Byron

by KJ Dahlen

  He didn’t live far away from Welbourne Street. Turning down the dead end street leading to his own house, he paused and looked back at the house Kelly lived in. There were no sounds he could hear coming from there now and he couldn’t help but wonder what happened that put that look on her face.

  Chapter Two

  Kelly closed the door after her brother Caden and his ‘new best friend’ Jack McGee left the house. She rushed back to where her grandfather was sitting on the sofa. “Are you all right Grandpa?”

  Joe Abalone nodded then winced when he tried to get settled. His ribs hurt from the punches his grandson had given him. At nineteen, the boy could be considered a man but in Joe’s eyes, he was still a little boy. A little boy in desperate need of a whopping maybe ,but still a kid wet behind the ears.

  “How long has he been hitting you?” Kelly asked quietly.

  “Not long,” Joe told her as he patted her arm.

  “How long?” she demanded in a voice that told Joe she meant it.

  “Aww, girl...” He shook his head. “...You know your brother, he don’t mean it.”

  “Then he shouldn’t have done it in the first place Pops,” she reasoned. “Caden is a spoiled little brat and he’s growing into a bully.” She squatted down in front of the older man and laying her hand on his knee she told him, “He wants his freedom. So, I guess it’s time we let him go. He’s old enough to make his own mistakes now.”

  “You know you don’t mean that sweetheart,” Joe began arguing.

  “Yes Pops, I do mean it!” she insisted. “Before Mom walked out on us, we were a family, not a great family mind you, but we were a family. Then Mom left us and you moved in to take care of us, me and Caden. Between you and Dad, we got to be more of a family than when Mom was a round that’s for sure and certain. You and Dad worked hard and achieved something very few men can claim. You and Dad made a dynasty that was something to behold. It was more than just the money and the power you guys had. But that never meant anything to either of you.”

  “Yeah,” Joe scoffed. “But that was enough to bring your mother back into the picture.”

  Kelly shook her head. “That’s all she wanted was the money and the fame. She didn’t want us, her own children. Hell, she didn’t really even want her husband back. Dad told me once that he thought he loved her once upon a time. Then she showed him her real colors and it made him sick to see what she really wanted.”

  Joe reached out and cupped her chin. “You got the best of your daddy in you, didn’t you girl?”

  Kelly smiled and nodded. “I may have gotten the best of dad in me but apparently, Caden got the worse of mom in him.”

  Joe sighed and silently agreed with her. Their mother, Candy might have been a good looking woman at one time but that façade didn’t last long. She hung her star on his son Dominick’s tail and expected great things from him. She pushed him hard to get into the racing circuit and then when he did, she began pushing him into becoming more than just a mechanic. She wanted bragging rights about him being a driver.

  But Dominick knew what he wanted. Joe had been an ace mechanic all his life. When his son was born, he happily passed down the family tradition and he taught his son everything he knew. Separately, they were very good on their own. After Candy left her family in pursuits of something she never found, Joe joined his son to help with the kids and they formed a bond no one could break. Together, Dominick and Joe became the most sought after team the racing circuit had ever seen.

  Kelly picked up her first wrench at the age of four and that began her love of engines and everything that went with them.

  When Candy came back and demanded Dominick take her back, Dom had told her to leave. She didn’t even show her children that she wanted them back, she only wanted the money Dom and Joe had earned. She made her position very clear. But then so had Dom, when he showed her the door.

  They should have listened to her threats to get her own back. If they had, they would have double checked the car Dom was driving three days later. They would have noticed something was wrong and been able to fix it before the engine blew up. Then the right wheel flew off with Dom in the car. He wouldn’t have lost control of his ride and he wouldn’t have crashed into the wall and burned to death before the crew could get to him.

  Joe looked down at his beloved granddaughter. He saw the pain etched in her soul from the accident that took her dad. She’d only been nine when the accident happened but because she was his child, Kelly had been in the pits that fateful day. She knew exactly when the engine began to have trouble. She screamed out her father’s name and Joe had been distracted long enough to miss seeing the car careening toward the cement wall. He’d been comforting her when his son hit the wall and he only heard the whoosh as the fire took the car and Dominick’s life.

  Kelly hadn’t been so lucky. From over his shoulder, she’d seen it all. Her screams that day haunted his nights and that pain in her eyes haunted his days. When the racing commission ruled the accident hadn’t been an accident and the finger began pointing toward Dom’s wife, Kelly had shut down. She watched as the trial convicted her mom of his death but she hadn’t spoken a word. The media coverage hadn’t helped. She’d been just old enough to know what everyone was talking about and the stories flying around at the time hurt her.

  Joe had moved them out of Daytona and brought them here to Troy, New York. He changed their last name, taking on his wife’s maiden name and the time and the peace helped to heal her soul. It still took her a year to speak but she finally did.

  What really helped her was being in the garage with him. Working on the engines seemed to give her peace. She often talked to her dad like he was right beside her and Joe hadn’t stopped her. She needed her dad to heal and that’s what she got. It took her a couple of years before she finally let him go to his eternal rest.

  But Caden... he turned out to be another story altogether. He took after his mother from day one.

  “Grandpa,” Kelly brought him out of his memories gently.

  Joe looked down at her.

  She smiled down at him. “I know you don’t want to give up on him but its time. You raised us both to realize what we want and how to get it. He had as much chance as I did. We have to let him go, to make his own mistakes and decisions. He has to grow on his own now.”

  Joe sighed and patted her hand. “I know girl, I really do, but he’s too much like your mother. He’s gonna make mistakes.”

  Kelly shrugged. “Then we’ll be there for him when he does, but he thinks he knows what he wants now, we have to let him find out for himself. Life isn’t always fair or right but what we chose to do we may have to face the consequences of our choices.” Shaking her head she asked, “So do you know who this guy is that he’s been hanging with?”

  Joe sighed heavily. “You know what your dad and I did years back, with the racing circuit right?” When Kelly nodded, he went on, “Well, Caden never paid any attention to it. He was too young to remember that life after your dad died. When we left Daytona and came here, I thought that life was behind us. That guy’s name is Jack McGee. He’s just making a name for himself in the racing world. He’s also the son of Thundering Ted McGee. Jack is riding his daddy’s coat tails on the racing circuit under the name of Lightening Jack.”

  “What is Caden doing with him? How did they even meet?” Kelly frowned.

  Joe shook his head. “I’m not even sure but about a month ago, Jack showed up and Caden began hanging out with him. This Jack kept looking at me like he knew me from somewhere but he never did ask who I was. Anyway, after that, he got real close to Caden and kept coming around. Things went downhill after that. Caden became cocky and didn’t want to listen to me anymore. He began drinking and we all know he isn’t old enough. He demanded money and when I refused to give him any, he’d just push me around and would take it anyway.” He shifted in his seat and winced. “This is the worst he’s even been but its been escalating. I’ve never seen him li
ke this.”

  Kelly stared at her grandfather. “Gramps, he was high when I walked in here today.”

  “High?” he barked out. “That little shit was high?” Joe didn’t mind having a beer or two but taking drugs? This was something that would never happen on his watch.

  Kelly worried her lower lips with her teeth before she suggested, “Grandpa, maybe we should stay elsewhere for a while. I mean I have to work and I don’t want Caden or Jack coming around when I’m not here.”

  Joe shook his head. “You don’t think Caden’s not gonna be pissed when he comes back and we aren’t here anymore?”

  “I don’t care if he’s pissed or not.” Kelly growled. “If this is how he’s treating you then he’s no longer welcome here. He wants his freedom, well then he can just go out on his own.”

  “And when Jack drops him for someone else?” Joe argued. “I think he knows exactly who we are.”

  Kelly shrugged. “What difference does that make? You and Dad were great mechanics, you left behind a legacy no one else has ever been able to match. When you walked away from all that, if was your choice. You didn’t leave under a cloud. No one forced you to leave but you did it to protect me and Caden.”

  Joe hung his head. “You don’t understand. If people know who we really are, they will dig up the past and your dad’s death all over again. Caden never knew what really happened that day. I don’t want him to find out that way. That would just be cruel don’t you think? I, for one don’t want to relive that time in my life and I’m sure you don’t either.”

  Kelly shook her head. “No, I don’t. I still have nightmares about ii.” She shuddered involuntarily. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on Mom’s face when Dad crashed into the wall. She had a crazy look in her eyes. She couldn’t take her eyes off the crash.”

  “Yeah, your mother was a piece of work all right.” Joe sighed. He hemmed and hawed for a moment then finally told her. “I got a notice from the parole board. After fifteen years, she wants parole.”

  Kelly sat back on her ass...stunned by his statement. “W-what?” she stammered.

  “You heard me.” Joe huffed. “She wants out of prison. She claims what happened was an accident and not her fault.”

  “She admitted tampering with his car at the trial!” Kelly yelled.

  “She said she was tricked into her confession. She claims the cops lied to her and told her they had evidence she tampered with the vehicle when they didn’t. She claims she’s spent enough time behind bars for a crime she didn’t commit.”

  Kelly scooted back until the wall stopped her escape. “She killed him. Fifteen years isn’t long enough, she deserves to burn in hell for what she did.” She stared at him for a long moment then asked, “When does she go before the board?”

  “She went last week.” Joe admitted tiredly.

  “So did she get released then?”

  Joe shrugged. “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

  “Well, I care.” Kelly growled under her breath as she brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

  “I know you do baby girl.” Joe sighed. “But at some point, you have to let the past go. Nothing you do today will bring your dad back and karma is a real bitch. Your mother will get her own. She has to live with what she did.”

  “I know Grandpa, I know. But what Caden is doing is not in his best interest and he’s been coddled all his life. Maybe its time for him to face the real world.”

  “You want him to fail don’t you?” Joe asked her after a moment.

  Kelly shook her head. “No, I don’t want him to fail, but I do want him to realize that life isn’t always fair. There are consequences for our actions and sometimes life has a way of slapping us upside the head. Its time he grew up. He’s old enough to figure things out.”

  “Well, I don’t like it. I’ll do it because I see your point but I don’t like it,” Joe grumbled.

  “I know but this will be the first time he’s on his own. We’ll keep an eye on him but from a distance. I’m not abandoning him gramps, just letting him test his wings and I don’t like the fact that he actually hit you. So if he wants money from now on, he can get a job just like everyone else.” She got to her feet and held out her hand. “Come on Gramps, let get a few things packed and go find somewhere else to call home for a while.”

  A few hours later, Kelly shut the car door. They had packed their things, leaving a note and Caden’s things behind. Kelly left her brother a single hundred dollar bill under the note. She didn’t tell them where they were going; only that he was getting his wish as he wanted to be on his own. She told him she couldn’t let him hurt their grandfather anymore.

  She drove them over to an apartment building and went into the office. Collecting the keys, she drove around the building and parked in front of apartment number 3.

  Getting Joe settled for the night, she dragged her feet to the other bedroom in the small apartment. Without turning on the light, she peeked out the window. It was dark beyond the glass and all she could see was her own reflection in the glass.

  This all seemed so strange to her. Leaving her home in the middle of the night and hiding from her brother. She didn’t like it, not at all, but when she’d seen that he was capable of taking out his frustrations on their grandfather like he had, she’d needed to step in to protect the older man.

  Caden had always been a selfish little shit but this she wouldn’t put up with it. And then to find out this hadn’t been the first time he hit the one person in his life that had protected him all his life? Well, she knew she had no choice.

  She had to protect her grandfather.

  She stripped off her clothes and crawled under the sheets. Closing her eyes she flashed back to the scene, she found when she opened her door after work. Caden was standing over their grandfather as Joe was laying on the floor. His face was twisted in pain as his hands clenched his belly.

  Caden was screaming at the old man and his friend Jack was leaning against the wall just watching the scene play out.

  Kelly marched over and shoed her brother out of the way then helped her grandfather up off the floor. She turned to face her brother just in time to see him pull his fist back. Catching his eye, she dared him to try and hit her.

  This made Caden pause and think about what he’d planned on doing. He remembered all the times she’d stopped him before from throwing his weight around. She might be a small woman but she knew how to put a hurt on him and had done so in the past.

  Caden had ranted and raved at her but Kelly also knew when to tune him out. That’s when he stormed out of the house, closely followed by Jack.

  As she laid here in bed, she knew this mess wasn’t over and her plan to safeguard her grandfather might come back to bite her in the ass but she also knew she would do it all over again, if she had to.

  Grandpa Joe was her only link to her father. She loved him and as much as her brother meant to her, she knew this day had been coming for a long time now. She might not remember too much of her mother but she did remember her selfishness and cruelty, she remembered the night her mother left and never once did she look back or even say goodbye to her children.

  Then after her father and grandfather became the top mechanics in the circuit, her mother came back professing she missed them all. Well, it hadn’t taken long before her dad to figure out the truth, that she only wanted the power and the money. Then within days, her dad was gone and her mother was under arrest.

  Now she was out there again. Kelly knew deep down in her heart, she was looking for the family she’d abandoned once upon a time. She still wanted the money and the fame she’d been denied fifteen years ago. She would play on the name that Joe had hidden from the world. Her mother was selfish enough to once again bring up the wrongs her dad had done her. She was always good at making people believe she was the victim and not the bad guy.

  Random childhood memories flooded her mind while she laid there in the dar
k. Peeks into the past she thought she’d forgotten. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she recalled events from a lifetime ago.

  Closing her eyes, she prayed sleep would find her. She was almost there when her phone pinged with a text message. Checking the time, she noted it was two in the morning. Grabbing her phone, she checked it and found it was Caden. The first couple of calls he was just looking for her, asking where they were. When she didn’t answer him, he began getting pissed.

  He tried calling but she kept declining his calls. She knew her brother was getting mad but so was she. Did he really expect her to be there for him after the way he’d acted earlier?

  She shut off her ringer but that didn’t stop the texts or the repeated phone calls from showing up on her phone. His texts were getting pissy after about an hour and by hour two, he had begun threatening them.

  Kelly’s heart hurt as she read what her brother said in anger. He might be twenty years old but with this, he was showing her his real feelings. He was nothing more than a spoiled brat and his threats of violence against both her and their grandfather showed her she had made the right decision by getting them both out of the line of fire.

  Around four thirty she gave up on getting any sleep. Caden had given up texting her about twenty minutes earlier but Kelly knew they wouldn’t be safe for long. As much as she hated it, she knew they needed to make long term plans.

  She had to protect her grandfather. That meant they might have to leave Troy. She hated the idea. Just the idea of leaving her home and Byron broke her heart. It was at that moment she finally admitted even to herself how much the man meant to her.

  It might have started out as a crush but now her feelings went deeper than she realized. She knew he wouldn’t ever cross that invisible line but she also knew deep in her heart that her feelings had turned from infatuation to love at some point.

  She got up and dressed in her uniform. She had early shift at the diner this morning. It wasn’t her dream job but it paid the bills. She also knew Caden had found her stash of tips she’d been saving for a rainy day. She’d learned a long time ago to hide her money if she didn’t want him to find it. But when she went to collect it before they left the house, the money was gone.