance to be born. Bane didn’t want you, he had told her that much. She escaped him to make sure you would be born. She gave you to strangers, so Bane wouldn’t find you.”
“But he did in the end, didn’t he?” Michael stated softly.
“Yes, he did.” Cricket nodded. “For as much good as it did her.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Michael frowned.
“I think she was hoping without his influence, your life would come to mean something.”
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
Cricket snorted. “I’m not surprised. One look in your eyes told me the whole story.”
Michael’s frown deepened.
Cricket shifted in her seat. “You know damn well what I’m talking about. You’re just like him, aren’t you? Just like Cordy. Your eyes tell me. You have no empathy, no compassion for your fellow man. You are a true son of Bane Jessin.”
Michael finally understood. All his life he never felt connected with the rest of his family. He always felt like the outsider. “And this lack of feeling is something you feel is wrong? I finally found someone like me, someone that doesn’t make me feel like I’m a freak of nature.”
Cricket shook her head. “But that’s the whole point…you are a freak of nature. Most people have a spark of compassion, somewhere in their soul. They are capable of love. You, Cordy and Bane were born without that and I feel sorry for you.”
“I don’t want your pity,” Michael spat. “All I came here for was answers about the woman who gave me birth, something you refuse to tell me.”
Cricket shook her head. “I have told you, you just refuse to listen. My mother was everything you are not. Everything you and Cordy would never understand. She was someone Bane never took the time to understand either. Did you know that when he first saw her, he just took her? Never gave her the choice? For all he said, he loved her, but he never once took the time to understand the woman she was. I feel he just wanted to own her. Maybe he truly did not have it in him to understand her…I don’t know. Maybe Bane doesn’t have it in him to really know what love is.” She got to her feet. “If so, that’s truly sad because she was a hell of a woman. She was warm and funny, her smile could light up a room. She smelled like sunshine and flowers. She didn’t deserve to die in pain like she did. I would like to think that she could have made you a better person if she had raised you.”
Michael watched as she walked away and the rage inside him grew. He finally felt connected to someone with the same blood running through their veins as he had and this stupid girl felt nothing but contempt for him. He hadn’t come here to receive her pity. His eyes narrowed as he watched her. He could show her real pain if that’s what she wanted.
Then he thought of Bane. He couldn’t help but feel that he was partly to blame for everything Michael had gone through. All the pain and uncertainty of his childhood. All those years he lived through while feeling like he didn’t belong.
He glanced up when he heard Cricket laugh and found his half-sister laughing at something Reva said in the kitchen.
Michael’s fury grew hotter inside him, like red hot lava flowing through him. Then his eyes narrowed as a plan of sorts began forming in his mind. As the pieces fell into place, his lips curled into a half smile. This plan would work toward his advantage as well. He could do it too.
Since meeting his father, he’d been watching and learning all he could. He had plans to someday take his father’s place in the world, now he had decided that his first victim would be his half-sister. But not before he got the daggers from her. He would need those to get closer to Bane. He needed to his father to train him to be an assassin and he would finally have a place in the world. To kill, like he was born to do. Those daggers would give him an edge by getting Bane to lower his walls and let Michael into his inner circle.
CHAPTER TEN
Randolph, Massachusetts…
Sam rolled up to the house on Prescott Street and turned off his engine. The house itself was just like the one next door. A low one story building painted yellow. With a two car garage attached currently filled with two cars. One car he recognized as belonging to Carla. He’d watched her drive off in it this morning. The other car he could only imagine belonged to Nick Tory.
The front lawn looked well cared for and there were flowers near the front of the house. Sam studied the windows but the blinds were drawn and he couldn’t see inside. The front door stood open but the screen door didn’t allow him to see inside. He sat there staring for quite a while. Then he made up his mind. He swung his leg over his bike and walked up to the house. When he rapped on the door her heard footsteps coming his way.
Carla answered the knock and when she saw him standing there she gasped. Without saying a word, she pushed the screen door open and moved aside to let him in.
Sam stepped past her and looked around. The house had an open floorplan and from where he stood, he could see a kitchen and the living room to his left. To his right, he could see a hall leading to what he assumed were the bedrooms.
Turning to his left, he saw them.
Nick, Shawnee and Caitlyn. All of them were sitting in the living room staring at him.
Carla laid her hand on his arm and Sam flinched. She snatched it back but motioned for him to go into the living room.
Sam came to stand in front of Nick. “I have one question for you and I expect the truth, was Benny sick?”
Nick’s eyes glittered with tears. “Yes, he had some sort of blood cancer. He got it from his mother’s use of drugs while she was pregnant with him.” When Sam didn’t say anything else for a long time, Nick asked, “Is that all you have to say? After all this time?”
Sam frowned. “What do you want me to say? Too much has happened and too much time has passed for any words to make a difference now.”
“It’s never too late, if you really try,” Carla whispered.
Sam turned to glare at her. “Maybe he was a father to you but he never was one to me or Benny. Our lives were shit growing up because he didn’t care about us. Do not tell me how to treat him. He made his bed a long time ago, now he has to sleep in it.”
“And there is no room in your heart to forgive him?” Shawnee asked.
“This jerk would have to have a heart to do that.” Caitlyn scoffed.
Sam snapped his head around to glare at her. “You don’t know shit about my life little girl. I’ve made my share of mistakes, same as Nick but I never let my kids go hungry, so I could have beer in the house. At least, I supported my kids. I may not have been in their lives much but I gave their mothers money every month to keep them happy and whole.”
Carla looked as if she would argue the point but Nick held up his hand to silence her. “No, he’s right. I didn’t give them the support they needed. I should have kicked Estelle out of our lives right after Benny was born but she would have taken him with her. I couldn’t let the boy go with her. She would have killed him sooner.” Nick got to his feet and glared at Sam. “But I did try. I did try to be a good father to you boys. I made mistakes but from the sounds of it, you have too. We all make mistakes and mine was getting hooked up with Estelle in the first damn place. She was sucking me dry and I was so far in, I couldn’t get out. Before I knew it, I had you and Benny to watch out for and after a while, I just got so tired of all the bullshit with her I wanted out. I found Shawnee and she saved my soul. I thought I lost my soul the night Benny died and you walked out of my life. I didn’t give a shit about Estelle but I did care about you boys. When I heard the door slam behind you on your way out that night, my world went black. I felt like I would die. Shawnee came over and brought me home. She made the plans to bury your brother. She emptied the house we lived in and sold it. She threw all your mothers things in the trash. She healed me.”