Spark of Hope: MacKenny Brothers Series Book 3: An MC/Band of Brothers Romance

by Kathleen Kelly

  I laugh. “Only if we get caught.”

  My van is black, like everything I own. I’m assuming the guys are going to take a direct route to Ben’s house, so we head a slightly different way. They’ll kick my butt for going, and probably twice as hard because I’ve got the kid.

  “How come you’re not in the MC?”

  “Kyle. He won’t allow it.”

  “But Sean is in?”

  I nod and tighten my grip on the steering wheel. “Sean is broken. He needs the MC. After he got out of the Marines, he needed to find something to belong to. Sean was a good fit for the Loyal Rebels.”

  “But you’re not?”

  “Not really. I prefer my own company, but family is important. I’m usually in the cyber world.”

  “Yeah, so much so you use the same password that you did as a kid?”

  I chuckle. “Nah, that password only lets them in so far. It’s my way of letting my family believe I’m not into anything nefarious. From time to time, I let them break into my computer. It makes them think I’m doing okay, you know?”

  “Yeah, I used to lie to Lola and tell her that her mom was taking good care of me. I didn’t want her to worry.”

  The kid is looking at a scar on his arm.

  “Did she do that to you?”

  “Nah, it was one of her many boyfriends, better known as the guys she was using for her next fix.” Logan holds up his arm. “This was from one that slapped her around, so I got in between them, and he picked up a knife and stabbed me. It went all the way through. I pulled it out and stitched it myself.”

  “You didn’t go to a hospital?”

  He shakes his head. “Mom didn’t have insurance, and a knife wound would’ve attracted police attention, so I had to do it myself.”

  Lola’s let this kid down. From everything I can gather from the internet when he lived with his dad, he was almost a straight-A student, but the moment he moved in with Yvette Cartland, that all changed. Logan has spent more time away from school than attending. If he continues to live with the Cartlands, he’ll either end up dead, a junkie, or worse.

  “Did Lola know?”

  I glance at him, and he shakes his head. “I kept it from her. Besides, what was she going to do? She lives in another town, and it’s convenient for her to have me live with Mom.”

  “You mean Yvette?”

  “Yeah.” I give him a sideways glance, and his lips turn down. “So, you believe me?”

  “Yep. I did a deeper background check on Lola. One of the others looked into her last time.” I put on my Yoda voice. “Not as good as me, me thinks, hmm...”

  Logan laughs. “Worst impression ever.”

  “What? Come on, that was pretty damn good.”

  In the distance, the guys’ bikes are parked in front of Ben Cartland’s house, so I pull over.

  “Wanna take a walk with me?”

  “They’ll see us.”

  “Maybe, but if we keep to the shadows, they might not.” I grin. “You up for it?”

  Logan nods, and we get out of the car. Quickly, we walk down the sidewalk, and when we get to his uncle’s house, we crouch down and creep up to a window. Peering in, there’s a couch and a television but no people.

  Logan looks in too.

  “Where is everyone?” I whisper.

  “I can’t see anyone either.”

  “Well, maybe you should both stand up?”

  Turning around quickly, we both come face to face with Cutter.

  “You scared the crap out of me,” I hiss.

  “What the fuck are you two doing here?” Cutter pulls out a switchblade and begins playing with it. “You know your brothers won’t be pleased.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  Cutter shakes his head and chuckles. “And junior here? You think he can take care of himself, too?”

  I stare at Logan and realize Cutter is right. If anything had happened to the kid, it’d be my damn fault.

  Logan straightens his shoulders and scans Cutter up and down, no fear in his face or stance. “I’m not a child.”

  Logan walks past Cutter and deliberately bumps his shoulder into him as he passes. Cutter scowls at me and then watches Logan walk away.

  “You better leave before I tell Kyle you were here.”

  “You’re not going to tell him?”

  “I’m not a rat. Besides, no harm, no foul. But you better hurry.”

  I slap him on the shoulder as I jog back to my van. A sullen Logan is sitting inside with his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Cheer up, Logan. Cutter isn’t going to rat us out. So, they’ll never know we were here.”

  “We didn’t find anything, though.”

  I start the van. “No, we didn’t, but it looked to me like no one was home.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “No noise.” I grin at the kid and wink. “Unless, of course, they killed them.”

  “Not funny.” Logan frowns.

  “Not for them.”

  Cutter

  I wait until the van disappears into the early morning darkness before I walk back around and enter the house. Ben is sitting in a chair, and Sean is playing five-finger filet on his own hand. He nicks a finger and holds it to his mouth, sucking the blood away, then he stares up at me.

  “Hold Ben’s hand still.”

  It’s an old game he plays. Sean nicks his finger on purpose, so the person he’s going to do it to will assume he’s not good at the game, and he also does it at half-speed. I won’t play the game with Sean. The way he moves the knife up and down between his fingers is lightning quick. Half the time, he doesn’t even look. He sits there moving the blade and staring at you. Even for me, it’s freaky.

  Ben’s dinner table is never going to be the same by the time Sean is finished.

  Me, I prefer Russian roulette.

  “I told you I don’t know anything,” says Ben as he puts his hands under the table.

  “And we believe you, don’t we?” Sean stares up at me and winks. “But, you see our President, well… Kyle doesn’t. He’ll insist on some blood being spilled, better it is in a bit of fun than…”

  The grin he gives Ben is nothing short of terrifying. Sean has this way of keeping his emotions out of his eyes so when he smiles at you, you know he doesn’t mean it. It’s a glimpse of what’s to come, and even the hardest of men flinch under his intense gaze. Ben shakes his head, and the smile on Sean’s face slowly disappears.

  “Put your hand on the table.”

  Slowly, Ben puts his fist on the table, and Sean shakes his head. He straightens his fingers out, and I move to stand behind him. Sean glances at me and leisurely stabs the knife between Ben’s fingers.

  Your natural reaction is to pull away, and Ben is no different.

  I grab him to hold him in place, and Sean increases his speed, never looking at the knife but at Ben, who begins to scream. His body is rigid as he stares down at his hand and the blur that’s Sean’s hand wielding the blade.

  Sean stops.

  Ben lets out a long breath.

  I know what’s coming. But Ben, he has no idea.

  “So, Lola?” asks Sean with that creepy smile.

  Ben shakes his head. “I-I don’t know.”

  Sean stands, tapping the blade to his chin, and then he stares down at Ben. “You sure?”

  Ben nods. Sean copies his movement, then swiftly plunges the knife into Ben’s hand. For a second, Ben is frozen, and then he screams. Thankfully, I’m prepared and shove a dishtowel into his mouth. Sean bursts out laughing, and then Kyle walks back into the room.

  “Fuck! You played five-finger filet with him?” Kyle glares at Ben and shakes his head. “And not very well.” Kyle pulls out the knife and hands it to Sean. “Let’s try the other hand, shall we?”

  Ben begins to thrash around, eyes wide, his fear permeating the air.

  I pull out the dishtowel and say, “Tell us what we need to know. ‘Cause, bu
ddy, once he’s finished playing this game, there’s another one, and it involves taking your fingers off one by one.”

  The color drains out of Ben’s face, and Sean makes a noise. So, we both look at him.

  “You wreck all my fun, Cutter. Now, hold his other hand out.” Sean chuckles and wipes the blade on the dishtowel that was in Ben’s mouth and hands it to him to wrap his hand.

  “Wait!”

  I grin at Sean and Kyle from behind Ben and give a small shake of my head. They always give in.

  “Do you know something about Lola?” asks Kyle as he sits opposite Ben.

  “It was Garry.”

  I slap the top of Ben’s head. “We know that, numbnuts.”

  Ben peers over his shoulder and up at me. “It was his idea. We owe the Rochas, and we don’t have the money. Garry and Mom came up with the idea. I have nothing to do with the drug trade.”

  Kyle casts a glance into Ben’s kitchen, which is littered with drug paraphernalia, needles, burned spoons, even a bong.

  Ben follows his gaze. “That’s for personal use. I don’t deal. That was all Mom and Garry.”

  Kyle places his hands on the table, stretching his arms out, then he leans forward, and in a quiet, level voice says, “I don’t give a fuck. All I want is Lola. Now, either you tell me what I need to know, or I’ll let Sean and Cutter do whatever they want to you.” Ben glances at Sean, who grins at him and taps the knife on the table. “Not only did someone take my woman, but someone killed one of my men. So, you see, I’m invested.” Kyle stands, points at Ben, and raises his voice. “Tell me what I need to know.”

  “It was Garry, Tommy, and Suzie.”

  “Suzie as in Lola’s friend, Suzie?” asks Kyle.

  “Yeah, she was supposed to get Lola to meet her for coffee, but at the last minute, Lola backed out. So, we had to improvise.”

  “We?” we all say at once.

  Ben pales and begins to stutter. “I-I miss-misspoke.”

  Kyle charges him, knocking Ben and the chair to the floor, then he reaches down and picks him up, slamming him into the wall. With gritted teeth and death in his eyes, he asks, “Where is she?”

  Ben begins to cry. It’s pitiful. His mouth opens, and drool runs down his chin as he shakes his head from side to side. “I-I can’t.”

  Kyle shoves him hard once more, then steps back. With his eyes on Ben, he says, “He’s useless to us. Kill him.”

  Kyle turns and stalks out the back door of the house. Ben looks from Sean to me, and his cries turn into wails as he slides down the wall into a crouching position, all the while shaking his head. “P-Please don’t. I can help. I can.”

  Sean kneels in front of him. “We only want Lola. Tell us what we need to know, and I’ll see what I can do.” His voice is soft, understanding, and if you didn’t know him, you’d believe him. I’ve been around Sean long enough to know that it’s all a ploy. Ben Cartland isn’t going to make it to the next sunrise. Ben Cartland will lose his life soon.

  “They took her to Tommy’s house.”

  Sean nods and pats Ben’s upper arm. “That’s good. Real good. Where does Tommy live, and what’s his last name?”

  “Tommy Lager. I can’t tell you his address, but I could show you?”

  “You’re not fucking with us, are you, Ben?”

  “N-No. I wouldn’t.”

  Sean stands and walks out the back door, leaving me with Ben. I pick up the chair that he was in and sit backward with my arms dangling over the backrest. Ben uses his filthy T-shirt to wipe his face. I pull out my switchblade, opening and closing it while I stare down at his pathetic form.

  He’s nothing like Lola. That woman has a set of brass balls on her, she doesn’t back down, and she wouldn’t roll over for anyone. I’ve observed her at gatherings give every female who so much as looked at Kyle a death glare, and once a guy charged Kyle from behind, and she swung a baseball bat at him. No fear. But she’s smart too. Since she’s been around, Kyle is more stable and thinks things through.

  Not that he wasn’t a good leader before, but she made him better.

  And most importantly, she’s one of us.

  Lola might not be officially Kyle’s old lady, but we all know not to mess with her. She’s the only female allowed on the back of his bike and the only one in a good long while who’s warmed his bed.

  Ben clears his throat. “They’re going to kill me, aren’t they?” I nod. “What if I help get Lola back?”

  “You had your chance, and you fucked it up,” I reply in a bored tone as I continue to play with my knife.

  “You could use me as bait to lure Tommy out of his house. I can be useful.”

  “Did you know what was going down?”

  “It’s the Rochas’ fault,” he replies as he curls up his lip, exposing his rotten teeth. “They gave us too much weight. We sold a lot of it. But we have expenses, too. And we got a taste for it. I mean, how stupid were they to trust us?”

  “So, it’s the Rochas’ fault that you’re a junkie who got in too deep and didn’t pay them what you owe?”

  Ben nods repeatedly. “Exactly!”

  “How much do you owe?”

  “Sixty K, which is a rip-off. They were bragging that in Columbia, you can get a kilo for five K.”

  I fold my knife and put it away. “Yeah, but they have to process it, get it here, find people to sell it to, and that’s all a cost. It’s a business, Ben, and these guys kill to protect it and keep it flourishing. Did you know the Rocha family actually made it cheaper and purer to entice a whole new breed of junkies?” I stand and put the chair back under the table. “Nothing good comes from it. The beast ends up owning you and everyone you touch. I like my fixes to come short, fast, and non-addictive. The more you use, the more you need, and at a higher dose. It’s a fool's drug.”

  “What do you know?” he sneers.

  “Oh, Ben, we’re getting to know each other. The beast has claimed more than one person from me. If it claims Lola…” I crouch in front of him and pull my switchblade back out, “… I’ll skin you alive.”

  Ben scoffs. “Sure, you will.”

  Holding the tip of the blade to my pointer finger, I twirl it, and blood drips from my finger and down my palm.

  His eyes widen.

  “The hardest part is keeping you alive while I do it. Most die of shock, and do you know how hard it is to get the skin off someone’s feet and keep it whole? I’ve only managed to do it once.”

  Ben sucks in a breath, and his head jerks up quickly, hitting the wall behind him. Sean and Kyle come back into the room, but I continue to stare at Ben, twirling my knife, letting the blood drip onto the floor.

  “I see you and Cutter are getting to know each other,” says Kyle.

  “He’s mad,” whispers Ben.

  “Maybe.”

  Kyle touches my shoulder. I stand and move out of the way, pulling out a bandana from my pocket to wipe the blood away.

  “We have a car coming. You’re going to direct us to Tommy’s house,” states Kyle.

  “Will you let me live?”

  Kyle stares down at him and cryptically says, “I won’t kill you.”

  I smirk at Sean.

  This means either he or I get to do it.

  I hope it’s me.

  Kyle

  Walking out of the house with Sean right behind me, we leave Ben with Cutter. Sean looks like I feel.

  “What did you do with Smokey?”

  “Pulled him out, so we can give him a proper funeral. Cutter torched the house. He’s a scary fucker with fire.”

  Cutter is a man of many talents, arson being one of them.

  Sean peers back inside the house. “I grabbed a few of the kid’s things. There was a photo of his dad and some personal shit next to his bed. I couldn’t take much because it needed to look like an accident.” Sean stares at his feet, hands on his hips. “Smokey was a good man. He didn’t deserve to go out like that. The fire will kill any DNA or finge
rprints. We should be in the clear, provided none of the neighbors saw us.”

  “It’s not the kind of neighborhood where people talk to the cops, but I’ll put in a call to the locals and see what they have.”

  “You still got a contact in the PD there?”

  “Yeah, an old school friend.”

  Sean nods, tilts his head to the side, and his lips turn down. “David Tucker, the guy from the bar, said it was Lola’s brother, Garry, a guy called Tommy, and Suzie, who snatched Lola.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with this family? And why the fuck did Lola leave Logan in that dump?” I run a hand through my hair and fold my fingers together behind my neck. “She was planning something. Lola was up and dressed.” I let my hands fall to my sides. “Fuck, she never told me about the kid. I knew her mother was a junkie, but I thought she was in recovery. Fuck, Sean, who the fuck is Lola? Do you think she’s tied up in all of this?”

  Sean grabs me by my upper arms and stares into my eyes. “Lola wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize you or the club.” He lets his arms drop. “If there’s one thing I know, Lola loves you. When we find her, you can ask her all of this, but right now, things are fucked up, man.”

  “What are we going to do with him?” I ask, gesturing toward the house.

  “So, you don’t want me to kill him?”

  “He’s Lola’s brother. He’s family.”

  Sean puffs out his cheeks. “Not much of a family. He needs to pay.”

  “Yeah, when we get Lola back, she can pick the punishment.”

  Sean nods. “Okay, let’s get back in there.”

  “I don’t trust him on the back of a bike. Let me ring Wheels, get a car here, and we’ll transport him that way.”

  When we walk back in, Cutter is crouched in front of Ben, blood dripping down his hand and arm onto the floor. He’s got his blade out, twisting it on his finger, staring at a frightened Ben. The man can be creepy as fuck.

  After a brief discussion, we wait for a car. Ben begins to rub his arms, and then a toxic smell hits my senses. I glance at Sean, who looks like he swallowed a lemon, then Cutter, whose lips are turned down in distaste, so that leaves Ben.

  “Did you shit yourself?”