Bane

by KJ Dahlen

  Bane

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  A Stand Alone Novel

  K.J. Dahlen

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  At All Costs | (Aries) | Whiskey Bend MC Series | Chapter One

  About K. J. Dahlen

  A Stand Alone Novel

  K.J. Dahlen

  All Rights Reserved

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity.

  K.J. Dahlen

  Bane

  Copyright © 2018

  Book Design, Editing & Formatting: Wicked Muse

  Cover Art Provided By: Cosmic Letterz

  Dedication

  To the fans, my peeps in the K.J. Dahlen Reader Group for pushing me to give Bane his own book.

  Prologue

  A year ago...

  Bane gave the dark a cold grin. Oh yeah, this would be fun for him. He hated playing games with people’s lives, but this was a game he knew he would win.

  He’d just climbed a tree outside Stark’s compound. He’d traveled here during daytime hours and using the trees as cover, he scoped out the place. He didn’t dare get too close, as he didn’t want Stark to have any clue he was being watched. He’d used the cover of shadows to get where he wanted to be. He also knew he wasn’t alone in these woods. He couldn’t see anyone, but he knew they were there all the same. He felt them waiting while watching him and the clubhouse.

  Checking his watch, he noted the time. He had a few hours left before Deke said he would come for the MC.

  Some of Stark’s men were milling around clubhouse, making all the noise they wanted. They had no clue anyone was out there, either that or they just didn’t care. Bane brought his hand crafted rifle equipped with a silencer up to his shoulder and took out three men. They dropped without a word or a sound.

  Bane took out another four men before Stark even noticed they were missing. When he found his men dead, he panicked and closed his clubhouse up, finally taking up a fighting position behind its closed doors. He barricaded what was left of his men and they just began shooting at anything that moved outside. They are at a stalemate right now.

  Bane knew time was running out and decided to stir things up a bit. He laid down on the branch holding him and took the shot. A moment later, the fuel tank blew up. A second later, the clubhouse blew up as well. Bane sat up and grinned slightly.

  Screams and chaos echoed around him.

  Bane slid down the tree and began breaking down his weapon. He was going to walk away when a shot rang out. He felt the bite of pain that hit him. Gasping he turned, grabbing the handgun at his waist and fired instinctively.

  Stark had stumbled from the burning house and had seen Bane walking away. He got one shot off and Bane had been hit but Bane turned around and literally smoked Stark. The shot took him completely off his feet. He flew back about five feet before he hit the ground. Then he didn’t move again. His dead eyes stared at the canopy of stars overhead. His clothes were still smoking from the burning building he’d just stumbled out of.

  Bane turned wordlessly and walked deeper in the woods. At this point, he could no longer feel the pain of the gunshot but he could feel the blood pouring down his side. He knew he was going into shock and there was nothing he could do to stop it. The bullet caught him in the back shoulder and came out in his upper chest.

  Each step he took, he knew he was growing weaker from blood loss. He sat down when he was far enough away from the crime scene. Leaning his head against the tree, he just felt tired.

  He thought about the events of the night. Cricket getting married when she thought she only had another day to live. It had astounded him at the time.

  When he’d walked into the Sin’s Bastard’s clubhouse earlier tonight before all of this, he took in the flowery arch, the candles, and the sense of pure happiness. Then he saw Cricket’s face and he had to stop and stare at her for a moment.

  She’d looked so much like her mother. Her hair was a little different, but her eyes were exactly like his Grace. The only difference was Grace never once looked at him the same way Cricket was looking at Raine. Grace’s eyes never held for him the emotion Cricket had in hers at the moment. Grace’s eyes only held pain and fear for him.

  The noise level dropped so suddenly, it took him a moment to hear it. Then he glanced around the room.

  “Raine and I just got married.” Cricket pushed her way around Raine’s huge body to face her uncle.

  “Married?” Bane frowned. “You got married? At this hour?”

  Cricket nodded. “I was born at this time of the day twenty-four years ago. With our present situation, Raine wanted to give me something special for my birthday.”

  When he turned to leave, Cricket called out, “Uncle, would you like to stay and celebrate with us?”

  Bane turned around slowly to stare at her. “I don’t celebrate. But enjoy your moment. Happiness rarely lasts very long.” He looked over at Deke. “Those other two men you were looking for earlier? I found them once but they got away. They may not make it very far but they got away from me.” He shook his head. “I must be getting old. I never should have missed them.”

  Then he disappeared through the door.

  He had wondered at the time...What the bloody hell was wrong with her? What the hell was wrong with him? Why had she taken that moment to ask him to stay? Why had he almost stayed? He realized now that this girl was Grace’s daughter after all. He saw in her what it was that touched him the first time he’d seen her mother.

  Now, he was satisfied that Stark would no longer be a threat to Cricket. She had proven herself to him and to the rest of the world. He didn’t have to worry about her anymore. He knew the MC would take care of her.

  He smiled faintly as he thought about what he’d done tonight. He had taken out an entire MC. His last act on this earth had been protecting a woman who hated him, one who wanted nothing to do with him. Hell, she didn’t even want the name she should have been born with. She was a true Jessin and she didn’t want that title.

  Jessin was a name to be proud of even if she didn’t want it. That name would be gone forever now. He had no children left to carry the name, even his grandson would have a different name by now.

  Then he thought about what he’d placed on the front seat of his car. He wanted Cricket to know that he knew about the boy Dusty. She needed to know that he knew, yet he hadn’t done anything to claim the boy.

  His will was there as well. He knew he might now live through this and he was right. Stark had gotten one good shot off before he met his Maker, whether he went to heaven or hell it didn’t matter any longer. Bane had put out the trash, as Deke would have said. He grinned at the irony of it all. Deke would have considered him trash as well, he didn’t doubt that one bit.

  Cricket and Dusty would be safe now. At least he’d done that much for them. He tried to get up but lacked the strength to do so. Instead, he just sat there and thought about what Cricket would do when she heard he was dead. He knew there was always the chance that tonight could be his last night on this earth.

  The sad part of
his life was he had nothing to show for his existence. Oh, he had money and a sort of frame but anybody could have those things. He had a big house and nice cars and expensive art works on his walls but again those were just material things. That was cold comfort in the end.

  He had tried a wife and family but that hadn’t worked out for him either. He felt something strange trailing down his cheeks and he frowned and raised a hand to brush it off his face.

  His hand came away wet but there was no color to the wetness. Was he crying? Were those actual tears running down his cheeks? How strange, Bane thought. Never in his fifty-seven years had he cried. Not even as a child and he’d been hurt.

  Now in his last few moments of life he was crying. Bane didn’t understand why.

  He wasn’t afraid of dying. It was a natural progress of things he couldn’t control. You were born, you grew up and hopefully you lived a good long life then you died.

  He had missed out on so much and until now, it never bothered him. He had gone through life with no real feelings of any kind, but he hadn’t known regret until now. His lack of feeling hadn’t bothered him either.

  His only real regret now that he thought about it had been not making Grace love him. He regretted the fact that even if she had stayed with him there hadn’t been a chance of her loving him, not the same way she loved Orrin. Only now did he realize you couldn’t force someone to love you, that kind of feeling cannot be forced. If it’s meant to be, it will be. All those years ago, he tried forcing her and it hadn’t worked.

  He and Orrin had been as different as day and night. Orrin had feelings, he knew what it was like to fly high or drop so low you had to claw your way up just to breathe the air you needed to survive.

  He’d been there when Grace had his daughter, Cordy and he’d been there when Grace went through labor to bring his own daughter into this world. He’d also been there when Grace breathed her last breath. Orrin had grieved for Grace every day after that until the day Cordy blew him up.

  He raised his teary eyes to the heavens and called out, “I’m sorry brother. I never understood what you went through. I dropped the ball with Grace. I missed out on having a family I so desperately wanted with her, but you didn’t. I made your life a living hell and until now I didn’t understand why I did that.” Hanging his head, he sobbed. “I know it too little too late, but I saved your girl tonight. I took out a threat to her life and I’m glad I did that. I want you and Grace to know that I forgive you. I know I didn’t say the words when it could have made a difference, but I am sorry. I put the blame on your shoulders when it should have been on mine all along.”

  He tipped his head back and stared at the stars overhead. “I know you and Grace are together in heaven and I envy you that. My children and my enemies are waiting in hell for me to join them and I deserve that. The Jessin line ends tonight and that’s the way it should be. You told me that a very long time ago but I was too arrogant to listen, to full of my own expectations to care what you thought. I thought I had time to have a son of my own to carry on the name I was so proud to bear.”

  He coughed and couldn’t stop. Each cough brought him fresh pain and he could feel a gush of fresh blood pumping out of the hole in his chest. When he was finally able to catch his breath, Bane felt his head swimming. Everything around him was floating and he had spots behind his eyelids.

  Bane wasn’t ready to give up the fight just yet. “Grace,” he whispered, “Please forgive me for being who I was when I knew you. I did care about you but I didn’t know how to treat you back then. I hurt you time and time again when I should have cherished you. You never betrayed me and I could face that now. I betrayed you. It took your sweet daughter to teach me that. I only wish I could redo my life. I got too good at killing and not very good at living. I should have surrounded my life with living not with death and dying. Now it’s too late for that and hell is coming for me.”

  Tears dried on his face as he faced his final goodbye. “Grace, Orrin, please forgive me,” he whispered as he felt his heartbeat slow down. He didn’t try and fight the inevitable.

  Suddenly, the silence surrounding him was broken by the sound of footsteps and then someone walked out of the shadows.

  Bane raised the gun that was still in his hand and pointed it at the man walking toward him.

  This didn’t stop the man, he didn’t even hesitate in his steps. Instead, he came right up to where Bane was sitting and squatted next to him.

  “Who the fuck are you and what do you want here?” Bane finally asked.

  “They call me many names but most people know me as the Priest.”

  Bane growled. “You’re too late if killing me is on your mind. Stark’s bullet took care of that.”

  Priest shook his head. “I didn’t come here to kill you, but instead to ask you a question.”

  Bane raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?”

  “I want to ask you if you want a do over?”

  “A do-over? Is there such a thing for men like us?” Bane had to ask.

  “There could be if you want it bad enough.”

  Bane snorted. “No one ever gets the chance for a life do over.”

  “Then you don’t want it bad enough.” He started to stand up.

  Bane reached out and grabbed his arm pulling him back down. “Why? Why would you offer me something like this? What’s in for you?”

  Priest shrugged. “Not a goddamn thing. Men like you and me? We know fifty ways to kill another man but we don’t know squat about living. We don’t know anything about why other people find love but we never could.”

  “You don’t know me.” Bane growled.

  “I know more about you than you think. I never thought I was worthy of a better life either, then I met the real person I was meant to be. The man I never dared to dream I could be. When I found out about this mission I had to come and offer you the same chance I was given. It was scary as hell and I feared nothing. But I took that step and I’ll never regret I did. I’m here to either watch you give up and die or take the chance and learn to live. The thing is if you take that chance you have to walk away from your old life. No more killing. Can you do that? Can you give up everything you’ve worked a lifetime to gain?”

  Bane thought about that for a moment then nodded. “I’d sure like to try.”

  Priest reached out his hand and Bane slowly accepted it. Hauling him to his feet, Priest threw his arm around the injured man and led him back to the shadows. They passed another man hauling a dead body to the place Bane had rested.

  Bane turned and watched as the other man propped the dead man up against the tree.

  He stripped off the Dragon’s MC cut from his shoulder and reached for the weapon Bane had dropped. Pointing it at the other man’s face, he pulled the trigger and in an instant, the other man’s face exploded. Blood and debris flew everywhere but there was nothing left to identify the body against the tree.

  Then another shot rang out. The second man got up, walked into the shadows to bring out another body, and threw it to the ground.

  It was Stark’s body.

  Then he joined Priest and Bane.

  Priest smiled slightly. “That’s step one.”

  “Step one?” Bane asked.

  “Toward the end of your old life, now we have to set up your recovery and the beginning of your new life.”

  Chapter One

  A year later... Troy, New York

  Theo Franks sat at the café with his companion Sarah and was having a cup of coffee when Cricket, Reva and Cassie walked by. Theo looked carefully at his niece and about choked on the sip of coffee he just had. Coffee sprayed all over the table and him, including in his beard.

  Cricket was pushing a baby stroller in front of her a baby stroller meant to hold more than one child.

  His eyes narrowed as he thought back to a year ago. Had she been pregnant then or was this an after effect to the rush of danger she’d been in then? He watched as the women stoppe
d long enough for Reva to pick up one of the fussy babies inside the stroller. Then he saw Cassie pick up another squalling baby and still Cricket rocked the stroller, as if there was a third child in there.

  Theo felt stunned at what was right in front of him. From the size of the babies, he knew they were a few months old. Had she already been pregnant when he saw her last?

  Sarah looked over at him in concern. “Are you all right?”

  Theo wiped his mouth and nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” He turned to watch the three women as they crossed the street at the corner.

  Sarah leaned forward and placed her hand over his. “Do you know those people?”

  Theo stared at Cricket for along moment then turned to face Sarah. “Yeah, I know one of them anyway, from my past.”

  He was no longer the man he’d been a year ago. At least he no longer looked like the same man. But he knew that just changing his face didn’t necessarily change the man he’d once been. But he was working on that. He was still tall dark-haired and dark eyed but his face wasn’t the same. But it was more than just the shape of his face, now he had a full beard covering his scars from the surgeries he’d had. His body was no longer as slim as it once was either. Now his muscles were taut and his body reveled in his strength. He might have been an older man but it didn’t show. He’d been rebuilding his body as well as his soul this last year.

  “Theo, why did we come here?” Sarah asked.

  He felt annoyed for a moment then shook off the feeling. She had a right to ask him that. He thought about how they met. Sarah was the first person he’d seen when he’d come around after his reconstructive surgery.

  The Priest had taken him to a private clinic in Bath, Maine. A doctor there had put him in a medically induced coma to recover the surgery necessary to recover from the bullet wound he’d gotten from Stark. He had arrived half dead due to blood loss and the coma was the only way he could get the medical help he needed to live.