by KJ Dahlen
Pappy looked at his men then back to Jackal. “Do we know who this prick Venom is?”
“We got our guy on it and he found that Venom goes by the name Cody Pekin but Cody Pekin doesn’t exist beyond ten years ago. We sent this info to your Trudy but so far, she said this venom does not exist, she hasn’t got back to us with anything more yet.”
“What are you thinking though?” Dewey wanted to know.
“George Norris, the leader of the Dogs had a kid, a boy, he was fourteen years old when his dad died. We think Venom might be that kid, all grown up.” He shrugged. “But we don’t know for sure.”
“Anything else?” Pappy inquired.
“He gave the Kings the same offer. Their three days are up today.”
“And what are they doing about that?”
“They’re gathering their own backup.” Jackal shrugged. “Silas and his boys are helping and we’ll be there as well.” He hesitated then said, “Then Luca also sent some of his men to Shreveport after Noelle’s brother.”
“Why?” Pappy asked as he looked over at Noelle. “What does he have to do with this?”
“He’s an old associate of Venom’s. Maybe going back ten years or so,” Beast told them.
“And you think he might know something?” Dewey asked.
“Yeah, there is always that possibility,” Jackal’s Sergeant at Arms, Wolf agreed.
Noelle began shaking her head.
Jackal turned to her. “What’s wrong baby?”
“The timeline you mentioned,” Noelle whispered. “It doesn’t fit. Venom is older than twenty four and he’s been doing business in Lafayette for ten years. He can’t be George’s son. Venom is in his mid-thirties maybe.”
Jackal frowned. She was right. The man they met yesterday was older than twenty four, he must have been thirty five at least. He looked over at Pappy. “Well fuck, who the hell is this man then?”
“Have you discovered anything about him?” Pappy wanted to know.
Jackal shook his head. “We didn’t dig too much into his background as we thought we knew he was somehow related to George Norris, but like I said, we sent what info we had to Trudy.”
Dewey reached for his phone and began texting his wife. He was asking her to run a family tree on the Norris family ASAP, along with what info Jackal’s man sent her. They needed to know exactly who they were working with here.
“What else did you notice about the man?” Pappy asked.
Jackal shrugged. “He seemed to know the clubhouse. Said something about a fresh coat of paint covering a multitude of sins. He was bold enough to plow right through the front gate and he didn’t seem to fear that he wouldn’t walk out of here. Of course, that might have been due to the two dozen bikers lining the road waiting for him.” He paused while glancing at Noelle. “Noelle thinks she ran into him ten years ago as well. She thinks he was part of the home invasion trio that killed her parents and left her for dead.”
Pappy and Dewey both looked over at the woman in question. Her bruises were fading but still visible. She met their gaze head on and they couldn’t really tell what she was thinking as her face was completely blank. Pappy leaned forward in his chair and asked, “What makes you think that?”
“The man has a tattoo of a snake on his right hand. I’ll never forget that snake.” Noelle shuddered. “I couldn’t see his face but after he shot my parents in the back of the head, he turned to me and put a bullet into my belly. I dropped to the floor and the three of them walked out, leaving me there to die. They even turned off the lights so no one would know what happened.”
Dewey looked over at Jackal. “How old was she at the time?”
“Fourteen.” Jackal sneered. “She laid there for a day and a half before anyone found them.”
Dewey and the others in the room growled.
“What happened when you got found?” Pappy asked her.
“I went to live with my stepbrother, Dane Williams.”
Pappy startled at Dane’s name. His eyes narrowed and he glanced at Dewey before turning his glare back at her a moment before finally turning to Jackal. “Her stepbrother is Dane Williams?”
Jackal shrugged. “Actually, they are half siblings. They shared a common parent, Derek Williams. Why?”
“You said Luca was collecting her brother? This would be Dane Williams?” Pappy repeated. “They’re bringing him here?”
Jackal nodded. “Yes, Why? Do you know him?”
Pappy gave him a curt nod. “His name has come up in conversation before. I can’t wait to meet this prick, face to face.”
Noelle hung her head. She had a feeling Dane had done something very wrong to this man or his group. It shouldn’t surprise her, she knew he wasn’t a good person. Growing up with a crazy woman for a mother certainly didn’t help. It wasn’t an excuse but if all he learned was under her cruel thumb, he might not have ever learned the moral or right way to do things.
“How long was she with Venom before he threw her into the ditch?” Dewey asked.
“About three days,” Jackal replied. “He beat the hell out of her and threw her into a basement and shot her up with something, we aren’t sure what, then he threw her out to the elements. When I found her, she was almost dead. Doc said she’d been outside for at least a day and a half. If I hadn’t found her she might not have survived another night.”
“Do you know where they held her?”
Jackal nodded. “We were able to track the place down. She told us she heard someone screaming and we found Razor’s woman Shelly there. It was where the Devil’s Own is hiding. An old warehouse near the river.”
Pappy turned his eyes to Noelle. “You didn’t happen to hear anything while you were there did you? Something they might be planning?”
“I was out of it for the most part.” She shook her head. “Doc says they shot me up with something to keep me knocked out. He found needle marks on my arm. I did wake up a couple of times but I was in so much pain from the beatings I wasn’t really with it. I did hear them talking but I can’t remember what they were saying.” She paused for a moment then frowned. “I do remember one time there was a lot of shouting and cursing though.” Then her eyes got wide and she raised her hand to cover her mouth. “Oh, my god...I do remember something! It makes sense now too. Venom was arguing with someone wearing a cut like yours but it wasn’t one of this MC’s. It had a picture of a Devil on it.”
“Do you remember what they were saying?” Beast asked. She might not know it but she just described a member of the Devil’s Own MC.
“Something about taking over the compound right away and not giving them three days?” She was asking a question not issuing a statement. “Venom said it wouldn’t work. They had to wait the three days. He wanted a clear road right up to the front door. They had to take out the Kings before they could move on the compound.” Rubbing her fingers at her temples, she continued, “The other man wanted to get in the compound really bad for some reason. He was saying he waited for ten years for this moment and he had to find out if the advocates had found out the secret of what he and his brother had hidden here. That’s you all... right? The Devils’ Advocates?”
They all stared at her as they nodded.
She looked up at Jackal. “Venom told him to be patient. They would get back what their brother left for them. He said you guys weren’t smart enough to find out all the secrets this place had.”
Jackal looked from her face to his VP.
Beast looked just as confused as he did.
Looking back to her he asked, “Did he say anything about what those secrets might be?”
She shook her head.
“Wait a minute,” Pappy called out. “Back that up a minute...” He leaned back and glared at her. “Venom said something about getting back what their brother left for them to find?”
She nodded. “Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s what I heard.”
Jackal turned to Pappy. “What are you thinking?”
“Could we be missing a brother here?” Pappy voiced his thoughts. “If Venom isn’t George’s son, could he be another brother?” He nodded at Noelle. “She could be right, if he’s been in business in Lafayette for ten years, he wouldn’t be George’s son but he could be another brother, a brother we didn’t know about before. We need to know who this dickhead is.”
“I got Trudy working on it already,” Dewey spoke up. “She’ll find out the Norris family tree.”
“I hope she’s as good as you guys claim she is,” Jackal told them. “We’re running out of time here.”
“She’s never let us down yet.” Dewey grinned at him.
“In the meantime, while we wait, we should see if this compound really has any secrets we didn’t know about before,” Jackal suggested.
“Such as?” Beast asked looking confused.
“Such as hidden passages, or rooms, tunnels, anything we didn’t know before. Start searching. I want to know what they think is here.” Jackal shrugged. “They want back inside the compound for some reason. I’d like to know why.”
Pappy nodded. “They waited ten years to reclaim it. That alone, tells you they think whatever George left is still here. Otherwise, whatever it is, maybe all this time Harvey thought his brother moved it but just never found it, so they figure now they would have the rights to come retrieve it.”
“They must have figured it would be safe until they needed it,” Dewey added.
“I wonder what “it” is,” Jackal surmised.
A lot of murmurs buzzed among the men in the room.
Jackal sighed. “We really don’t need this right now.”
“Think about it boss,” Beast chimed in. “If they have a way in, without coming through the front gate and we don’t know it, they could take us out in our sleep, kill us, and you heard what the man said, every jack man of us, plus our women and kids. And without us to protect them, who knows what those bastards would do to our women and kids? Fuck, without us, they could take over the town. The Kings and us are the only things standing between this town and those bastards.”
Thor and some of the other brothers nodded and began grumbling in the background.
Beast continued, “We got something they want besides this compound. The Dogs were keeping something hidden here and now, someone is willing to kill us all to get it back.”
Jackal glared. “We live here, they don’t. We aren’t going to let them come into our home and kill us.”
“We protect what’s ours and we always will,” Beast shouted out.
“With our blood, our sweat, and our lives if we have to,” Thor added.
The men as a whole all stood and added their agreement. “Damn straight!”...“Fuck yeah!”
Pappy waited till they settled down a bit, then he looked over at Jackal. “What are your plans?”
“The only thing we can do...we’re moving our families into a safe shelter and then leaving enough men behind to protect them and this place while the rest of us ride into town to take a stand with the Kings. Their three days is up today.”
Thor nodded. “The Devil’s MC is about two dozen strong and I have no clue how big Venom’s forces are but I guess we’ll find out today won’t we?”
Pappy grinned. “Yeah well, we got something they might not have.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Beast asked.
Pappy raised a brow at him. “We got military training and we know how to shoot to kill. They might lob some bullets at us but we know how make our bullets count. One shot, one kill.”
The men around the table picked up the chant, “One shot, one kill. One shot, one kill.”
Soon, the walls were throbbing with the sound of their voices.
Noelle had to cover her ears as the shouting sounded like a battle cry to her. Her eyes were wide as she looked around the room. She could almost smell the testosterone climbing to out of control levels. She shrank back in Jackal’s arms as more of the men crowded forward. When she could smell their sweat, she slipped off his lap and crawled to the corner of the room. Bringing her knees to her chin, she watched wide eyed as the men celebrated the upcoming battle.
Her hands covered her ears and she closed her eyes tightly trying to block out the sight of men getting wild. Then the sounds began dying down and when they finally stopped, she still kept her eyes closed.
Sweat and tears ran down her face and she flinched as she felt gentle fingers touching her hands. Suddenly, arms slid under her and picking her up they took her down the hall. She knew it was Jackal who held her. His scent told her that much but she couldn’t bear to open her eyes yet.
He sat down in a chair and just held her for a moment. Whispering in her ear, he told her, “Honey, it’s ok. It’s gonna be all right. No one here will ever hurt you. You don’t ever have to worry about that. I’m sorry that you got scared but these guys can get a little wild at times. It’s the way they have to be, to face what we face at times.”
Noelle put her head on Jackal’s chest. The sound of his heart beating in his chest gave her comfort. She was calming down. He always made her feel safe in his arms. She looked up into his eyes. “You’re going into battle aren’t you? What happens to me if you don’t come back? If Dane or Venom find me, they’ll kill me.”
Jackal smiled. “No matter what, I will always come back to you. Neither your brother or Venom will ever touch you again.”
Noelle reached up and smashed her lips onto his. When the kiss broke a moment later, she whispered, “I’m holding you to that mister. You better come back for me.”
Jackal’s eyes darkened as he gazed intently at her. “Don’t you worry about that baby, you’re mine now. I’ll always come for you.”
Chapter Ten
Jackal suddenly remembered something as he comforted Noelle. When she said going into battle. He turned to his men. “I think I might know where to find a clue to what Venom and the Devil’s Own might be after.”
Pappy and his boys along with Beast and the brothers got to their feet.
“What would that be boss?” Beast asked.
“Some of you might not remember the day we moved in here.” Jackal nodded at his men. “Then some of you might. This place was a pigsty. The men that lived here under George lived like pigs. We had to rebuild a lot of the compound and some of the other sheds and out buildings on the property. Those we couldn’t fix, we burned down and rebuilt them. Some of us searched the caves and other anomalies on the property. Do any of you remember what we found?” Jackal asked out loud.
Some of the men shook their heads in an affirming “No.”
“In one of the caves, we found a cemetery plot. With three graves. One of those graves held a decomposing body of a headless man. We didn’t disturb him but there had to be a reason he was there. I remember asking around town but no one knew anything about them.” Jackal shook his head. “They lied to us. They knew but they were afraid to say anything. They knew if they did, Harvey would punish them. They were more afraid of him then they were of us.”
“What would that have to do with this?” Pappy asked.
“I’ll bet if we ask Silas or George, they can tell us what the Norris brothers were doing here. Hell, they might just know whatever secrets this old place holds. Those two old coots have lived here all their lives. Bet they even knew the old owner, whatever his name was.”
“Ok we can do that, maybe it won’t stop them from coming in the next two days,” Beast pointed out. “But right now, we have to protect our families and this place, all the while sending half the men into Baton Rouge to stand with the Kings against Venom and the Devil’s Own.”
“Yes we do,” Jackal agreed. “Remember what Pappy said, we all have military training, make that count because that gives us the advantage against the Devils and Venom. They may have street smarts but we got the training. We can and will trim down their numbers. We need a plan boys. They got one and we need one. Whatever they are looking for here, is still ours until they come
for it. We have to protect what’s ours and by God, that’s what we’re going to do. We got cameras all over the compound. They might think we can’t protect what’s ours if half of us are gone but we can. We can and we will.”
“Damn fucking right we will.” Beast growled. His breathing had changed in the last few minutes as he thought about the possibilities of what Jackal was saying. It might be Venom’s play to divide and conquer. If that was his plan then he was going to be very disappointed in the outcome. “You could be on to something there Prez,” Beast added. “They could very well be watching us to see how many men we leave behind. They know we’ll protect our families with everything we got. They might even figure they know where we’ll put them for safety. But if they didn’t see Pappy’s men come in the backway, they won’t know our head count for sure. They might even make the mistake of thinking we only have a few bodies here to protect our hold on this place.”
Jackal nodded. “True enough. They might even be so bold as to think they could walk right into the compound and take over. If that were to happen, our women and children would be theirs. That ain’t gonna happen on my fucking watch.”
A few of the women listening from the kitchen joined their men in the main room.
“Arm us before you go,” Maggie said. “We may not be crack shots but this is our home too. I’d rather get killed defending it than live in fear because we did nothing at all.”
Thor grabbed her and hauled her into his arms. “You ain’t going to shoot anyone woman. It ain’t up to you to protect yourself, that’s my job.”
Maggie lifted her hand to his jaw. “Sweet man, I may love you like there’s no tomorrow but this is our fight too. You do a fine job of protecting me every single fucking day, but I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back in fear when I can step up and help. This isn’t just your fight. Its everyone’s fight, every man, woman, and child who lives here, it’s our fight as well.”