by K. J. Dahlen
“Where can I find her?”
“What do you want with her?” she asked.
“I’m gonna kill her for what she did to my brother.”
“And just who the hell is your brother?”
“My brother’s name was Flynn Rearden.”
Her eyes got huge as she stared at him. “What do you think she did?”
“She ratted him out to a powerful man who had him killed.”
“Why would she do that?”
“That’s what I’m going to ask her before I kill her,” Donny assured her.
“Maybe there was a reason she ratted him out.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck why she did it.” Donny growled. “The fact that she did it is enough to warrant her death. Nobody and I mean nobody…crosses a Rearden and lives to tell the tale.”
“Have you seen your brother in the last twenty years?” she asked.
Donny frowned. “I haven’t seen him in a while but right after I got sent away, he used to visit.” He snarled. “That doesn’t matter, he was still my brother and he didn’t deserve to die like he did.”
“Oh, I beg to differ,” she scoffed.
“What do you know about it?” Donny growled.
“I’m Cassie Ryan, Uncle Donny.”
Donny narrowed his eyes as he stared at her. “I am not your uncle.”
“If Flynn was your brother, then you are my uncle,” Cassie assured him. “And don’t think I’m any happier about that fact than you are.”
“Who the fuck are you anyway?” Donny growled.
“I’m Cassie Ryan,” she repeated.
Donny was startled. His grip on the gun in his hand tightened. “Are you fucking crazy?”
Cassie swung her legs over the side of the bed but didn’t get up. Her hand tightened on Demon’s collar and she held him beside her on the bed. “No, Uncle Donny I’m not crazy.”
“Stop calling me that!” Donny growled. “I am not your damn uncle.”
“Oh, but you are. Flynn Rearden was my father,” Cassie insisted. “Or should I say, he donated the sperm that created me, a father he never was. Maybe a bastard but he was never a father.”
“You lie.” Donny spat at her.
Cassie shook her head. “I wish I was but Flynn was my father. Would you like to see my birth certificate?”
“Who was your mother?”
“Jemmia Ryan.”
Donny nodded. “Why do you go by her name and not Flynn’s?”
“Flynn never married my mom.”
“Yes, he did,” Donny insisted. “I gave him the money to get married and set up a house.”
Cassie snorted. “Then he put it up his arm or drank it. He and my mother never married.”
Donny’s frown deepened. “That doesn’t sound like Flynn. He never did drugs.”
“Are you sure you knew him at all?” Cassie scoffed.
“I would have beat the hell out of him if he did and he knew it,” Donny replied as he ran his fingers through his hair.
“Maybe you would have before you went to prison but you weren’t there to keep him in line anymore were you? He changed after you went to prison. Changed in a not so good way either. He became a bastard, and he didn’t care who he hurt if they crossed him,” Cassie informed him. “Jemmia tried to leave him several times after I was born but he kept dragging her back and beating hell out of her for trying to get away. He had to keep her around, she was the one who went to work to keep him in drugs and booze. He couldn’t let either of us go. Then one day, he didn’t stop with the beating until he killed her.”
“I don’t believe you,” Donny whispered. “He swore to me the day I killed our father, he would never turn out like him.”
Cassie laughed unamused. “Oh, I think he was much worse than your father ever was.”
“What does that mean?” Donny growled as he paced back and forth. The gun in his hand twisted and twirled but he kept his focus.
“After he beat my mother to death, he got desperate for his next fix, I was the only thing he had left in the world, and I was only three years old. He needed a fix so bad, he did the only thing he could think of, he sold his daughter to a nasty bitch for money enough to get his next high. Do you want to know how much money he got for me?” She sneered. “She paid him four hundred dollars for his three year old kid! Flynn took the money and walked away. He never looked back. I know because I watched him until I couldn’t see him anymore.”
Donny lowered the gun slowly. He didn’t believe what he was hearing. “All of this is a lie. Flynn would never do this.”
Cassie got to her feet and took a step away from the bed. “He did do this and much worse. He had no one there to tell him any better. He had no one there to keep him in line.”
“I don’t believe you!”
“Does the name Janelle Walden mean anything to you?” Cassie had to ask.
Donny nodded. “I’ve been hearing about her in the news now for a while. Her and her nasty little kiddy ring.”
“Yeah, well that’s the bitch Flynn sold me to….” She paused then asked, “Would you ever sell your daughter for money to get high on?”
Donny narrowed his eyes and stared at her. “Why did I hear Calderone Vincinti killed him? What was his connection to you and Flynn? Why would a man like Calderone bother with a man like Flynn?”
“Sixteen years ago, Calderone had a five year old daughter. She and her mother were in a car when Flynn rammed it causing the accident. Flynn left the mother to die while he stole the five year old girl. The mother died knowing her daughter was taken by a man who would hurt her. Calderone had been looking for his daughter all that time, never knowing if he would ever find her again. Flynn then sold the girl to Janelle where she was tortured, starved and beaten until we were ten. I got us the hell out of there but the horror didn’t end at that time. We had nowhere to go, so we lived on the streets of Boston. Do you know what it’s like to be homeless and just a kid?”
“My brother couldn’t be that heartless.” Donny shook his head. “I saved him from a beating by killing our father. I went to prison while protecting him. He never would’ve done that.”
“Don’t give him any more excuses for his behavior. Flynn was a bastard and he got what he deserved,” Cassie told him as she raised her chin in defiance. “I didn’t see him again after he dropped Calderone’s daughter off until the night I returned her to her father. Flynn sought me out, he was there in the shadows and he called me over to him and warned me not to tell anyone his real name. He’d been working for Calderone for about ten years or so under the name Theo Billini until that night. By that time, I hated him for what he’d done to me. I might have not bothered with him but he stole my friend’s life too and that I couldn’t let go. When Calderone found out it was Flynn who killed his wife and sold his daughter to Janelle, he had every right to take his revenge. Flynn cried like a baby when he knew he was finally going to pay for his mistakes. He begged for mercy when he had none to give anyone else. What Calderone did was right and Flynn deserved every bit of pain he received.”
Donny raised the gun and pointed it at her. “I don’t believe a word you’ve told me tonight.”
Cassie lifted her chin and stared at her uncle. “You know something? I don’t care if you believe me or not. I have no reason to lie to you. I will not beg you for a damn thing. I have scars from my time with Janelle. I know I can’t prove my claims to you or anyone else but I don’t lie. You weren’t there, so there is no way I can prove what happened. There is also no way to prove that I’m lying either, so believe what you want. I gave the FBI the evidence they needed to bring that evil bitch down. No kid deserves the horrors of what she did to them. No kid should ever have to go through what I did at her hands. Flynn knew what she was and what she did with the kids in her care and he still put me there. He sold me to her anyway for the price of four hundred dollars. I hated him for most of my life. I feared him for the first thr
ee years but I learned to hate him after that. Flynn was not a good man, he might have been different if you hadn't thrown your life away for him.”
“How do I know this is the truth?” Donny asked. “I heard a totally different story from my friends.”
Cassie got to her feet and turned her back to him then she lowered her nightgown and showed him her back. “Janelle’s son Robbie was a little prick at fourteen. He learned his lessons well by her hand. He was cruel and nasty and just plain mean. When I stood up to Janelle for another kid in her care, she beat the hell out of me then let her son teach me a lesson. He carved this nasty word in my back.”
“How old were you?”
“I was ten, this happened two days before my friend and I got out of there.”
“Damn,” Donny swore as he stared at the scars on her back. The skin was puckered and interrupted by the letters crudely cut into her flesh. He could see the scars were old and had not healed well. He couldn’t imagine the pain she endured at such a young age. A scar like that would be hard for a grown man to endure.
When she pulled up her gown and turned around to stare at him she noted he had taken a step or two back from her. He leaned against the wall and the gun was again lowered to his side.
“So where do we go from here, Uncle Donny?” she asked. “Do you still want to kill me?”
“My brother was such a good kid when we were growing up. I loved him and he never would have done such things as you said he did. Not back then.” Donny shook his head. “I don’t know what to believe now.”
“It’s hard to lose your guidance at fourteen, it’s even harder when you never had it. Flynn was a weak man. He could never haul himself up out of the hole he fell into. He let the drugs and the booze overwhelm him, making him think and feel he was invincible when he wasn’t. Or maybe the drugs just allowed him to forget everything that went wrong in his life, who the hell knows or cares anymore. I know I don’t. Flynn was very good at putting the blame for his own actions and deeds onto other people. He never did learn to blame himself for his actions. I had my mother until I was three but I always remembered what she taught me. She knew she wouldn’t live long after Flynn got hooked, he was a mean bastard with no morals, but she gave me enough to get by on. When Flynn lost you, he didn’t have the kind of memories to guide him and he failed, as a father and a human being. He forgot everything you taught him when you were no longer there to tell him again and again, the difference between right and wrong. He drowned in self-pity because he had no one there to push him to do right.”
“Somebody still has to pay,” Donny said.
“Flynn has already paid.” Cassie reminded him. “You paid with twenty years behind bars, separated from the only family either of you had left. Let that be enough.”
“No, it will never be enough.” Donny growled. “Calderone Vincinti must pay for taking his life.” He gripped the gun in his hand and glared at her.
“If you go after Calderone, he will kill you,” Cassie warned him.
“Flynn was the reason I went to prison. I went in knowing I had saved his life. At least I had that, the knowledge that I saved his life. When I got out, I planned a life with him, he was my only blood and now he’s gone. Where I grew up, you paid an eye for an eye and when someone died by violence, someone else died for revenge. That’s just the way it was and still is.”
“Flynn wasted his life, so are you going to do the same?” Cassie asked quietly. “Or is the power of the promise of blood stronger than the right or wrong of things?”
“There is no right or wrong of things here,” Donnie defended. “Calderone got his revenge and so will I.” He raised the gun in his hand and pointed it at her. “You betrayed your own father; I should kill you just for that.”
“He betrayed me first,” Cassie reminded him.
“Yeah and you got your revenge, so how can you stand there and deny me mine?” Donny sneered.
“Then take it now!” She cried out. “Kill me and end the Rearden line forever. Do what your brother tried and failed to do all those years ago. If you pull that trigger, you will die tonight. Deke Tory will kill you. He will hunt you down and end your miserable life. And I doubt you’ll even get close to Calderone Vincinti. He’s way smarter than you’ll ever be and he knows you’re coming for him.”
“Shut up!” Donny yelled. He held the gun to his forehead and tried to think. His fists were wrapped around his temples and reason was warring with reality in his brain. “This doesn’t fit with what Fang told me about the night Flynn was taken. He said you dragged Flynn out of the shadows and screamed at Calderone to kill him.” He began pacing as he muttered to himself.
Cassie took a step toward her uncle. “I never would have known he was even there that night if he hadn’t said anything. He got my attention by calling out to me. He whispered my name and called me over to where he was standing. He ordered me not to tell anyone who he was. I never thought I’d ever see him again, I didn’t know he was still alive at that, nor did I care. The only mistake he made that night was demanding that I not tell who he was. After all the hell that man cost me, I wasn’t going to hide him from the consequences of his actions anymore.”
Her uncle stood still finally as he listened with rage on his face.
“I had no reason to protect the man who was responsible for my pain. All I did was tell the truth. When Calderone found out he had a traitor in his organization, a man who caused his wife’s death and sold his daughter to a kiddy ring, he was furious and rightly so. Flynn destroyed more than just my life. Calderone and Leon both had reason to destroy Flynn. All I did was tell the truth. If you think I deserve to die for that, then that’s on you.” She turned and went back to the bed and sat down. She was tired and her muscles ached. Her babies were busy moving inside her. She prayed the gun in his hand wouldn’t go off but she didn’t count out the possibility either.
Silence reigned in the room.
After a moment, she looked up and saw his eyes. Slowly, he raised the weapon in his hand and she watched as his fingers tightened on the trigger. She waited for the sudden burst of pain she knew was coming. Closing her eyes, she found she couldn’t look into the eyes of the man who would kill her.
The bang of the report of the gun echoed in the stillness of the room.
Cassie felt the sheer heat of the bullet as it ripped through her arm. Gasping in pain, she turned her head and stared at the red streak on her upper arm.
She heard footsteps running for her door and before she could look up, Donny was there gripping her jaw as he raised her to his height. “I won’t kill you yet. I need to know the truth about what happened that night. If what you told me is true we won’t ever need to meet again, but if you lied I’ll be back to finish what I started here tonight. You won’t know when or where the bullet will find you but it’ll come.” He smeared the blood flowing down her arm. He lifted his bloodstained fingers and marked her forehead with her blood. “Remember that.”
“Go to hell!” Cassie growled as she heard pounding on her door. Anxious voices called out her name.
Donny turned to the sliding glass doors and slipped out into the darkness of the night outside.
More footsteps rushed down the hall. These were heavier and Deke’s voice joined those of Paige and Peaches. Moments later, the door was kicked in and Deke, Deacon, Iceman and Gator rushed into the room. They had their weapons drawn and they were ready for anything.
“What the hell happened here?’ Deke demanded. Rushing toward the bed, he noticed the streak of red running down her arm.
Cassie lifted tear filled eyes to him. She couldn’t speak for a moment, then burst into tears.
Deke dropped down beside her and wrapped his arms around her. Pulling her head to his chest, he whispered, “Are you okay? What happened?”
Cassie wrapped her arms around his chest. When her injured arm went around him, she hissed in pain. “I’m okay. It’s just a graze.”
Deke pushed her away and looked at her wound. The blood was already slowing. He glared at the wound and his eyes sought hers. “What happened? Who did this to you?”
“Donny Rearden was here.”
Deacon swore. “Dammit! Donny was here in this house?”
Cassie nodded. “He said he was here to kill me.” She looked at Deke and whispered, “He didn’t believe me about what happened the night Flynn was taken. Hell, he didn’t even know he was my uncle.”
As more of Deke’s men filled the room, he glared over his shoulder. Snarling at them, he ordered, “Do a search of the grounds! Donny Rearden broke into my home.”
The men all scattered and began their search.
Cassie leaned forward and rested her head on Deke’s chest. Her arm hurt and she was getting a headache. Tears ran down her pale cheeks. “I’m so tired of the bullshit with the Rearden men,” she told him quietly in the chaos of what was going on around them. “I’m just so tired of it all.”
Deke tightened his embrace. The desolation in her voice caused him to let out a frustrated sigh.
Cassie closed her eyes and allowed her mind to go blank. She felt more than saw someone at her side checking out her wound. She hissed in pain as it was probed and prodded. Then she heard Peggy speaking to Deke. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bathroom. Setting her down on the toilet, she opened her eyes to watch as Peggy wet a washcloth and began cleaning her wound.
Wiping off the blood, they found the injury wasn’t as bad as it looked. It wouldn’t even need stitches. Peggy wrapped a gauze pad around her upper arm. When she was done, she left them alone.
Deke reached out and lifted her chin. “What happened?”
“Donny came here looking for revenge. He didn’t like what I had to say about his brother.” She shrugged. “I didn’t tell him about Paige either. It was the only way to protect her. Flynn, apparently hadn’t told him about either of us.”
“Did he believe you?”
Cassie shook her head. “He didn’t want to think his brother was anything but a good person. He spent twenty years behind bars thinking and believing he’d saved his brother. He didn’t want to think his brother never was any good. When I told him about what Flynn had done to me, he couldn’t believe it.”
