Chapter Three
Deke took a deep breath and when he exhaled he swore, “Well hell Pappy, why did you bring this to my doorstep?”
“Because I need a safe place to leave her before we go hunting Hades. Me and mine can find the bastard but I can’t if I have to worry about her safety.”
Deke gazed at him for a moment then nodded. “She can stay here.”
McKenna began shaking her head and as she pushed her chair back, the door opened and more people came in.
A family of four.
Every one sitting there turned to see who was joining them when the man in the group stopped and looked at them. “What the fuck?” he called out.
Reaper, one of Stone’s men jumped up and faced the newcomers. “Jesus H. Christ!” he called out as he rushed at the man in question. “Clancy, is that your sorry hide?”
Calico burst out into a grin. “Seth, you old dog, how’s it hanging brother?”
The two men came together in a big hug. Each pounding the other’s back. Then holding each other by the upper arms, the two men stared at each other in awe. “Damn boy, you got old,” Reaper commented.
Calico threw back his head and laughed. “And you didn’t? Asshole!”
Reaper grinned and turned toward the others in his group. “Pappy, come and meet my big brother.”
Stone got to his feet and joined the men. Reaching out his hand, he nodded at Calico. “You have got to be Clancy. Reaper has been telling us stories about you forever. We all got to know you, without ever meeting you in person.”
Calico grinned.” My MC name is Calico.” Shaking the other man’s hand he looked at his brother and asked, “What brings you guys all the way to New York? I thought you found your piece of heaven in Texas?”
“We’re here on business,” Reaper told him. Cocking his head to one side he stated, “I thought you lived in Maine?”
Calico smiled. “I do, but I had to come back here for my family.” He turned, grabbed an older woman who came in with him and brought her and the kids closer. “Reaper, I’d like to introduce my wife, Jolene.”
Reaper’s jaw fell to the floor. “Your wife?”
“My wife,” Calico stated. “We got married close to twenty five years ago, then we split up for a while but recently, got back together again.” Then he turned to the two younger people with him. “This is my daughter Sawyer and her brother Jordan. Kids, this is your uncle Seth.”
Jolene smiled as she gazed at Calico’s brother. “We have been divorced for a while now, but I’m hoping he’ll marry me again.”
Calico pulled her close to him and whispered over loudly, “Yeah about that divorce, well it never happened, sweet thing.” He grinned at the look on her face. “We’ve been married all this time.”
Jolene gaped at her man. “We have?”
Calico nodded. “Yeah, we have. I never sort of signed the papers like you asked me to before I left town, so I guess that means technically, we’re still married.”
Reaper gathered her into his arms and twirled her around. “Well, if that don’t beat all. Welcome to the family sister of mine, even if it’s twenty five years too late.”
Jolene laughed when he let her go.
Reaper turned to Sawyer and smiled. “I would know you anywhere.” He opened his arms and hugged her close. When he let her go, he reached out and shook Jordan’s hand. Then he turned to his brother. “I can’t believe you’ve had a family all this time and never said anything. Ma is gonna pitch a fit!”
Jolene looked at Calico with a frown. “You have a mother too?”
Calico grinned. “Yup, both a mother and a father, and another little brother. They live in Louisiana near where Reaper lives. Course, he now lives in Texas but it’s right on the border.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about them?” Jolene asked.
“When we were together at first, I just wanted to enjoy that. We were a family and then we weren’t.” He shook his head. “About the time you asked me to leave I was working up the courage to ask you to come home with me, to meet the rest of my family. I knew I loved you and I thought you loved me back, then somehow we got all messed up and then you were telling me to go away.”
Jolene cried out and hugged him. “Oh god, I did love you. I loved you with every fiber of my being. Max told me he would kill you if I didn’t make you leave. I would have rather lived without you than watch you die. It about killed me to send you away.”
Calico wrapped his big arms around her. “Hush now, it’s all over. We’re back together and we have our kids to watch grow up. We’re good.” He looked over at his brother. “We’ll visit the folks as soon as we can.” Looking over at Stone he said, “I think we’re interrupting your business here.”
“Actually Pappy, I think we can use him,” Reaper suggested. “He’s got the brawn, knows how to fight dirty and he used to have a good brain to go along with it. Besides, he’s devious. He could probably come up with a way to draw Hades out for us.” He looked at his brother. “He used to be quite good at that sort of thing when we were younger. We got more than one whipping because of his schemes.”
Calico nodded. “Of course, if you need me I’ll help.”
Stone turned and went back to the table. Reaper and Calico joined him. Reaper caught his brother up on what they were dealing with while Jolene and the kids went to the kitchen to start breakfast.
In a break in the conversation, Calico sat back in his chair and stared at the other men. For a moment, he didn’t say anything then he seemed to make up his mind and sat forward in his chair.
Stone’s fingers tightened into a fist. “Why don’t you tell us about yourself Clancy?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m interested.” Was all Stone would tell him.
Calico ran his hands fingers through his hair. “When I left home, I was eighteen years old. All I wanted was the freedom of the open road and no responsibilities. I’d been working on my bikes since I bought my first one at fourteen and I was ready to get the hell out of Louisiana. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing left there for me. I wanted to see the world and do my own thing and for five years, that’s what I did. Then I met Jolene. Hell, I didn’t know how long I would be with her, didn’t know how or what I wanted back then. Then she got pregnant with Sawyer and that scared the shit out of me. I didn’t know if I wanted a kid or not but I stayed anyway. I married her for the baby but I also, wanted to settle down. She was a good woman. Then a couple years later Jolene told me to go. I didn’t know why at the time, but I wasn’t gonna stay where I wasn’t wanted. I left and moved up to Maine. I drank a lot back then and just let myself go. Then Sam got after me and I got mad. I got my body back in shape and then I got my mind back online. Not far from our compound, there was a survival camp. That place was almost as bad as a boot camp, or so I was told.”
“As stimulating as your life story is,” Doc interrupted. “Is there a point to all this?”
Calico nodded. “Yeah there is, and if you’ll just listen, I’ll get to the dammed point.”
“Please continue.” Stone motioned with his hand.
“Anyway, within the next two years, I got back in shape. I trained with the men at the camp and I got to be the best they had. I began talking to one of the guys at the camp. He was a bounty hunter, name of Clay Elders. He told me I could make good money learning the craft if I was so inclined. So, I did. I used the skills I grew up with in Louisiana and over the next ten years, I made a shit load of money. The point is I learned how to pick up on patterns of men on the run. I used my tracking skills learned as a boy to pick up anybody’s trail.”
“Were you any good at tracking as a kid?” Doc asked.
Reaper laughed out loud. “Boys, this man was the best there ever was. Nobody in Louisiana could beat his skills. Even the best there was before him, couldn’t hold a candle to this kid.”
“Anyway, the point is I can help you track this fucker.” Calico shrugged.
Viper sneered. “You’re a god damn bounty hunter.”
Calico shrugged again. “I’m a little more than that now.”
Stone stared at the man for a moment, then shrugged. “Why not give him a chance? We got nothing right now, the worst thing he can do is leave us standing there with nothing to show for our efforts.” He sat forward in his chair. “This man we will hunt for was trained by the best. He knows when and where to hide, so no one can find him. When he dropped out of sight ten years ago, the best the military had couldn’t find him. What makes you think you can do better than that?”
Calico smiled. “I’ve learned over the years how to think like they do and how to act like them. I sink my mind down to their level and then I know how to catch them. One day, I was sitting in a park waiting for a CI to stop by when I met an older man. He told me his name was Silas T McGinty. We sat there talking for a while then when he got up to leave, I arrested him. He was the bastard I’d been hunting for over a year. He had a warrant for skipping bail in the town of New Brighten on a weapons charge. Charges against him were weapons trafficking and selling guns to a cartel in Mexico and gangs in New York. He wasn’t the nice guy he came across to be.”
Sam stared at his old friend for a time. He’d seen the almost too subtle start Stone had when Calico mentioned the name Silas T McGinty.
“How did you know?” Doc asked.
“McGinty was known for the use of a phrase ‘Jesus, Joseph and Mary expired’. He used it several times during our conversation. Most people going after someone don’t do the right homework they need to do to catch them. I find out everything I can about my marks and that’s why I catch who I go after.” Calico shrugged.
Stone sat back in his chair and stared at the other man for a moment. “Did he ever tell you what the T stood for?”
Calico nodded and stared right into his eyes when he replied, “Tiberius”
Stone paused then nodded. “Not a name you hear too much is it?”
Calico shook his head. “I’ve never heard it before that crazy old man.”
Stone glanced around at his men then over at Sam and Deke. “What he is telling me is that he works for a man we all know. Shay Montross.”
Sam sat up in his chair and frowned. “What the fuck does Shay have to do with this? And how would he know Shay at all?”
“That’s what we’re about to hear, isn’t it Calico?” Stone surmised.
Calico shrugged. “Not that much to tell. Remember that survival camp in Maine? Well, that’s where I met Shay. Between him and Clay, I figure I learned from the best.”
Reaper shook his head. “I can’t believe Shay was at god damn a survival camp.”
Stone nodded. “Yeah, but Clay is his half-brother. He must have been the one to call him in.”
“Call him in?” Deke questioned. “Call him in for what?”
Stone nodded at Calico. “Him.”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Deke demanded.
Stone stared at Sam and Deke. “We have something to tell you about, then I’m going to ask for your help. While it’s true we just dropped off a woman in need, we also came here with another purpose.” He sighed as he began his tale, “Like I said before, they began calling me Pappy before I was forty. By then, I was the oldest man in the group, the leader.” He rubbed his hair and laughed. “I guess by then, my hair had turned white already, so I looked like an old man even if I wasn’t so old. We were well into building the Hell’s Fire Riders name to mean something special and I was the man in charge of training them to be Marines. I had to take boys still wet behind the ears and turn them into men. Then I had to take them to a place no man should ever have to see…straight into hell. I knew some of them would die in battle but train them I did. I gave them the best chance they had to survive and they gave me back 110 per cent.”
“You gave them more than that Pappy,” Reaper added. “You gave them their lives back. They may have come to you as snot nosed boys who thought they knew it all but they left as men, proud to be Marines and proud as hell to have survived that hellhole. Most of all, proud to have served under your command. Each and every one of them.”
Stone shook his head then looked saddened. “Not all of them came home though. Their bodies came home but we left their souls in the deserts of sand in three different countries.”
“That’s true enough, but our group had the lowest body count of them all.” Reaper nodded.
“Even one man is one man too many. I lost nine altogether.” Stone sighed heavily. “The last one took the bullet with my name engraved on it.” He rubbed his chest lightly. On his chest was a tattoo of an eagle. The most majestic bird ever created. The bird itself was standing with its head bowed holding an olive branch, the universal symbol of peace in his claws while overhead were nine shooting stars. Each star held the initials of the nine men he’d lost to battle along with the date they died. The last one held the initials of C. T. D. Cole Thomas Dent.
“Why did you give it all up?” Sam asked. “When I knew you, it was your dream to be a Marine.”
Stone nodded. “I worked my ass off to get where I was and it was the one thing in my life that made sense to me. But it was time to let it go. I’d lived through three fucking wars, starting with Desert Storm. Then there was Afghanistan, then finally the war on terror in Iraq. The last battle I fought was TARFU from the very beginning. All we were doing was a routine patrol. We’d been there before and everything had been quiet. Intel claimed no trouble in the area. As soon as we hit the outskirts of the town, enemy fire blasted us. We didn’t know where the fuck it was coming from or who the hell was shooting at us. Then I heard a lone shot and just before it hit, Dent, the last man who died under my command stepped in front of me and lost his life.” Stone shook his head. “At that point I was done. I’d given the Core thirty years of my life and at that moment, I wanted nothing more than to walk away from it. I held that boy’s body in my arms and watched him bleed out. I made up my mind then, I would never watch another man die on my command, so I got out. I brought Dent’s body back and I got on my bike and just rode. I picked up these guys along the way and they’ve been with me ever since.” He motioned at the three men sitting there with him.
“Pappy, we’ve been together a long time now.” Reaper smiled.
Stone chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve been looking at your ugly mug for most the last fifteen years, Master Sergeant, one way or another.”
“Here’s to fifteen more years of watching you get older than dirt.” Reaper lifted his glass in the air while he gave Stone the finger.
Stone looked around at the men gathered there. “I’m on one last mission for my country. About a year ago, Colonel Shay Montross contacted me. He asked me to come to Washington for a mission. I took these three with me and we met in secret with Montross and a few of his men.” He paused and ran his fingers through his white hair again.
“Who is Montross?” Deke asked.
“Shay Montross, “Stone announced, “Was our intel officer in Desert Storm. He wasn’t a Colonel back then but he was a damn fine intel officer. He doubled checked everything before he passed it along to the troops and he made sure we weren’t headed in hell before he let us go in. We came out alive because of him and every man jack of us knew he’d always have our backs. We worked together in some way shape or form for five years before he was promoted and left us. The day he did, we threw him a hell of a party.”
Reaper snorted rudely. “Yeah too bad, the asshole who came in to take his place wasn’t more like Shay.”
“What do you mean?” Sam asked with a frown.
“Like I said before, the man that replaced Shay as Intel was Carmine Vance. Now that man was absolutely useless in the Intel department. He couldn’t find his own asshole if it bit him in the ass. In fact the last three missions he sent us out on got at least four of my men killed. I told the upper brass he was giving us bad Intel, but all they would say was they would look into it.” Stone shook his head. “That’s when my man Recon started hanging out near the Intel tent. He watched the messages coming and going and got informed as to what was going on. He saw Carmine ignore Intel that would have helped our guys stay alive. Carmine sent one unit out to secure a dumpsite and because he ignored a report from a local, he got six men killed. Not all the men were ours but that didn’t make a difference. I told the Commander about it and when he got all the facts, he stormed over to the Intel tent and reamed Carmine out. He demanded to know what was going on and Carmine lied right to his face. When Recon showed him the report, he’d thrown way earlier the Commander got pissed and demoted Carmine on the spot and sent him to a holding area under armed guard. Two days later, Carmine was sent back to the States under guard. He was supposed to face a court martial but instead, he ended up doing office work for Major Wright at the Pentagon.”
Reaper let out a grunt of disgust.
Stone shook his head. “Anyway, getting back to our trip to Washington, Shay was now a Colonel and stateside, but he was still a Marine and as such he was given orders to secure things back here. He contacted me and several others he felt he could trust and gave us the orders to set up a network on our own home ground. With all the terrorist activity, here at home we needed a way to keep the violence they would bring here down. Using the contacts I’ve made over the years, I’ve been tasked with setting up a network of good honest people to watch out for domestic problems. President Lincoln himself said that the United States could never be brought down by another country but that we would be brought down from within our own borders. I believe that. Whether it’s within our own government or our borders, the result will be the same. I will do whatever I have to do to stop that from happening.”
“What can I do to help?” Sam asked.
“Me too.” Mountain chimed in. He’d joined them a while back and just sat there to listen. There were others sitting around them.
In fact, every one of them seemed willing to help.
“You know there’s a whole army of people no one has asked for their help yet,” A petite red headed young woman spoke up.
Stone turned to her and frowned. “And who would that be…?”
Deke now smiled for the first time since they all arrived. “This is my wife, Cassie.” He beamed with pride.
“I bet they would be willing to lay their lives on the line to help you in your quest. All they want is the right to be asked,” Cassie remarked from her post on the edge of the group. “Redemption House, a place we have created to help the less fortunate and homeless is protected by older vets, most of them were living on the streets before the House was in place. Over the course of my life, I’ve met quite a few people living on the streets because they have no place to go or nobody that gives a damn where they are. They’re good honest men who have been forgotten by their government for no other reason than that they are old. They have been deemed old and useless by the same people that asked them to serve and give their lives for their country. They would be honored to serve their country again. If you ask them, that is. I’ll even bet, they can help you set up a network all the way across this country. Probably faster than you can.”
Reaper smiled. “That might just work Pappy.”
Stone grinned. “Yeah, it might.”
“You can also reach out to the various MC’s,” Sam told him. “I know at least some of them are vets that wouldn’t mind helping.”
Stone nodded. “That’s what this trip has been about. Reaching out to people who can help in this matter.” He turned back to Cassie. “Are you sure they would help us?”
She nodded. “They would love the chance to help. Come by and meet them tomorrow, talk to them, see what kind of men they are. Then if you feel they could help you, ask them. They have contacts in all sorts of places. Contacts you wouldn’t believe.” She shrugged. “I lived on the streets for over half my life. People tend to overlook us, but there is a network of caring people out there just waiting for the chance to be useful again. Sure, every once in a while, you’ll find one that would sell you out for a dime but most of them just need to be needed, same as anybody else.”
Stone nodded. “I’d like to talk you in the morning about your Redemption House. From what I hear about the place, I’d like to take your idea and make it a reality back in my home town. Places like that are needed desperately for people down on their luck. All they really need is someone to believe in them again.”
“That’s what Amos and his friends are giving them and what they are getting in return. Someone who believes in them.” Cassie smiled. “I would be more than happy to show you Redemption House.”