CHAPTER ONE
Soft running footsteps echoed in the quiet streets of Baton Rouge. The soft slap of bare feet on the pavement bespoke of a child running. His gasps of panic blended well with the harder sounds of adult footsteps chasing him.
Staying to the shadows, Benny hurried along the streets trying to find the one person who he knew would protect him. Stevie. He peeked over his shoulder and saw Frankie Briggs closing in on him. His eyes widened and he pushed on. The park was only a short distance away and he was almost there. He only hoped he could find her before Frankie found him.
He didn’t dare call out for Stevie, as he didn’t want Frankie to find her and drag her back to his brothers. All he could hope for was that she was watching and would find him before Frankie did. Ducking behind the fountain at the entrance of the River Bend Park, the young boy crouched down in the dark letting the shadows hide him and waited as Frankie’s footsteps echoed away from him. Then he took off on the other path around the park.
Dogging in and out of the shadows, his eyes searched for hiding places big enough to hide a person. He saw several homeless people but paid them no mind…they weren’t who he was looking for.
Adrenalin kept him moving and he was almost to the end of the path when he heard the scream. Benny stopped dead in his tracks frozen in fear as he listened to the sounds of Frankie and Stevie. Slowly he moved forward, his soul crying out in fear. His heart pounded with each step he took closer. His small hands went to cover his ears when he heard her cry out.
“Shut up you foul bitch,” Frankie told Stevie as he shook her. “We’ve been looking for you for a long time now.” He pulled back his fist and struck her in the belly.
Stevie doubled over in pain as she tried to catch her breath from the blow.
He grabbed her hair and pulled her to her feet, then he pulled her a little higher, so she had to stand on her tiptoes. Stevie tried to swing her arm at him but Frankie laughed and grabbed it, spinning her around, pulling her fist high on her back.
Stevie screamed in pain as her shoulder popped out of joint.
Frankie laughed and leaned closer to her growling, “Not so uppity now, are you bitch? You’ve led me and my brothers on a merry little chase for some time now. Now it’s time for you to pay up.”
“I’m not going anywhere with the likes of you.” Stevie grunted. “You and your brothers can go to hell before I’ll work for you.”
“You won’t have a choice, whore.” Frankie sneered. “You belong to Caulder and he wants you. He paid good money for you and he isn’t going to let you go. Why, I have no fucking clue but he does and he’s been looking for you for the last four years.” He pulled on her hair again and Stevie cried out.
“Let my sister go.” Benny stepped out of the shadows. He had a gun in his hand and he pointed it directly at Frankie.
“What the fuck?” Frankie growled. “Where did you get that gun kid?” Frankie recognized the weapon almost immediately.
“This is the gun Caulder used to kill Banger with earlier tonight,” Benny told him. “I was there and I saw him. He put the gun down to go through Banger’s pockets remember? You were there.”
Frankie threw Stevie down on the ground and came after Benny. “You’re gonna wish you’d never seen that gun when I get through with you kid.”
Stevie groaned at the pain her body was in. Grabbing her left arm she looked over at her young brother and watched in horror as Frankie closed in on him. Then the night quiet was shattered by a very loud crack.
Moments later, Frankie fell to his knee then to his face. Blood pooled around his belly but Frankie never made a sound.
Benny shoved the gun into his waistband and ran over to where Stevie was lying. He looked down into her eyes and asked, “Are you okay?”
Stevie shook her head. “No but we don’t have time to worry about that right now. We’ve got to get out of here.” Getting to her knees, she told him, “Help me get up. I need to grab my stuff.”
Benny pulled her to her feet then held her up when she swayed. “Is your arm broke?” he worried.
Stevie shook her head. “No I don’t think so. He just pulled it out of joint. We can worry about that later. Right now, we got to leave this city before Caulder finds his brother.” She looked down at Benny. “Did you kill him?”
Benny looked sick at the thought of it but shook his head. “I don’t think so. All I knew was that I was gonna die if he got to me. I had to protect us both.”
Stevie hugged her brother close. “You did good Benny bear. Caulder would have killed me if Frankie took me back to him.”
Benny shook his head. “That fool is crazy, bat shit crazy. Do you know he wants to bring a cartel into this town? I heard what he wants to do to this town. He wants to run guns and drugs up the river and make this a distribution point.”
Stevie stopped and gasped staring at her brother. “How do you know this?” she whispered.
Benny shrugged his slim shoulders. “They grabbed Banger and dragged him out to the docks not far from here. Then Caulder began outlining his plan. Banger told him no several times before Caulder got mad and just shot him.” Benny looked haunted for a moment then he glanced at his sister again. “He told his brothers that he wants to drag Banger’s body over to the Advocate’s MC land and put the blame on them for his murder. He laid the gun down to move the body and I grabbed it. Frankie saw me and chased me all the way here.”
Stevie just stared at her brother and shook her head. When Benny burst into tears, she hugged him close to her. “It’ll be okay baby. I promise,” she whispered in his ear.
Then an older man stepped out of the darkness. It was Silas. A homeless man she’d known since she began living on the streets four years ago. Silas brought her to the park and showed her how to live off the land. In a way, he protected her from the harsher things that could happen to a young girl on the streets.
Silas looked over at Frankie and then back to Stevie. “I brought your things.” He handed her a backpack.
She’d packed it a couple days ago. Inside the pack was everything she owned and all the money she’d managed to save over the last year. Knowing it wasn’t much but it was all she and Benny would take with them.
“You and the boy need to leave town for a while,” Silas warned. His voice was gruffer tonight and tinged with sadness. “I’ll spread the word and have everyone we know dig in deep for the next few weeks until this blows over.” He looked at Benny. “Don’t know what happened and I don’t want to know. But if Frankie Briggs dies, it’s gonna mean war in the streets until they find this kid.”
Stevie took the pack and nodded at the old man. “Keep yourself and the others safe. God bless.” She moved away from Benny to hug the old man. As quickly as she wrapped her arms around him, she let him go. She wasn’t one that liked contact with others. The only one she didn’t mind being close to was her brother but sometimes, even that bothered her.
Benny knew the reason why she never got close to other people but that was something she never wanted to talk about and he respected that.
Stevie took a few steps away then grabbed Benny and slowly made their way to the south entrance of the park.
As they disappeared into the darkness, another man joined Silas. “I hope they make it,” old George whispered to Silas. Looking over to the man they all hated, he asked, “What the hell do we do with him?”
Silas sneered. “I’d like to let him rot but I’ve never been a cruel man. Lived on this earth for damn near seventy years and survived hell and back during the war but I won’t let a man die just because it’s easier to walk away. I’ll give them time to get where they’re going, then we can call the police.”
George chuckled. “Sounds good to me.” He went over to Frankie’s body and saw his chest rise and fall. George shook his head and hauled back his foot. When he let go, he kicked the downed man in the ribcage. Then old George drew a mouthful of spit and hocked it at him. The warm wet spit landed on the back of Frankie’s head. George turned and walked away, melting into the darkness beside Silas.
“I hope you don’t have a record with the policeman. I’d hate for them to be looking for you in the next few days,” Silas warned the other man.
George smiled. “I wasn’t born yesterday either old man. I may not have a fancy ass house or a car but I ain’t never been in trouble with the cops neither. I won’t be the one to bring the law down on us.”
“Good enough for me.” Silas nodded. “We got to spread the word and tell our friends to keep low for a while. We got to keep Stevie and her brother out of what’s coming.”
George stopped and turned to face Silas. “What did you hear?”
Silas glared at George. “That stupid bastard Caulder Briggs wants to ship cartel gun and drugs through Baton Rouge. He murdered the King’s President and is gonna put the blame on the Advocates MC. That will start a war we don’t want or need and the citizens of this town are gonna get caught in the crossfire.”
“Fuck a duck.” George whispered, as his eyes grew wide. “This will open the gates of hell. Is there any way to stop it?”
Silas shook his head slowly. “The only way now is get the truth out there. And that might be near impossible unless Stevie or Benny tell someone who can make a difference. Right now, they’re just trying to survive.”
“Damnation,” George swore.
Stevie and Benny made their way in the darkness, all the way to the river. The shadows allowed them to keep hidden until they came to the docks. Each step she took, the pain of her dislocated shoulder brought her more pain until she couldn’t even think straight. She leaned more and more on Benny as they made their way.
Finally, she couldn’t go any further. “Stop. Let’s stop a minute.” She gasped as she sat down on a fallen tree. Cradling her arm, she looked at her brother with tears in her eyes. “We need to find a way out of this place. When Caulder finds Frankie, he’s gonna hunt you down.”
Benny sat down beside her and nodded. “I know. It was Caulder who saw me first. He told Frankie to follow me and bring me back.” Benny wiped the tears from his eyes. He tried to be strong but he was only twelve. “He’s gonna kill me, isn’t he?”
“No.” Stevie grabbed him and brought his face up to hers. “No he won’t, because we’re not going to give him the chance. We’re getting the hell out of here and we’re never coming back.”
“How?” Benny asked. “How are we gonna get the hell out of this stinkin’ town?”
Stevie looked around to figure out where they were. When she saw the river not too far away, she grinned. “We’re gonna slip out of town on a boat and I know someone who can help.”
“Who?”
“A friend of mine. His name is Marko. He has a boat nearby and he can take us to New Orleans. Once we get there, we can get lost in the city. Caulder won’t come looking for us down there.”
Benny hung his head. “He might. Remember I still have the gun he used to kill Banger. He has to plant that near the Advocates in order to put the blame for his murder on them.”
“He has to find us first and if he waits too long, no one will believe the MC did it,” Stevie vowed. Getting to her feet, she urged her brother forward. “Come on we need to find Marko.”
They moved closer to the river and when they got there, Stevie stayed in the shadows until she found her friend. Marko’s boat looked like an old craft but it really wasn’t. It was a souped-up old houseboat. She only hoped he would agree to take them to New Orleans.
A few hours later, a houseboat rounded the last corner before they could see the light of the city. They still had a few miles to go when Marko woke Stevie from her fitful doze.
Benny was sound asleep laying on the other sofa in the main room.
“What is it?” Stevie looked up at her friend in confusion. Marko seemed more than a little nervous. She wasn’t quite with it yet. She turned to face him straight on.
“Listen, I have to drop you guys off a little bit out of town.” He wet his dry lips. He was sweaty and wringing his hands together.
Stevie narrowed her eyes and didn’t like what she saw. “What’s going on here Marko?” she asked quietly.
“Nothing really. I promise,” he whined.
“Marko…”
“I got a hold of contraband that I need to deliver and they can’t see you or Benny on the boat,” he finally confessed in a rush. “My contacts will kill us all, if they see you.”
“Jesus Christ, Marko,” she swore.
“I know, I know.” Marko got to his feet and began to pace. “I never should have brought you with me but I knew you were in trouble and I had to come this way anyway.” He sat down again. “I’m sorry.”
Stevie struggled to sit up. Her shoulder was on fire and her stomach was sore from where Frankie had struck her. When she tried to tuck her hand into the waistband of her pants, the nausea rolled in her belly. She winced in pain and waited for the waves to slow down a bit. Biting back the bile growing in her belly, she closed her eyes for a moment, then got to her feet. Walking toward the windows, she gazed out into the darkness.
She saw the light from the city in the distance as well as the nearby side of the river. The shadows held its place as all she could see was the pitch black around them. Glancing up into the night sky, she could see the inkiness fading as morning wasn’t too long in coming. “So how far away are you going to let us off the boat?” Stevie turned to Marko. She looked back in time to see the gun coming toward her but not in time to stop it from happening. The metal slammed into her head and she dropped to the floor unconscious.
Marko whimpered a bit then lifted her up and dragged her to the back of the houseboat. He struggled to get her into the row boat. Finally, he tipped her inside and let her crumble to the floor of the boat. He kept repeating that he was sorry.
Then he went back to the houseboat and brought out Benny. He’d made sure Benny had taken a sleeping pill earlier that he’d crushed in the peanut butter sandwich he’d given the boy and the kid was still knocked out. He dropped Benny into the boat and settled in the seat over the top of them both. Pushing off the houseboat, he rowed them closer to the river’s edge. Hiding the row boat among the tree line, he tied it off to a low hanging branch.
Swimming back to the houseboat, he pulled away to continued down river.
The sun was just coming up when Marko docked the houseboat at a private landing just beyond the city. Marko stepped off the houseboat about the same time as three men stepped out of the tree line. He stopped and his eyes widened at the sight of these three men and he tried to turn around and go boat on the boat but he didn’t make it. One of the men grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him off the dock and into the trees.
Marko knew not to scream but he didn’t resist either. “Oh, come on man, you don’t have to do this.” He tried to bargain but the three men ignored him.
One of the men snorted. “You know we gave you a fair chance. All you had to do was bring our product down river and deliver it here.”
“And I did that,” Marko told them.
“Yeah, but you took some of the product and never told us, didn’t you?” another man stated.
“You stole from us.” The first man growled.
“But I never did it for profit.” Marko tried to tell them. “I never sold it to anyone else.”
“Doesn’t matter, you still took it and didn’t pay for it.”
The three men made a circle around Marko.
“Now it’s time to pay the piper.” One of them drew his arm back, closed his hand into a fist and let it fly.
Marko tried to stand up under the punishment but couldn’t. The three men didn’t stop with just their fists, they kicked him while he was down and continued to kick him senseless. It wasn’t until he was a bloody mess that they stopped.
It was still very early in the morning when Stevie came around. The sun was just peeking up over the eastern horizon. Her head now hurt along with the rest of her body. Sitting up renewed the pain but when she looked around, she found her brother sitting curled up next to her. “Benny, are you ok?”
Benny didn’t answer. He just sat there with his arms curled around his knees.
Stevie reached out to turn his face to hers. She could see the blankness in his eyes and she felt afraid for him. He seemed so out of touch at the moment and she was afraid he wouldn’t come back to her. “Benny, listen to me,” she whispered carefully. “I need you to come back to me. Please don’t leave me alone in this world. I need you so much. Please don’t check out on me.”
Benny looked blank for a while then leaned forward and tipped into her chest.
Stevie wrapped her arms around his small body and just held him for a long time.
Then after a bit, Benny pushed away from her and looked her in the eye. “As long as we stay together, neither one of us will be alone right? You’ve always been there for me since the day we first met. I’ll always stay with you.” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. “I thought you were dead. I thought Marko killed you and I was all alone.” He raised his hand and brushed the side of her face. “There was so much blood. I didn’t know if you were still with me. I’m scared Stevie.”
“Oh Benny, I know. I’m scared too, but we can’t give up.” She grabbed her shoulder with her good hand. “Now we have to get somewhere safe and just stay there for a while.”
Benny rolled his eyes. “Is there place we can hide long enough in? Caulder is gonna be looking for us until he finds us.”
“We have to try. We can’t give up or Caulder wins and I’ll be damned if I let that bastard win. He’s already taken too much from us. I won’t give him any more.” Stevie growled. “Come on we have to get to the city and find a place to hide.”
Benny helped her as much as he could. They were both small in build but Stevie’s arm was swollen now and she was in a lot of pain, so going was slow.