Chapter Five
Jelly Bean found Storm and his guys in one of the extra rooms that was used as a study at times. They had set up a meeting room here for themselves. They called it the Weather Room as a joke.
Tornado, Lightning and Frost thought it was pretty darn funny. They told Rebel and Jelly Bean to watch out for the rain, the cold and some clouds.
What hadn’t been joked about was that being part of Vincinti security they wanted to be on top of things. They had laptops set up and they looked pretty comfortable here, despite the so-called weather.
She went over where Storm sat studying a screen and announced, “I’m gonna need you to call in everyone you can reach. I think I know where to find Mac.”
Storm stared at her and asked, “Where?”
“Ria told me he doesn’t live in the city and what she says makes sense.
We’ve been looking all over town for this man but we never found him.
Not because we didn’t try but from what she told me we’ve been looking in the wrong area.
We need to check the dock area. She thinks he’s been on a boat this whole time.
And perhaps he sets it out to sea when he knew men were looking for him. ”
“A boat?” Tornado asked. “Where did she get that idea?”
“Because she smelled fish and salt water on him every time he came around her brothers. That once you get that scent in your nose you never forget it.”
Storm raised his brows at this conclusion. “Well, she’s right about that.” He looked at his guys and nodded. “Let’s test that theory.”
“You want us to smell like that?” Lightning asked as he smirked. “I’m just kidding... you want us to take a trip to the docks and see what we can find?”
Storm nodded. “Yeah, I do. But not so we stink, man. If we find us a boat with Big Mac onboard, we’ll get a group together and storm that boat before Mac kills Oscar.”
“Yeah boss, storm the boat...great wordplay!” Tornado laughed.
Just then, Leon and John walked into the room.
“Have you found anything yet?” Leon demanded to know.
Storm turned to him and explained it, “Thanks to Jelly Bean, we have a pretty good idea where Big Mac stashed Oscar. We’re gonna have a looksee and if we find him, we’re gonna get Oscar back.”
Leon looked puzzled and asked, “But I thought no one knew where this Mac lived?”
Jelly Bean smiled and told him, “I went to Ria. To see if she saw or heard about him when she had been with her creepy-crappy brothers. And she told us something interesting about the man.”
“Ria?” John asked.
Jelly Bean smiled. “Hell, that woman knew more than she realized.”
“What does that mean?” Leon asked softly.
“She does something not many people do nowadays. She listens. And I mean more than just like normal. She hears and takes in things that we all just wouldn’t notice.
She just told me Mac doesn’t seem to belong in this city, like he doesn’t have the same Boston accent as the people who live here, she also told me that he stinks of fish and the ocean.
She said that once you get that scent in your nose you can never forget it and she’s right.
” She shook her head. “We’ve been looking in the wrong places.
We never looked for him in the dock area. ”
“There are a number of boats in the dock area every single day,” Leon pointed out. “Some go out and stay out for a while. It is a changing scenery kind of thing. How do you think you’ll find the right one?”
“Mac will be the one that has armed men walking around on it,” John told them. “On the deck and on the dock itself too. He has something to protect. His whereabouts for one.”
“And Oscar for two,” Jelly Bean added.
Storm nodded. “And we all know that he wouldn’t go anywhere without an armed guard or five. At the lighthouse, he had two that were huge and we took them down. Too bad they were about as smart as pet rocks.”
Leon chuckled at the pet rock remark then shook his head. “We had the docks checked for that man several times. Must be that he heard we were looking and took off or he was already out to sea.”
John nodded. “So now his location makes sense. And he knows we are looking for him. We have been for a couple of years in fact. So he wouldn’t dare be without armed men around him.”
“He thinks he’s a big player and he would get away with it in my town.” Leon growled low.
“You are correct, he stalked up to that lighthouse like he owned it. But yes, we saw the guards too,” Jelly Bean added.
Leon agreed, “He thinks he’s important enough to make a statement, doesn’t he?
But in reality, he’s nothing more than a lowlife drug dealer.
” He looked at Storm again. “Be careful looking for him. If and when you find Oscar, you bring him back here to my doctor and we will take good care of him. And then you destroy Mac. No one will miss that man but you come back here all in one piece. Don’t any of you get dead.
The world needs men like you.” He turned around and walked out of the room leaving everyone there stunned.
John smiled and saw their shock. He shook his head then looked at Storm. “You got your orders, men. Carry on.” Then he turned and left the room as well.
Storm looked at each man in the room then at Jelly Bean. “Well guys, we got our orders.”
Jelly Bean shook her head. “We can’t just march up to the dock. We have to be very careful or we’ll be signing Oscar’s death warrant. “
“You’re right about that,” Storm agreed. “So, for now, it’ll be just us... searching.”
Jelly Bean nodded then she walked to the door, she also made sure she had her bat with her. She checked her gun clip and placed it back into the holder.
She collected Rebel on her way through the front foyer.
When they reached the front door Rebel held her bat as well and asked, “So where exactly are we going?”
Jelly Bean looked at her sister and said, “The docks. We think Mac might be on a boat.”
Rebel stopped and stared at her then she went pale.
Jelly Bean and Storm stared at her.
Storm asked, “What’s wrong?”
Rebel turned to look at him, then she said quietly, “The man that came to the lighthouse. He was this Big Mac guy, right?” She turned to Jelly Bean.
“Yeah.”
“I’ve seen him before but I just never knew who he was.
” She swallowed hard. “I used to live down by the docks before I came after you.” She smirked.
“No offense but you hide better than he does. I noted that his ship would always slip into port in the dark. It would never stay very long maybe one day at a time and he’d always leave port after dark.
I used to watch it all the time. It’s a big boat, a very nice one too. ”
Storm stared at her. “You know where he ports?”
Rebel nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“What does he have on board for men?” Tornado wanted to know.
“Do they have guns?” Lightning asked.
“Is it possible to get on board without them knowing?” Storm asked.
The rapid-fire questions came one after another.
Rebel shook her head and held her hands up at them. “I need to think. I haven’t been in that area for months.”
They all shut up at once and waited.