Bane

by KJ Dahlen

  James glanced down at his incoming text. Frowning, he read the message Trudy was sending him. Looking up at Priest, he handed him the phone. Then he turned to Deke. “Maybe he doesn’t have a choice.”

  Deke frowned and glanced at Sam and Mountain. “What the fuck does that mean? He doesn’t have a choice? Everyone has a choice.”

  “Trudy dug into his past and Breaker has a fifteen-year-old daughter, named Amy and right now Amy is missing,” Priest informed him.

  Deke looked over at his father and the other men. “And just how does Trudy know this?”

  Priest turned the phone over to Deke.

  He read the information Trudy sent them. It was a police report from the Concord PD. Kyle and Janice Ruppert’s home had been invaded and Janice was injured. She had been almost murdered, in fact she was still in hospital, and Kyle had been beaten. He also reported his fifteen-year-old daughter was missing. He didn’t see who invaded his home but neighbors had given statements that the men who broke into their home left on motorcycles.

  Deke slowly ran his fingers through his hair. Looking over at Priest he asked, “Why wouldn’t he mention this?”

  “If Buckley has his daughter he might be under duress but it’s still a lie,” Sam argued. “He’s still betraying the MC, no matter which way you fucking slice it.”

  “Sam,” Black Jack interjected. “He’s fighting to keep his little girl alive.”

  Priest looked thoughtful for a moment then asked, “How did we find out about the four men in Lowell?”

  “Breaker told us about them. Why?” Deke narrowed his eyes.

  “Maybe he didn’t betray the MC after all,” Theo informed them.

  “How do you figure that old man?” Deke growled.

  “Well, think about it...” Theo explained. “He couldn’t come right out and tell you what was going on. He has to protect his kid, but by telling you about the guys waiting for Buckley, he knew we’d find these plans and be able to close off the tunnel before they get here.”

  “That doesn’t get his daughter back now does it?” Deke grumbled.

  “Maybe that’s what his brothers are for,” Priest commented.

  Deke snapped his head around to Priest. “And just why would his brothers help him? He was willing to give them up to a murderer.”

  “And just how far would you go to get your own daughter back from a mad man?” Sam asked his son.

  Deke lost his belligerent attitude. He’d die for his children and Cassie. He’d kill for them if the need ever rose. He glared at his father. “He has little to no expectation his daughter is still alive. That report is over a week old.”

  “He’s probably living on hope and a prayer but don’t you think he knows Amy might not be alive anymore?” Sam shook his head. “He knows and he also knows that Buckley has a bullet with his name on it. He remembers Bear and he knows how those two boys grew up. He knows exactly what kind of man Oscar Buckley is.”

  “So how do we confront him?” Deke looked livid.

  “How about straight on?” Mountain suggested. “He’s got to know we would figure this out anyway. If he sent us to Lowell, he must have known we get this info.”

  Deke turned to look at Priest. “How did you find out about the men in Lowell?”

  Priest looked over at James and nodded at the man. “James found the information and dug into the rumors then brought the information to me. We dug a little deeper and confirmed it, then brought it to you.”

  Every eye in the room turned to James.

  He raised an eye brow and stared back at them, then broke the uncomfortable silence filling the room, “I was contacted on an old email address. He and I had several untraceables as a buffer between us and the rest of the world. I usually don’t look into each job that’s offered but for some reason this one stuck out. I contacted the mark and he told me some things I couldn’t believe. On a hunch, I dug into what he told me and I found it was true. That’s when I told Priest about what I heard.”

  “Do you know who the email was from?” Black Jack asked.

  “All I could find was the address came from a library in Concord, New Hampshire.”

  Deke looked at his brothers. They all knew Breaker had moved to Concord after he left the MC. He told them all he had a friend he wanted to look up. He said he had family there. He got on the phone and called the clubhouse.

  A short time later, there was a knock on the door and when Priest opened it, he found Wiley and Gator standing there.

  Behind them was Breaker and he didn’t look so good.

  Iceman and Deacon were standing behind Breaker. When he hesitated to follow Gator and Wiley into the room Iceman pushed him inside. Breaker stumbled then straightened his walk and turned to face the men he once knew as brothers.

  “Did you manage to get here unseen?” Deke asked his men.

  Iceman nodded. “We’ve got our own eyes on the three men James pointed out as belonging to Buckley.” Turning to Theo he mentioned, “We’ve also got eyes on your woman Sarah.”

  Theo stiffened and frowned. “Why? Why are you watching her?”

  “Because we don’t know her and we don’t know you,” Deke replied. “We have to look out for this town and the people who live here, they are our family and you and Sarah are not.”

  Theo wanted to argue the point but he wasn’t ready to give up his new identity yet. He had to play out this part if he hoped to keep Theo and his do over alive.

  Deke turned his attention to Breaker. “Well old man, what kind of trouble to you bring back here with you?”

  “I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about Deke,” Breaker stammered.

  “Oh yeah you, fuckind do, don’t you?” Deke watched as the other man tried to make believe he didn’t know what was going on. “What happened that turned you against us?”

  Breaker seemed to lose his stature. He ran his hands through his hair and down his face. “I haven’t turned on you guys man. Don’t ever think that. You gained my allegiance a long time ago and that was for life man.”

  “Then what the fuck is going on here?” Iceman challenged the other man.

  “Tell us what this is about,” Deke stated as he shoved the phone in Breaker’s face.

  When Breaker got a look at the article on the phone screen, he visibly paled. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his hand shook as he reached for the phone. The police report was a week old. Tears rolled down the his face as he read the details listed there. “I was late getting home that night. To me, it was just another Tuesday night. I had heard about Oscar and Matty getting out of prison but never thought they would come looking for me. I hadn’t thought about Bear in years. Anyway, when I got home I found my front door kicked in and my wife Katie on floor.” He glared at Deke and snarled, “Those fuckers beat her almost to death then they walked away leaving her gasping for air and laying in a pool of her own fucking blood.” Taking a deep breath Breaker went on, “Matty stayed behind. He told me I had a beautiful daughter and how bad he felt about having to beat my old lady.” Shrugging Breaker went on to say, “He told me that now was the time to reaffirm my vows of loyalty to Bear. I told him Bear was dead and had been for some time. Matty laughed and then he told me he knew that and that the world might be better off without him still here but that when I took his brother’s life that day, I lost my own. I didn’t get to have a happy ever after. He and his dad were going to make sure of that. He motioned to my wife and said she was a tough nut to crack but they finally got her to shut up. Then he looked around my house and said I had a decent life here but it was going to be a pleasure to take it all away from me. They were going to leave me with nothing, the same as they had. The bastard told me I should forget about my kid cuz I’d never see her in one piece again. I broke then. I asked him what they wanted.”

  Then men in the room looked angry as they listened.

  Breaker ran his fingers through his hair again. Looking over at Deke he whispered, “He offered me one way to g
et my girl a few more days on this earth. He said she might even live long enough to watch his dad put the bullet in my head.” He held out his hands in surrender. “All I had to do was get inside and open the tunnel door for them.”

  “And you would have let us put our families in the basement for their safety when Buckley and his gang came to call wouldn’t you?” Iceman growled.

  Breaker swirled around to face him. “No, I wouldn’t have done that. You have to believe me. I never would have done that.” He crumbled and sat down hard on the sofa. Looking a little lost, he stared at his weathered hands. “I held my Katie in these hands until the ambulance came and I held her hand all the way to the hospital. Her blood stained my hands as the doctors worked on her. They were still stained after they put her in the ICU and then they held her hand when she breathed her last breath,” he ended up in a whisper.

  No one spoke for the next few minutes.

  Then Breaker raised his head and glared at Deke. “Those bastards beat my Katie to death, I’ll be damned if I’ll turn my back on my daughter. You do what you have to do to save the club but I’m going after my little girl.”

  “And just how are you going to get to her on the road?” Wiley asked. “She might not even be with them. Those men are riding to start a war with us, they’d be foolish to bring her with them. And there’s a whole lot of road between Concord and here. She could be anywhere.” He paused and suggested, “She might even be dead already. You got to admit that much.”

  Breaker nodded even with tears rolling down his weathered face. “Yes, I know that. The odds aren’t real good but until I know for sure, I have to hope she’s still alive. She’s a little too much like her old man to give up that quick.”

  “Did you know about the tunnel when Bear was still President here?” Deke asked.

  Breaker shrugged. “We all did. That tunnel was our storage place. We moved dope and guns through this town. The cops knew it, the people knew it, but they could never find where we stored them. The cops never found the tunnel and we used it for years before you’ll got here. Then after Bear was killed, we continued to use it until we ran out of dope and guns. Then when you changed our course and we went legit, we no longer had to use it so we closed it up. It’s been closed now for about sixteen years.” Shrugging he shook his head. “Oscar and Matty were never here when Bear was President so how the hell did they even know about the tunnel?”

  “Maybe one of the other men from the MC?” Deke suggested.

  “It’s possible but I don’t think so. When I said we all knew about the tunnel I wasn’t talking about every member of the MC.” Shaking his head Breaker continued, “The only ones that really knew about it was the council, the President, the VP, the two Sargent at arms, the enforcers and the treasurer. Only seven men. Bear was president and he’s dead, there was me and Riley and Tate, Jerry and Paulie and Stuart.”

  “Then it has to be one of them,” Sam swore.

  Breaker shook his head. “Riley and Tate moved on to another MC and I heard both of them were killed in a standoff with the police on a drug run. Jerry, Paulie and Stuart were dead within the five year limit you set for all of us when you took over. Paulie overdosed in a small town two years after he left. Stuart was killed in a shootout with cops over in Albany and Jerry went to prison when he got caught selling to an undercover cop four years ago. He got into some sort of trouble inside and ended up getting shived. Now he’s in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”

  James turned to Priest. “Buckley got additional years inside for shiving another prisoner. Left him in a wheel chair for the rest of his life.”

  “That mother fucker!” Breaker swore as he soared to his feet. “I’m gonna kill that bastard. He must have told Oscar everything he knew. Hell, he probably even told him it was me that shot Bear. That’s why they killed my wife and took my kid. They were never going to let her go.”

  “So, what are we going to do about this?” Iceman asked the difficult question.

  “We’re gonna to catch them with their pants down.” Deke growled.

  Breaker shook his head. “There’s something else here you need to know.”

  Deke whirled around to glare at him. “Like what?”

  “I’m not the only one here to set you up. I may not be here for Buckley but there are others who are.” Breaker straightened his shoulders and faced his President. “Buckley has four men watching you and watching me.”

  Deke swung his eyes to Priest and then back to Breaker. “We found three men but not the fourth. Are you sure of the numbers?”

  Breaker nodded. “I watched all four ride out. They were to be Buckley’s eyes and ears here until he got his MC together. They were going to keep an eye on you and me to make sure I did what I was supposed to do.”

  Deke looked around at the men assembled with him then turned his steel like gaze to James. “You missed a man.” Turning back to Breaker he asked, “When will Buckley get here? Did he have a date set for you to have the door opened?”

  Breaker nodded. “Yeah, he wanted the door opened by Saturday. He hoped to catch you all unaware. He thought he would come in while you guys were drinking and partying.”

  “Why would we be partying on Saturday?” Sam asked.

  “Well, normal MC’s like to party on the weekends.” Breaker shook his head.

  “Doesn’t matter.” Deke growled. “Today is Thursday we only have two days to get this locked down.”

  “Lock it down?” Breaker pondered. “How the fuck are you going to lock this down? Buckley is coming to start a fucking war and kill every man, woman and child in your MC. How the hell do you prepare for that or lock that down?”

  Deke grabbed Breaker’s shirt and hauled him in close. He glared eye to eye at the other man. He was so tightly wound his massive arms ballooned as his muscled bunched under his skin. “You have no idea what we can and cannot do. My men will protect not only their MC but their families as well and they will stand shoulder to shoulder to protect this town. Buckley may think he knows what we’re going to do but he has no fucking clue what he’s coming into.”

  Deke turned to James. “We need to find that fourth man. I can get Amos and his men to find where they’re staying but we need to know if they have any communication going on with Buckley. We’ll set up a net over this town, if anything happens we’ll know about it.” He turned to Breaker. Poking the man in the chest he growled, “You are going to show us this fucking tunnel, both ends of it. Is there anything else, any other secrets about the clubhouse we need to know about? If there is, share them now. I will not be caught unaware again.”

  “The tunnel isn’t just a one-way tunnel,” Breaker told them. “It’s more of an underground series of tunnels. Bear wouldn’t let us down there a lot but he often spoke of other tunnels and storage rooms off the main line. When we had dope and guns down there, he always had at least one man down there on guard. Toward the end there, Bear was getting paranoid about what was hidden in the tunnels.” Breaker shrugged. “I thought we emptied it all out after you took over but when Matty stayed behind to let me know he took my kid he said something about finally getting his hands on Bear’s treasure.”

  “Bear’s treasure?” Sam asked.

  Breaker nodded. “Yeah, it was something Oscar had Bear hold onto for him, something like an inheritance or something like that. Matty said it was something that his father took a long time ago and that Bear had been holding it for Oscar while he served his time. He said it should be worth a pretty penny by this time and would be completely solid by now. The cops couldn’t trace it back to them anymore.”

  Deke raised an eyebrow at the other man’s words. He nodded to Priest and this stranger, Theo. “We will be in touch.”

  His men followed him out and they took Breaker with them.

  Theo met Priest’s gaze. “Well, that went about as well as a hangover after a car accident.”

  Priest shrugged. “We knew he wouldn’t take it well. Now onto our nex
t step.”

  Chapter Six

  Deke had no clue what he Breaker was talking about but once the threat was neutralized, he would search the tunnel system below the ground and hopefully find what treasure was there hidden from the world all this time.

  He’d called Amos to get his men sent out to cover the city. Amos’ men could cover the city and no one would know they were there. He also needed them to follow the three men working for Buckley and report where they were holed up. He needed to know where this fourth man was hiding and how they were communicating with Oscar Buckley.

  An hour later, Deke pulled into the compound. He knew the others were already there but he had a stop to make on his way home. As he shut down his bike, he looked around the one and only place he’d called home.

  Growing up with his mother, they had lived in a crummy trailer but it never felt like home. She was either working long hours or out with a line of men she never brought back to where they lived. Whatever the reason, he never saw her.

  Then when Sam took him home with him, Deke never felt their house in Bangor was home either. Sam was more into his MC life than he was into fathering Deke. He always felt second best with Sam.

  It was only when he, Gator and Reva left Maine and came here that Deke felt at home. Coming to Troy was the best thing that happened to him and he never regretted it. Looking around the place he had come to love, he thought back seventeen years.

  He’d been so young back then. When he saw this MC, he wanted to stay but he just couldn’t live under Bear’s rule. While he hadn’t been the one to take out the old President he felt he had earned the title stitched on his cut. It had been Deke that turned the MC around, throwing out the dope dealers and the gun runners he made this MC into something he felt very proud of.

  They had not only gone legit but had grown over the years to the point this town needed them. He vowed he would never let them down or let them fall under Oscar Buckley’s rule. Oscar would be worse than living under Bear’s rule. And he’d be damned if after all this time, he would allow the MC to fall backwards instead of pushing forward.