Danny's War (Rolling Thunder Series Book 3)

by Pj Fiala

  “Schaefer taught me how to make pot roast.”

  “That’s fabulous, Lex. Some lucky woman is going to snap you up in a heartbeat.”

  Lex’s face flushed as he looked over at Danny, who was walking toward Tammy with a glass of wine. “See, Schaefer, your woman likes me.”

  “Pfft. Don’t get all full of yourself because you learned to make pot roast.”

  They all burst out laughing.

  “Well, hello, Tammy, welcome home.” Charles’ salt and pepper hair was slicked back and he was dressed in nice jeans and a blue three-button placket shirt. He smiled as he made his way across the kitchen to look into the pot Lex was scooping vegetables from. He clapped his hand on Lex’s shoulder as he praised the food. “Looks as good as it smells, Chaz.”

  “Thanks, dad. I think I could do this on my own.”

  Charles smiled at Tammy and Danny. “When you both have a bit of time, I’d like to fill you in on what my partners have been pulling together.”

  As Tammy looked around the table, Danny’s friends were smiling, happy and so supportive of each other, she made a split second decision.

  “If everyone is finished, I think we should talk.”

  Danny looked into her eyes and saw determination. He reached over, wrapped her hand in his and squeezed for support.

  Dirks pushed his plate back and patted his belly. “I’m finished. If I eat one more bite, I believe I’ll explode, and it won’t be pretty.”

  Chuckles were heard and Tammy gave Danny’s hand a little squeeze before pulling away and folding her hands on the table. Taking a bolstering breath, she began. “Danny’s been keeping a secret for me, because, I’m embarrassed and, well, actually mortified to tell you this.” She tucked her hair behind her ears with a shaky hand and began again. “More than a year ago, I dated Scott. We'd been dating only about six weeks when…” She looked at Danny. At his slight nod and wink, her lips quivered into a soft smile. “Scott videoed us having sex without my permission. I didn’t know he was recording. The next morning I woke to the video plastered all over the Internet. He sent it to his friends, co-workers, uploaded it to several social media sites and YouTube. I was devastated.”

  Tammy continued telling the gory details as the guys all sat and listened without interruption. She finished her story with, “The reason I’m telling you this is because…” She looked at Danny and then Charles. Swallowing to force the fear and tears down, she continued. “Because the man you saw Zeke Hamilton with today was Scott. Zeke came into my office this afternoon, showed me the thumb drive and told me it was the video. He said he’d make it go away forever if I go to Seattle with him and ‘work’ for him.” Work in air quotes.

  Slowly Charles said, “Well, that son-of-a-bitch never ceases to lower himself one notch lower than before.”

  Tammy looked at each of the guys one-by-one and nodding once she said. “I’m sorry guys. I hope you can forgive me.”

  Lex’s brows pinched together as he looked at her. “Tammy, there’s nothing to forgive. You’re the victim in this and that bastard Scott should really fry for doing something like that. But worse, is Hamilton. Blackmail is absolutely bullshit.”

  Tammy’s lips formed a straight line across her pretty face.

  Dirks spoke up next. “Is this Hamilton bastard the man trying to purchase Stateside?”

  “Yes. And it appears he’s also interested in Tammy.” Danny’s voice held a dangerous growl.

  Coop added quickly, “Thank you for telling us, Tammy, I’m sure that was hard. You didn’t have to.”

  Tammy smiled. “I did though. Danny was right today when he told me that coming clean would stop the video from controlling me. I’ve been so stressed trying to keep it a secret since you guys got here. I had alerts set up on the Internet and it’s been terribly active again. I think it was Zeke, trying to turn the knife to get me to follow him to Seattle.”

  “Well, now it’s my turn,” Charles said. “My partners have come together as I expected they would. Travis, our business manager, called me just before you got home. We’ve submitted an offer to Purchase Stateside to FMS and it was approved this afternoon. LexRanch, our corporation, is the new owner of Stateside.”

  Tammy sat up straight as she looked at Charles’ clear blue eyes and the beautiful smile on his face. “For real?”

  Laughing, he nodded, “For real.”

  Tammy gasped as she jumped up, ran around the table, and hugged Charles. “Oh, my God, thank you so much. Thank you. I’ve been so worried about where these men and women would go. There are few places for them with their income levels and most of the facilities they could go to have long waiting lists.”

  Tammy turned and hugged Danny. He pulled her down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I told you it would be okay.”

  Looking into Danny’s eyes, Tammy teared up as the relief began washing over her. “You’re right. I never doubted, though I simply didn’t see how it would ever be.”

  She lightly pecked his lips as Coop said, “Now how do we get rid of Hamilton?”

  Tammy’s phone started playing “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon. She smiled as she stood and pulled it out of her pants pocket. “Zeke said he was giving me two hours to decide whether to take his job offer.”

  The men around the table started laughing as the ring tone and the caller came together in their heads. Danny quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and laid it on the table next to Tammy’s. He tapped his record icon and winked at Tammy.

  She answered her call while at the same time touching the speaker icon. “This is Tammy.”

  “Ms. Davis, your two hours are up.”

  Wrinkling her face, Tammy reached over and held Danny’s hand. “I didn’t need two hours. At the risk of repeating myself, I’m not interested in your job or anything you have to offer.”

  A moment of silence while they all waited for him to respond. Tammy’s heart began a rapid beat as she wondered what he was thinking.

  “You do understand what this means, don’t you?”

  “Yes. It means I’ll be staying in Green Bay with Danny and my family.”

  “It also means you’ll be out of a job by the end of the month and the little issue of your video will not go away. You may find I don’t have the power to keep it from attracting attention in the days to come.”

  Danny’s jaw tightened and he curled his hands into fists. His lips drew together as he looked over at Lex and saw the same reaction on his friend. Glancing at Dirks and Coop, Danny saw them both shaking their heads no. Dirks motioned with his hands - - brush it away.

  “It’s a chance I’ll have to take. I’ve been through it before. It’s unpleasant, but, I can handle it.”

  Surprised at her own confidence Tammy actually smiled. Still standing next to Danny, she laid her palm on his strong shoulder and took strength. He looked up at her and she felt it, he loved her through all of this.

  “You’ll find it difficult to obtain new employment with this nasty piece of imagery chasing you, Ms. Davis. I’ll leave you with this, if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

  “Are you staying in Green Bay much longer? In case I change my mind.”

  He chuckled on the other side of the phone. “Well now, are you offering to pay me a visit at my hotel?”

  “I might be. I’m wondering if I'd be able to change your mind. About the video, I mean.”

  Silence. Danny looked at Tammy with what could be described as horror on his face. She winked at him and gently ran her thumb over his furrowed brow.

  CHAPTER 41

  “THIS WAITING IS SO INTENSE,” Tammy said as she paced the living room, rubbing the back of her neck. The men were sitting around on the various pieces of furniture. Dirks was tapping away on his phone while sitting in the tan upholstered chair across the room. Lex and Charles were on the sofa, each seemingly calm and attentive to each other. Coop was sitting on the floor, leaning into the sofa next to Lex�
��s legs and Danny was sitting in his recliner, forearms on his knees, watching Tammy pace.

  “Maybe we should play a game or put in a movie to pass the time. A watched pot never boils.”

  Danny glanced at Lex, “When did you get so philosophical?”

  Lex chuckled. “I’ve heard my share of clichéd sayings since coming home, Schaefer. Watching your leg laying yards from your body haunted me to no end. Coming here to see you doing so well is not only long over-due, but has put everything into perspective.” Brushing his hand through his chestnut hair, he smirked. “Did dad tell you he’s also negotiating with FMS to purchase two veterans homes in Kentucky, not far from our ranch? I’m going to counsel men and women there like you’re doing here.”

  Tammy and Danny both looked at Charles. Sliding her hands into her pockets, a slow smile spread across her face. “Really? That’s fantastic.”

  “Just seeing the change in him since he came here and talking to Dan this week has me hopeful that Chaz will heal completely and help others in the process.”

  Danny nodded still leaning forward. “I actually think those guys counsel me, not the other way around. Either way, it helps and they seem genuinely happy to talk to me, so it works.”

  Tammy’s phone rang and she quickly pulled it out of her pocket. “Hello, this is Tammy.”

  She quickly looked at Danny and nodded. She listened intently for a few minutes. “Thank you, Sergeant. What happens next?”

  Finishing her call, she walked to Danny. He reached up and took her hand in his waiting for her to tell them what'd happened.

  “They have the thumb drive. The police knocked on Zeke’s hotel room door and when he opened it, they told him he was in the possession of property secured by a restraining order. I’m so glad my mom and Attorney Gratz spoke today. Apparently, Scott wasn’t allowed to do anything with the video. Not downloading to another media device or anything else. It’s off-limits.” Looking into Danny’s eyes, Tammy continued. “However, Zeke's lying about how he got the video. He told police that he didn’t know what was on it and that Scott is a friend and asked him to hang on to it because it's valuable.”

  Lex jumped in. “Well, you have pictures of the exchange. You can prove he exchanged money for it.”

  “The pictures don’t show what was exchanged, just that there was an exchange. Scott’s going to need to fess up for it to hold water.” Danny stood, clearly irritated with the turn of events.

  “The police are on their way over to Scott’s to see if they can get him to talk.” Tammy ran her hand across Danny’s back to soothe him.

  Dirks wrinkled his face, his bright blue eyes slightly squinting. “Well, at least that prick Hamilton can’t do anything with the video. Provided he didn’t already download it to his computer.”

  Tammy’s eyes grew wide and a gasp escaped her throat.

  “Sorry, Tammy, but you need to be real about this.”

  “God, I didn’t even think about that.”

  “Well, the way it looks now, the police know that Hamilton had the video. If it shows up on the Internet again, they'll be able to trace the IP address of the computer. There isn’t a restraining order against him, but, it’ll be fairly easy to get it. You can create reasonable doubt with the pictures and the money, so a judge may just decide to slap a restraining order on Hamilton, too,” Coop ground out. His face took on the hard lines of a big brother protecting his sister. Tammy smiled at his concern. All of their concern.

  Danny wrapped his arm around Tammy’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

  ***

  “What do you intend to do about it?” Ryder asked as they sat in the break room at lunch the following day.

  “I’m going to go over and beat some truth into that shit bag, that’s what I’m going to do.” Danny threw his sandwich wrapper into the waste basket with force.

  Ryder’s eyebrows shot up as he watched the wrap smash into the garbage and Danny slam his fist on the table top. “You can’t go alone, Schaefer. You’ll do something that'll make this all worse.”

  “I’m not taking Tammy to go and see that prick. I don’t want her within fifty miles of him. I’d prefer it if he moved across country.”

  Ryder chuckled.

  Danny’s eyes narrowed on Ryder causing Ryder to sit back and put his hands up in defense. “Whoa, easy now. You have to admit, it’s kind of funny.”

  Danny’s lips formed a reluctant smile as he shook his head.

  “I’ll go with you. Your friends all left this morning, right? You can’t go alone. I’ll go with you. Molly’s working tonight, so I have the time. We can go right after work.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Ryder.”

  “I know I don’t. I want to. That’s what friends are for.”

  Danny looked into Ryder’s green eyes and saw a friend looking back at him.

  “Okay. Sounds good.”

  CHAPTER 42

  “THIS IS IT HERE. The yellow house.”

  Danny pulled into the driveway of a house at the edge of the downtown area of Green Bay. Not the worst neighborhood, not the best. The houses were interspersed with old Victorians that'd been lovingly restored and older nondescripts homes that needed some TLC. Scott’s house was the latter.

  Danny’s truck looked too big for the narrow driveway and stood taller than the front door. They looked at each other before climbing out of the truck. Ryder broke the silence. “Let’s do it.”

  Danny nodded and climbed out. Upon approaching the door, it jerked open and there he was, Scott in all his glory. He was wearing a ratty pair of shorts and a t-shirt that had cheesy yellow streaks across the front. He was glassy-eyed, his hair was mussed and looked in serious need of some shampoo and water. Scott’s glassy eyes narrowed in on Danny for a long moment. He slid his gaze to Ryder and then back to Danny.

  “I don’t know you two. Whataya want?” His speech wasn’t quite slurred but not clear either.

  “We’d like to talk to you.”

  “I’m expecting company.”

  “Now you have it.”

  Scott chuckled, “True. But not you.”

  “Who are you expecting?”

  Scott’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Danny again. “Who are you?”

  “Danny Schaefer.”

  Scott’s eyes widened and his mouth flopped open just enough to show his mouth yellowed from…Cheetos?

  “You’re with Tammy now. I’ve got nothing to say to you.”

  “I have something to say to you. I don’t know why you did what you did. I can’t see any reason to hurt someone like you hurt her. She didn’t do anything to hurt you. It was dirty. It was nasty and underhanded. But that’s over. What I don’t understand is why you'd do something to hurt her again. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  Scott finally showed some real emotion, his voice raised as his hands flew wide. “What the fuck is wrong with me? Look at this shithole. I can’t afford to move anywhere else because I have fucking attorney’s fees up the ass. I lost my job because of that whiney bitch. I’m broke, and I found someone who was willing to pay for something that I can’t do a fucking thing with for fear of going to jail.”

  Danny’s fists balled at his sides. Ryder watched him trying to get a grip on his anger, worried this was a very bad idea.

  “Did he contact you?”

  “Yeah. He found me from Court records. Offered me twenty thousand dollars and said I would never be tied to it again.”

  “So, naturally, being the piece of shit you are, you couldn’t wait to get your hands on the money.”

  Scott turned and walked inside. Danny and Ryder watched him go in and when he didn’t make a move to close the door, Ryder shrugged and walked in first. He saw Scott sprawled in a chair in the corner of the room. He looked back at Danny and jerked his head toward the inside. Danny followed him in.

  Scott looked at the two hulking men standing in his minuscule living room and swallowed. Grabbing his beer can off the si
de table he finished what was left of it and smacked it back down on the table, sending the empty Cheetos bag to the floor.

  After a long silence, he added, “I didn’t jump at the chance.”

  Danny’s brows shot up. “That right? How’s that?”

  “He threatened me.”

  “Hamilton threatened you?”

  Scott nodded his head, barely, but it was enough to be noticed.

  “With what? What could he possibly threaten you with?”

  Scott heaved out a heavy breath and leaned forward. “He said he has a whole team of computer geeks who could upload that video to the Internet and make it look like I did it. I’d go to jail for violation of the restraining order and there’d be a trial and he said nobody would be able to unscramble the metadata enough to know it wasn’t me.”

  Danny’s thoughts went back to the day in the parking lot. “Is that what you were arguing about with Hamilton?”

  Scott looked up at Danny, surprise on his face. “How do you know that?”

  “I saw you. I was sitting in The Wheel having lunch.”

  Scott groaned and dropped his dirty head into his dirtier hands. After a few seconds he yelled out, “FUCK.”

  Allowing him the time he needed to gather his thoughts, Danny and Ryder stood and waited him out. As Scott lifted his head, his eyes were glistening with unshed tears.

  “Look. I’m sorry I ever did that to her. She didn’t deserve it. I not only fucked up her life, I royally fucked up my own. Even my friends think I’m dirty now and most of them won’t have anything to do with me.”

  He folded his hands together in front of him, sniffed a few times and finally watched as both Ryder and Danny’s faces softened, just a bit.

  “Whatareya gonna do? Kill me? Call the cops? What?”

  Ryder actually chuckled. “We look like murderers to you?”

  Scott looked Ryder and shook his head no. “You don’t. He looks like he could kill me.”

  “Well, that’s why I’m here, to make sure that doesn’t happen. He doesn’t need to sit in jail because of a piece of shit like you.”