by K. J. Dahlen
“Oh, that’s a promise I wouldn’t mind keeping.” Then Silas smiled a real smile. “Yeah from what I hear, our Stevie went and got herself a boyfriend. A real stand up guy.”
George chuckled. “Well, bless her soul. I hope she’s happy and as much as I hate to say it, I hope she stays gone from this hell hole.”
Silas agreed. “This used to be a decent town to live in and raise a family in but the last few years, it’s been nothing good. Hopefully, this clean sweep will get rid of the trash and we can all breathe free again.”
“I just hope Stevie’s new guy can protect her enough not to let her get killed over this,” George stated.
“He’d better stand up for her or that will be a two person trip into the swamps,” Silas vowed.
Pappy sat with Jackal at the Advocate’s compound in Baton Rouge. Looking around the room, he could see the natives were restless. “What’s going on around here? Things seem a little tense.”
Jackal scoffed. “Things are more than a little tense. As the days get closer to the first day of the trial, the tension grows. The streets of the city are gearing up for the fight of their lives I have a feeling the defense is going to start a war and I don’t think they care about the outcome of said war, they just want to muddy the waters so their clients get off with as little time behind bars as possible.”
“I spoke to Yuri Anatoly this morning,” Pappy informed the other man. “Someone took a shot at one of his men’s women. You might know her as Stevie Grace. Then he sent me a photo, it may be the hitter.”
Jackal nodded and swore. “I was hoping that none of this would touch her or Benny. The defense doesn’t want her evidence to be presented in the trial. The cops are still looking for the Harris woman and her sons.”
Pappy raised his eyebrow. “They didn’t recover the bodies from the fire.”
Jackal stared at him without moving a muscle. “No there were no bodies to recover, whatever was left after the building fell into the river was buried in an unmarked grave in the swamp.”
Pappy nodded. “As it should have been. So, we got our IT expert looking for this hitman. We just have to wait.”
Jackal nodded. “Good, maybe we will get somewhere with that. And there’s more you need to know.”
“And what would that be?”
“The Kings Street Crew are patrolling the city day and night. They are growing again and they are all loyal to the present leader Luca Perez. After the fire, Luca straightened out his crew. Banger was a good leader and hopefully, Luca can be one too.”
“Is he on your side or fighting you?” Pappy looked troubled.
Jackal shrugged. “So far, they’re working with us. We all want to protect what’s our own. Hopefully, we can still work together after this is over.”
Pappy sighed. “Yeah, street crews are so different than MC’s. Let’s hope this works out for you guys.” He shifted in his seat. “Have you spoken to Silas at all? Are his people safe now?”
Jackal nodded. “Yeah, we’re watching over them. We’ve been running patrols every few hours and but they’re smart on their own. They’re there, yet they’re not. They watch everything that’s going on and they have a way about them that if something happens in one part of the city their people know about it across town.” Shaking his head he said, “It’s uncanny.”
Pappy chuckled. “Yeah, that’s how these older vets work. I met a group in New York that helped me set up a network all over the nation.”
Jackal sat back in his chair. “Oh, yeah? What kind of network?”
“We’re guarding American soil against terror either foreign or domestic.” Pappy watched the other man carefully as he told him what his mission was.
Jackal didn’t say anything just stared at him for a moment then slowly reached down and unbuttoned his cuff and pushed up his shirt to reveal a tattoo on his upper arm. The tattoo was one very few men get and are proud to display. Jackal was at one time a member of the Special Forces unit.
Pappy nodded but still didn’t say anything.
“Most of the men here have served their time in one way or another,” Jackal told him quietly. “We came here to have something we could call our own.” He glanced around at the men he called friends. “Most of us have had a hard time adjusting to civilian life. We didn’t feel safe outside the service. Some of us suffer from PTSD and the military couldn’t offer anything as far as counseling. When we got together as a unit, we were able to help each other. Our wives and kids helped too. They keep us grounded and on target.” He shrugged. “We found we’re stronger together than we were apart struggling, so we banded together.”
Pappy smiled. “We did the same thing. Now I wouldn’t change it for the world. Might not work for everyone but it works for us.”
“So how the hell did you get roped into the whole network thing?” Jackal asked.
“A man I trust with my life pulled me in and asked me to set it up,” Pappy explained. “He didn’t want another 9-11 to ever happen on this soil again.”
Jackal thought for a moment then asked, “And is it working? Are you guys making a difference?”
Pappy nodded. “Yeah, it is. We don’t tell anyone but we are watching and we’re putting out fires that could potentially hurt us here at home. The network is mostly older vets and MC’s right now but we’re expanding all the time. We want eyes all over, not looking to start anything but to keep an eye on things so nothing bad happens again like the bombings in New York.”
Jackal nodded. “I get that. I’ll talk to my boys and if they want in, would you accept our help here on our little piece of turf?”
Pappy nodded. “The more eyes we have the better off we all are.”
Sabine Pass, Texas…
When Trudy received the photo from Pappy, she caught her breath as she studied the face on her screen. She’d seen this face before. Her photographic memory never let her forget anything but this was one face she wished she could forget.
“Dewey!” she screamed as she pushed her chair away from the desk forcefully.
When he came running, he took one look at her and gathered her up in his arms. “What’s wrong?” he asked her and he held her trembling body close to his.
Trudy pointed at the photo on her phone. “Somebody is in real trouble. That man is a killer for hire,” she whispered.
Dewey turned and studied the photo. He turned to look at his wife. “Are you sure?”
Trudy nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. No one has identified him yet but he’s been a man of interest in at least five murders for hire that I know of. How many more is anyone’s guess.”
Dewey searched her face again. “How did you get this?”
“Pappy sent it over. He said Yuri caught it on his surveillance camera and was hoping we could put a name to the face.”
“Shit.” Dewey swore as he made a call to Pappy. When he got done, he turned to his wife. “Pappy wants to know if you can find out who this guy is. He’s the one who took a shot at Roman’s girl this morning.”
Trudy closed her eyes briefly, then the look on her face changed from scared to determined “I’ll find him and I’ll put an end to his shit. I will run him into the ground and there won’t be any place on the planet he can hide, not from me.”
Dewey searched her face for a moment. “What did this guy do to piss you off so badly?”
Trudy wouldn’t look at him for the longest time. In fact, she wouldn’t look at him at all. Instead, her words just about gutted him when she whispered, “He murdered a very good friend of mine five years ago. He put a bullet in his head just after his woman told him she was having their baby. The bullet sprayed blood and brain tissue all over his woman in the middle of his own compound. He took out the leader of another MC over in Arkansas. Paco never got to see his son born or his woman smile ever again.”
“What had Paco done to deserve that?” Dewey wanted to know.
“He wouldn’t allow the cartel to ship drugs and guns through his town.
Paco said he didn’t want that shit near his family and the MC was his family.”
“The cops couldn’t do anything about it?”
Trudy shook her head. “They couldn’t find this guy. No one could. Not even I could find out who he was back then. They brought me his picture and asked me to find him and when I couldn’t, they asked me to keep trying. They said he had to be out there somewhere.” She hung her head. “I wasn’t as good back then as I am now. Now I know more ways to hunt someone down. I’ve developed the specialized software I need to do just that.”
“Do you think you can find him now?” Dewey asked.
“I don’t think I can, I know I will find him now,” Trudy vowed. “He has too much to answer for this time.”
Dewey hugged her close to him for a moment then let her go. “Don’t let him run you ragged.” He placed his hand on her expanding belly.
Trudy smiled. “I won’t. I have quicker more efficient programs now than I had five years ago. This time, I’ll find him and I’ll shut him down for good.”
“Pappy will want to know who hired him as well,” Dewey warned her. “If he’s involved in the mess in Baton Rouge, he’ll want to know who’s paying him to kill a woman and a kid.”
Trudy’s lip curled. “I’ll have his answers. I just wish I could be there when this guy catches a bullet with his name on it.”
Dewey watched as she sat down at her desk and began typing on her keyboard. She was zipping through programs and entering data faster than he’d ever seen it done before. He didn’t like the look in her eyes. Glancing down at the photograph of the man in question, he frowned. They might not know who he was yet, but he could see the fire in his wife’s eyes. He wouldn’t be unknown for long.
Moscow, Russia…
Sergi sat back in his chair and reached for his phone. He knew it was tense in New Orleans right now with everything that was going on but he knew Yuri needed to know the newest developments in order to protect what they spent years to build up.
“What can I do for you Sergi?” Yuri answered the call.
“I know things are crazy right now,” Sergi began but was interrupted by Yuri scoff.
“You have no idea how right that statement is at the moment.”
“Why?” Sergi shifted in his seat. “What’s going on?”
“Someone took a potshot at Roman’s woman this morning. Oh, and she’s pregnant too. It looks like Roman’s going to have his family after all.”
Sergi cursed in Russian. “Eto piz`dets! That’s what I was calling about actually. He might already have a family here at home.”
“What did you say?” Yuri’s question was softly spoken.
Sergi knew when Yuri’s voice was this low he was very angry. “Da, he might have a brother as well as a father he never knew.”
“Hell of a time to find out.” Yuri seethed. “`Tchyo za ga`lima? Where the fuck were they thirty years ago when he needed them?”
Sergi knew this next question was going to further piss his grandson in law off but he needed to know the answer. “Has Roman ever mentioned maybe having a brother before? He was very young but has he ever remembered him?”
Yuri was so quiet on his end of the call for a moment Sergi thought he’d gotten disconnected. “Maybe, perhaps, I’m not sure.”
“Well that tells me a lot,” Sergi muttered under his breath.
“There was only one time he spoke of having anyone else in his life.” Yuri began. “We were already together but it was before we met Nikoli. Roman was really sick with a high fever and congestion that winter. We tried to keep him warm but Moscow isn’t very forgiving when it comes to taking a chill. Anyway, the third night he was delirious, rambling on and on about how his mother abandoned him and someone named Vlad. He never spoke of this man again and we never asked. It was his business not ours. We never knew who Vlad was.”
Sergi sighed. “Vlad must be the name of his brother.”
“How did you find this out anyway?”
“I had a visit from Timor Maxim. He runs the Kazakhstan branch of the Bratva. He thinks Roman could be his son. He asked me to call and set up a meeting or something.”
“What does he want to do?” Yuri dreaded asking.
“Timor wants to know if Roman is his son and if he is, he plans to bring him back to Kazakhstan with him.” Sergi dropped his bomb.
After a long moment of pure silence, Yuri snarled, “Over my dead body. You tell this man to stay the hell away from us. He hasn’t been in his son’s life for forty years, he can just stay away now too.”
“It isn’t that simple,” Sergi told him.
“Da, it is.” Yuri growled.
“Timor never knew he had a son let alone two of them,” Sergi tried to explain. “Their mother got herself knocked up and left him twice without telling him anything. He never found out about the boys until the youngest was two and he found him abandoned in an apartment in Moscow. If Roman is his son, he would have been around six but when Timor went there he wasn’t in the apartment, only the younger boy was. He took the boy and left never knowing there was another child left behind.”
There was a long moment of silence from Yuri before he told the other man, “I’ll let him know and then it will be up to Roman whether he wants to know his father or brother. Tell them to stay away for now. Noka.”
Sergi replied back, “Noka.” Saying bye, then put his phone on the desk and stared at the wall for a moment. He picked up his phone again and called his son. “Misha, I think we should go to America soon.”
“Is everything all right?”
“No, it isn’t. I called Yuri to tell him about Timor and he’s very upset with the situation. It seems Roman has found a woman and is having a family with her.”
“Okay,” Misha drawled out. “I don’t think that fits very well into Timor’s plan to reclaim his son, do you?”
“Nyet, I don’t,” Sergi agreed. “That’s why I think we should go there to make sure nothing bad happens. It seems Roman’s woman is in some sort of trouble.”
Now it was Misha’s turn to swear in his native language. “Derr`mo, I’ll start packing and call for the plane. Timor didn’t seem the type to wait for you to call them and explain the situation.”
“Da. You could be right on that fact,” Sergi agreed. “But they don’t yet know where Roman and the others are so that might be in our favor.”
“Not for long. You know how easy it is to find out through the grapevine where we are located.”
“Then we’d better get there before Timor or Iosif can. I don’t want Yuri or Raven to get caught up in the crossfire.”
“You don’t think he’d do something stupid do you?” Misha had to ask.
“Wouldn’t you if he were your child? A child you knew nothing about his whole life?” Sergi asked softly, both men remembered well the fight they had on their hands only a few years ago when they found Raven.
Misha didn’t bother to answer. He knew how the other man felt. He’d gone through the same emotions only a few years ago when he found out about Raven. “I’ll tell the pilot wheels up in one hour.”
Even as they spoke, another plane was headed to America. Iosif Maxim was sitting in the third row isle seat in first class. He and his father had discussed their meeting with Sergi Constantine and decided not to wait on him to make initial contact.
Iosif had been wondering about his brother his whole life and now he was within reach and he wanted to grab on to him and never let him go again. Seeing that photograph of Roman had stirred old memories. Memories he thought long forgotten. Granted, he’d only been two when his father found him but he always knew there was another person out there somewhere for him. There had always been a hollow place in his heart that no one could ever fill and now he knew why. He hadn’t been able to remember much about that time in his young life but every once in a while, he would remember another young boy. Then as quickly as he’d come to mind, he’d disappear again. It was frustrating to him that
he’d catch glimpses of someone he felt he should have remembered more. But he’d only been two when his father found him and took him away.
Now he was on his way to America to hopefully…find his brother.
Chapter Five
Sabine Pass, Texas…
It was the middle of the night on the second day when Trudy came out of her office. She looked tired and Dewey was worried about her. She’d been at the task of hunting down an unknown man for most of yesterday, all night then all of today as well.
He’d brought her food and drinks but she barely ate or drank anything while she searched for this man. He was about to storm her castle and drag her butt home for some much needed rest when she came out.
Trudy sat down next to him and laid her weary head on his broad shoulder. Closing her eyes she whispered, “I found that bastard.”
Dewey almost stopped breathing. “You found him?”
“Yeah.” Trudy smiled. “It wasn’t easy but I did it.”
“So who is he?” Dewey wanted to know.
Trudy handed him the paper in her hand. It was a DMV shot of his New Jersey driver’s license. “His real name is John Jayson Hillman. His professional name is Jack Hail and no matter which name he goes by he’s an assassin for hire. On the assassin circuit, he goes by the name Ghost Sniper and he’s been a plague for the last fifteen years. His preferred weapon is a sniper rifle but he also can fight hand to hand if he has too. He leaves no evidence behind when his jobs are done except for a dead body. His current count is 24.” She shuddered. “I found some rather disturbing website for killers. The police have no way of tracing him from any of his kills. He’s careful enough not to get caught and not to let anyone know where he is. He lives in Salem New Jersey with his wife Sheila and two daughters, Emily and Brook. His family thinks he’s a salesman who travels a lot but he’s in reality a hitman for hire.”
“Well, he got caught this time. He foolishly let his face be photographed on a security camera.” Dewey growled. “Do I want to know how you found him?”