Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “Uhh, I think Reed’s Auto Body. Does that sound right?” She asked as she swung the door open wide and turned on the light.

  The first thing I saw was that large snake curled up on the corner of the couch. The second was that the Adeline’s house was trashed.

  She didn’t seem surprised about it, only resigned.

  “You can put those in the kitchen. I’m sorry about the mess. It happens a lot.” She said by way of explanation.

  My eyebrows snapped together, and I looked closer at the woman who was trying her best to hide the fact that she was upset.

  I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if her hands hadn’t been shaking, making the keys, still dangling from one finger, jingle together slightly as it happened.

  Setting the bags down on the kitchen counter, I let my eyes roam over the destruction in the kitchen, before returning to the living room, where she was frantically shoving things back into drawers.

  “You need some help?” I rumbled, causing her to jump.

  She squeaked before turning around and shoving the drawer closed with her ass. “No, no. I’m okay. It doesn’t take long.”

  My eyebrows raised. “This happen a lot?”

  She shrugged. “Thank you for carrying my groceries, Tiago.”

  I hated being called Tiago.

  It reminded me of my father, who hadn’t spoken to me in over ten years.

  But from her mouth, it sounded oddly...right. Coming from her full, beautiful lips didn’t give me the instant hives it usually did when I heard it.

  “Do you need to call the cops?” I asked.

  At the vehement shake of her head, I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince her.

  I’d call Trance, a member of the BPD as well as The Dixie Wardens MC, when I got back to the house and report it to him. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

  “Okay,” I nodded. “Just tell me this. Are you in danger?”

  She sighed and her shoulders hung. “No,” she said, with a shake of her head. “It’s my brother. He likes to pawn my stuff when he needs a fix. I don’t even have a clue how the hell he gets in. Past any lock in the world. He’s always been good with locks.”

  It wasn’t much, that admission, but it was enough to calm the raging beast in my brain telling me to drag her back to my place and wait until the cops arrived. Knowing that it was her brother wasn’t really that much better than just a random act of violence; but, for some reason, knowing it was her brother allowed me to calm the beast to somewhat manageable levels.

  At least levels that didn’t require me to drag her by her hair to my cave.

  “You should probably report it anyway. I don’t really want to tell you how handle your family situation, but stuff like this doesn’t just go away. One day, it’s not going to be just something small. He’ll take something of yours that will be irreplaceable or, if you’re lucky, just use you. Don’t let it get that far.” I advised.

  When she didn’t respond, or look at me, I knew it was time to leave.

  “Alright, well let me know what you have need of strong hands to haul your groceries.” I said before heading back to her door.

  If I didn’t leave, I’d try to convince her, and Lord knew I was one to talk about family.

  My sister was one giant fucking mess, and I hadn’t spoken to my parents in ten years. What did that say about me?

  Her nearly silent, “Thank you,” preceded me out the door.

  Walking down the steps, I was surprised to see Annalise sitting on my front porch.

  I’d spotted her when I was halfway down, and saw that her eyes flared at the sight of me coming out of Adeline’s apartment sweaty and shirtless. I didn’t say anything though. It wouldn’t help.

  She was jealous, and egging her on wouldn’t help the situation.

  “Annalise,” I said as I made it to my front porch.

  Her nose and lip lifted into a snarl. “Did I interrupt something?” She sneered.

  “What can I help you with?” I asked, ignoring her snarl.

  It wasn’t like she had any claim on me anymore. Still, I could see how she would be upset by it. So I’d give her some slack.

  For now.

  “I came to see if you wanted to go grab something to eat, but I can see I’m too late. You already ate the girl next door.” Annalise spat.

  “I think it’s time for you to leave if you don’t have anything worthwhile to say. I’ve got somewhere to be.”

  “Do you really have somewhere to be, or are you just saying that because you want me to leave?”

  Her question was answered moments later when Trance pulled up on his bike and pulled into one of my assigned spots.

  He shut it off, put down the kickstand, swung his leg over the bike and stood.

  Annalise’s face turned down into a severe frown, which was another reason I’d ended it.

  She didn’t accept my family. And Trance was family as well as one of my best friends.

  She especially hated Trance.

  Trance was a K-9 officer with the Benton police department.

  Although not in the same department as Annalise, they still passed each other on occasion, and she’d gone out of her way to let it be known that she didn’t trust him.

  I hadn’t been aware of it until Trance had come to me one day, finally telling me his problem with Annalise. Not that he’d needed to, because I’d broken up with her the night before.

  “Kettle,” Trance said as he offered his hand.

  Trance was named after his eyes. They were two different colors, one blue and one green; the girls loved them.

  Something about the man’s curly blonde hair and weird eyes did it for the women.

  When you added the cut and the badge, he was nearly unstoppable.

  “Trance,” I shook his hand.

  “Well, as nice as this is,” Annalise said as she stood up. “I think I’ll go home. Sorry I even bothered.”

  Trance and I watched her go, neither one concerned in the least that she left.

  “Are you ready for a ride?” Trance asked.

  I nodded. “Just need to go change. I’ll be out in ten. My neighbor needed some help carrying in her groceries.”

  Trance nodded and took a seat on the couch as I went to the master bedroom to find a shirt and a pair of pants.

  I chose the ones that were less holey than the rest, as I expected it to get a little colder out within the next few hours.

  Just as I’d slipped the cut over my shoulders and swiped on some deodorant, pounding came from my front door.

  “Kettle!” My neighbor screeched, pounding hard on the door.

  I wasn’t aware I was running until I got to the door just after Trance had yanked it open.

  She poured inside and rushed towards me, completely bypassing a stupefied Trance.

  “Oh, my God. I need your help. Can you help me?” She pleaded, grabbing me by the t-shirt and drawing me closer to her.

  “She’s blind and I don’t know where she is. Oh Jesus. Please,” she cried.

  I grabbed the flailing Adeline’s arms and held them firmly, looking into her eyes with a calm expression. “Adeline,” I said gently but firmly. “You need to calm down and give me the whole story.”

  Trance met my eyes over the top of her head, both brows raised in question.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God. Okay,” she said nodding her head. “My sister called me to tell me our brother came to borrow some money from her, since he didn’t find any at my place. When she said she didn’t have any on her, my brother took her to an ATM, and then dropped her off somewhere. She can’t hear any noises, and she doesn’t have any way to move. She can’t see. She’s blind.”

  Adeline was frantic again by the time she was done.

  I was worried myself. What kind of low life brother would drop his blind sister off knowing she couldn’t fucking see to get herself home?

  Trance was on the b
all, pulling his phone out and calling the station to put a BOLO (Be on the lookout) out on her.

  “Hey, what’s the cell number?” Trance called out.

  I looked down at a clearly distraught Adeline. “What’s her number, Adeline?”

  “Uhh,” she said, turned around, and rattled off the number

  Trance relayed the number, and hung up the phone.

  “Okay, once she uses the phone again she’ll be traced. Can you call her?” Trance asked calmly.

  She seemed to understand that she needed to get her shit together, because she took a deep breath, and blew it out before explaining. “Her phone died. We were in the middle of speaking and she’d told me that it wouldn’t be long until it would die. I came over here as soon as it did. She said he took her to her bank, and then dropped her off a couple of blocks past it, as far as she could tell.”

  Taking her hand, I led her to the door and down the stairs before she finished speaking.

  I did glance down to make sure she was properly dressed, at least. If she hadn’t been, I would’ve had to send her to her place to get some something more suitable on. I wouldn’t be able to help the sister if I was worrying about the one that was on the back of my bike. The road didn’t really agree with bare skin, for some reason; I was always leery about what I wore when I was riding.

  Trance followed me, closing and locking my door behind me as he went.

  I fit my helmet over her head, and then strapped it on tight. “Feel okay?” I asked. At her nod, I patted the side of the helmet lightly and then straddled the bike.

  “What’s she look like?” I asked her before she sat.

  “Black hair like mine. About my height as well. She looks exactly like me, in fact.” She explained.

  “Which bank?” Trance asked from his bike that was parked next my own.

  I held up my hand for her to climb on, and she took it without a second glance.

  “The one off Fourth. Benton Bank and Trust.” She said, moving as close as she could without actually touching me.

  I only had a small pad on the back fender that allowed for just part of an ass, not a total one, so for her to be that far away, she had to be nearly hanging off the pad.

  “Scoot up,” I instructed.

  She scooted maybe a millimeter at most.

  “More,” I urged.

  Another millimeter.

  Sighing in exasperation, I rounded one of my arms around the obstinate woman’s ass and yanked her forward.

  After a startled squeak, I fired up the bike and started walking it out of my spot before giving it gas and heading out of my lot towards the bank.

  She wrapped her arms tight around my torso, holding on way too tight for comfort.

  I didn’t stop her though. She was scared; if I had to deal with a little bit of discomfort, I’d deal.

  Trance followed beside me, but split off once we got to Fourth, going in the opposite direction.

  The search took well over twenty minutes of back alleys and side streets with no luck.

  Then my phone vibrated in my pocket, making me pull over hastily and rush to answer it. “You find her?” I asked quickly, not bothering with a hello.

  “Yeah,” he answered. “She’s off of Old Miller Road. She’s pretty scared, too. Won’t let me come near her without freaking out.”

  “Alright,” I said, giving Adeline’s leg a pat. “We’ll be there shortly.”

  The ride to Old Miller Road was a quick one. It was only five minutes away, and I dropped it down to only two and a half with no objection from the woman currently plastered to my back.

  Adeline’s sister looked so much like her that it made me do a double take. Adeline, however, didn’t waste any time in going to her sister, who was hunkered down beside a building and a picnic table.

  The sweater she was wearing was stained and dirty, as if she’d fallen down more than once to get to where she was.

  Poor girl. She had to be scared to death.

  “Viddy!” Adeline called as she ran towards the cowering woman.

  Trance was standing about six feet away, watching the woman with an intense expression on his face.

  “Addy?” Viddy called, standing up by bracing her hands on the building behind her.

  “Right here,” Adeline said, just before she dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the woman. “Are you okay? Did anything hurt you?”

  The woman shook her head. “No, I’m okay. Trance here pulled up about five minutes ago and scared some guy off, but other than that, nothing. Stupid Jefferson just left me here. Didn’t let me take my cane. God, if I could see him, I’d kick his ass.”

  I barely suppressed the urge to laugh; Trance, however, did not. He just let it all out.

  So the woman had an attitude similar to Adeline.

  Made sense, the two of them were so similar they had to be twins. Both of them had long brownish black hair that curled into waves down their backs. Both had the same body, with just the correct amount of padding that every man liked. And both had nearly the same tan.

  The only thing different about the two was that Viddy wore dark glasses to hide her eyes.

  “That’s okay, I’ll kick his ass for you. I just can’t fathom why he’s doing this. Stupid piece of shit got $1500 out of me that I was saving to put new tires and brakes on my car. Since when does he ever need that much? Asshole.”

  That was news to me.

  She must’ve figured that out after I’d left. There was no way she would’ve been able to keep that news from affecting her extremely expressive face.

  “He got $500 out of me, too. Luckily, I’d just transferred some money into my savings or he’d have gotten a lot more!”

  Looking over at Trance, I saw the same emotion expressed in his eyes as I had in my own.

  Outrage.

  What kind of piece of shit would do something like that?

  I didn’t have to worry about justice, though. I could see with just one glance that Trance didn’t plan on leaving this alone.

  He was a police officer, as well as a Dixie Warden.

  We didn’t condone hurting women. Even if no physical violence was actually done.

  “Are you ladies ready to get out of here?” I asked after another ten minutes of rocking and crying between the two women.

  In answer, Adeline stood, and yanked her sister up behind her.

  “Viddy, I’d like you to meet Kettle. He’s my neighbor. You’ve already met Trance. He’s Kettle’s uhh, friend?” Adeline finished on a question.

  “Yeah, we’re friends. It’s nice to meet you, Viddy.” I said offering my hand.

  To the blind woman that couldn’t see the hand.

  Jesus Christ.

  “Uhh,” I said, face flaming in humiliation.

  Adeline whispered something in Viddy’s ear and Viddy’s arm raised, searching blindly for my hand. I reached for her hand, gave it a slight shake, trying my hardest not to crush her tiny hand, and dropped it.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too, Kettle. My name’s Vidalia. I’m Addy’s twin sister. I’m older by four minutes. It’s nice to be treated like a normal person. Next time say you’re holding your hand out for me to shake, and I’ll proceed in kind.” Viddy replied.

  Trance’s eyes were shining with mirth as he sidled closer to us and offered his own hand. “My name’s Trance and I’m holding my hand out to you.”

  Adeline snorted, but a smile the size of Texas lit Viddy’s face as she held out her hand for him to take. “It’s nice to meet you, too. Thank you for saving me.”

  Trance didn’t let go of Viddy’s arms for a long while, as he watched the play of emotions run across the woman’s face.

  “So, I guess, that means you’re riding with me, since none of us were really thinking ahead. Can you ride on a bike?” Trance asked Viddy.

  I hadn’t really thought about that part of the plan, either. But it worked ou
t as long as she would ride on the back of Trance’s bike. It wasn’t as if they were asking her to drive.

  Adeline and Viddy snorted. “That’s how we got into this mess.” Adeline laughed, leading Viddy to Trance and then straddled my bike.

  “You can’t just throw that out there and not expect us to be curious.” I observed dryly, as I followed in her wake.

  “Feed us and we’ll tell you.” Adeline smiled widely from her perch on my bike.

  Twenty minutes later, I found himself sitting at Longhorn Steakhouse with Adeline at my side, Trance, and Viddy across from me.

  It wasn’t how I’d planned to spend my night, but I sure as fuck wasn’t going to complain.

  Trance didn’t look like he was complaining either.

  “Okay, you’ve got your food on the way. Time to tell us.” Trance said, eyeing the woman sitting next to him.

  “It was my fault,” Viddy began. “We were fifteen when I dared her to ride my father’s motorcycle. We hadn’t the first clue what it took to ride one. She was just going to ride it in the driveway, but she lost control and we wrecked.”

  “My dad had just gotten a new motorcycle.” Continued Adeline. “It was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen, and he wouldn’t let us anywhere near it. Said it was too much for the either one of us, and refused to take us riding on it. We’d heard him and my brother talking about it a few days after he’d gotten it, and it was supposed to be some beast of a Harley that could take a crotch rocket...whatever that is... and I really wanted to ride it. So, one day after my dad had gone to work on his daily rider, Viddy and I went for a little spin. Literally.”

  I hadn’t realized how horrifying it would be to hear about a teenage girl wrecking a big, muscle bike like a Harley V-rod. I’d seen quite a bit in my fifteen years of being in the emergency services, but just picturing what she was about to explain hurt to think about.

  “Anyway, daddy had this old five speed motor under the front porch covered in a tarp. It was hoisted up off the ground by a cherry picker by about two or three inches, but the angle of the shifter was pointed out instead of up.” She said swallowing a drink of her coke that the waiter had just set down. “Well, I spun out in the middle of the driveway. I wasn’t really sure how to drive a bike, but I’d done pretty good until it kicked up and started shooting the both of us forward. Things get a little fuzzy after that, and I only remember what I’ve been told.”