“They’ll be there.” BlackJack shifts on his feet.
“Good. Good.” I can almost hear the evil in John’s voice, and it makes my blood boil. That bastard could have done anything to Wynter and Spring. He could have forced them at gunpoint to say what they said. We only have his word that he hasn’t hurt them.
How the hell am I supposed to believe a man who killed his own son?
“Remember, BlackJack, none of your friends and no cops, just the three of you. I have words for you all.”
“Then you’ll let the girls go?”
John says nothing for a moment, and the wait is agonizing. “You’ll find me where it all began. You have an hour. Don’t be late, Jacky.” With that, the line goes dead.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
BlackJack looks at me, and I can see that he doesn’t know the answer. Great!
“We have to be very careful with this,” Jett looks at me. Bastard thinks I’m going to do something stupid. In normal circumstances I would, but I can’t go rushing in there because I won’t risk Wynter’s life for anything. No matter how badly I may want to throttle the cunt, I can’t be stupid. “Regardless of what John said, you’re not going alone.”
“You don’t know my brother, Jett. If he spots anyone other than the three of us,” BlackJack points to James and me. “He won’t hesitate to kill Wynter and Spring.”
“We ain’t risking that!” I snap.
“No one is risking...” Julian is cut off by the door bursting open.
All eyes turn toward the woman rushing into the room. Julianne scans the room for less than three seconds before she spots Julian. “Where are they?” She screams while rushing Julian. He grabs her wrists before her fists slam down on his chest. “Where are they?” Julianne screams again.
“I’m sorry,” Neil looks around the room, addressing everyone it would seem until his eyes find Julian’s. “She heard Justin and me talking, and she took off before I could stop her.”
“Someone’s in trouble,” VJ mumbles beside me. I shoot him a look that says, shut the fuck up!
“VJ!” Jett hisses, but VJ just rolls his eyes and smirks. How he can find this situation funny is beyond me.
Julianne is still trying to attack Julian, and he’s still trying to calm her. “Please tell me where my babies are, Julian. I only just got Wynter back, and now I could lose both of them.”
Julian sighs and shakes his head. “John has them,”
Julianne’s eyes are wide, and she shakes her head erratically. “How? He-he’s in prison.”
“No,” Julian shakes his head. “He broke out this morning.”
“Oh, God,” Julianne swallows so hard that it’s audible to the whole room.
“Listen to me, Julianne. Right now, the girls are okay. John hasn’t hurt them yet, and Jack is about to meet with John and bring Spring and Wynter home.”
Julianne turns her head and spots BlackJack. She swallows hard again and makes her way over to him. “You’re John’s brother?” I’m not sure if it was a question or not, but BlackJack nods his head anyway. “Wynter told me all about you. She said that you’re nothing like John,” She blinks and I see the tear fall from her eye. “She said that you’ve been good to her,”
“This is all well and good,” Phoenix mumbles in my ear. “But we need to get out of here and find my cousins now.”
Phoenix is right; I know she is. We’ve wasted ten minutes already!
“Julianne, I will bring your girls home. I promise you that.”
Julianne nods her head at BlackJack, then she looks at James and then me. “I know the two of you love my daughters, and I know you’ll do everything you can to bring them home safely. Just be careful, John is worse than a monster. He’s smarter than most would believe, and if he thinks you’re there to take him out, he will kill my babies.” She turns in her husband’s arms and sobs.
“We need to go now.”
“Go where, James? I don’t have a clue where my brother is.”
I roll my neck and let it crack. “Think, BlackJack. What did he mean by where it all began?”
There has to be some significance to what John said. I don’t know the man at all, so therefore I have no damn clue what to think.
“Wait,” Julianne pulls away from Neil. “That’s what John used to tell me.”
“What did he used to tell you, Julianne?”
She looks at me and tells me, “When John kidnapped me, and he took me to his house, he used to say that I was where it all began. He said that I was the light in his darkness. I was the only one he ever felt the need to keep with him. I was where it all began for him.” What the fuck is she trying to say? “The house where he kept me, that’s where the girls are.”
That’s all we need to know.
* * *
This house looks like any other abandoned house – filthy and falling apart. Jett and the others, because they all insisted on being here, are waiting around the corner. BlackJack told them not to come, but you don’t argue with Jett.
“Listen to me,”
“What now?” I hiss between my teeth at BlackJack.
“Do not go in there thinking you can grab your wives and run. We don’t know what state the girls are in, and you don’t want to cause them more harm. Do not turn your back on John, he will kill you faster than you can blink. However, be on your guard, I don’t wanna lose either of you. Don’t play the hero. We have no time for that. If I tell you to run, you run.”
In other words, if things go bad, grab the girls, and run, even if that means leaving BlackJack behind.
We make our way inside the house. It’s not as rundown as I imagined. The room to the left of the hallway has a handful of furniture pieces dotted around the room, covered in white sheets. The room to the right looks to have been the den, and this is where we find John Anderson. He’s standing in front of what was once the open fire. He’s taller than I imagined, slight in build but no less strong.
“There he is!” John’s smile seems genuine as he looks at BlackJack. John embraces BlackJack, who himself doesn’t move to hug him back. “Little Jacky boy. You grew, little brother!”
“Tends to happen after forty-seven years, John. Where are the girls?”
John laughs while wagging his finger. He doesn’t answer BlackJack’s question, he turns to James and me, still with a smile on his ugly old face. “Now, let me guess,” John looks James up and down. “Expensive suit, neat, slicked-back hair, clean-shaven. Mexican?”
“Cuban, on my mother’s side,”
John nods in thought.
It’s no secret that John Anderson is a racist piece of shit. Knowing his daughter married a man of Cuban descent must be irking the hell out of him right now.
“You must be Spring’s other half.”
“That’s right,” James rolls his shoulder, trying to John that he can’t be intimidated.
James is a good guy, five-eleven, around one hundred and fifty-five pounds, and not a bad looking guy. However, it’s obvious to me that James is a little afraid, though that could be for his wife rather than himself.
“Apart from the color of your skin, you’re just who I imagine Spring would marry. Always thought Wynter would be the one to date a colored kid,” John snorts.
James grits his teeth, but I shake my head at him. I know how angry he must feel right now by what John said, but getting into it with him won’t change anything.
“That must make you Havoc.” I don’t answer. “Tall, built, a fighter, just the type I always imagined Wynter would go for.”
“Enough with the chit chat, John. Tell me what you called me here for.” John stares at BlackJack for a moment, and I’m fighting the urge to walk away and search for Wynter.
So many things are rushing through my mind right now. Did John kill Wynter the moment he ended the call to BlackJack?
Is Wynter’s body lying next to Spring’s in one of these rooms?
Is she tied up and gagged?
In pain?
Is she here somewhere wishing I’d saved her?
“I wanted to put things right while I still can. Take a seat.”
“We’ll stand. We’re not here to get comfortable.”
John sighs. “Suit yourselves. How’s your family?” John directs his question at BlackJack, and I’m fast loosing my patience.
“They’re fine, John. Stop stalling.”
John nods his head. “Before I tell you what you want to know, I just want to apologize.”
BlackJack folds his arms around his chest and breathes deeply. “For?”
“For everything, but mainly for the way I treated you over Taylor.” I see BlackJack’s spine straighten. “Everything I said to you back then was wrong, Jack. I did a lot of thinking while in prison, and I met a few people who became friends. One, in particular, helped me see the world in a very different way.”
I look at James, who mouths, ‘What the fuck?’ I shrug my shoulders. I don’t have a damn clue what the point of all of this is.
“Koji was in prison for killing his brother,” John laughs to himself. “However, he was an insightful man, and he changed a lot about me. I realized how badly I’d treated Taylor, how badly Mom and Dad also had. I knew when the girls were born that I never wanted them to think the way they did. I hadn’t even been to prison then, so I suppose my mindset had already been altered.”
“Yet, when Wynter came to visit you, you called me, what was it again?”
John nods at BlackJack. “I know, but I had to keep the lie going. All I’m trying to say is that you have a beautiful family, Jack. I know you took Wynter into your heart, even knowing that she’s mine. I know you’ll do the same with Spring. I’m proud of you, Jacky, I really am.”
BlackJack doesn’t reply; he simply tips his head before saying, “Tell me what I want to know, John.”
“You wanna know how I broke out of prison? And at my age!” He laughs with wide eyes. God, he really is an ugly fucker. “It doesn’t matter now. All you need to know is that everything I did was to protect my girls.”
I can’t believe John would expect anyone to buy that bullshit. Shooting your child is not protecting them. You’d have to be insane to think that! Wait, he is.
“How was shooting Spring and Julianne, and leave Wynter to the care system protecting them?”
A small noise like a shuffle has me turning my head to the left. It’s gone as quickly as it came, so I turn my attention back to John Anderson.
It was probably just a mouse, Havoc.
“Riff was coming for my girls, Jack. It was only a matter of time before he found them.” He sighs. “It didn’t take me long to figure out that someone was killing my kids in order of age, long before the police even knew they were mine.”
I fold my arms around my chest and take a deep breath. I’m itching to find my wife, and the longer we stand here, the more chance there is, she could be dying from her injuries; if she has injuries.
“You know, there ain’t many people could ever get one up on me, but that little shit did. It didn’t take me long to figure out who was killing my kids, either. From the moment that kid was born, I knew I should have drowned the little prick. There was something just not right about him.”
The fact John Anderson was his father might have been the reason. Fucking moron can’t even see that his evil genes had to have gotten into one or two of his children.
“Oh, I searched for Riff, but I never found him. The little bastard was good at hiding. I mean, how can you kill so many people and never get caught? That takes some balls.”
Again, this man is a fucking idiot. He raped countless women and got away with it because he scared those women into keeping their mouths shut.
“I couldn’t risk Riff finding my little girls. I had to throw him off the scent by making him believe the girls were already dead.”
“And you couldn’t have faked their deaths instead of shooting them?” I grab James’s arm and shake my head. This isn’t the time for him to put his two cents in.
“As I was saying,” John ignored James and continues talking to BlackJack as if James and I don’t even exist.
John explains how he planned to shoot the twins and Julianne only to incapacitate. He’d then allow himself to be arrested. Once at the police station, he’d explain about Riff, in exchange for his confession about all crimes he’d committed, including the kidnapping and fifteen-year imprisonment of Julianne Bucannon, he wanted police protection for the girls.
Long story short, all that happened from that day until today, did so because John loved his daughters and wanted them to outlive Riff.
In some fucked up way, I understand why John did what he did. I’ll never understand why he didn’t ask for help when it came to his other children. All in all, it will never change the fact that this man is a monster. Everything Riff did, right or wrong, was due to John Anderson and the pain he caused.
Everything that Julian, Spring, Julianne, Wynter, not to mention the world believes happened, it’s just fiction. Stories were told, and facts were distorted, but only John knows the truth.
How wonderful!
“What is it you want from me, John? You’ve already taken Riff out, what’s left?” John looks at BlackJack, not once blinking. “Do you want a medal, John? You kidnapped, raped, and tortured a child in this very house! You force her to carry your children and then act as though she was your wife for fifteen years! That didn’t stop you raping more women than I care to count. Jesus Christ, you forced eighteen women to carry your children. You tormented them, mentally abused and physically tortured them, John. Was it any wonder that Riff turned out the way he did?”
John’s face remains impassive. I have to wonder if he’s even hearing what BlackJack is saying.
“No matter how those kids came into this world, they didn’t deserve to die for your crimes.” BlackJack is right. No one can choose their parents, and John Anderson’s children didn’t deserve to die just because he was their father. I don’t condone what Riff did, but in a fucked up kind of way, I understand the madness within.
I hear another shuffling noise, only this time louder. Something tells me that I should be investigating, but we’re still not done here.
“Is Julianne happy?”
BlackJack nods. “She’s happy.”
“I know you don’t understand it, but I loved her, Jack. I still do.”
I shake my head in disgust. Pedophile scum!
“If you love Julianne, then let me take her daughter’s home. She’s so afraid thinking Riff has hurt them. All Julianne wants is to know they’re safe. For all the terrible things you put her through, Julianne loves Wynter and Spring. She’s hurting right now, and I know you don’t want that, John. Those girls have been through so much in their young lives. They have families of their own now, and people who love and care for them. Let them come home, John.”
John smiles wearily. “You’re a good man, Jacky. I was never a good man.” He sighs dramatically, I refrain from rolling my eyes. No one here feels sorry for him. He could have found God and become a devout catholic for all I care; it won’t change what he’s done. “You will take care of them for me, won’t you? The three of you?”
“Until the day we die.” I’m not saying that to make this man feel better, I’m just being honest. Once this man is safely back in his prison cell, I’ll make sure to keep Wynter safe.
“That will do. Riff is in the bedroom on the left. I’m not sure how long he’d been staying here, but there’s evidence enough in that room to prove the man was a serial killer. Make sure the police know that I killed him and the reasons why.”
John crooks his finger, beckoning us to follow him to God knows where.
There’s nothing to worry about, Havoc, he’s just one man, and there’s three of you.
We follow John into the kitchen. The room is empty but for the built-in cabinets.
“We should call the police now.” James
whispers toward me.
“They’ll be here soon enough,” I whisper-hiss back.
“The girls are in the garage,” John tips his head toward the door behind him. “They’re not hurt, Jacky. I checked them both for any injuries Riff may have caused them. They’ll have a headache for a while, but nothing serious.”
Thank the Lord, though it won’t stop me from getting Wynter checked out by a doctor.
“Don’t let them into this room, and make sure they know that I loved them.” Then the motherfucker pulls a gun from the back of his belt, so fast, I didn’t see him do it.
BlackJack and I pull our guns just as fast and point them at John Anderson. “Don’t be fuckin’ stupid, John. Put the gun down!”
John shakes his head at BlackJack. “There’s nothing to fear, Jacky. You have one job, and that’s to take care of Spring and Wynter for me. Oh, and one more thing - tell Julianne that she was the light.” In less than a second, John Anderson puts the barrel of the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. Brain matter hit the wall behind him, his head falls back, and soon after, so does his body.
What the fuck?
BlackJack’s eyes are locked on his brother’s dead body, James is vomiting in the sink, and I’m frozen to the spot.
Shake yourself out of it, Havoc, your wife needs you.
However, it isn’t me who speaks first. “Havoc, James, get the girls and take them through the garage entrance.” I nod at BlackJack. “They don’t need to see this.”
I watch BlackJack take out his cell and call Jett. It’s time to get this mess cleaned up. I can’t imagine what BlackJack is feeling right now, but I have no time to think about it either.
I make my way to the garage door, James following. “Before we go in,” I turn to James. “You need to pull yourself together. I know what you just witnessed was horrific, but just tell yourself that Spring is finally free. Nothing can hurt your wife anymore.”
He nods while taking a deep breath. “Let me in there. I need to hold my wife.”
I open the door slowly as not to scare the girls too much. “Wynter?” No answer.
Havoc: Snakes Henchmen MC Page 23