Chapter 35
The next day, once Viper, Highlander and Snake left with Raso and Rameriez to go check out the club from their recon spots, Sgt. Brocard, Diesel, and Pratt left to meet with Nadia and Raven’s parents. Once they arrived at the address Nadia had provided, they noticed the motorcycles that were shown on the Google Earth photo Oz had shown them. Oz was on standby, thank goodness, with an earpiece in to check on any information that was provided to them.
Diesel took a deep breath just before knocking on the door. When the door opened, memories rushed back as Nadia opened the door. Diesel stepped back as they assaulted her, relishing in the hands at her back of her team sgt and one of her best friends.
“Cheryl!” Nadia said with a warm smile as she reached out to hug her.
“Nadia. You should have told me your brother-in-law was part of an MC.” Diesel said, giving Nadia a smile to show she wasn’t upset.
“They are a good group of men…”
“Yes, but knowing what we know now, if I didn’t have the team that I do at my back, I wouldn’t have shown up because I would have assumed you and Raven’s parents are with either the Red Dragons or the Golden Fangs.” Diesel advised Nadia, not backing down.
“Why would…oh shit! You know something?” Nadia asked, her face going pale.
“You know my past. We’ll we think, considering some information we are finding, that the past is now here in Los Angeles. It’s why we are asking the questions that we are asking. Let’s go inside so I can meet her parents and then I can share what we know.” Diesel stepped into the house, into Nadia’s space, who backed up.
“Um, Sarah Grace, this is Raven’s biological mother, Cheryl Diesel. She is a deputy in San Diego with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department…”
“Detective. I am a detective with the human trafficking task force for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.” Diesel corrected Nadia, staring at the two who raised her daughter since infancy.
“Oh. I didn’t know that you changed divisions. Well…this is my sister, Sarah Grace, and her husband, Peter Lipford. They raised Raven in Las Vegas until three years ago. They moved back to Los Angeles when I was diagnosed with that dreadful ‘c’ word.”
Diesel studied the woman who was her savior during her pregnancy. She suddenly realized the short brown hair she knew the woman to have wasn’t the same as it was back then. Realizing Nadai was now wearing a wig, she did a quick once over of the five-foot five woman, who at one time had a toned muscle physic that Diesel had envied as a kid. She now noticed that Nadia was sickly looking, skinnier than she remembered and paler than she knew her to be.
“You have cancer?” Diesel’s world shook just a little more with the hits.
“Yes. I have stage 3 breast cancer. I stopped the treatments two weeks ago.”
“Y-y…” Diesel had to stop and catch her breath. “You never told me. Why wouldn’t you tell me, Nadia?”
“Because I don’t want you, or anyone else, to mourn me when my time comes, sweetheart. I’ve lived a great life as a cop for twenty-five years. I met you, and I got to see a part of you grow up into the amazing woman like you are. I could see you bloom from the petrified teenager you were grow into the beautiful, intelligent and brilliant young woman you are now. You’ve done amazing things with your life. To me, that’s everything and if God is calling me home, then so be it. Now, I know my sister doesn’t agree, but she has her husband and Raven and I’m hoping she’ll have you when all this is done, and you bring that spitting image of you home. And by the way, I mean the spitting image of you. She is you in both looks and that sassy attitude you had once you started feeling safe.”
“Oh God! He truly hates us. She just said there’s two of them, sarge!” Pratt moaned, smacking her forehead with her palm.
“Bite me, bitch! You love me and you know it! Sarah Grace, Peter, nice to meet you both. The whiney one beside me is Laura Pratt and the one beside her is my team leader, Sgt. Helen Brocard.” Diesel introduced Pratt and Brocard to everyone.
Hands were shaken and polite hellos as the ice was broken. Peter led everyone to the back patio where several other men and women were sitting outside, having a late breakfast.
“I apologize, ladies. When word got out that Raven was missing, several friends from Las Vegas rushed out here to help, but sadly, we’ve not found her.” Peter Lipford sighed, rubbing his face as he pulled out a chair for his wife. “They have looked everywhere here in Los Angeles. They haven’t even found her body.”
“They won’t, if they are looking in the streets. Let me ask this, did Nadia ever tell you how Raven came to be?” Diesel asked, looking down at her hands when she did.
“Just that you were raped. You got pregnant from the rape and wanted to put the baby up for adoption.” Sarah Grace told Diesel softly, looking between Diesel and Nadia for confirmation.
“Yes, but it wasn’t by an unknown.” Diesel told the parents.
At their gasp, she told them the story of her family and upbringing and how the rape came to be. She finally admitted to Nadia and Raven’s parents about Symon’s actions as well. Throughout it all, Pratt and Sgt. Brocard stood behind Diesel, each having a hand on her shoulder, showing her they had her back no matter what. Once she was done, the men looked like they wanted to commit murder and the women had tears in their eyes.
“May I ask…what does that have to do with Raven’s disappearance?” A man asked after clearing his throat.
“And you are?” Diesel asked, quirking an eyebrow at the man.
“Sorry, I’m David Jennings. I worked with Peter at the Las Vegas Police Department when they lived out there. We also served together in the Army.”
“Ah. To answer your question, Mr. Jennings, everything. Turns out the man who raped me and my brother, Symon, has opened a club that caters to vampirism here in Los Angeles. They are also part of a huge and fastly growing, and very deadly MC known as the Golden Fangs,” Diesel announced to everyone as she sighed, leaning back in her seat.
“Golden Fangs? Shit! They are trying to make a move in Las Vegas as we speak. They are trying to bid for a place to build their club near the strip. So far, we have held them back.” Jennings advised the group, clasping his hands together on the table.
“I will warn you unless we stop them permanently here in Los Angeles, then when you get back to Las Vegas, unless they’ve already started their strike, they will try to take you, your family and anyone else with you in preventing them from obtaining their goals out.” Sgt. Brocard nodded at Jennings and his crew. “They have no cares how they get it, as long as the end goal is they get what they want.”
“W-who is heading the Las Vegas crew?” Diesel questioned, reaching for Pratt’s hand as if she already knew.
“This Krieger guy’s name sounds familiar. But the main one they have been dealing with is Gegor…” Jennings tilted his head to the side as if trying to think of the guy’s name.
“Georgiy?” Diesel pronounced it for him, leaning her head back and closing her eyes at the news.
“Yes! That’s it! Wait…how do you know that?” Jennings asked, suspicion in his voice.
“Because Georgiy is my older brother. As I said earlier, I was supposed to have married Krieger, but even when I didn’t, my family stayed loyal to him, and they are in business with him. Georgiy is a close second when it comes to pure evil behind Symon.”
Pratt sat down in the chair next to Diesel, leaning forward, placing her clasped hands on the table as she looked at Raven’s adoptive parents. “What do you know about Katrina Barlow? You said she was in a group home, but that was all you stated.”
“Not much, other than what she told my daughter. It’s rare for her to come here. She goes to school and then that’s it. She talks to our daughter a lot, mostly by phone. She stopped coming around here when she found out Peter was a former cop and that my sister was still one. We offered to let her stay here when we found out she was at the group home, but she wouldn’t.”
“What do you know about her parents? Has Raven told you anything?” Diesel questioned, realizing Pratt’s train of thought.
“Just that her mother was in prison for murder. Katrina doesn’t really talk about her past very much.” Sarah Grace softly informed Diesel.
“What does she look like? Katrina, I mean. Does she do the goth thing? Does she dye her hair?”
“Not sure what you mean by the goth thing, but her hair is black. She wears all black, the couple of times I had seen her. But her t-shirts had funny sayings on them or rock bands type of things. No long jackets or the thick boots with heels or anything like that.” Peter thought back, scratching his head as he looked at Diesel.
“Did Raven have a boyfriend?” Sgt. Brocard asked, shooting straight to the heart of a theory.
“No. I think Raven mentioned Katrina having one, but she didn’t like the guy. Someone she knew from the group home that also went to their school. Said the guy was a jerk.” Sarah Grace admitted, chuckling at the memory of the conversation with her daughter. “She had asked me if something was wrong with her. When I asked her why she would think that, she told me Katrina picked on her about not wanting to date while in high school. Claimed everyone had a boyfriend at least once while in high school. I told her I didn’t. I didn’t have my first real boyfriend until my freshman year of college.”
“And he was a dumbass.” Nadia grumbled, sending her sister a glare, causing both Sarah Grace and Peter to laugh. “Guy was a real loser who thought all women were to do his bidding, wash his laundry and do his schoolwork.”
“Ah, I know the type. Married one of those, then dumped his ass. He’s now with a washed-up stripper and I married way better when I divorced his loser ass.” Pratt laughed as she winked at Sarah Grace. “Something tells me you did too, ma’am.”
“Yes, I did. I met Peter while I was on the ER rotation at Las Vegas General. We’d only been married a year when I had been diagnosed with cervical cancer. I was petrified he was going to leave me because I couldn’t give him children. The man is a saint. I was truly blessed when I met him. Then a couple of years later, after I’d been declared in remission, Nadia blessed me, letting me know about a beautiful baby girl who needed a forever home. The first day I held Raven, I was so afraid I’d wake up and it was just a dream. She’s really an amazing young girl. She’s very sweet. Everyone loves her. She goes out of her way for her friends, especially those at school.”
Sarah Grace got choked up talking about Raven. Diesel reached across the table to grip her hand. “Thank you for taking care of her and giving her the life I wouldn’t have been able to give her. I appreciate that more than you know. You and Nadia have made sure I knew she was doing alright through the years, and it let me know that Krieger and them didn’t win every year. Thank you!”
“You think this Krieger and Symon have her?” Peter asked, taking the conversation to important grounds.
“That’s what we are thinking. If she looks as much like me as you have all said she does, then I’m afraid so.”
When Sarah Grace handed Diesel the photo of Raven, she pulled it from a frame. Diesel’s breath held as she got her first good look at her daughter. She couldn’t take her eyes away from that photo.
“Holy shit, Diez. She’s literally a fucking carbon copy of you! If you didn’t dye your hair, the blonde that you do, she would be you!” Pratt’s voice held amazement as she looked at the photo over Diesel’s shoulder.