by K. J. Dahlen
Iceman nodded. “If he’s there, we can find him. Let’s wait and see what Axe can find out before we start anything.”
Just then, Max came to the door and Deke invited him in. When he heard about Donny, he went pale and began to sweat. He did indeed remember Flynn’s brother. “Fuckin A…this could get very ugly when Donny finds out his brother is dead,” Max muttered.
“Why is that?” Deke asked.
“Flynn meant everything to Donny,” Max told them. “After his mother, Estelle walked out on them, Donny took Flynn under his wing and became both mother and father to the boy. His old man, Roman, wasn’t father material by any means and most days the boys came to school with bruises and black eyes. Roman drank a lot, couldn’t hold a job and made the boys steal what they could to keep him in beer. Flynn was fourteen when Donny beat Roman to death and got sent to prison. That was a couple of years before Flynn met Jemmia but yeah, he was in touch with Donny after he went to prison. He used to go every week to see him. Even when he was high, he always went to see his brother. I’m sure he told Donny about Jemmia being pregnant too.”
“Did Donny have any other friends, maybe in Boston?” Iceman asked.
Max thought about that for a moment then nodded. “Yeah, for a while be belonged to a MC called the Sinners.” He looked over at Iceman’s vest and saw the patch. “Damn, that’s your MC isn’t it?”
Iceman nodded. “That was a long time ago now. After twenty years, most of those guys are dead or gone. Most of the present group is younger.”
“True, but he had a couple of friends back then that I do remember. One was a guy by the name of Fang and the other was Ricco. Those three guys hung out all the time. We used to call them the Three Musketeers. They all got in trouble together too. They were just plain mean and didn’t care who they hurt. ”
“Ricco died a long time ago. He was shot to death in a drive by,” Iceman told them. “Fang is still around though.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t use the Sinners to search for Donny,” Deacon suggested. “We really don’t want him to know we’re looking for him.”
Deke looked over at Max. “We also don’t think you and Peggy should go back to Quincy until we find Donny. He might come looking for you to find out what happened to Flynn.”
Max nodded. “Yeah, running into Donny is not on my list of things to do. He would remember that Flynn and I used to be friends and he never did like me. According to Donny, I wasn’t cool enough to hang with him and his friends.”
“Damn,” Iceman suddenly swore.
“What?” Deke asked.
“Fang was there the night we took Peaches back to Calderone. He would have seen Flynn being dragged away by Calderone’s men and he would have heard about what happened to him.”
“Shit.” Deke got to his feet. “He’d know right where to tell the bastard to start looking for answers and where to find Cassie.”
“I’d better let Calderone know about this. He isn’t gonna be happy about it either,” Iceman added.
“We have to keep Peaches and Paige with Cassie,” Deke advised. “All three of them could be in danger.”
“Maybe we should move this back to the compound and go on lockdown until we know more about this guy,” Deacon added.
“Yeah, I think so.” Deke nodded. “I don’t want him to have the element of surprise on his side.”
~* * * *~
When they left the club, no one noticed the man hiding in the shadows of the building. His dark eyes narrowed when he saw the vest Iceman wore, but that wasn’t the one he glared at. His glare was aimed at Deke and he recognized Max from a long time ago.
His lips raised in a snarl and he vowed both men would die at his hands. He was remembering the conversation he had with an old friend two days past. Fang had been a mountain of information for him. He knew what happened to his brother and his vowed to bring his killers to justice, the old time justice way where it was an eye for an eye. Not only would Calderone Vincinti die by his hand but this woman Cassie Ryan would as well. She ratted his brother out to Vincinti and that alone, would be her death sentence. Whatever Flynn had done to her, it wasn’t worth his life.
He turned and walked away, back into the shadows. He had plans to make. As he stepped back, the sunlight sparkled on his skin and the red glow of the sun reflected off the snake tattoo on his shoulder. Donny had gotten the tattoo in prison and the snake had become a symbol of power behind bars. Donny Rearden became a legend in prison. He served his time, kept his nose clean, but held a position of power that nobody messed with. Not the other prisoners and not the guards either.
He was the man with the power behind the system. No crime could be tied to him but there were several men that ended up dead with no explanation and while the warden had his suspicions, nothing could be linked back to him. He’d served his time and been released and there was nothing that could stop him from leaving. He just wanted to see his brother again and get back to the way life should have been. That wasn’t possible now. He was on a mission to avenge his brother and he wouldn’t stop until those responsible were as cold in the ground as Flynn was.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Donny followed them out of the city. He couldn’t get too close or they would spot him, so he hung back. When he turned the last corner, he did it slow and with his lights off. He pulled into the wooded area and leaving his bike, he moved closer on foot.
When he got close enough to view everything, he knelt beside a tree and watched. He saw the five men, get off their bikes and walk inside the clubhouse. He waited until everything settled down, then noticed the men standing around the compound. He saw they were all clearly armed and making rounds of the area inside the fence. They reminded him of the guard at the prison, making rounds. They watched everyone and everything going on inside the cement walls he had called home for twenty years but they only thought they knew what was going on inside those same walls.
Making his way through the woods, Donny saw the houses behind the clubhouse. Some were small cabins but the bigger house was lit up against the coming darkness and he could see people walking around inside the home.
He decided he would start there and move along, as he needed to. Tossing a stick at the fence, he found the fence wasn’t electrified. He waited and watched as the men on the other side of the barrier made their rounds. When the coast was clear, he moved down the line a ways and began climbing over the chain link barrier.
Dropping down behind it, he made his way to the line of buildings. When he got closer, he moved silently. Peeking in the windows, he began to track just who was in the house and where they went.
There were at least three women in there, two younger and one older. Lights beckoned him and he left his position and checked out another room at the back of the house. It was a bedroom. The color scheme was grey and black and the furniture in the room was dark stained wood. The bed and the dresser matched and there was a rocking chair in the corner of the same color.
He turned to the bed and saw another woman lying there with a huge black dog. The door was closed and the woman appeared to be asleep. He knew if he went inside, the dog would be on him before the woman could even wake up but Donny needed answers and this would get them for him.
He carefully opened the sliding glass doors and slipped inside. When he heard the dog growl, he raised the gun in his hand and whispered, “I know you can hear me and I’d rather not shoot your dog but I will in a heartbeat if you don’t call him off.”
The woman tightened her grip on Demon’s collar. She whispered the words he needed to hear and the dog kept an eye on the intruder but lowered his growl.
Donny moved into her eye range and lifted the gun to point it at her. “Know this bitch, if your dog comes after me I will shoot you, then I’ll shoot him and the three other women in the house.” He moved over to the door and slipped the lock in place. He knew it wouldn’t hold off anyone trying to bust the door in but it would hold it long enough to allow his escap
e.
She nodded her head in acknowledgement. “Who are you and what the hell do you want?”
Donny grinned but there was no amusement in his eyes. “My name doesn’t matter but I want some answers and I think you can give them to me.”
“What kind of answers do you seek?”
“I need to know where I can find Cassie Ryan.”
She frowned.
“Do you know her?” Donny asked.
She nodded but still didn’t say anything.
“Where can I find her?”
“What do you want with her?” she asked.
“I’m gonna kill her for what she did to my brother.”
“And just who the hell is your brother?”
“My brother’s name was Flynn Rearden.”
Her eyes got huge as she stared at him. “What do you think she did?”
“She ratted him out to a powerful man who had him killed.”
“Why would she do that?”
“That’s what I’m going to ask her before I kill her,” Donny assured her.
“Maybe there was a reason she ratted him out.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck why she did it.” Donny growled. “The fact that she did it is enough to warrant her death. Nobody and I mean nobody…crosses a Rearden and lives to tell the tale.”
“Have you seen your brother in the last twenty years?” she asked.
Donny frowned. “I haven’t seen him in a while but right after I got sent away, he used to visit.” He snarled. “That doesn’t matter, he was still my brother and he didn’t deserve to die like he did.”
“Oh, I beg to differ,” she scoffed.
“What do you know about it?” Donny growled.
“I’m Cassie Ryan, Uncle Donny.”
Donny narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. “I am not your uncle.”
“If Flynn was your brother, then you are my uncle,” Cassie assured him. “And don’t think I’m any happier about that fact than you are.”
“Who the fuck are you anyway?” Donny growled.
“I’m Cassie Ryan,” she repeated.
Donny was startled. His grip on the gun in his hand tightened. “Are you fucking crazy?”
Cassie swung her legs over the side of the bed but didn’t get up. Her hand tightened on Demon’s collar and she held him beside her on the bed. “No, Uncle Donny I’m not crazy.”
“Stop calling me that!” Donny growled. “I am not your damn uncle.”
“Oh, but you are. Flynn Rearden was my father,” Cassie insisted. “Or should I say, he donated the sperm that created me, a father he never was. Maybe a bastard but he was never a father.”
“You lie.” Donny spat at her.
Cassie shook her head. “I wish I was but Flynn was my father. Would you like to see my birth certificate?”
“Who was your mother?”
“Jemmia Ryan.”
Donny nodded. “Why do you go by her name and not Flynn’s?”
“Flynn never married my mom.”
“Yes, he did,” Donny insisted. “I gave him the money to get married and set up a house.”
Cassie snorted. “Then he put it up his arm or drank it. He and my mother never married.”
Donny’s frown deepened. “That doesn’t sound like Flynn. He never did drugs.”
“Are you sure you knew him at all?” Cassie scoffed.
“I would have beat the hell out of him if he did and he knew it,” Donny replied as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“Maybe you would have before you went to prison but you weren’t there to keep him in line anymore were you? He changed after you went to prison. Changed in a not so good way either. He became a bastard, and he didn’t care who he hurt if they crossed him,” Cassie informed him. “Jemmia tried to leave him several times after I was born but he kept dragging her back and beating hell out of her for trying to get away. He had to keep her around, she was the one who went to work to keep him in drugs and booze. He couldn’t let either of us go. Then one day, he didn’t stop with the beating until he killed her.”
“I don’t believe you,” Donny whispered. “He swore to me the day I killed our father, he would never turn out like him.”
Cassie laughed unamused. “Oh, I think he was much worse than your father ever was.”
“What does that mean?” Donny growled as he paced back and forth. The gun in his hand twisted and twirled but he kept his focus.
“After he beat my mother to death, he got desperate for his next fix, I was the only thing he had left in the world, and I was only three years old. He needed a fix so bad, he did the only thing he could think of, he sold his daughter to a nasty bitch for money enough to get his next high. Do you want to know how much money he got for me?” She sneered. “She paid him four hundred dollars for his three year old kid! Flynn took the money and walked away. He never looked back. I know because I watched him until I couldn’t see him anymore.”
Donny lowered the gun slowly. He didn’t believe what he was hearing. “All of this is a lie. Flynn would never do this.”
Cassie got to her feet and took a step away from the bed. “He did do this and much worse. He had no one there to tell him any better. He had no one there to keep him in line.”
“I don’t believe you!”
“Does the name Janelle Walden mean anything to you?” Cassie had to ask.
Donny nodded. “I’ve been hearing about her in the news now for a while. Her and her nasty little kiddy ring.”
“Yeah, well that’s the bitch Flynn sold me to….” She paused then asked, “Would you ever sell your daughter for money to get high on?”
Donny narrowed his eyes and stared at her. “Why did I hear Calderone Vincinti killed him? What was his connection to you and Flynn? Why would a man like Calderone bother with a man like Flynn?”
“Sixteen years ago, Calderone had a five year old daughter. She and her mother were in a car when Flynn rammed it causing the accident. Flynn left the mother to die while he stole the five year old girl. The mother died knowing her daughter was taken by a man who would hurt her. Calderone had been looking for his daughter all that time, never knowing if he would ever find her again. Flynn then sold the girl to Janelle where she was tortured, starved and beaten until we were ten. I got us the hell out of there but the horror didn’t end at that time. We had nowhere to go, so we lived on the streets of Boston. Do you know what it’s like to be homeless and just a kid?”
“My brother couldn’t be that heartless.” Donny shook his head. “I saved him from a beating by killing our father. I went to prison while protecting him. He never would’ve done that.”
“Don’t give him any more excuses for his behavior. Flynn was a bastard and he got what he deserved,” Cassie told him as she raised her chin in defiance. “I didn’t see him again after he dropped Calderone’s daughter off until the night I returned her to her father. Flynn sought me out, he was there in the shadows and he called me over to him and warned me not to tell anyone his real name. He’d been working for Calderone for about ten years or so under the name Theo Billini until that night. By that time, I hated him for what he’d done to me. I might have not bothered with him but he stole my friend’s life too and that I couldn’t let go. When Calderone found out it was Flynn who killed his wife and sold his daughter to Janelle, he had every right to take his revenge. Flynn cried like a baby when he knew he was finally going to pay for his mistakes. He begged for mercy when he had none to give anyone else. What Calderone did was right and Flynn deserved every bit of pain he received.”
Donny raised the gun and pointed it at her. “I don’t believe a word you’ve told me tonight.”
Cassie lifted her chin and stared at her uncle. “You know something? I don’t care if you believe me or not. I have no reason to lie to you. I will not beg you for a damn thing. I have scars from my time with Janelle. I know I can’t prove my claims to you or anyone else but I don’t lie. You weren’t there, so there is n
o way I can prove what happened. There is also no way to prove that I’m lying either, so believe what you want. I gave the FBI the evidence they needed to bring that evil bitch down. No kid deserves the horrors of what she did to them. No kid should ever have to go through what I did at her hands. Flynn knew what she was and what she did with the kids in her care and he still put me there. He sold me to her anyway for the price of four hundred dollars. I hated him for most of my life. I feared him for the first three years but I learned to hate him after that. Flynn was not a good man, he might have been different if you hadn't thrown your life away for him.”
“How do I know this is the truth?” Donny asked. “I heard a totally different story from my friends.”
Cassie got to her feet and turned her back to him then she lowered her nightgown and showed him her back. “Janelle’s son Robbie was a little prick at fourteen. He learned his lessons well by her hand. He was cruel and nasty and just plain mean. When I stood up to Janelle for another kid in her care, she beat the hell out of me then let her son teach me a lesson. He carved this nasty word in my back.”
“How old were you?”
“I was ten, this happened two days before my friend and I got out of there.”
“Damn,” Donny swore as he stared at the scars on her back. The skin was puckered and interrupted by the letters crudely cut into her flesh. He could see the scars were old and had not healed well. He couldn’t imagine the pain she endured at such a young age. A scar like that would be hard for a grown man to endure.
When she pulled up her gown and turned around to stare at him she noted he had taken a step or two back from her. He leaned against the wall and the gun was again lowered to his side.
“So where do we go from here, Uncle Donny?” she asked. “Do you still want to kill me?”
“My brother was such a good kid when we were growing up. I loved him and he never would have done such things as you said he did. Not back then.” Donny shook his head. “I don’t know what to believe now.”