by KJ Dahlen
They both needed to sleep to get recharged. He vowed he would win her over. It would take time, but he knew fate was on his side, even if she did not know it.
Chapter Six
Cin woke slowly, finally feeling warm again after days of being soul deep cold. She snuggled into her pillow and then frowned. Her pillow seemed hard and immoveable and after a moment she realized her pillow had a heartbeat.
She opened her eyes slowly and saw a man’s chest under her cheek. His chest hair was dark and covered his skin as far as she could see. Reaching out to touch it, she noted how soft it was. Soft and thick as she ran her hand over his chest. She barely skimmed his chest but she liked what she felt so far.
Glancing up to his face, she found him still sleeping. His features seemed to be carved in stone but the harsh look he always had was softened in sleep. She liked this look on him. His thick full beard even looked softer and she wondered if his beard would be wiry or soft. But she wouldn’t touch it. This man was a stranger, though she felt good waking up with his warmth, it wasn’t right when all she knew was his name was Beast and he was with an MC that had taken over the land her family owned.
She untangled her limbs from his and scooted over to the edge. Looking toward the window, she could see the shadow of late afternoon. Then she took a good look at the room she was in and gasped.
This had been her grandparent’s bedroom. All of Ms. Katie’s knickknacks and stuff were gone now but she remembered where they all had been. One of the things they had been forced to leave behind in their haste that night sixteen years ago had been the folded flag the military had given her when they sent Ethan home. That flag along with a few medals he’d gotten had given a place of honor on the mantle of the fireplace in the corner.
She got up and walked over to the fireplace and her hand reached out to touch the place where her uncle’s flag had been. Ms. Katie was proud of the man her son had become and she knew every night her grandmother had touched that flag and cried a few tears.
Cin dropped down to the hearth and wiped a few tears of her own. Then she thought of something she’d seen Ms. Katie do. She spun around to the short wall next to the fireplace. Counting out from the top row, she counting out four rows across, then four rows down. Then she pressed the rock above and the rock below, the one to the left then one to the right. When she was done, she heard a click and the wall opened.
Cin gasped and just stood there stunned for a moment. Then with shaky hands, she opened the fake wall a bit more and found herself looking into a small cupboard. There on the top shelf was Ethan’s flag and the medals he won.
Tears filled her eyes as she reached out to touch the flag as she had watched her grandmother Ms. Katie do so very long ago. She heard a sound from behind her and she called out softly, “I found something.”
When Beast joined her, she felt him before she turned to look at him.
He stared at the opening in stunned surprise. “What the fuck is this?” he whispered.
Cin shook her head. “I didn’t know this was here. I mean I lived in this house for the first ten years of my life and I never saw this door opened before. I swear I never knew this was here.”
“Damn.” Beast got to his feet and grabbed his pants. Pulling them up he, left the room.
Cin just stared at the small cabinet but didn’t bring anything out of it.
A few minutes later the door opened and several men came into the room. Beast, Jackal, Silas and Wolf.
Silas drew her away while Jackal knelt down and with a flashlight and looked at the items in the cabinet. Then carefully he began unloading the items from inside. First out was the flag and the medals that represented Ethan’s life.
He laid them on the floor but Cin broke away from Silas’s embrace to lift the flag and the medals to the fireplace mantle. She brought her fingers to her mouth and kissed them then pressed her fingers to the glass. It was something she’d seen Ms. Katie do a thousand times.
She hadn’t been paying attention to what the guys were doing until she heard Jackal swear.
“Holy fucking hell.”
She turned and frowned as she saw a number of items sitting on the floor. There were several coffee cans sitting open and the men were staring at what was inside them.
Cin moved over and she thought she knew what she would find.Her heart swelled with feeling as she peered inside the cans. Each was filled to the rim with one hundred dollar bills. She sat down hard on the floor and stared at the money. “Well, at least we know where the money was hiding all these years.”
Silas knelt beside her and turning her head toward his he asked, “Is this how Ms. Katie supported the two of you? Were there more of these cans filled with money?”
Cin nodded. “After she passed, I was gathering her belongings and I found two cans in a duffle bag she has carried no matter where we were. She never let me look before but when I packed our things to come back here, I found them.”
“How many cans did she take with her?” Jackal asked.
“The duffel held six cans. There were only two left.” She looked over to the cabinet and shook her head. “But I had no idea this was even here.” Looking over at Jackal she asked, “How did no one ever find it in the last sixteen years? I mean this is what the Dogs came looking for the day they murdered my grandfather and my uncle Gabriel. How did they not find it?”
“Because Edward was a very smart man.” Silas growled. “He would have hidden his money and hidden it well, so that only someone he was close to would find it.”
“How did you find it?” Beast asked her.
Cin didn’t answer him instead, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. “I would have thought the Dogs would have torn the house apart looking for the money.”
“Oh, they did,” Jackal told her. “They just never looked in the right spot I guess.”
“So now what?” Cin asked. “You found the money now what happens to me?”
“That money isn’t ours.” Jackal shook his head. “That money is what your grandfather worked a life time to get. It’s his money, well I guess it’s your money now as the last member of his family.”
“Fat lot of good it did him.” Cin huffed. “It cost him everything he had, including his life.”
“Honey, your granddad was an ornery old cuss.” Silas shook his head. “Stubborn as a mule too. But he was also loyal and a very good friend. He loved Ms. Katie and would have taken a bullet for her any day of the week. For you too.”
“But there has to be more the Dogs were after that day.” Cin frowned.
“Why? That kind of money would have been enough for them to go after,” Jackal commented.
Cin shook her head. “Damn it, I can’t remember what it was but they were after something else, something other than the money. Oh, they wanted that as well but they were screaming and yelling about something else too.”
“Such as?” Beast asked.
“I was so scared I can remember.” Cin cursed her memory. “There were six of them there that day and each one had a weapon pointed at us. Ms. Katie was on one side of me and Gabriel was on the other. They were both trying to block me and Grandpa was standing in front of them. The leader demanded my grandfather hand something over and then he said as long as they were there, he could hand over the money too. Grandpa told him to go to hell.” She looked over at Silas. “That’s when one of his men shot Uncle Gabe. The first bullet hit him in the leg, the second bullet when into his shoulder.” She gulped as she remembered the screams. “The third bullet went through his—his forehead.” She closed her eyes and she could see the events of the day. “The bastard that shot him was laughing as he took each shot. G-Gabe’s blood spattered all over me and—Ms. Katie. Granddad raised a gun and tried to take a shot but Norris shot him through the hand. While he was down, they tied his hands together and—and...” Her voice broke again. “D-dragged him down the steps. Then Norris grabbed the rope and dragged him around the house a couple of times.�
�� Cin paused so caught up in her memories she was shaking. “I-I remember Ms. Katie held her hand over my mouth because I was screaming for my grandpa. Norris dragged him over to the tree and threw the rope over the lower limb. Then he wrapped the rope around grandpa’s neck and told one of the other men to hoist him up. They pulled him up until he was on his tiptoes. Norris gave him one more chance to give him whatever he was asking for but my grandpa spit in his face.”
She was crying now.
Silas reached out and took her hand. “It’s okay. You don’t have to—”
Shaking her head, she spoke,” I-I’m just now remembering, so I do have to. Norris lowered his hand and the biker gunned the motor. You could hear the crack when they—they broke his neck. Norris just laughed and one of his bikers handed him a machete and he cut off grandpa’s head. His body was crumpled on the ground then Norris grabbed him by the hair and then he put his head on one of the fence posts. Then he turned to Ms. Katie and he told her he would be back.” Her body shuddered as she trembled so badly her teeth chattered. “W-when they left— Ms. Katie dragged me inside the house and she packed up some clothes for us. Then she called Silas and George.”
“When we got there we could see the carnage they left.” Silas shook his head. “Ms. Katie wanted to bury her husband and her son but she wanted their final resting place to be kept a secret. She didn’t want the Dogs to disturb their bodies, so she had us carry them both to the cave. By the time we got that done she had the car loaded with everything she and Cin would need to start over.” He released a sad sounding sigh. “Ms. Katie asked to watch over the old place. I don’t know what she thought I could do but I did keep track of what the Dogs were up to.” He looked over at Jackal. “All we could do was watch what they did. Then you guys took over the old place and at least you guys did ok. You never hurt anyone and you seemed like good guys. But me and the boys still watch over the place.”
Cin raised her head and asked, “Whatever happened to my mom and dad’s grave and Uncle Ethan’s?”
Silas looked at her and shook his head. “Honey we protected them the best we could, we removed their headstones before those bastards could find them. We didn’t want them to be disturbed either.”
Cin gasped. “So they’re lost and forgotten?”
“No baby girl.” Silas looked into her tear filled eyes. “We know exactly where they are. But we did have to hide their headstones while the Dogs were here. We waited to see if this group would respect their graves before we said anything.”
“Wait a moment, back up a bit.” Jackal turned to stare at Cin. “Do you know what it was Norris wanted back?”
She shook her head. “Whatever it was my grandpa was no thief. He wouldn’t have taken anything that didn’t belong to him.”
Silas snorted. “No but that bum Corey might. He was running your grandpa’s shine and he wouldn’t think twice about taking something worth the time. He was always grousing about not getting paid enough for taking the risk of bootlegging. Edward paid his men well enough. Then he began noticing the money wasn’t always making it back to him. Thousands of dollars went missing.”
“So this Corey person was stealing from his boss and his clients?” Jackal wanted to know.
“Well, let’s put it this way, I wouldn’t put it past Corey.” Silas confirmed. “And if he did, he got a good friend of mine and his family killed.”
“Does he still live here in town?” Wolf asked.
“Yeah, but he’s taken to the bottle and is more drunk than sober these days.” Silas shook his head. “It’s amazing the man is still alive.”
“Maybe he’s got a guilty conscious,” Beast remarked snidely.
“At least no one can bring the Dogs of Hell MC back to life.” Cin shook her head.
George came to the doorway and overheard her statement. He snorted and shook his head. “Don’t be so sure about that missy.”
Jackal spun around and got to his feet from a squatting position. “What do you know that we don’t, old man?”
“Been seeing some unfamiliar faces around town in some pretty strange places,” George answered. “And I’ve witnessed some late night meetings with one young cop, Ricky Prentiss. Now I don’t know why but I just don’t trust that young man. He’s got a look in his eyes that I don’t like. He reminds me of someone I used to know but the name escapes me at the moment. Prentiss uses and abuses his power as a cop and he’s got people running leery of him.”
Wolf shook his head. “And here I thought we got rid of all the troublemakers in town.”
“You never really get rid of them all.” Silas shook his head. “Some people like to sit back and wait their turn to show their real colors.”
“Ricky Prentiss?” Cin questioned. “I barely remember him. I do know he was a few years older than me, but even as a kid he was a bully. Not only to me but to everyone. He was only here for a little while then I thought him and his mom moved to Lafayette. I do remember he was always and angry kid. Grandpa used to say he was unbalanced because his father wouldn’t have anything to do with him. I do remember his mom hung around the bad side of town.”
Silas nodded. “I don’t know if he ever knew who his daddy was. His mom, Malinda wasn’t the lady sort if you know what I mean.”
“Can you guys keep an eye on this prick?” Jackal asked Silas and George. “If there is something going down I need to know about it. We sure as hell don’t need another situation like we just cleaned up.”
“True enough,” Silas agreed. “We’ll keep an eye on what’s happening in town.” He turned to Cin. “Baby girl, you’re home now. I’ve missed sixteen years so I’m hoping you’ll stay. You belong here.”
Cin shook her head slowly. “But I don’t belong here anymore. This was my home but now it’s their home.”
Beast growled as he got to his feet. All fucking six foot eight inches of him. “Woman, I claimed you and I’m keeping you. You do belong here so don’t you dare think about leaving because I will find you and bring you back here.”
Cin just stared at him incredulously. “I-I don’t know what that means. I don’t even know you.” She looked around. “Any of you.” her face softened as she looked at George and Silas. “They were both there for my family and I do know that I have family here.” She shrugged. “But the memories are so horrible? I-I just don’t know...”
Beast put a huge arm around her shoulder. “You cannot mean to go back out into the world alone. Why should you?” He nodded to Silas. “This old man...has a heart of gold and he is family to you. Just think about it, rest here and we will see what comes.”
Cin peered up at him, then looked across at Silas as she gave a brief nod.
Chapter Seven
It was after supper when Cin found herself outside looking over the farm that once belonged to her family. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she stared out at the ever deepening shadows, as later afternoon became twilight. She’d been afraid to come back here for a very good reason. But Ms. Katie had often spoke of the struggle she and Edward had faced to claim and tame this land. She spoke with pride in her voice when she told the young girl about their struggle but even then, Cin knew that together, they’d made a legacy to be proud of for their sons and their son’s future.
It just saddened her that it never came to be. They lost their children, their hopes for this land. Her grandad lost his life as well. She was what was left. Could she ever have a family here? Like her grandparents had hoped for? Make their dream come true even long after they were gone?
Ms. Katie told her that Edward used his family’s secret for moonshine and boom, another business was born. They had ten years of profit set aside before Edward lost his life. Back then, Baton Rouge had been a dry county and Edward’s moonshine was a great hit. She herself, didn’t want the money even if there was anymore, she would give it all up just to see any of her family just one more time.
She heard the door open behind her and then she felt someone wrap a blanket
around her shoulders. She knew who was behind her when she caught his scent. It was woodsy with just a hint of leather. The scent must be ingrained so deep into his skin that even without his cut he still had the faint scent of leather.
When his arms came around her waist, Cin hesitated a few seconds then leaned into him. He made her feel safe, she supposed and she hadn’t felt that way in years.
“What are you looking at?” he whispered in her ear.
“Nothing, everything.” She smiled. “I have so many memories of this place as a kid but even now as an adult I remember the feeling of home.” She looked over her shoulder and asked, “Did you know I was born in this house?” She then again looked out at the quickly disappearing landscape. “Ms. Katie told me my mother insisted on giving birth here. She wanted me to have a connection to the land my dad’s family owned. What better way than to be born here.” She shook her head. “I don’t think she figured on dying that day but she wouldn’t go to the hospital and then it was too late. She’s buried out there somewhere, along with my dad and my uncle Ethan.”
Beast embraced her tighter as he listened silently.
“Ms. Katie wouldn’t let them be buried in town. She said they called this place home and when they died, she wanted to bring them home and give them a place of their own here for their final resting place. I was only a kid of ten when she dragged me away from here. I don’t even know where they’re buried.”
“Silas knows where his daughter is buried and he’s offered to show you,” Beast reminded her. “We can make it a nice place and maybe even rebury your grandparents and your Uncle Gabriel. I know Jackal wants you to stay as well and he’ll make that happen, but believe me when I say you’re mine. I won’t let you go anywhere without me.”
“Did you mean that?” she barely whispered.
“I meant it,” Beast assured her.
“Can you show me what that means?” She didn’t know what he was really saying. Why he wanted her. Did he mean it? It was all so confusing but she did feel so safe with him and he made her feel things that were far from sadness. That was all the emotion she’d had for a while now.
