It was time to make a call.
25
August 12, 2003
At the most, they’d hold him for twenty-four hours. Shane, now seated in a small attorney visitation room, tapped his fingers against the table. If he were a true actor, he could almost imagine winning an Oscar for his performance. Of course, those above knew who he really was, but the minor officers were less informed, and he had to give it to Hobbes for being such a great sport about it all. He’d owe him a drink or two or maybe just a keg to make up for the inconvenience of it all.
Hearing the voices on the other side of the door, he inhaled and waited for his attorney to make an appearance. He needed to appear to everyone like the thug he pretended to be. Jesse had given him a new name, a new individual to connect to Blackwell. Surely, by the time this Thornton Gage arrived, Hobbes would already have the beginnings of a dossier.
The doorknob turned and in walked a man who seemed to have hurried out of bed. He smelled of cigarettes and, more than anything else, his eyes glinted as if he knew the truth. Dropping his briefcase on the floor, he scooted into the chair next to Shane, while Hobbes came back in and attempted to find grounds to keep Shane in jail. This Gage guy was about to have the cards stacked in his favor, but hopefully, Hobbes wouldn’t go too easy on him. They needed to play a good game of bait and switch and make it seem like they had some reason to keep him there and have the attorney convince them it wasn’t enough for probable cause.
“We believe your client has several things to explain about his dealings at the Passionate Lai, including drugs located at the scene and two bodies located in his van,” Hobbes opened up a thin folder and placed it on the table. It included Shane Sterns’s rap sheet, prior mug shot, and some scrawled notes.
“My client has no criminal intent, and he just happened to be there at the wrong time. I assure you, he had nothing to do with the drugs located at the scene nor any other drug paraphernalia and/or criminality at the establishment. Mr. Sterns was a simple patron enjoying himself at a local business. As for the vehicle, it belongs to the Passionate Lai and anyone in said establishment had access to it.”
For approximately five minutes, the attorney and Hobbes went back and forth, and Shane leaned back in his chair and watched the verbal volley, noticing when Gage scored yet another point. He finally said, “From what you have presented officer, I see neither reason nor probable cause as to why my client should remain in police custody. You have not detained everyone there, and my client did nothing that would constitute a criminal act.”
Gage then rose from his seat and waved Shane to also rise. “That being the case, since you have no grounds to charge Mr. Sterns, you will have to release him.”
Hobbes leaned back in his chair and slid his hands to the edge of the table, looking up. “Should we locate any new evidence, of course, that will all change, Mr. Sterns.”
“Until then, I would suggest you release him.” Gage’s tone was light and airy, as if giving a general discussion about the weather and not about the particulars of law.
“Well,” Hobbes huffed and pushed back the chair, causing it loudly to scrape against the floor. “Mr. Sterns you are free to go.”
26
Taking a deep puff from her cigarette, her eyes glued to the rearview mirror, Charlie mentally paced in the parking lot. She’d borrowed Summer’s car after seeing Shane and Jesse being thrown in the back of a patrol car.
In the parking lot, she’d waited and weighed the pros and cons. Would she get out of the car for Jesse or Shane?
Emotions slashed against Charlie, snapping like a new whip. It cracked and battered her; the sting burning through her flesh and muscle until it reached the depths of her soul, marring it.
A part of her romanticized the monster of Jesse, remembering the good times they’d shared, not only the way he’d made her laugh and his attention and what it meant for her ability to survive, but also his kindness.
Her time was up. It wasn’t dedication that made her wait for Shane outside of the police station. Her survival instinct had forced her hand. She’d overheard Jesse when he said he’d get rid of her, too. So easily, he’d washed his hands of her.
Shane was the only immediate option available. Shivers of fear lapped at her—fear of what was to come, fear of what she’d have to still give up to gain her freedom, but it was a move she couldn’t deny as being necessary.
Yet with Shane and his promises, she remembered the bitter pill of his leaving her broken, where it seemed like nothing could or would fill the hole his absence created. Awakening without him there, she’d had to find a way back to Mechanicsville, face the hardship and brutality for running away, and then bear the heartbreak.
She could either be haunted by the ghosts of the past or confront them, exorcizing them. The first step had to begin with the man who’d promised her more than one night, the one who had given her a glimpse of extreme hope.
Yet, seeing the gun in his back at the club, she lost all rationality. If he died, he’d never know about what would forever unite them. He’d never know how she never got over him. And now with him being back, she wasn’t sure if she truly desired to be free of him.
Under the bright parking lot lights, while patrol cars sped away from unloading their latest detainees, all she wanted was for one lone wish under that night sky to be granted.
Seeing Shane strutting toward her, she longed for nothing more than to whisk him away, for them to hide, to not only be safe from others, but also to allow them time to reconnect.
Time never seemed to be on her side though.
Shane had previously apologized, but sorry didn’t erase the prayers and thoughts she’d uttered into the universe, the minutes, hours, and days of wishing, hoping, planning, and the desperate need that coursed through her. It wasn’t only Shane; it was about what they’d created together.
Something he needed to know.
When the precinct doors opened, she recognized him from a distance. But placing his walk and eyeing the officers around him, she accepted it for what it was. Usually, she surmised, he’d try to suppress his police officer gait. She stared at his walk, and with his shoulders pulled back and his head held high, the non-thuggish move confirmed and sounded alarms. Shane was a cop.
For a moment, she struggled about how to react, but the bitter taste of bamboozlement caked her tongue. She tried to recall what had transpired before his abrupt departure three years ago. However, all that she remembered concluded in a quick romance, where all of his attention had been poured on her.
The bubble popped.
He’d used her for his own gain, allowing her connection to the family to give him instant credibility. But then why leave?
She’d find out tonight.
Exiting the car, still glitter-covered, she raced toward him and allowed his strong arms to hold her. “Considering I’m the one leaving the jail, I don’t know why you’re crying,” he whispered, mussing her hair and holding her tightly. He tilted her face toward the light.
She pulled back and grabbed his hand intertwining her fingers with his. “We need to talk.” She saw shadows cross his face and felt him pull away. “Is there somewhere we can go? Jesse hasn’t been released yet, and if you’re out, I’m sure he’ll be walking through those doors soon.”
“It’s been a long night. I’m not sure I’m up for much.”
“Well, what I have to tell you will clear up a lot about tonight, including how you can stay alive.”
Lazarus wanted to pull the blinds up on Shane and step into his own skin for a moment, to take a breather, where he wouldn’t need to look around corners for small-time wannabe ruffians searching for easy membership in the family. But want and need were different things on different planes in time and space. He may have been Lazarus walking down the corridor and out of the police station, but he still needed to be Shane out on the streets.
“All right,” Shane drawled, barely stifling a yawn. “We can go back to my pl
ace.”
“No, they’ll be waiting for you there. Get in the car. I have an idea.”
He watched her put the car in gear and pull out into traffic. The city lights quickly disappeared in a blur of speed filled with twists and turns until they ended up at a lone farmhouse that appeared to be out in the middle of nowhere.
“This used to be my family’s house, but that was a long time ago,” she muttered, turning off the lights as the car rolled down the gravel and dirt drive.
She didn’t talk about her family and what caused her to leave it and find another family she couldn’t escape. A second of bitter sorrow stung her, as she thought about her mother, whom she hadn’t seen in too many years.
27
Charlie jumped out of the car and opened the barn door, then backed the car into the large barn, where hay was stacked high. Once the car was tucked away and the barn door was closed, she turned on the handheld electric lanterns.
The smell comforted her and gave her strength for what she needed to say. Opening the trunk, she removed a plaid blanket.
“So, you want to tell me what’s going on. Why have you brought me out here?” Shane inquired, stepping out of the car and crossing his arms.
“I don’t know how long we have, but it won’t be long before the moment is over and my chance to tell you anything will be stripped away from me, but first, I need to know why you left. I need you to give me a reason why I should be putting my life on the line for a cop.”
His relaxed demeanor shifted to being guarded.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I left because I had to. That’s the only answer I can give you for now.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“You brought me out here to confront me, lead me into a trap?”
“No, I brought you out here to keep you safe and to have a moment to release the burden I’ve been carrying for years. I thought you could fix me. I thought you could—”
“This isn’t the time for that.”
“It’s the perfect time, because once Jesse finds out I’m here with you, it’s over for me. You might not want to have a come-to-Jesus moment, but I know that something isn’t right about your behavior. You don’t quite fit in here, and I’ve seen men come and go in this group. Trying to climb the ladder from associate to member. Is that what I was for you all those years ago? Just an opportunity?”
“No, Charlie, but I can’t do this.”
“I’m not a fool. I know we can’t return to where we once were; but you’ve infected me with the sickness of you and only the truth can cure me and heal us.” She moved closer, placing a hand on his chest.
“Charlie, don’t do this.” He took a step back.
“After you left, Jesse came to take your place. I let him distract me from remembering you, from wanting you, from desiring a life with you, where we could be a family of our own. He promised me a life filled with love, but for the highest bidder, he always lends me out. While you were playing cop, to survive I became someone’s whore.
“According to him, he owns me, and he does, because he’s taken away the only thing that has ever been mine: James. He’s taken James away from me, and my best friend has disappeared. Only Jesse knows where they both are.”
“What do you mean?” Shane asked. “He has your son.”
“No, he has our son.”
28
August 12, 2003
Jesse strutted out of the precinct and was fixing his shirt, as if airing out the jail stench, when a black town car pulled up in front of him. The tinted passenger window rolled down.
“Get in,” Webbie, Blackwell’s lead enforcer, said. Blackwell was the head of the criminal operation for which Jesse worked, and the man behind the illegal commerce sweeping through Virginia.
“Hey, Webbie,” Jesse said. He tried to shirk off the hand of doom that landed on his shoulder from an enforcer he’d never seen before.
“Whoa, get your hands off me.”
“So, is this how you react when your presence is requested? I suggest you get in,” the nameless enforcer said.
“No problem, I mean.” He was then pushed toward the back of the car and shoved within its confines.
“We have a surprise for you, right from the boss. Word’s gotten back that you thought this all belonged to you, since you were controlling the girls. Maybe it’s time you learned that nothing is yours.”
The car drove through the city and back to Mechanicsville and the club. The open sign was off, and the man Jesse had assigned to the front door wasn’t present.
“Where is everyone?” Jesse asked. He gulped at the idea of what could be happening.
“Inside, waiting for you.”
Exiting the car, the path to the club seemed more like a walk to the gallows. Jesse’s palms began to sweat in anxiety. His mouth was dry, and his mind considered all of his options while pulling open the door to what he had always regarded as his kingdom.
29
“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Shane asked. He watched Charlie almost cave into herself with each word, as if shadows sought to suck away her life force and leave even more of a shell of the woman he’d once known. He moved closer, wishing to comfort her, wiping the slate clean again between them.
“When?” She threw her hands into the air. “You were too busy trying to either degrade or seduce me. I didn’t want to tell you like that. Plus, Jesse was always there, and no matter how much I wanted you to know, I had to be careful. If I hadn’t been looking after you tonight, you would already be dead. Who do you think called the police and gave them a tip? How do you think you were able to walk away from that situation? I saw Sven holding a gun against your head. No matter how much you may think you’re a badass, you’re not. You’re just a man trying to make a living like the rest of us.” She placed her hand on his jaw, and he raised his hand to cup her hand. “Tell me the truth. Why did you leave me, and why are you back?”
He wrestled with how to answer. Was she worth it? His logic argued with his honor, and staring at her, he saw her value in her frailty. She knew so much and could crack their case wide open, providing the information they so desperately needed. He could take her in for questioning right now, but then he’d lose any chance of reconnecting with her, and she didn’t have all of the information they needed to bring the Brotherhood toppling down.
He coveted her in all of her complexity and in their cross-lover qualms. During the last three years, he’d thought of her too often, pined for her body next to his and to hear her sweet voice again.
With her simple touch, he felt her warmth spread to him as she raised her other hand, placed it on his chest, and bowed her head. Reaching out, he tilted her face up to his.
“Don’t cry. Nothing is going to happen to you.” He was breaking the rules, getting too close to her, allowing her spark to ignite within him a blazing fire capable of burning down everything he’d built up. “I am capable of more than you think. We aren’t over, and our story isn’t done. I don’t know what tomorrow may bring, but I will fight for it and you, if you let me. I know you have questions, and I will answer them, but not now. Not tonight.” He took a seat on the hay and pulled her down next to him.
“If a war is what they’re looking for, I might as well sign up.” He then turned and looked at her flushed face, her eyes still bright, and the questions lying behind them that still needed answering.
“Remember that night on the Rappahannock,” she said. “I think that was the only time we ever camped out together.”
“Tonight, we can have another bout of fun.” He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her lips, at first tentatively, allowing her lips to slant over his, to take possession of him.
Her lips curled into a rich welcoming smile.
30
Seated in the middle of the room, tied to a chair, with his hands cinched and knotted behind him, Jesse watched the shadows engulf and destroy the life he knew. In slow motion, the macabre scene
unfolded before him. His heart sought to explode from sheer agony as he watched Blackwell’s enforcers bludgeon his friends with pipes. The sound of cracking skulls, accompanied by the shouting and screams of “Help” or “No” from men and women he’d called “cousin” for so long, echoed inside the club—the place he’d assumed they’d always be safe.
Blackwell’s punishment rained down with each blow. No one could hide as they moved from room to room.
He listened and heard them exhale their last labored and blood-filled breaths until all that remained were blood-spattered walls.
“The boss has a message for you, Jesse,” Webbie said.
The sinewy man, in his tight black T-shirt, held the blood-drenched pipe, and some of the crimson spray was smeared across his sweaty, broad face. Webbie quickly cut through the ropes and waved a couple of his men forward.
Two of the men grabbed Jesse by the arms and gripped his shoulders, not allowing him to move.
“You know the game, Jesse.” With a fisted hand, Webbie slammed the pipe into Jesse’s stomach until he bowed over and fell to his knees.
“You can’t steal from Blackwell. He needed these people, and now you’ve gone ahead and tried to mess up the business. No one messes with the business though. Didn't you learn this from the last crew?”
Jesse felt the kick to his ribs. “I’m sorry, man, I’m sorry,” he said, when the pipe connected with his once handsome face. “Just don’t kill me,” he sobbed.
“Nah, that would be too easy.” With a quick swoop, Jesse was pulled on his back, lying on the hardwood floor.
Stretched out straight, with the two thugs holding him down, a third man appeared and handed Webbie two long nails and a hammer. “I was so distracted that I almost forgot my tools,” Webbie said.
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