Now she’s shaking, trembling in my arms as I try to reason with her.
“We don’t know, Shay, baby. You running off with no direction isn’t going to help. Even if I had the slightest intention of giving Major what he wants, we don’t know where he’s proposing to make the exchange. If he’s watching the compound, you might run straight into his arms, and then he’ll have both of you. There’s no guarantee Major would keep to his bargain and let Cas go. Major might have clients who like boys…” My voice trails off, and unintentionally my arms tighten around her.
“W-w-w-hen, w-w-hen is he going to call back?” she asks, her voice stuttering.
“I don’t know, babe.” It’s been a few hours now. “Guess he’s keeping us dangling.” He must be pretty confident that we won’t be able to find him and ramping up our anxiety about bringing the boy back home. “He’s probably thinking a mother’s worry will persuade us to make the trade he wants. But nothing could do that, Shay, I promise you. Even Vanna wouldn’t want that.”
“Yes she w-w-ould. If she truly understood what M-M-Major could do with him. That sweet b-boy, Mace. I can’t believe he’s taken Cas.”
Neither can I. It’s hard for any of us to wrap our heads around. I know Lizard’s berating himself for not watching out for him or moving him to Pueblo before his school year was up, education be damned. But it hadn’t crossed any of our minds. We’d been concentrating on protecting Shayla and all the women, not thinking Major would come at us via the back door and take something so precious to us, a brother’s kid.
As she sobs into my chest, I think over the events of the past few hours since we heard the news. After an hour and we still hadn’t heard back from Major, Demon had called all the brothers in. Church consisted mainly of ranting and raging, making me think if there had been a swear jar in the room it would have been overflowing. Brothers have all taken a liking to Cas, and of course, there wasn’t any suggestion we should give in to Major’s demands. Shayla was mine, and by extension, one of theirs.
The meeting had come to an abrupt close when there’d been screaming from the clubroom, and it had been then I’d had to restrain Shayla and stop her from leaving.
Now it’s a waiting game. Major is making us sweat.
Christ, how I feel for Lizard and Vanna, they must be at their fucking wits’ end. They’ve no idea where their son is, or how he’s being treated and must be thinking the worst.
Lurking at the back of my mind is the fear that Major’s torturing or abusing him, and the next picture we’re sent will be constructed to make sure he’s got our attention. But I don’t even whisper this, not allowing myself to dwell on what Cas could be suffering.
I knew we should have hit back at Major before this, fucking knew it. But also knew without any leads—the man doesn’t seem to exist as no one can find him—there wasn’t a target to put in my sights.
But we should have been doing something, anything more than we have been, to smoke him out before he got a hand on one of our kids.
A gentle tapping at the door has me standing. Shayla tenses as I stand, walk over, and open it.
“Demon wants to talk to you, Mace. I’ll stay with Shayla.”
I nod at Vi, noticing Nails standing in the hallway behind her. He raises his chin. Good. Looks like he’ll be on guard too. I’m not the only one anticipating Shayla attempting to run for it, to attempt to make the exchange, her life for Cas’s. Sometimes, I wish my old lady didn’t have the strength she does possess. She was prepared to sacrifice everything for Esme and would do it again.
“Stay here, Shay,” I instruct her. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“If there’s any news…”
“You’ll be the first after me to hear it.”
Stepping aside to let Vi in, I close the door behind me.
“I can’t take this.” I hear Liz screaming as I descend the stairs, and the sound of a chair being kicked over. “What the fuck is Major doing, leaving us hanging like this?”
“Calm the fuck down, Lizard.”
“Prez…”
“Yeah, Liz. I expected him to call before this, but hey, I’m not in his head. You’re no good to Cas if you get yourself riled.”
“I’m no fuckin’ good to him sitting on my ass doing nothing,” Lizard shouts back.
“Brother…” I step toward him, but he pushes my arm away before I can get close enough to put it comfortingly on his shoulder.
He swings around to me. “I’ve been thinking. Let Cad put a tracker on Shayla. Let her go back to him. We get Cas back then go after her.”
“Not going to happen, Lizard,” I growl menacingly. “We don’t use women to fight our battles. We’ve covered her tat, he could kill her for it.” Shayla’s already told me he’d done that before, set a woman on fire as an example to others. “She’s my woman, Liz. She’s not going back.”
“Cas is my son,” he screams.
Vanna’s sitting with glazed eyes, tears streaming from them. Every couple of moments she dabs at them with a tissue, but she seems out of it. “She okay?” I ask no one in particular.
“I gave her a sedative,” Rusty explains. “Had to fuckin’ force it on her, but she wouldn’t calm down.”
“Can’t you do the same for him?” I jerk my chin toward Liz.
“He’s not fuckin’ drugging me. You hear that? Soon as we know where we’re heading, I’m riding out.”
I bite my tongue to say he can’t ride yet, as something tells me he’ll give it a damn good try, and probably succeed. Nothing will keep him away from his kid. I don’t blame him. Cas, who I like as much as I would a blood nephew, is innocent in all of this, and if we can’t save him could be facing a short lifetime of misery.
“What’s the fuckin’ time now?” Liz cries out.
“Almost midnight.”
“If he’s waited this long, he might not make contact until the morning,” Judge remarks.
“I’m not fuckin’ waiting for morning.” Liz spins around on his new target. “Cad, why the fuck can’t you trace him?”
Cad’s fingers are flying over the keyboard of his laptop and my guess is that he’s doing everything he can. Soon as he has something to go on, he’ll tell us. Trouble is, Liz can’t see straight right now, and no one here blames him one bit.
“What?” Prez barks into his phone, then asks tersely, “Is it Major?”
A car horn sounds from the front of the clubhouse, then sounds again and again. Now it blares continuously as if someone’s leaning on it.
My gun, like everyone else’s is in our hands, chambers have already been checked and we’re cocked and loaded and ready for whatever’s coming at us. Lizard is already moving, but I’ve got my eyes on the Prez.
“There’s a fuckin’ older, but expensive, model Cadillac outside the gates. Engine running, fucker won’t turn it off. Dirt’s refusing to open up.”
Correctly too, until we all get out there.
“Where d’you want us?”
“Thunder, Judge, go after Lizard. Fuckin’ tackle him if you have to. If that’s Major, then this will be some kind of trick and there’ll be others with him. Mace, Beef, you’re with me. Sparky, Muff, and Beaver, stay in here and shoot out the fucking windows if you have to. No one is getting in. Rest of you pan out and make sure we’re fully covered.”
Only seconds have passed, it sounds like much longer and still that horn sounds and the engine’s making a throaty roar. The headlights are blazing at us, and we can’t see the driver or how many are in the car.
“Dirt?” Prez calls once we’re outside and away from the light beams. “Open the gate on my signal. Soon as he comes in, close it and we’ll surround him. Shoot first, ask fuckin’ questions later, but if the kid’s there, make fuckin’ sure he’s not hit.”
“Don’t fire at the trunk,” Beef says quickly.
Yes, quite possible Cas is in there.
“Can’t see anyone else in the vicinity.” Cad’s joined us. “Ch
ecked all the camera feeds. None seem to have been fucked with, all reporting in real-time.”
“I got the drone up but it’s feeding back nothing but an empty road.” Paladin’s staring at his phone.
“Out back?”
“Nothing there,” Paladin confirms.
“Okay, Dirt.” Prez’s hastily issued instruction gives the signal.
Dirt operates the remote control. All of us prepared without being asked for the car to stop midway jamming the entry open so more people can come in, but that sounds unlikely from what Cad and Pal have found.
The car comes in, a little too quickly, then the brakes are jammed on. Now we’ve a clearer view, there doesn’t appear to be anyone in it, just the driver.
At Prez’s nod, I approach the door cautiously. Gun pointing forward, fully prepared to fire and remove the risk immediately.
The car door opens slowly.
“Hands up where I can see them,” I snarl.
“Mace?” a high-pitched voice asks me warily. “Mace, it’s me. Cas.”
Cas? “Cas!” Incredulously I rip the door fully open and pull him into my arms. “Cas?” I look down questioningly, hardly daring to believe I’m actually holding Liz’s son in my arms. I notice there’s blood on him. Lots of it.
“Where are you hurt?” I rasp, now pushing him slightly away, checking for injuries.
“I’m okay, It’s not mine.” His voice sounds shaky.
At Cas’s statement, I can breathe again and then see Beef’s doing what I should have been, checking the rest of the car, but Cas is alone.
“Mace? Can you turn off the engine? I got it started but…”
“You hotwired it?” I breathe, then snort.
“Give my fuckin’ son to me. Cas. Cas. Are you okay? Let me look at you. You hurt?” Lizard doesn’t seem to know whether to hug him or hold him at arm’s length.
As I willingly let Cas got to his father, I reach in and pull apart the wires Cas had twisted together. Silence descends.
Prez steps up and barks in Cas’s ear, “Are you in danger? Anyone follow you here?”
Cas turns around, but Liz retains one arm around his shoulder. Intelligently, he replies, “No one following me, but they’ll guess where I’ve come.”
“Dirt? Ditch the car somewhere no one will find it.”
The prospect grins and tosses Prez a salute, then runs to the car and looks at the ignition, then shrugs. I’m impressed he hotwires it quickly. Someone opens the gates, and he disappears fast.
“Church now. You too, Cas.”
Of course the kid needs to be there. He’s the fucking star of the show. He escaped by himself. Christ, this kid has got balls.
Inside the clubroom, Vanna shakily stands, her eyes widening in disbelief, her hands reaching forward as she yells, “Cas!”
Pulling free of his dad, a split second later, he’s in his sobbing mom’s arms.
“You’re hurt!” Vanna exclaims, like I’d done, seeing the blood covering her son.
“The blood isn’t mine, Mom,” the kid explains again.
“Sorry to break up the reunion, but we need to speak to him now,” Prez tells her firmly. “Come Cas.”
“Not leaving me out of this,” Vanna throws at him, Cas’s reappearance seemingly the antidote to whatever Rusty had given to her. “I’ve got my son back and I’m not letting him out of my sight.” As Demon opens his mouth, her finger pokes him in his chest. “For the last few hours I’ve been thinking I might never see him again. You’re not taking him away from me now, not even for a moment.”
Prez bows his head, then gives a quick nod. “Okay, Liz. Bring your wife.”
“Shayla deserves to know he’s here, Prez. She might have some light to shine on shit once we learn how Cas escaped.”
Demon looks up to the ceiling and then back down. “She can come too.”
I take the stairs two at a time to get to her fast, barely taking the time to explain. Ignoring her startled gasp and the question I can’t yet answer, I grab one of my clean t-shirts, then take her hand and lead her back down.
Someone’s dragged in a couple of spare chairs which Liz has appropriated and squeezed in next to his. He motions Cas to one and Vanna sits to her son’s right, both parents holding one of Cas’s hands, his dad with a challenging glare on his face as though ready to ward off any objections to the seating arrangements. I just lead Shayla along to my seat next to Thunder, slide the clean shirt down the table and pull her down on my lap.
Prez bangs the gavel loudly, stopping the individual queries of ‘how the fuck did you get here’ to Cas.
“Can’t tell you how fuckin’ glad I am to see you, kid,” Prez starts. “But I’d like to know how.”
I think we all need an explanation of why he’s covered in blood, but I hold my tongue for now.
Cas seems a little unnerved that all eyes are upon him, and with obvious pleasure he reaches for my t-shirt, grimacing as he pulls the soaked one over his head, and putting the clean one on.
I raise my chin to Lizard, pleased to see the happy reunion, but trying to signal we need to move this on. If something’s coming in our direction, I’d rather know sooner rather than later. Lizard’s eyes catch mine, he nods, then turns to his son.
“Just start from the beginning Cas,” Lizard gently encourages him. “We know a man called Major took you. What we don’t know is how it went down. We lost track of you after you got off the school bus.”
Cas pulls his hands out of those of his parents and clasps them together on the table in front of him. I notice they’re shaking. “Yeah, well. I caught the bus as normal. Got off. I wasn’t sure whether I had all the shit I needed to do my homework, so I was checking to see if I’d put my notes in my bag. I was only vaguely aware that a van had pulled up alongside me, but I didn’t take any notice. Thought it was making a delivery to one of the houses around there.” He breaks off and grimaces. “They took me so quickly, I was in the back before I knew what was happening, school bag alongside me. It was a panel van, I was in the back, no handle on the inside and a partition between me and the people in the front. I shouted and kicked.”
He looks around and sees we’re all staring at him.
“They pulled up somewhere isolated. Tied my hands and feet and put a gag on me. Then carried on driving again.” Now he rubs at his elbows. “I kept rolling around in the back, I’ll probably have bruises. I don’t know how far, it seemed like forever. When we stopped, I was dragged out, and brought in front of a man who introduced himself as Major.”
Shayla leans forward to look down the table at him. “Middle-aged, greying hair, with a paunch, not too much height on him?”
“Yeah.” Cas too moves so he can catch her eye. “Short and fat.”
There’s a ripple of laughter as Cas sums him up.
“Anyway,” Cas resumes, “I asked him why he’d taken me, and he said it was because the Satan’s Devils had something he wanted. I played ignorant, said I didn’t know what he was talking about, that I didn’t know anything about any Devils, Satan’s or not.” Cas looks down and grimaces. “He said I better hope that wasn’t true, as you were the only hope I had, and that he hadn’t yet decided whether or not to keep me. He said something about being a new toy.” Cas shudders. “I didn’t like him at all.”
I see Lizard tensing.
“Go on, Cas,” encourages Beef.
“He took my photo, then put me in a room. He untied my hands, but there was no way to escape. There were bars on the window and a lock on the door which I didn’t have a clue how to pick.”
“Sounds like there are some gaps in your education, kid.” I look down at him and wink. “Guess I better teach you.”
“Knowing how would have been useful.” Cas grins weakly. “But they had thrown my school bag in with me and hadn’t searched it or me, except for taking my phone.”
“What d’you have in there, kid?” I prompt.
Cas looks shiftily toward his mother. “It doe
sn’t matter if I tell you now, but Davie was the one who dared me to steal that car. He said I could join his gang if I proved myself. Well, after the trouble that caused, and after coming here, I told him I didn’t want to anymore. But he wouldn’t leave me alone, he kept threatening me…”
“Should have told me,” says Liz.
Kid could have told any of us, we’d have had his back. But he was in Denver and us two hours away. He’s grown up with a mom who’s always fought her battles by herself.
“I’ve seen what he can do to someone who crosses him, so wanted to be able to defend myself. I got a switchblade—”
“They’re illegal, aren’t they?” Vanna’s eyes have widened.
“Not in Colorado at the state level,” Cad replies. “But some cities have ordinances banning them, and I’m pretty certain Denver is one.”
“Still…”
“Moot point,” Beef stares Vanna down, “if it saved your kid.”
“You used it?” Again, it’s me who encourages him to continue.
Cas looks down again. “I wasn’t going to, but I listened at the door. Heard a couple of men talking about Major planning a trade which he wasn’t going to carry through. Heard them joking about what Major could do with me. Went into some details that I don’t want to repeat, not in front of my parents. Scared the fuck out of me.”
No one’s going to admonish him for swearing, nor ask him to expand. Not when we already have a pretty good idea what he’d be saying.
“Go on,” urges Prez.
“So, I knew I was going to have to escape if I could. It was either going to be them or me, and they weren’t good men. I started banging on the door. One man came in. I was ready for him.” Cas’s hands are trembling again, and he’s gone pale. “I knew I was in a bind. I told myself I had to do anything to get out of there.” He turns to his mom. “What they’d been saying was evil, Mom. They’d been laughing—”
“You’d have done what you had to,” Liz states, his voice getting Cas to meet his eyes.
Father and son exchange glances, it seems to give Cas the strength to start again. “I had one chance. I lunged, up. I hadn’t known his height or anything but wanted to incapacitate him. Instead… I hit his jugular. He dropped, gasping. The next man came in, not noticing immediately, so I stabbed into his stomach and upward, then while he was shocked, I got out the door and locked it with them inside.”
Satan’s Devils MC -Colorado Box Set: Books 4-6 Page 119
