by KJ Dahlen
She was finally free. She didn’t even look back, not once at the small town she’d been born in, grew up in, and thought she’d never the hell get out of.
Chapter Three
They finally pulled off the road an hour and half later. Pulling into a roadside diner, they shut down the engines.
Thor groaned when he got off his ride. He turned his head and glared at his passenger. “Now just what the fucking hell am I gonna do with you?”
She shrugged. “You don’t have to do anything with me. You got me out of there and that’s the extent of what you have to do with me. I can make my own way in the world. I have in the past and I will do so in the future.”
“Will this Tank be coming after you?” Cobra wanted to know.
She shrugged. “He probably will, he’s well known for not taking no for an answer. He’s a pit bull that way. But he won’t find me. I’ll have to keep moving around for a while, but he won’t look for me long. He’s got better things to do than be pestered with me.”
“Such as?” Thor wanted to know.
Elise shrugged and looked away.
“Ms. Elise, what did you mean?” Cobra wanted to know.
“She looked over at the big man and glared at him. “First off, my name isn’t Elise. That’s my middle name and Digger used it because Tank didn’t like my first name.”
“What is your first name?” Thor asked.
“Dani,” she told him.
“Dani?” Thor repeated.
“Yes, Daniella Elise Garnett.” After a moment of silence, she asked, “And what do I call you guys?” When they didn’t answer her, she snorted. “Ok then, I’ll call you Frick and Frack.”
Thor frowned. “I’m not a Frick or a fucking Frack. Name is Thor and this is Cobra.”
“Ok, Thor and Cobra, where are we going anyway? Isn’t the Soldiers of Hades down in Hondo? This ain’t anywhere near Hondo. You boys get lost?” She raised a brow at them both.
“How did you know we’re from around Hondo?” Cobra asked with his own raised brow.
Dani shrugged. “Let’s just say, Hellspawn has been looking for this one here for a while now,” she jerked her thumb toward Thor.
Cobra glanced over at Thor. “What’s he want with Thor?”
“That ain’t none of my business now is it?” Shaking her head, she added, “If you live in our town or North Zulch or Trinity, you learn to mind your business and not theirs.” She looked over at Thor, “But I think this goes back a while. Back to Bonecrusher's day, I think.”
“What does my father have to do with this?” Thor frowned.
Dani's gaze zeroed in on Thor and she stared at him. “Bonecrusher was your old man?”
Thor nodded.
“Was that what you were doing in Trinity today? You were there to see your mom?”
He nodded again.
“Did you also go to the prison to watch Bonecrusher die?” she asked.
“Yeah, I had to see it done and know he was finally dead.” Thor stared back at her, “What were you doing at my mom’s grave?”
“I’ve been visiting her grave for a few years now. My mom was your mom’s best friend back when we were little. I grew up hearing their stories and I always felt so sad for her, you know. Bonecrusher’s story was all over town and every time the MC would come back from visiting him in prison, everybody stayed out of their way for a few days. I think it was because Bonecrusher had something the club wanted and he said if they didn’t get him out, the club would never get it back. Rumor had it they were gonna put the blame of your mom’s death on you but you turned it around and the evidence pointed to your dad. When your dad was convicted, Hellspawn was coming after you to get whatever it was Bonecrusher took but he never could find you.” She motioned toward his cut. “If they saw you in that, they’ll know right where to find you, won’t they?”
Thor looked over at Cobra. “You need to warn the club they got trouble coming.”
“I think you’re right.” Cobra nodded as he now stared at Dani and asked, “How many are in this fucked up club anyway? I need to know the numbers.”
Dani still sat on the back of Thor's bike as she shrugged. “Maybe a dozen and a half. Most of them are pigs, or feel they are entitled, like Digger. He wants to rebuild the club but he’s picking the wrong type of men to rebuild with. The men he’s picking will be more of a gang than an MC. That boy couldn’t recognize real talent if he was hit upside the head with it. If he takes over for Hellspawn that MC is done for.”
Thor frowned and looked over at Cobra, then glanced back at Dani. “Is Hellspawn stepping down for some reason?”
Dani looked down then slowly shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Then why did you say Digger is taking over?”
Cobra snorted.
Thor glanced over at him and caught his hard look. “A coup? Digger is going to try and take the MC away from Hellspawn? Is he fucking nuts? Or does he have a dammed death wish?”
“Neither and I think you and I played right into the little bastards hands today.” Cobra shook his head.
“What does that mean?” Thor asked angrily.
“He saw our colors, Hellspawn and his boys all saw our colors,” He motioned toward her, “She ends up missing and Digger is gonna tell his uncle who he was with when she disappeared. Hellspawn is going to put two and two together and get fourteen but Digger seems the type to lie and make up shit. All he really has to do is move up his timeline.”
“And if he rides with Hellspawn to Hondo, then if the club doesn’t take out Hellspawn, Digger will with a bullet in the back,” Thor finished his president's thought. He nodded at Cobra, “You need to warn the club.”
Cobra glared over at Dani. “Your boy Digger is ambitious.”
Dani shuddered visibly. “He isn’t my anything. He’s nothing more than a slimy toad, an evil scrawny, slimy toad.”
“And you're waiting for a prince right?” Thor mocked her. “Maybe a prince like Tank?”
Dani jumped off the bike then reaching out, she slapped him hard. Then her eyes went wide and she backed up a step or two. “Oh god, I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t mean to do that,” she whispered as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth. “It was just—when you said I was waiting for a prince like Tank... all I could see was red for a moment. Tank is anything but a prince. He’s a mean piece of garbage, he always has been and there’s no woman alive who would want to belong to him unless she was into being beaten and I’ve never seen a woman yet, who was into that.”
Thor glared at her for a moment and started walking in circles while thinking. Then he stopped, looking between her and Cobra, he settled eyes on Dani. “You said something about Bonecrusher taking something that belonged to the club. And that his condition of giving it back was that the club get him out of prison. Do you know what he took?”
Dani thought for a moment then sadly shook her head. “No, I don’t. I mean when you work in a bar, you hear a lot of things but mostly only bits and pieces of a conversation, you know?”
“You worked in a bar?” Cobra asked.
Dani nodded. “I worked at the Singing Lily. A bar in Trinity that sells burgers, wings, and steaks. The Fury would usually come around several times a week. Like I said, you can learn a lot if you listen. With that bunch, you just can’t let them know you’re listening. If you know what I mean.”
Cobra agreed. “I do and it sounds like this Hellspawn isn’t very careful about club business.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “He probably figures he’s been around long enough that he doesn’t have to be worried about betrayal. Too bad, he isn’t looking a little closer to home.”
“What about Digger’s dad?” Thor wanted to know. “Hellspawn’s brother? Or is it mom related?”
“Hellspawn’s brother died a long time ago. Seventeen years in fact.” Dani told them quietly. “Torch, Bonecrusher and two others were out on a run. Bonecrusher said they ran into some trouble and they were
separated. He claimed some unknown bikers took out his bike and when he was laid out on the road, he heard shots in the distance before he passed out. When he woke up, he went looking for his brothers and he found the other three dead, riddled with bullets. He limped home and made his report to Hellspawn. The club went out and retrieved the guys but the stuff they were bringing back to the club was gone. Bonecrusher never could describe what the other riders looked like or what colors they wore.”
Thor glared at her then turned his head around to look at Cobra. “So that was the reason he came home all beat up and pissed as hell. I hadn’t heard why before.”
“You remember that?” Cobra was surprised.
Thor nodded. “That was about four days before he killed my Mom. I took one look at the bastard and went to my room. He didn’t even try to bother me then. He just argued with mom and drank. He was working on a four day drunk the next time I saw him. He took one look at me and started wailing on me. He’d just come back from a funeral and we got into it. He said I should have been there with him. I was soon going to be old enough to join the Fury and I should have been there to stand at his side. I’d looked over at my mom and she was all bruised up already and I let the old man have it. I told him I’d never join a club that let the members beat their women and not try to stop it. He laughed at me and told me what happened at home wasn’t any of the club’s dammed business. Then he told me she shouldn’t been so fucking stupid or he wouldn’t have hit her. Then he came over to me and sucker punched me. My mistake was getting up off the floor. But by then, I was pissed and this was going to be the last time he hit me. When I told him that, he pounded me good. He said he’d hit me any fucking time he felt like it. That his road name was Bonecrusher for a reason and if I didn’t know it yet, I would.” Thor paused to shrug. “Most of the time he knew when to stop, that day he just didn’t want to. He had me down on the floor and I just couldn’t get up again. Then he turned his back on me and went after mom. He slammed her against the wall and I could hear her bones crack, so I got up one more time...”
Dani’s eyes were huge in her face as he paused.
Thor continued, “I grabbed the closest thing to me and swung. When he went down, I went to mom and gathered her into my arms. She hung on for a few more minutes, then she died.”
“Oh, my god...” Dani whispered.
Thor looked over at her and he saw the tears running down her face. His expression went stony as he snapped out of his memories of seventeen years ago. He glared at her through his sunglasses. “Yeah and before I knew it, dad tried to lay the blame on me for her death. Hellspawn was right beside him doing everything to protect his club member. The same fucking club member who died today by lethal injection.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dani whispered.
“Why? You were probably a kid back then. You didn’t even know my family.” Thor growled.
Dani shook her head, wiping her tears away. “I didn’t but my mother knew her. I think I was ten when all that happened and I wasn’t as dumb as everyone thought I was. I grew up around that shit for a club.”
“Then you know exactly what kind of men they are,” Cobra stated.
Dani nodded. “And I'd also heard the rumors around town too.”
“Rumors?” Thor frowned. “What kind of rumors did a kid hear? Or bother to listen to?”
“Rumors that claimed Bonecrusher made up the whole story about the other riders ambushing them on that ride. That Bonecrusher himself stole the package and that it was bullets from Bonecrusher’s gun that took the lives of his three brothers out on that road that day,” Dani dropped her bomb.
Thor froze for a moment. Even his heart seemed to stop beating briefly. Finally, he had to take a deep breath and exhale to restart his heart. He looked over at Cobra and shook his head. “That dirty rotten sonofabitch,” he swore and kept swearing. “That fucker! Fucking hell!”
“Calm down boy,” Cobra ordered. “We need to figure this out. Number one... would your dad really do something as bad as that?”
“Hell yeah, he would.” Thor growled. “No wonder he tried to get them to blame me for mom’s death. Yeah, that bastard would do something like that. Without a fucking doubt.”
Cobra cocked his head at him and said, “Number two, would Hellspawn ever figure things out?”
Dani answered this one, “He’s not an Einstein but he would be able to put things together in time.”
Cobra looked over at Thor. “Maybe that’s why he wanted your dad’s personal things from the prison. Maybe whatever it was Bonecrusher took from the club has been with him all this time.”
“And if it isn’t? Then what? ” Thor snarled. “Well, I know what...They’ll come looking for me thinking I got it. That fucking shitty old bastard.”
Chapter Four
Cobra looked over at Thor and said, “Ok, if your dad took whatever they were bringing back, where would he have stored it all these years? Any ideas?”
“Depends on what they were bringing back I guess.” Thor shrugged.
“I don’t think it was their normal run of drugs or guns. This was something more valuable than that,” Dani shared her opinion with them.
“What makes you think that?” Thor frowned.
“Well, if you think about it, Hellspawn has waited seventeen years to get it back. So couldn’t be their normal shit. If you know anything about that man, you’d know he wouldn’t wait that long for anything.” Dani reasoned. She hesitated then looked at Thor. “I should tell you so you know. After your dad went to prison, the Fury ransacked your house. They tore everything apart looking for something, but I don’t think they ever found it. Hellspawn wasn’t very happy. He’s not been happy for a very long time.”
“That breaks my heart.” Thor said heartlessly. “If my dad did steal club property, did Hellspawn really think he’d hide it at his house? Damn, I know my dad’s an asshole but really, did he take my dad for being stupid?”
Dani shrugged her shoulders. She began fiddling with the straps of her oversized bag she had thrown over her shoulder when they’d left the cemetery.
Cobra watched her for a moment then asked, “Is there something more going on here that we should know about?”
She looked over at Thor and sighed. “I’m not sure. Like I said, I was a kid back then, but my mom was a good friend of your mom. You probably have forgotten but you and your mom would come over to our house when your dad got drunk. Then one night, your dad put a stop to that. He followed you guys over after a bad fight. He busted down mom’s door and he even hit her when she tried to stand up for your mom. He told her he didn’t want his woman blabbing all her problems to no damn body. He said what happened within the four walls of his house stayed there.”
“And what does that have to do with anything?” Thor wanted to know. “We all know he was a bastard.”
Dani shook her head. “You don’t understand. Your mom never stopped coming over to our house. She was just more careful about it. I remember one night way early in the morning, she woke us up to talk to my mom. It was just two days before she was killed. She carried a small box over with her that night. She was so scared, it took my mom a couple of hours to calm her down. All I could hear her say was that your dad was going to more than likely kill her. Then she told my mom she wouldn’t keep the box in her house. She said your dad might kill her for taking it, but she didn’t care. He wasn’t going to bring trouble to their house.”
Thor frowned and looked over at his president. Then he looked back at Dani. “Did my mom leave the box with your mom that night?”
Dani nodded slowly. “Yeah, she did. Two days later, your mom was dead. I think Hellspawn came looking for that box but he never found it because my mom had it.”
Thor threw his head back and laughed out loud. “Bonecrusher was a lousy bastard right up to the end. He blackmailed the MC to get him out of prison and he didn’t even have what he stole in the first fucking place. There was no way Hellspawn was ever goi
ng to get it back. He didn’t know what happened to it.” He glanced over at Cobra and shook his head. “Hellspawn won’t be too fucking happy today then either will he? He’s been waiting seventeen years for something he’s never going to get his hands on.”
“Which means he’s gonna think you know where it's hidden after all,” Cobra reminded him.
Thor frowned as he looked at his prez. “But I didn’t know back then and I don’t give a fuck what that bastard promised him. I had no fucking clue about that damn box until she told us just now.”
Cobra shook his head. “Do you really think Hellspawn is going to give a shit one way or the other? He’s still going to come after you, son. Back then, you lived in the same house your dad did. He’s going to reason in his little, dark mind that you know something about it.”
“Then he didn’t know his boy Bonecrusher very well did he?” Thor asked. “That bastard never did anything unless it benefited him. He didn’t give a shit about his wife or his son. We very often went hungry because he wanted to eat steaks on waitress’ salary. My mom worked like a dog to provide for the household. He never brought a penny home to pay the rent, let alone buy food.”
Cobra turned to watch Dani. He could see that Thor was telling him the way it was just by watching her face. But he still had a feeling there was something she wasn’t telling them. “Dani, does your mom still have the box?” He wanted to know. He glanced over at Thor. “We may have to go back and get her mother out of there as well. We can’t leave her to Hellspawn’s mercy.”
Dani had tears in her eyes and shook her head. “You don’t have to worry about my mom. She died four months ago. I buried her next to your mom. That’s why I was at the cemetery today.” She shuddered. “I have no reason or wish to go back to that town. There’s nothing there but bad memories. I just never had a way out before now. So, I have to thank you for getting me out of there.”
