Chapter Four
When Sam raced down the street to his house, the first thing he noted was the odd feeling in his neighborhood. He parked his bike in his driveway and raced into his small house. “T, where are you, son?”
“We’re in here, Daddy,” T shouted from the bedroom, down the hall.
Sam and Deke raced down the hallway and found both San’s kids huddled on Shaw’s bed.
Shaw was crying and T Bone was holding her with both arms. He was barely six and Shaw was a chubby two-year-old sobbing in his arms.
Sam took his daughter and tried to hush her crying.
Deke grabbed up his little brother and just held him for a moment.
Sam turned his head and told Deke, “Check the cameras, I want to know who kicked my front door in.”
Deke nodded and carried T out of the room with him.
Sam just stood there for a minute and held his daughter tight. Then he looked down at her and assured her, “Don’t cry baby girl, I’ll get your mama back.”
Shaw just looked into his eyes and nodded, then she leaned her small body against his and trusted that her daddy would keep his promise to her.
He carried her with him out to the living room where Deke had pulled the camera feed up on a tablet and the whole room watched as there was a brief glimpse of two men with their faces covered. One of them got close and sprayed the camera then it went black.
Sam handed Shaw to Mountain. Then he tapped the keyboard. “I have a camera hidden at the garage.”
They watched as two men approached and the larger one kicked his front door in. Then maybe two minutes later they then tugged Melora out of the house.
Sam’s jaw ticked and tightened as he watched them treat her like she didn’t matter. Then they moved her down the sidewalk out of camera range. “She didn’t even fight them.”
“No, she didn’t,” Cassie snapped from behind him.
“She had her kids here. She would want the men to leave immediately.” Her hands clenched into fists, then she looked over at Deke.
“It’s Banger and that is Rodney with him.
The motherfuckers couldn’t break me, so they took Peaches.
When Banger couldn’t get what he wanted from her, he came back and took Melora. ”
“Where do you think he’s taken her?” Mountain asked.
“Probably back to the house Robbie stayed at in Boston,” Cassie reasoned. “Dumbass is still after that damn gold.”
Deke looked over at her. “Is that gold even there?”
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, it’s there.Well, it was. Just not in the same place Robbie left it, or at least not all of it.”
Sam stared at her. “What the hell does that mean?”
Cassie looked at him and said, “When Robbie was out, I went back and I found the biggest stash. I moved it to another place, but I left just enough where Robbie put it that it would keep him there for a long time.” She shook her head.
“Even if Robbie came back, he’d only find part of it.
I made sure he would never find the part I moved.
You see, Robbie was a slob, he didn’t like to actually do anything remotely what he considered as work. ”
Mountain walked over to Sam and took Shaw from his arms. Then he turned around to give her to Dante. “Take the kids back to the clubhouse and Izzy until we bring Melora home. Make sure they get there safe.”
“Absolutely.” Dante nodded then reached out to take T’s hand while Shaw was held at his hip. He left with the kids.
Sam turned to face Cassie. “We need a plan to get her and bring her home again. I want to chase them down right this minute but that might just get her...” His voice faded away. He didn’t want to finish that sentence. “What else do you know about Robbie?”
Deke shook his head. “Dad, Robbie is dead, remember?”
Sam nodded. “Yes, I remember, son. But before we go to that house, I don’t want any surprises waiting for us, old or new. Like traps and shit. You don’t go to war and forget that many killers leave traps.”
“Like mines?” Mountain asked.
“Maybe not that but other shit.” Sam looked upset and nervous. “I think we should find out more about this freak before we go charging into Boston with our heads up our asses, don’t you?”
Mountain sighed. “Yeah, I never like to agree with Bones. But yeah, let’s see what we’re working with here then.”
“Robbie was sly,” Cassie replied. “Not smart, but sneaky. His greed overrode any sense he might have had. You all may not know this, but he was a eunuch.”
“A what?” Sam asked as he looked puzzled.
“Dad...” Deke shook his head and then decided not to tell him what that meant.
“He got his dick cutoff,” Cassie explained.
“Damn.” Mountain shook his head.
Sam went a bit white in the face.
Cassie nodded. “I only bring it up, as psychologically... lust was never a motive for his schemes. He simply wanted to be as rich as his so-called mother. Being raised by her made him a monster. But he was lazy about everything and would take the easy way out.”
“Well, it wasn’t easy when those wolves got him,” Deke snapped.
Cassie nodded. “But I don’t think there are any smart traps at that house, Sam. But after all these years I don’t know what the place looks like now.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, ok. But we can find out more about this Virgil-Banger motherfucker. I had Trudy find all she could, yesterday. But I haven’t read it yet.
” He walked over to the hutch and opened one of the drawers to pull out a file.
He slapped it down onto the kitchen table and opened it.
He picked up the first page and read it quickly then handed it to the next person.
The room went silent for a few minutes.
By the time he’d read every page, Sam was furious. He looked up at Mountain and growled, “That man might have been innocent of the crime he was sentenced for but he sure as hell didn’t make any friends inside, did he?”
Mountain shook his head. “What bothers me is all the reports in that file about him having conversations with his brothers. Both of them are dead, killed by muggers.”
“Muggers? No,” Deke said.
Mountain snapped his head up and glared at him. “What the hell are you saying?”
Deke shrugged. “He told us what happened. It was Robbie.”
“The gold.” Cassie nodded. “Robbie killed them for the gold they were hiding from the world. He tortured them and they died a grisly death. I think this helped to push Virgil into insanity.”
Deke nodded. “It makes sense in a sick sort of way. Robbie puts Banger in prison for a crime he didn’t commit then he goes after the only people who know where the gold is hidden.
Then after he finds it, he moves the gold where no one will ever find it.
Except for you.” He nodded at his wife. “Virgil knows all this and it has affected his mind.”
Cassie nodded her head. “But I’m not the only one who watched Robbie over those years.”
Sam growled under his breath, “Who else was watching the little monster?”
Cassie turned her head and whispered a name, “Rodney.”
The whole room stilled and every head turned to her.
“What?” Sam snarled. “Rodney knew where Robbie had been staying all this time?”
Cassie nodded. “One day while I was watching the house I saw him standing in the alley. I didn’t know who he was but he was there. But I knew who he was in the warehouse they took me to.”
Deke looked at his dad and at Mountain. “So there was more than one person that knew where Robbie was hiding.”
Cassie nodded. “He also could have been there the night Robbie brought several heavy boxes back to the house. He had to figure it was Banger’s family gold.”
Deke shook his head. “But the only thing was he didn’t know where the dumb punk hid it. All those years he had to wait for Banger to get his sorry ass out of the pen to find the fucking gold and now he’s gonna double cross Banger to snatch it out right under his nose when he does find it.”
“I don’t fucking care about the gold.” Mountain cracked his knuckles.
The pops echoed in the still house. After a moment or two, Mountain looked over at Sam and added, “First, we’re going to visit the Screaming Falcons’ club there.
” Then he turned to Cassie and growled, “And when we get to that house little missy, don’t you even think about going inside, alone.
Not now, not ever, you hear me? The object is to bring Melora back, not lose anyone else. ”
Deke shook his head. “We never leave anyone behind, Mountain. That’s not how we roll.”
“Hell man, I know that,” Mountain told him.
“But we aren’t dealing with sanity right now.
Banger has gone over the edge and Rodney is just bad all the way through.
That makes them both dangerous men, not only to Melora but to Cassie as well.
We’re going after both of them and this time neither of them are walking away. ”
Deke nodded and he looked over at Cassie. “Babe, we have to end them. I think you know that. It is for the safety of our family.”
She nodded. “I know and now I’m sorry that I didn’t—”
Deke raised his hand up at her. “You were only looking out for our souls, baby.”
Sam looked pained as he checked his gun clip and made sure he had extra ammunition from the same hutch drawer. “If I don’t get my Silk back, I don’t care about hell.” He stalked out the door.
Mountain looked around the room at each man there. Then he said, “This ends tonight. No more waiting for Banger or his gang to make the next move or take another of our women.”
The crowd of men roared in agreement and they all turned to head out through the door to begin their journey to Boston.