Lee nodded his head and started to smile. There was a chance that he was going to be able to hurt someone that day. It had been too long for all of them. It had been weeks since anyone had been stupid enough to fall into their path. Now that there was a chance of something happening, Lee was starting to feel like his old self.
They dragged him into the house that they were going to be staying in for the night. Even though Caston wasn’t sure what to do with him, he knew that he didn’t want him able to get free. He didn’t wake up as they moved him around, and that made Caston worried that they had hit him too hard from behind. He may never wake up, but if he did, he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.
***
Michael gradually came to and heard the men’s voices. He had woken up in a dark room by himself. There was a thick feeling in his head and though he wasn’t sure where he was, he recognized the emblem on a jacket that was left in the room with him. It was all that Michael needed to know. He had been looking for the gang and just when he had found them, someone had hit him from behind and he had seen blackness. It was rather strange to find himself right where he had wanted to be, though Michael had hoped for the element of surprise to be on his terms. He did get a surprise, but it wasn’t quite what he had been hoping for. Instead he was tied and gagged.
“I see you’re up.”
Michael’s face turned to take in the older man with the grey eyes that had haunted his dreams for years. He had seen them before in his past, and suddenly Michael knew that he had found the man he was looking for. But what was he supposed to do now?
He started to make noise behind the gag and the man shook his head. “There is no need to struggle. This will be the end for you. Tell me what I want to know and I will make sure you don’t suffer too much.”
Michael didn’t like the sound of that and he certainly didn’t like the idea of anything happening to him before he got his revenge. His mind went to Jessa for a minute and he wished he had never left. He wasn’t worried about something happening to him or him not being able to finish what he had set out to do. What would really bother him more than anything else was the fact that he may not be able to see Jessa again. It was in that moment that he realized she was the only one that mattered to him.
Another man took Michael’s gag off after a few minutes and he shot daggers with his blue eyes. “Do you know who I am?”
Michael nodded. There was no sense in pretending that he didn’t know exactly who he was and what he was capable of. Caston seemed to like the answer and smiled to himself, nodding his head.
“Good, then who am I?”
“You are the man that I am going to kill.”
Caston chuckled a little, but he didn’t like the look in the man’s face. Even though he was tied up and he was surrounded by several men larger than himself, the man in front of him was quite sure of his words.
“What is your name?”
“Michael Santino.”
“And why, may I ask, would you want to kill me M Michael?”
“Because you killed my wife and child.”
Caston sighed and nodded his head. “Yes I think that would do it, but why do you think you will succeed? Look at you.”
Michael didn’t care. He knew that he had not come all that way, walked all of those miles, to simply fail. It was his destiny, and though he didn’t know how, he knew that he was going to walk away from it all. He had to get home to Jessa and nothing was going to stop him from doing so. Not even the devil himself.
THE END
Finding Love in a Dark World: Book 5
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright © 2016 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Epilogue
1
Jessa sighed, staring off into space. She missed Michael. He had taken off without even saying goodbye to her; he’d been a coward and had left the job to Milo. He had told Milo that he was leaving and he would catch up with the troupe. Jessa tried to let it go, but she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She probably should have listened to Milo’s message. It was from Michael. It would make her feel better to trust that everything would go as Michael said it would. He had never done anything for her not to believe him. But there was a rotten feeling in her stomach that told her something was wrong. She tried to push the feelings aside, but by midday, she was ready to take action.
Jessa and the group continued on their way, leaving behind the area where Michael had left them. When they rested for a time and got some water, Jessa walked up to Milo, who was sitting on the small creek’s edge. He looked serene and happy in the moment. At least, he did until he noticed that she was there. He got a forlorn look on his face as he realized that he had to answer to her. He could tell by the look on her face that she was in combat mode, and almost held up the white flag then and there.
“Jessa…”
She put her hand up. “We both know that you know more about what was going on with Michael than what you’ve been telling me. So what happened?”
“I really don’t know Jessa. He was talking to Jason about a group that he had seen before they met us.” Milo stopped and grimaced a little. Jessa scared him a little bit. Especially when she looked so angry. He hadn’t been able to help but throw Jason under the bus. It was not what he had wanted to happen and he would have liked to have thought that he would have lasted a bit longer under interrogation. “I’m sorry Jessa. He doesn’t want you going after him. I don’t know what is going on, but I think we should just keep going forward.”
Jessa nodded absently and then bee-lined it to talk to Jason. She had known something was going on and there was always a part of Michael, before her that kept him up some nights. Jessa had a feeling that his most recent bout of change came from the same source.
Jason was less forthcoming, but was soon just as tongue-tied as Milo had felt. All he wanted was for the eyes pinning him to where he stood to change their focus away from him. All she had been able to gather was that Michael was after a group of men. Jessa wasn’t any closer to knowing why, but she knew that he was in trouble. She didn’t know what to do. They were already miles behind and Jessa wasn’t sure where he had gone specifically. The most information she’d managed to get from him was a general direction. Jason could tell her the spot where the people Motorcycle gang had originally settled down, but they had probably moved on years ago.
She had five other people with her now, though her son was still recuperating from their last run in with bad men. Jessa knew that she couldn’t take them with her to look for Michael. It would risk their lives. But leaving her son again was not an option. The last time she had, it had meant trouble and she refused to be separated from him again. Jessa didn’t know what to do, but something told her that Mike needed her.
Jessa sighed just as Carin approached her.
“When do you think we’ll be leaving from here, Jessa?”
Jessa didn’t have an answer.
Carin could tell that she was upset. “If you aren’t ready to leave right now, we don’t have to. Sorry to bother you.”
Jessa shook her head. “No, it’s not that.”
She decided that she needed somebody to trust with her dilemma and suddenly the whole story bubbled out of her. She explained everything as quickly as she could to Carin. Carin was as taken aback as she listened to Jessa’s tale. She decided to open up to Jessa about the Motorcycle gang, and gave Jessa more information about what role they had played in taking her daughter, Jason’s mother. The more Jessa learned about these cruel men, the less inclined she was t
o bring her son in their direction. Unfortunately, that meant Michael was in even more trouble than she thought. She knew she had no choice but to help him.
“Jessa, we will come with you if you want to go try to help Michael. Jason has wanted to do something about that terrible group of men for a long time. Besides, I don’t want to think of anyone else in the same position that we were left in. It’s a horrible feeling.”
Jessa was surprised by the offer. She was sure that she was going to have to catch up with the rest of them and hope for the best, assuming that she could manage on her own. Miraculously, this no longer seemed to be the case. Somehow, they were willing to go into danger with her. Jessa was beside herself with emotion. She couldn’t believe that Carin was being so understanding about it all.
“Are you sure Carin? From what I am hearing, they are not going to be the easiest people to deal with.”
The older woman just nodded her head. “Someone is going to have to look after the boy. I am not much in a fight, but I can certainly watch out for Shane while you guys get close enough. I can at least do that much, take one last thing off of your mind.”
“Thank you Carin. I don’t know what to say.”
Carin just waved her off like there was nothing that needed to be said. “I care for Michael as well. He is a very kind man. And if he had a run in with that group as we did, there is a big reason that he has decided to chase them down.”
Jessa had to agree, but she still wondered what more she didn’t know. Michael had never talked much about what his life was like before they met, and it made her wonder if she knew him at all. Did a person ever really know someone?
***
Jessa didn’t have much trouble getting the rest of the group to go along with the plan. Milo felt a responsibility to Michael to make sure that the others were okay, but he knew that Jessa was not going to let Michael stay in trouble. She was there to make sure the man she loved was okay. There was still a knot in her stomach, but Jessa was starting to think that everything was going to work out somehow. She didn’t know how yet, but she had faith.
Shane was ready to go before everyone else. He hadn’t liked the idea of leaving Mike behind in the first place. Shane was already very attached to Michael, and he didn’t want to lose another father figure. Jessa tried not to see it that way, but when she had seen the devastation on her son’s face when he found out that Michael had left, it had been palpable. She had known exactly why he felt so strongly.
The decision wasn’t made lightly, but it had to be made quickly. He was already several hours ahead and Michael could move faster because he was not impeded by a large group of people. As they turned around and headed back toward the area where Michael had left, everyone was moving a little faster. Even Milo.
Jessa couldn’t shake her presentiment. Something bad was about to happen. She could feel it in her bones, but she didn’t want to say anything out loud. All she could really do was hope that Michael was okay and that it would stay that way for both him and the group as they journeyed to rescue him. Jessa didn’t want her decision to help Michael to hurt someone else, but she just couldn’t let him go. Jessa didn’t want to think about life without him.
“Mom?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Do you think that we are going to find him?”
It was like he was reading her mind and she shrugged. She didn’t have the answer, but she tried to assure him that they were going to do their best to make sure that they found him.
“We’re going to do our best to make sure nothing happens to him, even if we have to keep looking for a very long time. Okay, honey?”
He seemed happy with the answer, but she had to wonder if they were going to be there in time or not. Would their efforts be enough?
2
Michael kept his eyes closed, breathing heavily to try to ward away the pain. All he could think and hope was that Milo kept his word and kept Jessa and the group going on the road towards the coast. He didn’t want them to come back for him, even though he knew that he was in a position that would more than likely get him killed in the end. It wasn’t hard to think of where it was all going to go. He had been hit from behind and dragged into their camp. There was no getting out of it.
He had finally gotten to meet the man who had been the center of his vengeful obsession for years. He hadn’t known who he was; all he had known was that he would know when he saw him again. Michael had been searching for years, ultimately realizing that the world was too big, but finally fate had brought them back together. If only his fate hadn’t landed him tied up and in the midst of the monsters. There wasn’t much chance for vengeance this way. He had wanted to catch them off guard, but it appeared that he was the one who hadn’t seen it coming. Michael was angry at himself for letting them get the jump on him, but it was hard not to see that he just had been too consumed with the idea of revenge to pay attention.
Now he was paying for it. It didn’t look like a situation that he was going to find his way out of. There was no way that he could get free, and all the men in the camp were watching him like a hawk. Caston had made him tell him everything. Why had Michael been so reckless? Why was he after the group? Michael had not needed a prod to explain why he was there. He had wanted to confront the man for years. He dreamed about it; replayed it in his head until the little movie was on repeat. But in his fantasies, he had never been the one surrounded and tied up. It had always been Caston in that position.
Caston hadn’t killed him immediately. He seemed to like to toy with his victims and made a big show of thinking about Michael’s fate. The cruel man apparently wanted to keep the anticipation going long enough so that he got something out of the exchange. Not only that, but Michael realized that Caston seemed worried about where Michael had come from and where the rest of his party was. They had gotten the idea that Michael had a woman with him, and there was no way that he was going to dissuade them from it. Many of the men were so desperate for the touch of a woman that it became all they talked about; finding the woman and letting off some steam.
Michael tried to think of where to lead the group of men; somewhere he might actually have the upper hand. He could go back to the house they had holed up in for a couple of days, but he was pretty sure that the gang knew that they came from elsewhere.
Michael took the first round of questioning and their hard-line tactics in stride, but the next morning his arms felt like they were going to fall off. His entire body was sore from being kicked repeatedly the night before. He didn’t know how much longer he had, though there was little comfort in the way the men around him seemed to enjoy dragging out. When Caston came into Michael’s sights, the site where they had laid him up against a tree, the older man was smiling.
“I was hoping that we could have finished this last night, but you are making it harder on yourself. I always get what I want Mike.”
He wasn’t going to get anything from him though. There was no way that Michael would let a repeat of what happened before to his family happen again. There was no way that he would be able to live with himself. Caston was trying a different tactic that morning though. While Michael had been ready for the fight and torture that surely was to come, instead, Caston offered him something to drink. If Michael’s mouth hadn’t been so dry he would have declined. But he was dying for a drink and allowed the man to pour some in his mouth.
Michael wasn’t a fool though. He knew that the man was going to start in on him again. It was just a matter of time before it happened.
“You have brought me back to a time, much in my past. I am not that person anymore Mike, and I wonder why you have held it for so long?”
He looked at him incredulously. Did the man really not get it? “You killed my family. That is not something that you let go of.”
Caston nodded like he understood. “Yet, look where it has gotten you?”
Michael couldn’t disagree. He was in quite a pickle and he wasn’t sure how it was all going
to work out. But he had to make sure that Jessa and the others stayed free of the evil of the motorcycle gang. The only thing that kept him going was the idea that they were okay, even while he was hurting, and making their way to the coastline, safe from people like Caston.
“I am exactly where I am supposed to be,” Michael said.
Caston gave him a dirty look, wondering why the man was so calm when he knew what was coming for him. Caston could tell that he was smart, but wasn’t sure what to make of it. Michael was in a heap of shit, but it was the calm manner in which he conducted himself that made Caston nervous. It was like Michael thought he was going to be rescued or something. Caston didn’t understand the reaction. He was always nervous about things that he didn’t understand.
“How are you so calm? You know what we are going to do to you.”
Michael just nodded. The man would never understand sacrifice for another. He was sure that Caston had never loved anything in his sick little life but himself. There was nothing that he could do about it though. Michael shrugged and wished that he had gotten more to drink before he pissed the man off. Just that one movement of his head was enough to enrage Caston, and it was clear that he was having a hard time controlling himself.
In this strange place of calm, Michael was able to look at Caston in a different way. He was not the scary man that he had envisioned. He was a lonely old man that probably had never loved anyone or anything in his whole miserable life. That made Michael feel bad for him, and in his pity there wasn’t much room for fear at all.
Caston started to pace and he pulled out the scarf again. He was going to focus on something else for a time and he enjoyed the way that Michael’s eyes narrowed as he brought out the garment. “I see you care about this. Tell me where she is and maybe I will let you live.”
GUNNER: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 4) Page 69
