Dayanara Chapter 2 #2
“Oh, sorry, I forgot. Only men can curse. Anyway, back to my questions. Have you guys been in the military? Or done something along these lines before?” I directed at the two Warriors I had just met.
“We didn’t serve, though we have club brothers who have. We’ve benefited from their teaching and experience. As for whether we’ve done something of this nature, I’ll just say that our hands aren’t entirely clean,” Predator stated.
I noted that he wouldn’t come out and say that they had inflicted pain and suffering or killed someone.
They were cautious—no doubt to protect themselves.
I had news for them. Neither Jess nor I would go running to law enforcement about it, as long as the ones they harmed were like Marshall’s ilk and worse.
They were doing the world a favor in my book.
“Fine, then let’s get down to business. Marshall will be released a week from today.
We can’t snatch his ass outside the fence, even though it’s tempting.
We have to allow the fucker to get free and go to wherever he’s planning to live.
Once he’s out, he’ll have to report in person to his parole officer within twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
We have to let that occur. If we take him before that meeting, it’ll raise the alarm too soon.
As hard as it’ll be, we have to wait a few days,” I told them.
“Damn, you’ve thought all that out today?” Stryder exclaimed. I heard respect in his tone.
“No, not today. The day was always going to come when that bastard would be released. I continue to hope someone will kill him in prison, but he seems to have the devil’s luck. That means, when he’s set free, I always intended to take him out.”
“You never told us that,” Jessup said. His stare was intense.
“I didn’t think I had to. I wasn’t here to protect Brighton. I will protect her and others this time, and hope that I can make amends for allowing her to be harmed.”
“Dayanara, you didn’t fail her. You always say that. But the truth is, we were here, and we didn’t protect her. Jess and I failed. We will make up for it. Brighton has nothing to fear,” Stryder told me.
I wish it assuaged my guilt, but it didn’t. They had no idea the shame I carried inside me. It was like a lead stone in my gut, and sometimes, it made it hard for me to breathe. I remained silent.
“Are there any other thoughts you had?” Stalker asked me.
“I have a place that he can be taken to. And I have several ideas on what can be done to him to punish him for the pain he caused her and others,” I replied.
“Others? He was convicted of doing that to other girls?” Predator asked.
“Not convicted, but I know he didn’t confine himself to her. I knew that others wouldn’t come forward. He was good at manipulating and making threats that made his victims do as he said. A sicko like him is always able to do that,” I added.
There was a stretch of silence before Stryder spoke again.
“Daya, I know that no matter what we say, you’re not backing off.
So, what we have to do is work together.
We need this done in a way that there’s no backlash against anyone involved.
We don’t want to go to prison for taking out that lowlife son of a bitch.
We’ll go home and speak to the rest of our club.
Things like this take a vote to proceed, though I have no doubt they’ll say yes.
Once they do, then we have to get all of us together.
Your ideas can be presented then. Until that happens, we need to discover some preliminary things. ”
“Like what?” Jess asked.
“Like, where is he going to stay after he gets out? Is it a halfway house? We need an address. And if we can find out his parole officer, PO’s, name ahead of time, it’ll help us to know how much work that person will put into finding him,” Predator explained.
I was already thinking the same thing, so I smiled and gave him a nod, showing I was on the same page as him.
“How soon will you be able to tell us if the club is going to help? If they say no, does that mean that Stryder can’t be involved?” Jessup asked.
“We’ll have an answer most likely by tomorrow night.
We’re working on a tight timeline so that they won’t drag their feet.
I’ll let Bull know first thing in the morning—the same as we’ll tell Outlaw.
I’ll make it clear to Pres that I can’t sit back and do nothing.
This involves my family,” my cousin emphasized.
“Who’s Outlaw? Why would you tell him and not just your president?” I inquired.
“Outlaw is our tech-savvy brother. He can find almost anything on his computer. We want to know the dirt on someone, their secrets, connections, and so on. He’ll find it.
And if for some reason he can’t, we have a brother in our Dublin Falls chapter and his old lady, who are even better than Outlaw.
I don’t believe Smoke and Everly have ever not come through,” Stalker explained.
Stryder had told us the basics about his club, and I’d heard names mentioned, but he didn’t go into great detail.
I always thought it was because he wasn’t allowed.
Maybe it was more that he wanted to keep that part of his life separate from his blood family.
Was he ashamed of us? Or was there another reason?
We’d always been so close to him. It hurt that he wouldn’t share.
I pushed that thought away. It wasn’t crucial to the matter at hand.
“Ask him if you want. I’ll ask my contact for those as well. He should be able to tell me,” I informed them.
“Who’s your contact?” Predator asked.
“Someone who knows that I want to know everything I can on Marshall so I can protect my sister.”
“When Marshall disappears, is this person gonna point the finger at you?” Stalker asked. His brow was furrowed.
“No, they won’t. Even if they suspect I had a hand in it, they’ll keep their mouth shut,” I assured him.
“You can’t guarantee that. We should let Outlaw handle it,” Stryder said.
“I bet my life and freedom that they will. There’s no way my contact would betray me. But since you’re worried, I won’t mention any of you. I’ll keep it to just me.”
“You can’t endanger your freedom, Daya. No way. I forbid it. Let the Warriors handle it,” Jess ordered.
“Forbid all you want, brother, but it won’t stop me. I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve grown up and worked hard to be the woman I am today. You can accept me or not, but I won’t change my mind.”
“Jesus Christ, you make everything more difficult. Why can’t you stay home and be with Brighton while we do this?” my brother snapped.
“Why don’t you? You’ve never done anything like this to someone. You can stay home and knit while I go out and do what I do best,” I retorted.
He opened his mouth to argue more, but he closed it when Predator held up his hand.
“There’s no need to fight. If we work together, we’ll have less chance of anyone getting hurt or going to prison.
I’d prefer you not ask this contact for those things, but I can’t stop you.
If you’re one hundred percent positive they’ll keep their trap shut, I’ll accept it.
Is there anything else we should know tonight before we head back and get ready to speak to Bull in the morning? ” Predator asked.
Relieved of another argument with my brother over a topic he enjoyed bringing up, I readily agreed.
“Sounds good to me. What other information would be helpful for you guys to have?” I asked.
We jotted down Marshall’s demographics. My brother knew his full name, birthdate, and where he lived before going to prison.
I was able to supply them with his Social Security number, email address, and social media accounts, though he had been unable to access them for the past several years.
When Jessup asked how I knew that, I shrugged and said I’d been digging into Marshall for years.
It felt weird walking the three Warriors to the door. Jess shook their hands and thanked them for coming. I hugged Stryder.
He whispered in my ear, “Try to wait for us. I swear, my club will help.”
“I’ll try. Love you. Stay safe.”
“I love you, too, and you stay safe.” He kissed my cheek, then I kissed his.
When he let go of me, I was left facing Stalker and Predator. Both men still radiated that aura, and if anything, my attraction to them had grown over the past hour. That wasn’t a good thing. I held out my hand to Stalker.
“Thank you,” I said.
He shook my hand, but then, before he let go, he caressed my palm. The flare of awareness from our palms touching was intensified. I had to fight not to jerk my hand free.
“I’ll see you soon,” he said as he let go. I thought he did it reluctantly.
Predator scooped up my hand in his. He squeezed it, then kept a hold of it. Again, there was tingling in my hand. He stared into my eyes, as Stalker had.
“We’ll see you as soon as we get the club on board. Expect to hear from us to set up a meeting this week.”
“I will. All of you ride safely. It’s cold out there,” I replied.
Cold air rushed into the warm house when the door was opened. They walked off the porch and around the house to the garage. When they were out of sight, Jess shut the door. Before he could start in on me, I held up my hand.
“I’m tired. It’s been a long week. I’m heading home. I’ll see you later. Brighton said she’d be home sometime tomorrow.” I updated him as I grabbed my jacket and put it on. My keys and such were in one pocket. In the other pocket were my gloves.
“You shouldn’t be driving tonight. Stay here.”
“Jess, if I stay, we’ll fight. You know that. You’ll be after me to stay out of this, and I’m not doing it. So, to save us both from the stress of it, I’m going home. It’s not that far. I’ll be fine. I’m out at night a lot,” I reminded him.
“Don’t remind me,” he mumbled.