RAINING HELL-To Load

by Kane, Jackson

  Mike was eventually able to dig up a bunch more info on Peterson’s history, but it was all frustratingly squeaky clean. He found his birth records, near perfect high school and college transcripts, his acceptance into the academy and his eventual transfer to the local PD. It was the bare-bones of a life, the absolute minimum to avoid suspicion and that in itself was suspicious. Luca was growing more and more convinced that Peterson’s entire history was manufactured.

  If his whole life was a lie, then who was Adam Peterson really?

  Tee had been MIA for weeks, he’d occasionally text or call with updates, but he spent most of time following the money trail as he put it. He was looking into all of Peterson’s personal holdings, which were mostly small businesses in out of the way areas with no oversight. He wanted to know how the hell Peterson, on a police salary, had the millions of dollars to afford to run for Governor. Tee was chasing down a few leads, but he was fairly certain these businesses were all a front to launder money. What he didn’t know yet was what illegal goods or services Peterson was offering to need all these businesses.

  The Steel Veins all knew that whatever was going on behind the scenes was fucking huge, but no one could put an actual finger on what it was.

  “Go for Luca.” Luca called out elbow deep in a motorcycle engine at his shop. Voice controlled answering…the concept of a virtual assistant on a phone had blown Luca away when he discovered it. Now he didn’t have to get grease all over his phone while he was working!

  “Hey. It’s me” Grace’s soothing voice came over the shop’s speakers. It calmed the frustration of the late morning’s stubborn carburetor work. “I’ve got something for you!”

  “Yeah? Is it something slinky that I’d get to tear off of you?” Luca had grown to look forward to momentary respite that Grace’s calls offered him while at work. He started cleaning his hands and went to grab a water. He originally thought it was just the act of taking a break, which he rarely ever did otherwise, when she called that he liked, but he quickly realized it was the very sound of her voice that brought him a small measure of peace.

  “No.” She let the word hang. She cleared her throat, and forced herself to focus before continuing. “It’s Frannie. I found her.”

  “What!” Luca dropped the open bottle and dashed for his phone. He took her off speakerphone so he wouldn’t accidentally miss any information. “Where?”

  “I’m already on my way to you. Be ready in ten minutes.

  “No, Grace. This is something I need to do alone—”

  “That’s too damn bad, Rambo.” Grace cut him off. “This is my lead. I’m coming with you or you’re not going at all.”

  “Fine,” Luca reluctantly relented. She was the one to find out where Frannie was he told himself as he turned to get ready.

  After Grace picked him, it was a short twenty minute drive to the hotel where Frannie was staying. Luca was surprised and irritated that Frannie had been so close this whole time and he had no idea.

  The Great Eastern hotel was a mid-level chain that was so bland it was nearly indistinguishable from similar solidly average franchises. It could’ve just as easily been a Rodeway or a Holiday Inn.

  On the short drive over Luca asked how Grace knew where Frannie was she’d told him that being a social worker meant making a lot of friends in low places. When they walked into the hotel lobby Grace slyly nodded to the front desk agent who otherwise ignored her completely. Luca immediately understood what she meant earlier, and could only imagine how many friends she must’ve had all over the city.

  Luca fumed the whole way up the elevator, anticipating how poorly the conversation was going to go with the woman that abandoned their baby. He barely said a word until Grace literally shoved him.

  “You’re not going to fly off the handle, right?” Grace asked. “I had to call in a favor for this and I can’t have you going crazy.”

  “We’re going to talk like civilized adults.” Luca swallowed hard, the promise was a spiky pill that stuck really badly in his throat.

  Grace knocked on the door to room six-twelve.

  “Who is it?” came a man’s voice from behind the door.

  Just out of view of the door’s peephole, Luca clenched his fists. Was that Pete behind that door?

  “Hi, sir. Sorry to bother you. My name’s Nicole,” Grace bluffed, putting on a bubbly voice that made even Luca raise an eyebrow. “I’m the manager of the Great Eastern Hotel and you’ve been randomly awarded an upgrade to our luxury suite. I just need a signature and…

  “Luxury suite?” The door was quickly unbolted and cracked open. An average height, middle-aged businessman covered only by a kitchen towel that was far too small for his enormous stomach, peered out of the cracked open door. He was both skeptical and curious and obviously trying whatever was going on in the room behind him. “What’s all this—”

  “Your lucky day, sir.” Luca stepped between Grace and the slightly ajar door. He heaved the door open with one arm and cold-cocked the man with a heavy right hand.

  The man staggered a few steps into the room, losing his towel in the process. He then fell rigidly onto his back like a tree cut down by a chainsaw. He was unconscious before he hit the carpeting, leaving his small erection wobbling against the rolling layers of stomach fat like the world largest waterbed pressed up to a flagpole.

  “Goddammit!” Grace snapped. “You said you’d be civilized!”

  “I said Sir, didn’t I?” Luca walked past the man and the bathroom to the open room which held two beds, a kitchenette and an office desk covered in alcohol pills and coke.

  Two other white guys in their mid-fifties stood around one of the two beds. They were fully dressed, but didn’t have their pants or underwear on. Frannie was completely naked between then. One of the guys pulled his cock out of Frannie’s ass and put his hands up in a submissive gesture, obviously intimidated by what Luca had just done to his friend.

  “What the shit, Luca?!” Frannie pulled the other guy’s cock out of her mouth and yelled at the large biker. Her mascara had run from obvious crying and her new-looking pantsuit was torn to shreds on the floor in some kind of inverted-power role-play. “Can’t you see that I’m working here?”

  “Fucking hell, Frannie.” Luca ran a hand over his face in disgust. He sighed, then forced himself to cut to the heart of why he was there. “Any of these…gentlemen named Pete?”

  “What?” Even through the daze of whatever drugs Frannie was on her face went ghostly white at hearing the name. “No. These are just friends of mine.”

  “Alright, Frannie’s friends. Time to go home and disappoint your wives. Get the fuck out.” Luca rolled his wrist in an impatient Let’s Go gesture. He glanced over at Grace who wasn’t at all pleased as to how all this went down. Feeling a little bad that he couldn’t control himself, he reluctantly added, “Get the fuck out please.”

  After a few embarrassing minutes of frantic dressing, with the exception of the fat, unconscious guy who had the misfortune of being the one to answer the door, the men hustled out into the hallway.

  Grace refused to look at them as they left, instead she scowled at Luca.

  “I guarantee you they won’t cause you or your friend any trouble.” Luca turned out his hands, shrugging. “I doubt they’re going to want to explain what they were doing when the big bad biker burst into their room.”

  “That’s not the point.” Grace sighed, then finished by muttering under her breath, “But you’re probably right.”

  “I know. You’re lead.” Luca walked over to her, and gently touched the outside of his arm. “I’ll make it up to you. Promise.”

  “That’s all well and good, but who’s going to make it up to me?” Frannie rolled off the bed, then sauntered over to the liquor bottles lining the TV cabinet. As if having never heard of the shame or modesty she didn’t bothering to put clothes on as she clumsily made herself a mixed drink. “Do you know how much money you just cost me, you dick!”
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br />   Grace decided that it was probably best to let Luca handle his ex and leaned against a wall trying her best to be out of the way.

  “I figured you didn’t have a problem giving things away, considering how fast you gave up our fucking daughter.” Luca growled back at her.

  “I did it because I fucking had to!” Frannie finished off the vodka bottle, bringing the glass to about seventy percent full then topped it off with cranberry. She mixed the drink haphazardly with her finger then used it to chase a few loose pills that were littered across the cabinet. Frannie caught Grace’s judgmental expression at her lifestyle and snapped at her, “Oh don’t be such a fucking Puritan.” She slammed back another shot of the mostly vodka mixture and added finally as she turned back to Luca, “Besides, it was your turn.”

  “My turn?” Luca roared with a mixture of disbelief and fury. “She a little girl, you dumb cunt. She’s not a-a-a…” Words failed Luca. He was just too blown away that someone could treat a child that way. Luca steadied himself before continuing, “Tell me who Pete is and tell me why after not saying a word since I’ve known her, Bella woke up screaming saying his name.”

  “I don’t know any Pete,” Frannie lied, her eyes becoming glassier and more distant by the second.

  “You’re afraid of him…” Grace interrupted Luca who was struggling to stay rational. She walked slowly closer and Frannie’s defiance shifted to worry. “Jesus, you’d rather overdose naked, surrounded by strangers than have this Pete guy come after you.”

  The silence that followed was telling.

  “It won’t work.” Grace appealed with genuine softness and understanding in her voice. She then opened her purse and pulled out a palm-sized nasal spray with syringe-like applicator. “I’m sorry.”

  “Shit.” Frannie immediately recognized the spray as Narcan, the opioid overdose reversal spray. She slunk against the cabinet riding it to the floor. If she did overdose, Grace would spray that in her nose and she’d be stone cold sober in five minutes. It was an incredibly inconvenient miracle that had already saved her life once. “So much for the easy way.”

  “Let me help you.” Grace crouched down near the naked mess of a woman.

  “I’ve hhheard thaaat bbbefore.” Frannie’s voice was starting to slur from all the drugs.

  Luca lips pushed together into a white line. For as rightfully pissed as he was at Frannie, he couldn’t help but feel a little pity. She’d been a fun party girl when he hooked up with her, but this was hard to watch. Did she really think killing herself was her only way out of whatever mess she’d gotten herself into?

  “Not from me,” Grace insisted earnestly. “You gave up your daughter because you were scared, and you fell hard into this life because you didn’t have any other options. I’ve worked with hundreds of people just like you. I can help. I can bring you somewhere safe, and when you’re ready I can reintroduce you to your daughter.”

  “Bella Donna…” Frannie started to cry ugly, jagged tears that tore her up on the inside. The alcohol and the pills were making her droop, but her sorrow kept her crying too hard to fall over.

  “Despite whatever happened. Your daughter loves you. She always will.” Grace let the words sink deep into Frannie. “Let me help you so that maybe one day when you’ve beaten all this, when you’re better…maybe then you can help Bella Donna too. Tell us who Pete is and I promise you I can make that happen.”

  “Bella baby—Mommy’s so, so s-sorry…” Frannie stuttered in air to the point where she nearly started to hyperventilate. The drugs and her grief were kicking in hard now. Her overdose had begun to set in. It wouldn’t be long until the Narcan was going to have to be used on her. “Please.”

  “Who is he Frannie?” Grace didn’t raise her voice, or get angry. She sat next to Frannie and let the broken weep loudly on her shoulder. “Who hurt your daughter?”

  “Pete—rson…”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Grace closed her eyes as she heard Frannie’s whisper of who Pete was. She sprayed the Narcan into Frannie’s nose. Peterson Oh god, why did it have to be him?

  “As in Adam Peterson?” Luca demanded impatiently as he watched her struggle.

  Frannie couldn’t look at him, instead she just nodded as she felt the Narcan take hold and the overdose waning. She didn’t want to feel her body coming back. She wanted to feel the emptiness of oblivion of her drug induced state, not the pain of coming back. Pinprick needles of pain shattered her already bruised and broken body, Frannie whimpered in agony as her body came alive again. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the pain grew out of control. She turned her eyes to Grace and whispered, “I hate you.”

  Grace nodded. “I can live with that.” She sat back on her heels and watched as Frannie struggled with what was happening to her.

  A few minutes later, Luca’s patience had worn completely out. He squatted down in front of Frannie and gripping her jaw, he jerked her face up to meet his. “Tell us what you know of Adam Peterson,” he demanded roughly. “Why does just the sight of him terrify our daughter?”

  Frannie closed her eyes and tears squeezed out from under her lips. For a moment, she didn’t say anything. Then

  Luca shook her roughly again.

  “All right!” she screeched. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. But know this, asshole…” She opened her eyes narrowly as she glared at him. “He will find me and kill me for what I’m about to tell you and believe me, there ain’t nothing you can do to stop him.”

  “Just tell me.” Luca growled.

  Frannie closed her eyes again as if she couldn’t stand to see their faces when she told them what and who Peterson was to her. “Adam Peterson used to come and see me sometimes. He used me as much as I used him, but he’d always come around. Then he began looking at Bella. At first, I was ok with that, I mean he was interested in her well-being. I didn’t really know that much about him at first. He was just another man to me. He’d leave me money before he left, he always paid very well. I was hoping he wanted to take care of both of us.” Her face turned sour and she opened her eyes and glared at Luca. “Then I found out just exactly who Adam Peterson really was. I was in White Rock and I saw him coming out of the police station in his uniform. I didn’t know he was a fucking cop before then. I saw him greet another woman with a hug and a kiss too. When I asked someone who she was, they told me she was Peterson’s wife. Fucking hell…” She hung her head briefly. Raising it back up, she told them, “I swear I didn’t know he was married.” Shrugging she admitted, “I mean it never mattered before if the guy was married or not but with Adam it was different. It mattered. I mean I didn’t love him or anything but a man can still only have one wife.”

  Luca sneered at her. “Everyone in White Rock and Santa Fe knows who and what Adam Peterson is.”

  Frannie shook her head. “I didn’t care before and when I left, I didn’t want to know. When I left, I went to Taos. I lived through my pregnancy alone and didn’t actually meet too many people there. I didn’t want them to know who I was or what I was hiding. I heard from a friend that you went to jail but I didn’t know why. I swear. Then I met Adam. Bella was about three around that time.”

  “So if everything was going well, why did you bring Bella to me?” Luca stared hard at her.

  Frannie didn’t want to tell them why. She knew it would be worth her life. But one look in Luca’s eyes said he wouldn’t be satisfied until he knew the truth. “When I found out Peterson was married, I listened closer to the gossips about him. There wasn’t much out there, at least not out loud but there were whispers and that was enough. I began to dig a little and what I learned scared the living hell out of me. I took Bella and disappeared. Or I tried too anyway.” She shook her head and looked at Luca. “I didn’t know just how far his reach actually was. He found me and brought me back. Then he threatened to take Bella away from me. He said he would do it legally and there would nothing I could do to stop him and he promised I’d never see her again
if I ran away a second time. When I asked him what he meant by that he told me if he took her I would never find her again and if that happened he would accidently let me OD and then my problems would be over.”

  Frannie let a few tears run down her cheeks and she sobbed slightly. “I may not have been the world’s best mother but I did love her. Just like I loved you once upon a time. She was part of me and part of you. I couldn’t let her get hurt. I had to give her to you. I knew your club would protect her if she was with you.”

  “Why did you never tell me she was my daughter until just now?” Luca asked.

  Frannie sagged against the wall and hung her head for a moment. Then she looked at him and admitted, “I wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me all those years ago. You just used me and I fell in love with you. I knew how much family meant to you but you didn’t care about me at all did you? All you wanted was what between my legs. When you had your fill, you moved on to the next woman without a thought about me. I took my baby and hid her from you and the MC.”

  “Pete is short for Peterson.” Luca shook his head, irritated at himself for not guessing sooner. Then he turned his attention back to Frannie. “Did you know she doesn’t speak?”

  Frannie nodded slowly.

  “Why? What happened to her?” Grace asked.

  Frannie hung her head again. “Adam Peterson is what happened. When he found us, he dragged us back and he beat the hell out of me in front of her. She heard him threaten to take her away from me. He told me in detail what his plans for her were and she was scared. Of him and the whole world. She never did talk again after that. I couldn’t stand the silence. She was so afraid and there was nothing I could do to help her through that.” She shook her head. “Then I found out something that scared the bejesus out of me. I didn’t know if it was true or not and I wasn’t sticking around to find out either. I took Bella to social services and left her there. I knew they would find you and give her to you. It was the best I could do for her. After that, I was free to go into hiding.”