I kissed her temple and pulled her closer to me. “He’s a grown man, darlin’. He can handle himself.”
She rolled her eyes, “That may be true, but he’s still my dad and I’m allowed to worry about him.”
Phoenix hobbled toward one of the couches, looking very unstable. Ember jumped up and grabbed his hand. “Daddy, let me help you. You need to sit down. Please!” she begged. Phoenix looked down at Ember and reluctantly allowed her to help him to a seat. He pulled her in for a hug and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and quietly left the room.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Phoenix ordered, “Somebody go get that cockwad and put him back in the cell. We’ll figure out what to do with him in the morning if they come back.”
A loud commotion at the back door drew everyone’s attention. Carbon entered the room like only a muscled ball of fury could. “He’s fucking gone!” he roared.
Everyone in the room jumped to their feet, loudly voicing their disbelief. Every single person, except Byte. He remained relaxed on the sofa, legs stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. He waited until it quieted down enough for him to be heard. He rubbed his fingernails on his shirt over his chest as if he were buffing them without a care in the world, “Relax, would ya? I’ve got this under control.”
Phoenix took several threatening steps closer to Byte. “The fuck you talking about?”
Byte grinned from ear to ear. “Well, see, after your speech about checking things twice and yada yada, I got to thinking about how to prevent further mishaps in situations similar to our current predicament.”
Phoenix growled, “Cut the shit and spit it out.”
Byte sighed, deflated, “After Octavius was doped up and moved to the back bedroom, me and Patch put a tracker in him. His own tracker, ironically. I was able to reprogram it and secure the feed so that only I can see it, or those who have clearance.” He shrugged. “So, relax, I’ve known the fucker’s location the whole time.”
Phoenix’s face reddened to a very unhealthy shade, but it was Badger’s fist that collided with Byte’s face.
“Ow! What the fuck, Veep?” Byte shouted.
“You’re fucking smart. I’ll give you that, but you’re a cocky, sarcastic little shithead. You should have told us you did that! And you should have told Phoenix the minute, no the fucking second, you knew he was on the move!” Badger slapped Byte in the back of the head. “What in hell is wrong with you?” Byte reached up to rub the back of his head with the hand that wasn’t cradling his cheek. “Never mind. Don’t answer that. Just go get him. Now!” Badger bellowed.
Byte scurried out the door, Patch not far behind him. It didn’t even take 10 minutes for them to drag Octavius through the front doors. They unceremoniously tossed him on the floor at Phoenix’s feet. Byte kept his eyes on the floor and muttered, “Sorry, Prez. Won’t happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t. It was good work, good thinking, all except not telling me or Badger about it.”
“Got it.”
Phoenix looked down to the lump on the floor. Octavius lay curled on his side, handcuffs still attached to his bloody wrists and ankles. There was blood coming from somewhere on his torso, but it wasn’t obvious as to where exactly or what caused it.
“Where’d you find him?” Badger asked.
“About 50 yards from the shed by the lake. He wasn’t going to make it much farther with his ankles in the state they’re in, not to mention the metal rod that was sticking out of his back,” Byte explained.
“How’d that happen?” Phoenix asked.
Byte shrugged, “I’m guessing he was rocking back and forth, doing whatever he could to get that laundry bin to fall apart. When it did, he must have fallen on one of the rods that framed the bin. We found him crawling on hands and knees with a two foot rod sticking out of his back. Patch yanked it out and we carried him back here.”
Phoenix looked to Patch, “You need to do anything else to him?”
Confusion washed over Patch’s face, “You want me to fix him? Isn’t that counterproductive?”
Phoenix laughed, an evil, cold laugh, “Not at all. I plan to keep him alive for the time being. I have a feeling he’s going to become your number one patient.”
Octavius grunted and tried to raise his head, “You can’t do this to me! You’re not going to get away with this.”
Phoenix gave him a hard kick to his ribs. “That’s where you’re wrong, little brother, I can do this and I’ve already gotten away with it. Everyone thinks you’re dead. Your boys saw your body hanging by a sheet from the ceiling of your cell this morning, saw the police come and take statements, saw the funeral home wheel your body away.” Phoenix leaned down closer to Octavius’s face, “I’m feeling generous, so I’ll give you a choice. You tell me what happened to Annabelle and I’ll show you some mercy. You don’t, I’ll keep you alive and torture you for years to come. I’ll make sure every one of your executive council has the ‘full prison experience’, especially your son.” Phoenix kicked him again and hobbled away, clutching his ribs. “Get him out of my sight.”
Patch and Byte carted Octavius to the basement, Badger followed Phoenix to his office, and I went to see my girl. Nothing sounded better than crawling in bed beside her and sinking into her warm, wet body.
EPILOGUE
Ember
One month had passed since Octavius was found dead. Federal agents raided the farm the very next day. What they uncovered was unheard of in a little town like Croftridge. Octavius was forcing people to illegally ship drugs and guns for him. He even took their children from them to keep them compliant and working. That’s how the “orphanage” came to be. All of the kids knew what it was and why they were there, all of them except for me.
After the raid, the people forced to work for Octavius were allowed to leave the property and their children were returned to them. Since those people ended up being forced into the drug and gun trade because they had been illegally gambling, they couldn’t get off without some form of punishment. It was eventually decided that each person, children excluded, would be put on probation for two years.
Several families were in a very bad situation. They were suddenly homeless, jobless, and carless with a new criminal record and children to provide for. I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to help them, especially the kids. They were innocent in all of this, just like I was. If I could prevent even one kid from having a crappy childhood, I was going to do it.
As luck would have it, Phoenix, being Zayne’s firstborn son, became the rightful owner of the dairy farm. Well, owner isn’t the right word, more like a CEO. He could do anything and everything with the farm, except for sell it, destroy it, or intentionally ruin the business. The man who started the dairy farm (it actually was just a farm in the beginning), some ancestor of mine, had a legal document drawn up giving control of the farm to the firstborn son of each generation when their respective father died or retired. If said son did not want to run the farm (which had yet to happen), they were to hire a third party to manage the farm until the next male heir came of age. The document was quite impressive. It outlined who the farm was passed on to in every circumstance imaginable from no heirs to only female offspring. The man really covered all of his bases.
Once all of the contraband was removed from the property, the criminals were arrested, and the families were set free, there was a lot of available room on the property. It seemed wasteful to let so many buildings sit empty, particularly when Croftridge had a sudden influx of homeless families. The ideas started flooding my mind, faster than I could write them down. Once I finally had my thoughts organized, I set off to find my dad.
I knocked excitedly on his office door. “Come in!”
“Hey, Dad. Do you have a minute?” I asked, barely able to contain my excitement. I think I actually bounced the whole way to his office door.
He looked at me curiously. “I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’m going to like whateve
r you are obviously about to spring on me.”
I laughed, “You’ll like it, Dad. I promise.”
He closed his laptop and leaned back in his chair. “You have the floor.”
I rubbed my hands together and began pacing back and forth. “I was thinking that it’s a shame to let all those buildings on the farm property sit empty, especially when they can be used to do good things for the people of Croftridge. For example, there’s an entire barn and dairy farm set up just sitting there, not being used. Coincidentally, there are a bunch of people that are looking for work, but have a very new criminal record. A lot of those people have kids, who now don’t have food, water, or shelter.”
My dad was smiling at me. Not his fake smile. No, this was a real one, reaching his eyes and lighting up his face. “You want me to take the fake farm and make it a real farm, hire the forced workers as legit employees, and provide them with living quarters. Correct?”
“That’s the gist of it, though I don’t think it should be another dairy farm. I don’t think that would be profitable since we currently have a good balance of supply and demand. I was thinking maybe horses and organics.”
“Horses and organics? I’m not sure I’m following you, baby girl.”
I shrugged, “I like horses. I thought maybe we could breed them or train them, maybe have riding lessons for kids or a camp or something.”
“And the organics?” he asked, his head was cocked to the side with the strangest look on his face. I wasn’t sure if I should continue or not, but he gestured for me to go on.
“Uh, like organic fruits and vegetables. People are all over organic food and clean eating. If it turns out to be a flop, it wouldn’t be a huge monetary loss. If it turns out to be a big hit, then we could possibly invest in the equipment needed to yield larger crops.”
He was still smiling with that same look on his face. “Sounds good. You’ll need this and this. Oh, and these.” He slid a stack of papers over to me, his credit card on top of the pile. Wait. What just happened?
“What’s that?” I pointed to the pile.
“New hire paperwork for the employees, a list of all buildings on the property, a log of who is currently living in what building and where, and my credit card. Hire the people, assign them rooms, start ordering the shit you need for your horses and your yuppie food.” I stood there completely dumbfounded. He said yes? “Well, take this stuff and get a move on it. Businesses don’t start themselves.”
I squealed and ran around the desk. He stood in time to catch me. I hugged him as tight as I could. “Thanks, Dad. I love you!”
He grunted and set my feet back on the floor, “Careful kid. I’m not completely healed yet.”
I gasped, “Oh crap. I forgot. Did I hurt you?”
He laughed, “Tiny little thing like you? No way.”
I pointed my finger at him and narrowed my eyes, “Hey now, we both know I could if I wanted to.”
He scoffed, “You might be able to take Dash down, but there’s no way you can take me.”
“Want to bet?”
“Hell no. I will not get in the ring and fight my daughter. Now get out of here and go make dreams come true.”
“Nice try. I’m on to your distraction techniques. We’ll revisit this when you’re completely healed.” I grabbed the stack of papers and his credit card from his desk. “Thanks, Dad! See you later!” I said as I hurriedly left his office.
I was almost to the common room when I heard Dad call my name. “Yeah?” I answered.
“Don’t forget about the party tonight,” he reminded me.
“Thanks! I had forgotten. I’ll be back in time. Do you need me to make anything?”
“Nope. We’re doing the cookout thing tonight.”
“Okay, see you then. Love you.”
“Love you, too, baby girl.”
Dash
I dropped into my designated seat and waited for Phoenix to begin church. This was an impromptu meeting, which had me a little on edge since I had no idea what Phoenix may hit us with.
The gavel banged on the table and Phoenix started speaking. “Sorry for the short notice, brothers, but I needed to have a quick sit down before the party gets started tonight. As you all know, Octavius is still locked up in the basement. Since we’ve reinforced the locks and added soundproofing panels to his cell, I feel confident we will have no more near discoveries.” About two weeks ago, Ember insisted she heard pained groans coming from below the common room. Ultimately, I convinced her what she heard was one of the club whores getting Carbon’s special brand of fucking. She plugged her ears and left the room with a scrunched up face. Mission accomplished.
“Octavius still refuses to give up any details on Annabelle, nothing new there, but I do have some news. I went to visit Hector today. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask him a few questions, see if he would willingly answer or if I could trip him up enough for him to let something slip. Turns out, he is pretty pissed at Octavius and was more than willing to share what he knew out of pure spite. We may need to visit with him more in the future, but today I went specifically to ask about Nivan since there has been absolutely no trace of the boy since this all started.”
Phoenix took a sip of water and leaned back in his chair. “I didn’t think there could be much more to this fucked up story, but apparently I was wrong.” He dropped his head, shook it from side to side, and then raised it to continue. “Nivan’s dead, has been for years. According to Hector, Nivan died when he was five years old. Somehow, Octavius managed to keep that fact hidden from everyone else. Now, I know what you all are thinking. I thought the same thing, too. He’s lying to protect him. Hector told me where a hidden safe was located on the farm. He said the proof I needed would be in that safe. Gave me the combination and everything. Being that I don’t know what else is in that safe, I think it would be wise to wait until tomorrow to ride out there and find out. We are way overdue for a celebration and I don’t want anything that might be in there to put a damper on the party. Any objections to that?”
Heads shook. He was right. We needed tonight. Even though things came to a head a month ago, it was still one thing after another. Things were just really starting to settle. At least they were until we were gifted this newest tidbit of info.
“Good. Badger and I will go tomorrow. Since Hector was speaking so freely, I asked him about Annabelle.” Phoenix paused for a moment, “He said he truly doesn’t know what happened to her. One day she was there, the next day she was gone, and Octavius forbid anyone from saying her name again. He couldn’t confirm if Annabelle was Nivan’s mother or not. That’s all I have in regards to Octavius.”
I hated watching what this was doing to Phoenix. He’d already been through this exact same thing. Lost her, searched for her, grieved for her. Now that he thought there was a chance that she was alive, he would search for her and when he didn’t find her, he would have to grieve for her again. I couldn’t imagine losing Ember once, let alone twice.
Badger’s deep voice brought me back to the present. “We have a couple of different reasons for the party tonight. One, it’s our way of giving thanks to Copper and his crew for saving our asses when they needed saving. They should be arriving in the next hour or so. Two, as per the vote last week, Prospect Jamie will be patched in as Edge tonight. Three, Coal will receive his prospect patch. If those weren’t enough reasons to party, we will likely have one more reason to celebrate before the night is over…” he trailed off and cast his eyes to me.
I cleared my throat and stood, “With Phoenix’s blessing, I’m going to ask Ember to marry me tonight.” The brothers at the table slapped me on the back and gave me their congratulations.
Duke grumbled, “Don’t congratulate him yet you stupid fucks. He hasn’t asked yet and there’s no guarantee she’ll say yes.”
I grinned, “She’ll say yes. She’s already my old lady. You fuckers just try to hold off throwing back your liquor until I’ve asked her. I don’t want a
nyone ruining this for her.” They all nodded their agreement. In the short time she had been around, they had all come to love Ember. She was the little sister, favorite cousin, and/or best friend to most of my brothers. To me, she was the world.
Coming Soon
Duke (Blackwings MC Book Two)
Dash (Blackwings MC Book 1) Page 21
