Grace moved to investigate the household but had been blocked every time. This time, she found a Judge that had signed her warrant. Judge Jack Morgan. As soon as he heard Matthias’s name he signed the warrant giving her temporary custody of Maddie. He told her then to protect the little girl and to not take any shit from her bastard of a father.
Grace had been surprised in one way and not so surprised in another. Matthias Benjamin was a big wig in some circles and a braggart in others. He got things done in this town and sometimes the way he did things was more than a little shady but no one ever complained about it. There was never anything that could be proven in a court of law. So until now, he’d gotten away with it. Until now… Now she had a Judge sign a warrant that would protect his small daughter against him.
After waiting for another hour, the doctor finally came out of the Surgery room. He looked tired and more than a little upset. “How is she?” Grace begged.
The doctor shook his head. “I was able to stop the internal bleeding but when she fell she hit her head. She has a slow bleed in her brain and we’re going to have to watch it closely. That child has bruises both old and new. Whoever hit her has been doing it for a while now.”
“Well he won’t do it again.” Grace seethed. “Is there any way we can hide her somewhere?”
“Hide her?” The doctor frowned.
“Her father might come here and make a big deal about her condition. As he’s responsible for what happened, I don’t want him anywhere near her.”
“Her father is?”
“Matthias Benjamin.”
The doctor scowled. “I know that bastard.” Shaking his head he muttered, “That little girl is Ellen’s child?”
Grace nodded. “I really don’t want him to get to her.”
The doctor nodded. “I see your point. After what happened in the Emergency Room, I understand completely. I can place her in quarantine. Only doctors and nurses are allowed in there. Are you okay with that?”
Grace nodded. “As long as I get daily reports I’m fine with that.” She turned to walk away but turned back to search the doctor’s face. “Please take care of her. You have my number and if there’s any change please call me.”
The doctor nodded and went back into the surgery wing.
Grace walked down the long hall and got into the elevator. There was a member of a MC in there waiting to go up to another floor. She noticed the patch on his vest was the same as the one Luca had so she decided to see where he was going.
When they left the elevator, the biker walked down the hall and went to room 420. She paused outside the room and saw Aiden Thomas laying in a bed. There were several other bikers in the room including Luca.
He raised his eyes and saw her standing there but showed no sign of acknowledgement. Instead, he turned to watch his brother.
Aiden was obviously struggling to wake up and he finally got his eyes open. Luca grasped his hand and held in tightly. “Aiden, thank god. I thought I lost you for a moment.”
“Yeah me too,” Aiden whispered. “Oh my god I hurt.”
Luca clasped his brothers hand closer to his chest. “Who did this to you?” he called out loud enough to allow Grace to hear.
“Peterson. Peterson’s men did this. They told me they didn’t want us here no more and this was their way of pointing it out. They told me their orders came from Peterson himself.”
“What the fuck?” Luca swore.
“Do you know who they were?” Bowie wanted to know.
Aiden nodded then screwed up his face in extreme pain. “Joey Hatters, Mark Lowerly and Hal Brickman.”
Bowie glanced over at Luca. “There’s more going on here than we know about. We need to dig deeper into Peterson’s background. There’s got to be a reason he’s pushing this hard.”
“He hasn’t liked us but he’s never worked this hard to get rid of us either,” another biker spoke up.
“From what I hear that’s going to be his whole campaign for Governor. Cleaning up his state,” the last biker spoke up.
“But why? Why at this moment?” Bowie asked. “We’ve cleaned up the MC. We don’t run drugs or guns anymore and we’ve never traded women so what’s his deal?”
“That’s the real question here isn’t it?” Luca stated.
Grace walked away and down the hall. She sat down and thought about what she’d learned today. Adam Peterson wasn’t as clean as he thought he was, at least to the public’s eye. Somehow, this fact didn’t come as a complete surprise to her.
His name was often whispered around her office and not is a good way. He’d brought his enemies to their knees by filing false reports to Social Services over and over again. These people were hard working individuals who had come under his purview and when normal threats hadn’t worked on them, he threatened their children. The claims had taken time and effort away from those who really needed their services but there was never any real threats to those children. But unfortunately, each and every one of the claims had been investigated and there was now a record or a paper trail that was now public knowledge.
He shrugged everything off as a simple mistake on his part but they happened a bit too often to be just a coincidence. No one had ever said anything but they all thought about it and they all had their own opinions on the matter. They had learned however not to voice their opinions out loud. More often than not, their jobs were at stake if they did.
Grace looked up as Luca emerged from Aiden’s room. When he saw her sitting there, he walked over and sat down next to her. Neither of them said a word for a moment until Grace broke the silence, “So Adam Peterson huh?”
“Yeah, Adam fuckin Peterson.” Luca growled, then rubbing the back of his head he looked at the clock on the wall. “Fuck, I need to go pick up Bella. This is her first day of school. They called me in when Aiden started looking like he might come out of his coma and I lost track of time.”
Grace reached out and touched his hand. “Be very careful with Bella when you’re dealing with Peterson. I saw his face the other day at the pizza place. I’m not sure what is going on there but I have a feeling something is.”
Luca got to his feet. “Don’t worry about my kid. I’ll protect her and I have an MC to back me up. We aren’t taking anymore of Peterson’s bullshit.”
She watched him walk down the hall and couldn’t help but wonder what else could possibly go wrong. She shivered like a ghost walked over her soul. Then she decided to go after Luca.
Chapter Eleven
Luca left that hospital in a dark mood, hesitant to let Grace come with him. When he was this angry people got hurt, and he didn’t want Grace to get caught up in whatever was going to happen next. However when Grace asked to take him up on his offer of getting ice cream with him and Bella, Luca quickly realized that despite what happened with Aiden and finally getting hard confirmation to what he and the rest of his club suspected it was still Bella’s day, not his. Besides, he had brought his bike to the hospital when he got the call from the prospect watching his brother’s door, and now he was running too late to stop and pick up the minivan.
They took Grace’s four door sedan and while she drove Luca had become withdrawn most of the ride.
Way to go, Luca, He chastised himself, spiraling inward and letting the anger that had been building up in him all day consume him. You managed to find a way to fuck up your girl’s first day at school.
“Your little girl?” Luca asked in a moment of clarity. He was so deep in his own thoughts that he’d forgotten that Grace had been called to the hospital just before he was. The abrupt realization made him struggle against his own mental sluggishness to get the words out. “In the case you’re working. The one that’s in the hospital... She OK?”
Grace answered with only a heavy sigh at first. “She’s…no. She’s not OK. It’s a bad scene, one of the worst I’d seen.”
“You know, you can tell me whatever you want.” Luca shifted in his seat to get a better look at he
r. Guilt, remorse, and pain were written plainly across her face. It bothered him more than he’d expected.
When had she become more to him than social worker or even a piece of ass?
“I’m sure as hell not going to the police with anything…” Luca finished the sentence, but only in his mind –except maybe revenge.
When Grace glanced over at Luca and saw the earnest empathy on his features, she couldn’t fight anymore. Once Grace started talking, the flood gates were opened. She didn’t name names, but letting Luca in like this was more dangerous than she could put into words. Even knowing who and what Luca was, she couldn’t stop herself. She was immediately flushed with emotions and couldn’t help but describe with abhorrence all the cuts and bruises this girl had received at the hands of her father.
When they finally arrived at Bella’s school, Luca was simmering with rage. All he could think about was Bella in that poor little girl’s shoes.
They had managed to get there a few minutes before school let out, which was good because Grace didn’t want Bella to see her on the verge of tears like she was.
“Matthias Benjamin,” Luca muttered under his breath
“What?” Grace’s eyes shot open wide at the revelation. “How did you know?”
“One of the— Uh...friends of the club knew Ellen well. And her fuck-wit of a husband…” Luca stopped himself from saying the word whores. The Steel Veins had changed a lot of things since he’d been in lock up, even down to some terminology. It was all to clean up our image and get the feds off our asses. Luca didn’t like the self-censorship. It wasn’t like whores had gone away. If anything, there were more hanging around than ever before.
Before Grace could muster a reply to Luca’s surprisingly acute deduction the school let out. Teachers and students poured out of the front double doors to meet the horde of worried, dotting parents. This was a conversation that was going to have to wait until later.
Luca swept up Bella in a big hug and asked her how her day was. Bella answered with her customary head shakes and nods. Grace noticed that, despite Bella still not speaking she’d become very good at emoting with her face. This was especially true around Luca. Their interactions had gone further than just yes or no questions, Luca could have a full on conversation with her by just reading her face.
Bella really was in the best hands possible. For such a big guy Luca was teddy bear when it came to his daughter. And from the way he said Matthias’ name in the care, Grace didn’t doubt that Luca was also grizzly bear when he wanted to be.
“Grace is going to take you to get ice cream. OK, Banana?” Luca bounced Bella on his hip and soon had the little girl laughing and nodding like crazy.
“Wait.” Grace interjected. “You’re not coming?”
“Something came up I gotta handle.” Luca’s face drained off all the airy lightness he used with his daughter. There was only twisted steel in his voice now.
Whatever Luca had to do, Grace didn’t ask.
He was glad, as he doubted she’d like the answer.
Luca had walked the half hour it took to get back to the shop. He needed the time to cool off and call Bowie. He explained what to his Pres what he wanted to do. No. What he had to do.
Bowie told Luca the cops had shown up in force at the hospital now that Aiden was awake. He and the rest of the MC needed to stay there to keep the cops from finishing what they started. Aiden wasn’t being charged with anything so there was technically nothing they could do to him. Technically. However, if Aiden was left unprotected the cops would find a way. They always fucking did.
Luca wanted nothing more than to go after the fucks that put his brother in a coma, but knew he couldn’t. Not yet at least. With so many cops and bikers in one place, if Luca walked in there he’d be the match that set the powder keg to blow. No one would be getting out alive.
With the rest of the MC sitting on Aiden, Bowie told Luca that they had the situation handled. That was fine. Luca was dead set on paying Matthias a visit, even if he had to do it alone. However before Bowie hung up he told Luca that he heard back from the national president, and that there should be reinforcements waiting for him at the bike shop.
Luca wasn’t sure what he was going to find when he arrived at the shop, but he was sure as hell skeptical when he only saw one guy sitting on his bike parked right out front of his door.
Reinforcements, huh?
Luca approached cautiously, but without aggression. This stranger at least wore the vest of the Steel Veins. But where the hell were the rest of the guys?
“Hey, man. I’m Tee.” The biker turned to Luca when heard the footsteps approach. He had coffee brown skin, tight black braids which were pulled back and was smoking a cigarette. “You Luca?”
“I am.” Luca took the man’s patches in when he got close enough to shake the man’s hand. He saw that Tee was from the mother chapter in Leslie, Oklahoma. Luca had never been, but he’d heard all the stories since he’d gotten out of prison. Beneath Tee’s MC colors, he wore a full on bulletproof vest and judging from the battle damage it wasn’t for a fashion statement. “Any other guys coming?”
“Why would they? I’m here.” Tee smiled through his patchy beard and Luca could feel him looking him over behind his dark sunglasses. The man also wore the smaller patches that labeled him as an original member and also the vice president. “I hear you have a politician problem.”
Luca snorted. “If Adam Peterson becomes Governor, we all have a fucking problem.”
“Then I came to the right place.”
“Hey listen, man. Thanks for coming down but I gotta run out and do a thing first.” Luca walked into the garage and Tee followed him. Luca attached a sheathed knife to his belt then went into one of the standing tool chests. He pulled out the metal drawer, looked back to make sure only Tee was here, then removed a hidden compartment in the bottom of the chest. He pulled out a nine-millimeter pistol and two magazines of ammo.
“Oh, so it’s that kinda thing.” Tee took his shades off and crossed his arms. “This the part where you tell me you gotta go handle this alone because you don’t know me? Go all lone wolf and shit on some asshole?”
“Fuck no! Mother fucker, you have a bulletproof vest on! Of course, I want you watching my back.” Luca slid the pistol into the back of his pants. He had no intention of being a bad ass loner or going back to jail. Luca knew that Bowie trusted the chapter president and if Tee was that dude’s right hand, then that was good enough for him. Besides the Steel Veins was a much more trustworthy organization now that Remy Daniels had taken over.
Tee’s wide smile was his only reply. Tee immediately took a liking to Luca’s bluntness and lack of bravado.
The two men spent most of the late afternoon and early evening tailing Matthias as he went from errand to errand with the carefree attitude of someone who hadn’t just put his daughter in the hospital. Rage filled Luca so fully as they followed the man that simply breathing became difficult at times.
When Matthias finally arrived at his large upper middle class house, so too did the two bikers that followed him. Knowing that Matthias’ wife was dead and his daughter might be joining her shortly, Luca assumed the house was probably empty and wasted no time making his presence known. He pulled in right behind Matthias’ Mercedes and had his gun out, trained on the man as soon as he opened the door.
Tee pulled in beside them and scanned the quiet neighborhood for signs of movement, if there was anyone watching they didn’t make any kind of fuss at what was clearly about to happen. Grace told Luca that some of her worried calls about the wellbeing of Ellen and Maddie came from this piece-of-shit’s neighbors. It wouldn’t matter if someone did call them, because most of the local cops were down at the hospital in a standoff with the Bowie and the rest of the Veins.
Either way, Luca and Tee didn’t have to worry about being interrupted. They both pulled on leather gloves before they got off their bikes. This was a situation where they didn’t want to l
eave any tiny bit of themselves behind.
“What the fuck is—” Matthias started when he got out of the car and saw the bikers. He was cut off by a heavy fist punched into his solar plexus and dropped to a knee.
“So you’re the kind of man that beats his wife and child, huh?” Luca asked, looking the man over.
Matthias, a portly man in his late forties with thinning hair combed to one side wore slacks and a silk button-down shirt, didn’t look like much to Luca. But then again, Luca was a six-four wall of muscle. Most people didn’t look like much to him.
Matthias tried to respond, but was grabbed by the throat and dragged him inside the house.
Luca was stone-faced from then on out. He didn’t have any quips or threats or monologues about right and wrong, or lectures about the treasure that was a child’s life. He wasn’t there to show Matthias the error of his ways.
He was simply there to take out trash.
The house was fucking enormous on the inside. The foyer especially, it had a wide staircase that led to a second floor overhang where you could see into three open rooms.
Tee had found a fifty-foot extension cord and began fastening it to the second floor banister.
It wasn’t until Luca forced him to write an apology for what he’d done to his wife and daughter that Matthias realized what was about to happen. When Tee let the cord drop to the floor below the noose he’d fashioned snapped, twisted, then swayed ominously in open air. The balding, pot-bellied man turned a pale shade of green and decided to make a break for it.
Luca caught him with ease and after a very short fight dragged him back into the foyer.
Matthias first threatened, then pleaded and finally wept, but Luca wasn’t having any of it as he dragged a chair in from the kitchen and made Matthias stand on it.
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