Chapter Seven
Cassie stopped just outside the front door. It stood open hanging off the hinges with a busted lock hanging from the side. She could see inside and stared at the trash filling house. She could also hear Banger and Rodney arguing.
They hadn’t seen her yet and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She raised two fingers to her lips and let loose with a loud whistle.
Both men stopped arguing immediately.
Banger snapped his head to the side and glared at her. When he recognized her, he grumbled, “I’ve been waiting for you to get here.”
Rodney snorted. “What the hell took you so long?”
Cassie began walking up to the door.
Impatient, Banger came outside to grab her by the hair. “You fucking lied to me bitch! The gold ain’t here.”
Cassie stood calmly and looked inside the house. Then she tried to shake her head but Banger still had her by the hair. “How can you fucking tell?” She looked around again and said, “Someone has been using this place like a dump. There’s at least a few years of trash sitting here.”
Banger shook her by the hair. “I don’t fucking care! All I’m here for is my family’s gold.”
“That gold was lost to your family years ago, old man!” Rodney shouted. “It’s up for grabs now and anyone can claim it.”
Banger snarled at his claim. “You won’t be touching a single gram of that gold, buddy. I’ll shoot you first.”
“You ain’t shooting nobody, Virgil,” Rodney snapped. “You’ll go back to prison and this time you ain’t walking out a free man. You’ll die caged like an animal.”
“Don’t you bet on that, prick.” Banger sneered. Then he pushed Cassie toward the front door.
She stumbled into the house and ended up in a heap on the floor. When she raised her head, she then spotted poor Melora.
She had her knees up as she sat against the wall. Her eyes widened when she saw Cassie.
Cassie put her finger up to her lips and signaled for Melora to stay quiet. She hoped to keep the heat off her.
Suddenly, a buggy-eyed rat jumped out of a pile of trash to run over her hand. Cassie saw it then looked up at the two men. Then she screamed...a little late but she did.
Rodney turned to stare at her and the rat.
He threw his head back and laughed at her.
“Boy, the Cassie Robbie used to tell us about, never would have screamed like that. He used to say you were fearless and that you could take the whip without crying. He kept watching you, hoping to see his mother finally break you. But she never did, did she?”
Cassie shrugged. “She tried her damndest to break me.”
Rodney nodded. “Yeah, that about drove Robbie insane. He always wondered how you did it when he couldn’t. You know that he couldn’t stand his mother, right? Then after you cut him she kept him locked away like she didn’t even want to see him, like she didn’t care about him no more.”
“Poor Robbie,” Cassie mocked, “Going from golden boy to nothing. That must have broken his teeny-weeny little heart.”
Rodney just stared at her then he told her, “You might not have been broken by Janelle but she broke him and after that he went a little crazy. Did you know he spent weeks looking for any sign of you? He would pull out a map and he checked every street, every place that held homeless people. Every abandoned building, then on that map he checked off the streets he went to. Within a year, he’d checked everywhere but he never could find you or Peaches. ”
Cassie nodded. “Yeah, I saw him out there. But by then, I knew the streets better than he ever would.” She paused to stare at Rodney. “How the hell did you know so much about Robbie?”
Rodney smiled slyly. “We did a little business together every once in a while.”
“None of that matters.” Banger snarled. “That little thief killed my brothers and stole my family’s gold. Then he set me up to take the fall for what he did himself. I can’t get my brothers back nor the time I spent behind bars but I can get the gold back and it's mine. I want it.”
Cassie turned to glare at him. “You took me.”
“I did not take you,” Banger snapped as he motioned to his companion. “That was Rodney all the way. I was just going to ask you about it, then he got into your office and he’s the one that hit you, not me. All I wanted was information on Robbie.”
“But you came back and you took Peaches. For what?” she asked.
“To get me to talk, for me to tell you where Robbie used to hang out years ago? Well, you got what you wanted to know.” Cassie opened her arms to motion at the awful interior.
“This is the place Robbie hung out when he escaped from his so-called mother and even that was a lie. Janelle was never his mother.”
“What the hell happened to him six years ago?” Rodney demanded to know.
Cassie just stared at him and didn’t say a word for a long moment then she told them, “He finally found me at Deke’s compound.
I had just found out I was carrying Deke’s baby and he stole me away.
He forced me to go into the woods with him and then he tied me to a tree.
Then he told me he had planned my kidnapping for a very long time.
He said at first he was just going to kill me and leave me.
Then he pointed out there were wolves in the area and why not give them something to chew on.
He then he used that fucking knife of his to cut me to make sure the wolves could smell the scent of my blood.
Then just so I couldn’t fight back he kicked me in the head and ran away like the scared little boy he’s always been.
” She paused then told them, “He didn’t count on anyone missing me or coming to my rescue.
That was when Deke and some of the other brothers, including my uncle, came around. ”
“You made it out alive, didn’t you?” Rodney scoffed.
“I was carrying a baby, you prick. That made it a double murder attempt. Two or three days later, the Sinners MC found him and brought him back to Deke’s.
Only Deke wasn’t alone. Leon had come around cuz Robbie told me he was going after the Vincintis next.
Deke and Leon beat the hell out of him then they took him to the same tree he tied me to and they cut him the same way Robbie had cut me.
Then the wolves got him. Funny how karma comes around slowly but it also happens right on time. ”
Rodney shook his head. “That’s terrible for him and all but what did he do with the gold?”
Cassie laughed. When she finished with her chuckling, she lowered her head and glared at both of them. “Robbie never got the gold, well maybe one small box of it. I had to leave him something, you know? The rest of it was gone when he came back for it.”
“So you moved the gold?” Banger exclaimed in surprise as he looked stunned.
Cassie just stood there and shrugged. She didn’t say a word.
Rodney rushed forward and grabbed her by the throat. “Where is the fucking gold?” he snarled at her, up close and personal.
“For all I know, someone else found it and spent it years ago,” Cassie replied. “I haven’t been here in a long time. It wasn’t mine so I didn’t care what happened to it.”
Rodney pulled his arm back and hit her.
With his punch to the jaw, she flew back and landed on one of the piles of trash that were everywhere.
Outside of the house...
The men were lining up to rush the house but Dak from the Sinners held them all back. “Let’s just wait and see what happens next. Something tells me the biggest threat inside that house hasn’t come yet.”
Mountain growled as did Sam.
Deke nodded at the suggestion and motioned to the men.
They all moved back to their earlier positions and waited with a firmer grip on their weapons.
Deke peeked in through the window to see what was happening.
Banger raised his gun and squeezed the trigger.
Rodney cried out and grabbed his leg while stumbling back. He hit the floor hard. “What the hell?” he cried out as he wrapped his hands around his bleeding leg. He looked up at Banger and shouted, “You shot me? Why would you do that? You fucking shot me!”
“Oh, shut your damned mouth, will ya?” Banger growled. “Yeah, I shot your sorry ass. She was finally talking and you fucking shut her up. She’s the only one here that knows where the fucking gold is. Now we have to start all over and it is your fucking fault.”
Cassie groaned and tried to sit up. Her mouth was bleeding again and she was done talking. She rolled over on her side then began crawling over the piles of garbage toward Melora.
Banger snapped his gaze over at her and raised his weapon, aiming it at Cassie’s back. “Woman, don’t you ignore me, where is the fucking gold?”
Cassie slid off the trash pile and got to her feet.
She slowly turned around and glared right back at him.
“I don’t like you Banger and I don’t have to keep taking your abuse.
I told you the gold was here and it was, at one time.
I don’t know what happened to it but I’m done now. You can find it on your own.”