by K. J. Dahlen
“What about us?” John asked. “We had nothing to do with Jolene’s death. That was Micah all the way.”
“You kidnapped my daughter and abused her for your own merit.” Calico snarled. “For that alone I will see you dead.”
“Leon,” Max argued. “You can’t allow this to happen. The family will never stand for it.”
Leon nodded. “I’ve been in contact with the Council and they agreed. Normally, we wouldn’t allow this to happen. We take care of our own problems but this time, they did agree. This is the product of your own making Max. You are the one who betrayed your post, you are the one who wouldn’t let go of Jolene and take care of business for us. As we speak, your men are being replaced by a new regime of men. Men, who are more loyal to us than you ever were.”
“What’s going to happen to us?” Max asked.
“I’m going to leave that to these men.” Leon motioned at the group of bikers surrounding them. “They have their own style of justice for those who betray them.”
“That’s murder anyway you fucking slice it, Mr. Vincinti and you know it!” Jack shouted.
“Just like it was murder when my mother was being kicked to death!” Sawyer screamed. “Just like when Max gave the order to kill Jordan’s father? Or when Max beat my mother shortly after Calico left us. She almost died when she lost the baby she was carrying!”
“What the hell?” Calico turned to stare at his daughter. “What baby?”
“She was pregnant with your child when she sent you away,” Sawyer sobbed as she told him her mother’s secret. She turned to glare at Max. “When he found out, he beat the hell out of her and she almost bled to death because of it.”
Calico’s hands turned into fists and he advanced on the other man. “I’m going to enjoy beating the shit out of you, you bastard.”
“Come children, we don’t have to stay for this part,” Leon ushered Sawyer and Jordan to the door. Once they were outside, they could all hear the sounds of a rumble inside the building. Leon nodded to his men and walked to his limo. Getting the children inside, he gave a nod to his driver once he and Calderone were settled. As they drove away, they all heard gunshots echo in the stillness.
Sawyer’s tears spilled down her cheeks. She felt numb but there was something she had to know. “Did he tell you where my mother’s body ended up?”
“He had her cremated and her urn is at his house. I will get it back for you.” Leon nodded. “I have to go to Rochester in person to appoint a new person to Max’s position.”
“Thank you,” Sawyer whispered. “I hated having to leave her there alone but there was nothing I could do. Micah was coming after me. I didn’t want him to kill Jordan the next time he found us.” She turned to her brother. “I had to protect him, he was all I had left.”
“My dear…” Leon patted her hand. “You did what was necessary at the time. No one can fault you for that. I’ll bring your mother back to you.”
“But now, I’m not all you have left,” Jordan told her. “You have your father back.”
Sawyer shook her head. “But for how long?” she whispered. “He walked out of my life before, how can I expect him to stay now?”
Leon chuckled. “Oh, I don’t think he’s leaving anytime soon. Fathers can be a very stubborn lot, you know. That man loves you very much and he isn’t ever going to leave you again.”
“How do you know?” Sawyer whispered.
“Because I am a father as well. There is no way in hell I would ever leave my child. I am also a grandfather and a great grandfather and I would give my own life to protect those I love.”
Calderone smiled as he felt his phone ping with a text message. When he checked the text and his smile grew. He knocked on the window and told the driver a new destination. Turning to his own father, he said, “Peaches had the baby, another boy. Elliot James was born this morning.”
Leon grinned. “You see, there is so much in this world to be thankful for. I hope you see this as a new beginning. Get to know your father again. Maybe even find a man who loves you and deserves your love in return. There is too much violence in the world.”
“But don’t you live in the violence?” Jordan asked.
Leon shrugged. “Yes, our world has violence in it, but we are also businessmen. I prefer not to dwell in the violent part of it but rather in the business part of my life.”
“Can I tell you something?” Sawyer asked.
“Of course.” Leon nodded.
“Max had some pretty shitty stuff going on in Rochester. Stuff I don’t know if you even know about.”
“Such as?”
“Well, besides the drug racket and the gambling, he had a sideline of smuggling.”
“Smuggling?” Calderone frowned. “What was he smuggling?”
Sawyer shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure but he always used Bascomb’s Import/Export. He also ran an illegal poker game. He moved the place they played every week to avoid getting busted, but the cops were very interested in the money generated by the game.”
“Don’t forget the money laundering racket,” Jordan made mention.
“How pray tell do you know all this?” Leon asked.
Sawyer shrugged. “Max didn’t care who knew what he was into. That way, no one in his right mind would bother his places of business.”
“I see.” Leon glanced over at Calderone. It was beginning to sound as if just replacing Max wasn’t going to be an easy job. They would have to delve into what the man was doing all this time and how his business would affect the family.
“Now, may I ask you a question?” Leon wanted to know.
Sawyer nodded.
“Why are you telling us this?”
“Because I want Max to go to the next world with nothing to his name.” Her eyes were full of wrath. “Rochester used to be a decent town to live in but the last ten years or so, it’s become a dirty town. Crime rules the streets. Max cheated everyone there, so I wouldn’t doubt he cheated you as well. He showed my mother his safe once when he was trying to impress her. She told us it was the whole length of his basement and it was filled with money and jewelry. He told her it would all be hers if she would only accept him, instead of reject him.”
“What did your mother do then?” Calderone asked.
“She came home with a bruise on her face where he hit her, so I assume she rejected him again.”
They pulled up to the front door of the hospital.
Calderone and Leon ushered Sawyer and Jordan to the maternity floor and went in search of Peaches.
Sawyer and Jordan waited with Melora, Sam and the Morgan brothers.
~* * * *~
When the Vincinti men returned a couple of hours later, Calico and the others had come back as well.
Leon pulled Calico away from the crowd and Calico handed him some things. They spoke in low voices.
Then Calico turned and found his daughter. Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her close, “I love you girl,” he whispered in her ear.
Sawyer wrapped her arms around his waist. “I have missed you. When you left that day, you took a big chunk of me with you.”
“I will never leave you behind again,” he vowed.
“Can you accept Jordan as well? I won’t abandon my brother.”
“Of course, I can baby girl,” Calico assured her. “He’s part of Jolene and no matter what happened in the past, I did love her. I think I loved her all these years.”
Sawyer smiled. “I know she loved you. In the hospital, she was unconscious but she kept calling for you right up until she died.”
“That doesn’t help you know,” he whispered as he looked pained.
“I’m sorry,” Sawyer whispered back. “I just wanted you to know that my mother loved you very much. She didn’t forget you and she wouldn’t let me forget you either.”
Calico leaned back and frowned at her. “What does that mean?”
“When I was little, she used to tell me stories about you
. We’d lay there in my bed and she would tell me how you met, some of the things you did together. She would have this special smile on her face when she spoke of you. Over time, she lost that smile but I still remember it. Just before she died, she had it on her face again and I was glad.”
Calico closed his eyes against the pain in his heart. He didn’t know what the future had in store for him but he did know Sawyer was going to be part of it. He wasn’t going to leave her behind again. He made a silent vow to Jolene. He would never leave Jolene’s behind.
NEXT BOOK:
To be released in June
STONE COLD
When Leon and Calico track down Max’s misdeeds, they find more than they bargained for. They find the truth about the night Jolene died, they also find evidence a man named, The Priest, who is after Sawyer. If Bane is a world class assassin, then the Priest is a world class torturer. He gets answers no one else can. Max had lost something valuable and he assumed Jolene took it. With Jolene gone, the only one who might know where this item is, is Sawyer- and she doesn’t have a clue her mother took the item in the first place.
Bane is back and he brings his son Michael to meet Cricket but he comes with more than just a visit in mind. He comes looking for something Orrin was given by their grandfather, a set of matching daggers hundreds of years old. Cricket doesn’t have them but she doesn’t want Bane to get them either. Who will end up with the daggers and which one of them will end up dead?
READ THE WHOLE SERIES
BOOK ONE
Continuing From Satan's Spawn MC Series....
SILK AND BONES(Sin's Bastards MC Series)
When Sam Tory discovers what he thinks is a thief, he’s stunned to find it’s a woman with a secret. The kind of secret that could get someone killed. It’s already cost one man his life. She doesn’t want to share her secret but Sam won’t let her go. Instead, he brings her to Deke and the Sin’s Bastard brotherhood, hoping they can help her.
Melora has been running for the last two years but Deke and Sam convince her now is the time to stand and fight. Then her past comes knocking and she finally meets her father for the first time in her life. When she realizes he’s been looking for her for some time, she’s not sure what to think. He’s been missing all her life but now he wants into her business. Melora just wants to disappear but the men in her life won’t let her. Can she survive a face down with the man who wants her dead?
BOOK TWO
KARMA’S BITCH ~ SIN’S BASTARDS MC SERIES
Sam's past and future comes back to bite him in the ass when he gets word that his oldest daughter is sick and his old lady informs him she's pregnant. Sam has a habit of running away from being a father, will this time be different?
When a shared connection between Cassie and Melora comes to light, it leads to danger- can the MC stop it in time or will it cost Melora her life?
BOOK THREE
NO REGRETS ~SIN’S BASTARDS MC SERIES
We all have regrets in our lives, it’s the mistakes we learn by—Raine’s regret is not stopping his brother from almost killing Reva seventeen years ago, now his brother is getting out of prison and he’ll be coming after her again. This time Raine vows to stand beside her…
Reva’s regret is the fact that she held a secret for the past seventeen years—a secret that could and would bring danger to the MC. Can she make it right after all this time or is it too late?
BOOK FOUR
Sin’s Bastards MC Series
Everything in Deke and Cassie’s life is wonderful. The MC is thriving. Their twin toddlers are a joy and now, they have a baby daughter on the way. Little do they know, someone from Deke’s past is hell bent on destroying his life.
Then in one day, it all unravels when someone breaks into Redemption House and takes away his world.
K.J. Dahlen
I live in a small town (population495) in Wisconsin. From my deck, I can see the Mississippi River on one side and the bluffs, where eagles live and nest on the other side. I live with my husband Dave and dog Buddy. My two children are grown and I have two grandchildren. I love to watch people and that has helped me with my writing. I often use people I watch as characters in my books and I always try to give my characters some of my own values and habits.
I love to create characters and put them in a troubling situation then sit back and let them do all the work. My characters surprise even me at times. At some point in the book, they take on a life of their own and the twists and turns they create becomes the story. Of all the stories, I could write I found I like mystery/thrillers the best. I like to keep my readers guessing until the very end of the book.
MY PREVIOUS BOOKS ARE:
SATAN’S SPAWNMC SERIES:
Spawn &Spitfire, Revenge And Retribution, Babies And Bastards, The SIN’S BASTARDS SERIES: Silk & Bones, Karma’s Bitch, No Regrets, Hell’s Fury, Lies And Liars.
.
Bones, The Darkness Within, Meghan’s Legacy, Shadow Chaser, Witness, Secrets and Lies, Legacy of Murder, The Unknown Son, The Prophet, No One to Hear You Scream, Bradbury Inn, Murderous Intent, Wrong Number, Fall from Grace, The House on Berkley Street, Cards Of Sin, Blood Memories, From Beyond Death and Words To Die For.
My next books coming out are:
In The SIN’S BASTARDS SERIES: STONE COLD
Phoenix Rising, A Murder in her Past, Words To Die For and From Beyond Death.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://smarturl.it/KJDahlen
I am on Facebook and twitter as kjdahlen
My blog is on Facebook at K.J.’s blog
My publishers are:
www.roguephoenixpress.com
www.indigoseapress.com