Chapter 12
It was not a good sign that Dane’s heart seemed to stop rather than speed up. Either way, his instincts and quick reflexes saved him. His Glock hand snapped up to aim straight at Dag’s head. Between the eyes. In fact, they stood so close that the barrel of the gun dented Dag’s forehead.
To give Dag credit, he didn’t back up. Didn’t even flinch. But maybe that was due more to the fact that he was a crazy ass than a cool customer.
Dane said nothing and neither did Dag. They listened to the commotion inside as Sam and Jake rousted the other two bikers.
“Clear.” Sam yelled loud enough for everyone in the house to hear him. Dane hoped to hell the guy he’d left at the bottom of the steps didn’t suddenly wake up. He didn’t turn to find out. He’d taken the man’s rifle.
Jake appeared in the doorway behind Dag. He shoved him forward and Dane backed away. They all filed onto the front porch.
“Welcome to my humble home-away-from-home, gentlemen. To what do I owe this visit? I had the distinct impression from our last conversation that you didn’t want to be friends.”
“You’re a piece of shit.”
“Now that’s not nice.” He looked over at his gang member on the ground at the bottom of the porch steps.
“You assaulted my friend Dirk. Now I would say I have to call the police and have you arrested but since the police—in the form of the ATF—are listening in right now, they already know you’ve been a bad boy. ”
“What the hell are you talking about, Dag? I came to beat your ass once and for all. Maybe it wasn’t worth the trouble. You’re nothing. Not much challenge here, Jake.” Dane wasn’t surprised that Dag saw right through the setup.
“He’s such a coward he had to send his little friend to your house. He couldn’t even face you himself.” Jake sneered at him. Dane would give him style points for that, but Dag was implacable. Damn. Hell of a time for him to have a lucid stretch.
Sam stepped up and Dag turned to him.
“If it isn’t Benedict Arnold.”
“In order for me to be a traitor, Dag, you would have to be someone of substance, someone with a position or standing I could betray.” Sam paused. Dane watched Dag think about it, watched his Adam’s apple bob.
Sam continued. “But you were nothing then, and you’re nothing now.”
“If that’s true, then what are you doing here?” The slight sing-song returned to his voice.
Dane decided to take a chance. He turned his back on Dag and walked to the steps. He didn’t look back.
“That’s it? You say hello to those ATF fools for me now—oh that’s right, they’re listening.
I can say howdy right now.” Dag cackled.
Dane walked past the groggy biker he’d hit earlier and kept going.
He heard shouting in his ear piece. It was Wilton making some suggestions about what else he should say or do to pick a fight.
“You’re all leaving. But I didn’t get to serve you my pie yet. Humble pie.” Dag cackled again. Loud.
Dane turned and ripped the earpiece out and stuffed it in his pocket.
He would have thrown it in the tall grass and left it for the animals, but he didn’t want Wilton to arrest him on a technicality for stealing federal property.
Jake and Sam caught up with him farther down the dirt path towards the dusty driveway.
“Say hello to the lovely Shana George for me, Blaise.” Dag called out, then bellowed a laugh. He didn’t stop.
Sam put a hand on his shoulder.
“At least he didn’t threaten your mother. Maybe the ATF had it right. Maybe Shana is the new target.”
Dane looked at him and for the first time in his life, he saw Sam flinch.
The terrifying roar of his past nightmare thundered through him. He couldn’t let it get to him. Shana was not Sarah. Shana was no vulnerable teenager. This wasn’t high school. He was a grown man who’d learned a lot of things.
And a man who’d carried the burden of his teenage failing around with him for too many years.
It was Jake’s chatter, meaningless bravado, that pulled him back to the present, to his full force.
They all jumped into the car and Dane wasted no time looking back. It was time to move forward. Preferably without the ATF.
“I’m not looking forward to our conversation with Wilton, Simpson, and company.” Jake pulled the earpiece from his ear and slipped it in his shirt pocket.
“You can drop me at the ferry,” Sam said. “I ain’t meeting with the ATF.”
“Neither am I. We’re going to Cap’s.”
“What the hell is wrong with Dag? He’s like a master chess player one minute and he’s like a character out of a psycho thriller the next,” Jake said.
“I’m going to assume that’s a rhetorical question,” Dane said as he sped along the winding road about thirty miles an hour over the speed limit.
“You want me to drive?” Sam said.
“Since when are you an old lady about speeding?”
“I don’t feel like getting stopped by the cops at this moment.”
“Don’t worry. The cops know the Jeep. They know me. They won’t stop me.”
Jake scoffed. “What’s the plan?”
“It’s time to get my mother off the island.”
Dane pulled into Cap’s driveway and kept going onto the grass and parked around back of the house.
He got out and motioned for Jake and Sam to follow his lead.
On his way back around the perimeter of the house he checked the living room window.
They were playing cards with an open bottle of tequila standing by.
Looked like Tillie and Claire were drinking margaritas.
Shana was laughing. As he slipped around the corner to the front of the house, he heard her laughter through the door before he walked in without knocking.
Dane heard and felt the satisfying jolt of guns drawn and aimed at him as he walked through the front door of Cap’s house. Cap and Shana stood staring at him, serious as smallpox.
“You should have called first,” Cap lowered his weapon and sat back down.
Shana was slower to lower her new Glock, but then she flashed a glance at his mother and dropped her shooting hand to her side.
She liked that gun too much.
Or maybe she hated him that much.
“Sorry.” She sounded anything but. “I should have known it would be you walking in.”
Sam and Jake followed him inside Cap’s comfortable living room.
“You passed the test for Bodyguarding 101.” Dane addressed Shana.
“You’re terrible, Dane.” His mother had a big smile on her face and she stood and walked to him and gave him a hug like she always did when she welcomed him home.
Back in his school days it had been every single day after school.
The pit of his stomach felt like a black hole of longing tugging at his heart, remembering.
But he was no kid and now he was responsible for keeping her safe so that she could play cards and drink margaritas in peace for the rest of her life.
“Ma, can I talk to you?” He nodded his head toward the next room, which, in Cap’s classic old Cape Cod, meant the dining room. He stepped into the dining room without looking at Shana and his mother followed.
He stopped and turned to face her as he leaned against an old mahogany buffet.
“Time for me to go?” she said.
He nodded.
“I hope you don’t mind. The good news is I’ll be taking you back myself so we can catch up with some one-on-one.”
“That’ll be nice.”
“You don’t mind?”
Her face held that same sad smile she’d been smiling since his father left for war and never came back.
She reached out and held his arms. He remembered the comforting gesture. Hot, banked-up emotion welled up in him, filling his chest and making him still.
“I adore you, Dane. But you know I didn’t come here to see you. I came here to see Shana, to spend some time with her, and I’ve accomplished my mission.”
“And?” He needed to know.
His mother laughed her soft motherly laugh of understanding. He felt like he was eight years old then. But he couldn’t say that was a bad thing.
“She’s a lovely, strong, beautiful, smart woman. But you already knew that. Now I know and I--” She stopped.
He couldn’t stand it. Couldn’t stand that he wanted—no needed—his mother’s approval. Approval for what, he wasn’t sure, or didn’t want to think about.
“And what?”
“I’m happier than you could know that you’ve…. found someone to love.”
She said it. Exactly what he didn’t want to hear. Exactly what he needed to hear. He felt nauseated and dizzy. He clenched his teeth into a smile.
His mother raised her hand to caress his jaw. That loosened his face, but the rest of him felt like a wound-up iron cable taut enough to hold up the Golden Gate bridge. The thudding in his chest, hard and fast, boomed against the tight wall.
“I arranged for us to leave tonight.”
She nodded and they returned to the living room where the card game had resumed, albeit with less liveliness.
Shana stood.
“You’re going home tonight, aren’t you?”
“Yes, it’s time I did. I’ve enjoyed meeting you and Tillie and you too, Cap. And it was so nice to see Jake and Sam again. But it’s been a strain on everyone.” She turned to Dane. “No use pretending otherwise.”
Shana said, “I’ll accompany you—-”
“I’ll be taking Mom home.”
“I’d be very happy if you’d accompany us, honey.”
“What about Til—your mom. Don’t you want to stay with her?”
“I’ll stay with her,” Cap said.
“It’s all right with me. About time the boys showed up. Should be on the morrow.” Tillie was all smiles.
Dane didn’t know how he felt about this.
About having Shana come with them to his mother’s secret hideout.
His last private bastion, the last peaceful place he knew on earth.
He’d been counting on spending time with his mom there alone.
To talk about Shana, if he were to be completely honest with himself.
Claire said, “Maybe you can stay over a night when we get back to my house, Dane?”
“I knew I got my mind-reading skills from somewhere. Must have been you.”
Shana looked at her mother, “Let’s go Tillie. I’ll take you back to your room.”
She walked out and her mother followed. “See you back at the shack,” she said to Dane over her shoulder when she stepped out the door.
“I’m right behind you. Let’s go pack.”
Dane turned to Cap.
“Watch out for Tillie. We’re catching the seven P.M. ferry. I don’t expect any problems, but I’m taking Sam. Jake will watch our six.”
“You taking the Jag?”
He nodded. “It’s a long drive to the Berkshires. I should be back in three days. Cover for me with the ATF guys. They’ll be pissed.”
“I almost forgot about that. You’re pulling the plug on their setup. You want me to tell them?”
“You too chicken?”
“F--- you.” Cap mouthed the words at Dane. They were in mixed company. He laughed and his tension eased, but not all the way. Never all the way.
There would never be ease as long as he had an enemy bent on revenge.
Because they had targeted his mother. And now Shana too.