by K. J. Dahlen
Cricket pushed back her chair hard and almost fell. She still had Jemmia in her arms. “What the fuck are you doing?” she screamed.
Michael threw the pipe off to one side and reached into his pocket for the gun he had in there. Pointing the weapon at Cricket, he told her, “I’m all done playing nice with you.” He snarled. “I want those daggers and I will kill you to get them.”
“I haven’t seen those daggers for fifteen years.” Cricket held the baby to the side away from him. “I have no idea where they are nor do I care.”
“You just told your lover you knew where they were.” Michael growled. “You either lied to him or you’re lying now. One thing for sure though, your life and that brat’s depends on you knowing where the fuck they are! Where is this cabin you told your lover about?”
Cricket took a step backward.
Then Michael stepped closer. When he grabbed her by the arm, he shook her. “Don’t make me hurt you, or the kid. You’ve told me enough times I have no soul and you were right. I could hurt you or her and not be bothered by it. Is that what you want? Let’s go NOW!”
“I will just put the baby down here—”
“NO! You will keep the kid. Let’s go and no funny business or the kid will suffer for it.”
“You bastard.” Cricket turned and led the way to the parking lot. She settled Jemmia in the backseat of her car and got behind the wheel.
Michael got into the passenger seat and kept the gun pointed at her.
They passed Sam when they cleared the gate.
~* * * *~
Sam turned to watch the pair leave through the gates. Parking his bike, he went in through the front door of the clubhouse as Deke was coming in through the back door. They both noticed Raine and Cassie at the same time.
“Cassie!” Deke called out in panic.
“Raine, what the fuck?” Sam yelled as they hurried over to the table. Sam knelt beside Raine and saw the welt the pipe left where it connected. He turned him over on his back.
Raine was groaning as he came around.
Deke knelt beside Cassie and pulled her up into his lap.
Her head wound was bleeding but when he moved her she moaned and her eyes fluttered open. “Oh, my head…” She winced. “What the fuck hit me?”
“I don’t know but I’m gonna kill whoever it was.” Deke growled. “Are you okay?”
Cassie’s eyes closed. “I think so.”
Sam helped Raine to a sitting position. “How about you? Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine but I’m gonna kill that little bastard.” Raine seethed as he wiped the blood from his neck.
“Which little bastard would that be?” Sam asked as he sat back on his heels.
“Michael!” Raine shouted then winced as he grabbed his head. “He came out of nowhere.”
“Cricket!” Cassie called out. “Where is Cricket? Where is Jemmia?”
“What about Jemmia?” Deke looked pale.
“Cricket was holding Jemmia when Michael—knocked us o-out,” Cassie tried to explain.
“I saw her driving out of here as I came in. Michael was with her,” Sam volunteered. “I didn’t see Jemmia but she could have been in the back seat.”
“Where would she be going?” Deke frowned.
“Bane came here after a set of daggers, an old family heirloom,” Raine told them as he shook his head to focus.
“I thought he came here to introduce his son to her?” Sam asked.
“That was part of it I think.” Raine sighed. “But he came here to get the daggers. I think Michael must have convinced him he could get her to give them up.”
“And when she does?” Cassie cried out. “Will he kill Cricket and Jemmia when he gets what he wants?”
Deke wrapped his arms around his wife and held her while she cried. He looked at over Raine and Sam. He read the truth in Raine’s eyes. “He wouldn’t dare,” Deke said softly.
“He would and you fucking know it,” Raine told him just as softly. “Cricket says he’s just like Cordy and Bane. He has no soul.”
Sam got to his feet. “Let’s ask Bane himself. I want to know why he came here in the first place.”
“I came here to introduce my son to his only living relative, besides myself,” Bane spoke as he walked into the room. “I also came here to get a set of daggers back from Cricket. She had no use for them and they belonged to the Jessin family.”
“Would Michael kill her and the baby when he gets the daggers back?” Deke asked.
Bane sat down at the table where Raine and Cassie were at. “He could. I think he very well could, but he won’t hurt either one until he gets the daggers.”
“If he hurts my daughter I will kill him myself,” Deke vowed.
Bane narrowed his eyes as he stared at Deke. Turning he gazed at Sam and Raine, he found the same expressions on their faces as he saw on Deke’s. “I can perhaps stop him if I knew where they were going.”
“You don’t have to know that,” Sam spat. “We can stop him on our own. But there’s one thing, we may have to kill him to stop him. I just want you to know that before we go in.”
“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” Bane replied in a cold flat voice. “I just found him after almost thirty years. I’d like to know him before I die or he does.”
“Then you fucking better hope he listens to reason and doesn’t fucking hurt the girls,” Deke swore. “I don’t give a god damn who the hell you are. No one hurts my family and lives.” He glared at the world famous assassin.
“And you’d better kill us both too. Because Deke and his kids are my family and I will murder you in a hot second,” Sam added.
Gator and Reva came in the front door. Gator joined them while Reva went to get the first aid kit. “What the fuck is going on here?’ Gator demanded.
“Michael has Cricket and Jemmia hostage,” Deke told him.
“Fuck!” Gator growled. “What does he want?”
“A set of daggers,” Sam told his old friend. “That’s the real reason Bane brought him here.”
“And if he doesn’t get them?” Gator asked.
“Then Cricket and Jemmia could be in a world of hurt.” Sam turned his head to glare at Bane. “But that isn’t gonna happen. I might have just the thing to give us the edge. Something Michael won’t expect.”
Bane’s lips tightened. “If you can bring him back here alive. He’s all I have left in this world.”
“I ain’t promising you anything. If he’s hurt my granddaughter, he’ll pay the price,” Sam vowed.
Bane remained silent.
Sam looked over at Deke. “I have to make a call.”
“Do what you must but get my daughter back, Bones,” Deke replied.
“Get ready to ride,” Sam told his son. “But I want someone to watch him while we’re gone.” He jerked his thumb at Bane.
“He stays behind.”
“He’ll stay with us.” Leon and Calderone joined the group.
Cassie got to her feet and grabbed Deke’s shirt.
When he looked down at her, he could see her tears.
“Please bring Jemmia back to me. Go get our daughter and bring her back. I want to hold her in my arms again.”
Deke leaned toward her and kissed her lips. “I swear she’ll be home again, where she belongs.”
~* * * *~
Cricket gripped the steering wheel a bit tighter as she drove north toward the cabin in Lake Placid. She glanced into the rearview mirror and saw Jemmia was sleeping in the back seat. For that, she felt thankful. Michael was a loose cannon and she wasn’t sure what he would do to the child if she acted up.
All those years of reading Cordy’s moods had helped her get by, but Michael wasn’t Cordy. She didn’t know him that well. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, who knows I might even answer it.”
“Why do you want the daggers so badly?”
Michael shrugged. “Before Bane came to get me I
didn’t know who I was. I was part of a family but I wasn’t. I know it doesn’t make sense but I never felt like I fit in. They were like you, normal as the day is long. I was the outsider. My old life was crushing the breath out of me, but with Bane, I could breathe. I knew where I stood when I was with him. Then he told me about the daggers. He’d already showed me the weapons he used in his business and they intrigued me. He told me what he does and it fascinates me. Everything finally made sense.” Michael shrugged. “Last night, Bane told me it was time to go home. He didn’t think you would give up the daggers. I knew I only had today to get them. I wanted to give my father something he couldn’t get on his own.”
“And you didn’t care how you got them.” Cricket snarled.
“Not really.” Michael shrugged.
“What’s going to happen to me and Jemmia when you get what you want?”
Michael shrugged again, and stared out the window.
“Okay, well tell me what you want to do with the rest of your life?”
“Why do you want to know?” Michael asked.
“Just making conversation. It’s a long drive.”
Michael shrugged. “I want to learn all I can from Bane. I plan to take over from him one day.”
Cricket frowned. “You’re going to become an assassin like your father?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“Your father kills for a living.” Cricket shivered.
Michael shrugged. “His job is necessary.”
“No, it isn’t,” Cricket argued. “Not everyone he kills deserves to die.”
“If they didn’t deserve it, he wouldn’t kill them.” Michael pointed out.
“He kills them because somebody pays him to do it,” Cricket corrected him.
“True enough, but Bane has never been caught,” Michael crowed. “That’s what I want to learn from him. The skill of not getting caught.”
“My father never got caught either, that doesn’t mean I want to be like him,” Cricket said quietly. “I hated what my father did.”
“That’s the difference between us.” Michael shrugged. “I haven’t killed yet, but I don’t think it will bother me that much. I’ve thought about it all my life.”
“That’s just wrong.” Cricket shuddered.
“For you maybe, but not for me.”
Cricket bit her lip. Her eyebrows came together in a frown as she contemplated what he meant. Every scenario she ran through her head didn’t bode well for her and Jemmia. She could only pray that Raine and Cassie were all right and that someone was coming to their rescue.
If she knew anything at all about Deke, Raine and Sam, they would come and bring hell with them. Only she didn’t know if Raine was even alive to tell them where she was headed. Michael had hit him really hard. As she drove, she worried about the man she’d been with over that last several months. He was so good to her and she loved him. She knew he would protect her with his own life. She just hoped he was alive. Tears rolled down her face. She’d again…brought trouble to the MC.
When she pulled off the highway near Lake Placid, she had a feeling something was off. She couldn’t place it but she felt as if she were being watched. What she didn’t know was if the ones watching her were friendly or not. It was too soon for anyone at the clubhouse to have gotten here before them, so she wasn’t sure who was out there, she just knew someone was. Her senses had never failed her.
Pulling into the driveway, she shut off the engine. Turning to face Michael she asked, “Now what?”
“Now you give me what I want and everyone’s happy.”
Cricket shook her head. “The only one that will be happy is you. I’m here under protest, remember?”
“Just get inside the damn cabin,” Michael ordered in a cold voice. “And bring the brat with you.”
Cricket stared at those cold eyes and all she could see was Cordy. Evil and a killer to the core. She opened the back door and grabbed Jemmia.
The little girl must have picked up on the danger because she didn’t say a word as they went inside the cabin. Big fat tears rolled down her cheeks but she didn’t even whimper.
The cabin smelled a bit musty until she opened some of the windows and aired it out.
Michael disappeared for a moment, then came back. “Nice place.”
“I grew up here,” Cricket told him.
“Why don’t you ever talk about our sister? I mean other than to tell me how much alike her and I are.”
Cricket shuddered and held Jemmia to her a little closer. “Cordy and I didn’t get along that well. She liked to bully me and I’d rather not say anything bad about the dead.”
Michael shrugged. “You just needed to know how to stand up to her that’s all.”
“I tried that once. It was after my dad was killed.”
“What did she do?” Michael wanted to know.
“She beat the hell out of me.”
“Why?”
“I told her I didn’t want to go with her. I said I would stay with our old MC,” Cricket explained. “She didn’t want that. She wanted me with her in case she needed me.”
“How old were you at the time?”
“I was fifteen and she was over twenty. I was old enough.”
“Maybe she was just afraid to be alone.” Michael shrugged. “Some people are like that. They need someone else around to make them feel better. Maybe Cordy just didn’t want to be alone.”
Cricket heard a note of something in his voice that spoke volumes. “Is that how you are? You don’t like to be alone either?”
Michael shook his head. “I’ve been alone all my life. Even in a room full of people, I was alone.”
Cricket shook her head. “I never minded being alone. It always gave me time to think.”
“Well, I need you to think about where the damn daggers are,” Michael warned as he now pointed a knife at her.
“What did Bane tell you about the daggers?’ Cricket sat down with Jemmia in her lap.
Michael frowned. “What does that matter? Where are they?”
“Did he tell you they have a curse on them?” she asked. “My daddy told me a story about the daggers. He told me Gowain, our ancestor who got them from King Richard had a curse put on them by a witch he once saved. He wanted to keep the daggers from ever being used to kill someone.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s said that Gowain saved the King from an assassination attempt and he was made the King’s protector. The King himself gave the daggers to Gowain. He did what he was supposed to do. What he liked to do. He was like Bane and you. Gowain didn’t have a soul either but he wanted one thing in his life. He wanted them to be pure, to be what he never could be. He loved those daggers. To him, they were worth more than their weight in gold and jewels. So, he found himself a witch and had her lay a curse on them. The curse is that if blood is spilled with the daggers…the one that used them will end up dead by them. That’s one reason why the daggers are in such good condition. The blades have never been used.”
Michael scoffed. “That’s pure horseshit.”
Cricket shrugged. “Believe what you want, but the daggers were like brand new when I last saw them, many years ago, and they are several hundred years old.”
“Where are they?” Michael demanded. “I want them now.”
Cricket shrugged and got to her feet. She kept Jemmina with her and carried her on her hip. There was no way she would let this bastard near her. She went over to the wall opposite the huge fireplace. She took a small picture off the wall and set it down with one hand, then broke through the wallpaper under it.
Michael came to stand behind her.
The she felt the knife he had in his hand as he pressed it into her back. The tip of the knife pricked her skin and she felt a drop of blood run down her lower back.
Michael watched as she punched in a code on the keypad under the wallpaper.
A section of the wall slid back, showing off a rack of w
eapons that hadn’t seen the light of day in over a decade.
Michael’s jaw slacked as he viewed his uncle’s gun collection.
Cricket moved a step away and swiveled Jemmina away from him, but Michael grabbed her by the arm. Pressing the knife deeper into her back he snarled, “Don’t go too far. I’m not sure I trust you.”
“I’m not sure she should trust you,” a whisper of a man’s voice came from behind them.
Michael gasped and tried to turn but something hard slammed upside his head. He crumbled to the floor.
Cricket screamed and pulled Jemmina to the side shielding her with her body. The little girl cried quietly into her shoulder. Cricket’s scream wasn’t so much because he fell to the floor but because the knife he had in his hand was pushed into her back by the momentum of his fall. Raising her head, she found herself looking at four men standing there.
All of them wore combat fatigues and had their faces blackened by grease paint. The biggest one had pure white hair and looked to be older but who could tell under all that paint. He was the one who struck Michael and she could still see his weapon butt end up.
He lowered it as he nodded at his men. Turning back to her he spoke, “Don’t worry darlin, Sam sent us.”
“Oh, thank God!” she cried out as she trembled badly. She carefully set Jemmina down. “P-please take care—of h-her…” Then she fell into his arms and collapsed.
~* * * *~
Stone looked over at the other men with him in confusion.
One of them stepped closer and noticed the hilt of the knife sticking out of her back. That and the growing patch of red as her blood seeped into the fabric of her shirt. “Damn Colonel, he stuck her!”
“Fuck a duck!” Stone swore. “Sam’s gonna kill me. I must be getting old. I didn’t even see the knife.” He glanced over at the men with him. “Doc, get your ass over here! We need a medic.”
One of the men stepped forward as Stone picked up the screaming baby and stepped away.
Another of his men secured Michael while the man he called Doc eased Cricket to the floor. Turning her over, they could see the knife sticking out of her back. Doc grabbed his pack and began grabbing gauge pads as he eased the blade out. “I don’t think it hit anything vital.”
