CHAPTER SIX
Deke got Zipper on the phone and had him run some names. He wanted info on Donny Rearden, Flynn Rearden, Ben Tory and Sam Tory. He asked for anything and everything Zipper could find.
Deke got Gator, Deacon, Wiley and Iceman together in his office and laid out a plan of action. “Okay, we have a new problem. My father is going to be a pain in the ass. By that, I mean he’s staying in town for a while and that could cause any number of problems for us. He’s going to try and stick his nose into our business. Not that we have anything to hide but we don’t want to advertise it either. The only ones that need to know our business is us. We also need to keep an eye on Cassie, Peaches and Paige as well as our other women. There might be a new threat out there, we didn’t know about until today. Seems Cassie’s old man Flynn has a brother that may or may not be out of prison yet, but if he is, he might be looking for Flynn or Flynn’s daughters. We all know how much Peaches means to Cassie. Calderone is aware of the threat as well but we don’t want to put Peaches, Paige or Cassie in line with this guy.” Deke looked at Gator. “I don’t want Reva or Marnie in his sights either. I don’t know much about him yet, but I’ve got Zipper looking into it. Calderone also has his men looking in to him as well. He’s promised to share info on this guy and if he’s a threat to us or our women we will find the bastard and take him out.”
“We can put some of the men on guard duty,” Wiley suggested.
Deke nodded. “Do it but keep it on the down low. We also don’t want the women to know about him either.” Turning to Gator he said, “I want some of our guys over at Redemption House for protection there as well. If anything happens to put those people in danger, the city will shut it down and that would about kill Cassie.” He got to his feet. “For now, we all stay alert and pray like hell, Donny Rearden is still behind bars. If he’s out, we have to find him fast.”
“Are you gonna tell the guys at Redemption House about this guy?” Gator asked.
Deke nodded. “I’ll go and talk to Amos and he can pass the word.
~* * * *~
Cassie turned from one side to the other and then back again. After four days in bed, she was going crazy. She was rested and felt fine and she was extremely bored. Bored with a capital B. She had never in her life lounged around in bed all day before. Looking at the window, she could tell it was getting dark outside. She’d eaten supper a while ago now. She knew it was almost bedtime and still, she was wide awake.
Since she had hooked up with Deke, her life hadn’t been her own and she wasn’t sure if she liked it that way or not. She did love the man and she was having his babies but that was beside the point. She’d started something she could finally call her own, Redemption House and she wanted to be the one to present it to the world.
She felt cheated that it wouldn’t be her doing the walk through with the city council members and it wouldn’t be her standing there the day they opened the doors to the public. She knew she shouldn’t feel this way, she should instead be proud that so many others wanted to help, but this was her dream not theirs.
Then she felt ashamed of her thoughts. Redemption House was her dream but it was their dream as well. She wasn’t doing this for her benefit but for everyone who needed it. It was supposed to be for everyone who needed a safe place to rest and get a second chance to make a good life for themselves, not just for her glory.
Sighing, she laid back on her pillow and whispered, “Thanks Mom. I love you too.” Cassie knew her mother was whispering the reasons why to her from the other side and Cassie had learned to listen. With a huff, she couldn’t stand it anymore she sat up and flung the covers back. Swinging her feet over the edge of the bed, she looked up in time to see the bedroom door open and Deke walked in.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” he asked.
Cassie sighed and laid back down. “Nowhere. I’m going nowhere,” she whined.
“That’s right, you aren’t,” Deke scolded her. He came over to the bed and handed her a large flat box.
Cassie frowned. “What is this?”
“Open it and find out.”
Cassie made a face and opened the box. Inside was a new laptop computer. She looked at Deke and said, “I have one of these.”
“Not like this one you don’t.” Deke smiled. “This one is newer than yours, and has a lot of new programs. Including Skype, so you can be connected anytime you want to be with Redemption House. It also has my work address in it, so you and I can skype me too.”
Cassie’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
Deke chuckled. “Honey, I know this is hard for you and I know giving control over to other people is killing you. But I want you and our babies to be okay and that means sacrifice. You have to give up the next two weeks and hopefully, that will be all you have to give up. I just want to make it as easy as I can for you.”
Cassie wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you.”
“Thank Zipper, he set the computer up. I don’t really know that much about them. He said he could show you how to use the programs if you wanted some help.”
“I’d like to try on my own first. I used to be pretty good on one of these things.”
“Well, the offer is still there anytime you need it. He said to tell you he copied everything that was on your laptop and updated everything.”
“Does he still have the old laptop?”
“I’m sure he does.”
“Good, I’d like to keep it.” Cassie lightly touched his chest. “Are you coming to bed soon?” she asked. It had been a day or two since he joined her in this bed and she wanted to cuddle tonight. She knew they wouldn’t make love but just to lay in his arms and listen to his heartbeat as he slept would have been good enough for her.
Deke grabbed her hand and set it aside. “Umm, not just yet. I have some paperwork to finish. That damn stuff piles up if you aren’t there to take care of it.” He kissed the top of her head and got off the bed.
Cassie watched him all the way to the door. Before she could say a word, he was gone. She was surprised. She had felt him pulling away from her since her kidnapping and she wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t anything big but her insecurities were telling her something. She just never knew what that something was. Before this, she never wanted anyone to get too close but now that Deke had, she didn’t want to lose him.
She opened the laptop and while she waited for it to fire up, she saw an icon she didn’t recognize. When the computer was ready, she clicked on the icon and found herself on a search page. Clicking in the box, she found the name Donavan Rearden. “Who the heck was Donavan Rearden?” Shaking her head, she clicked on the name and waited for the information to come up.
Her eyes widened when it did. It was the news report of a murder twenty years ago. Page after page was filled with news articles of the murder of Roman Rearden. His own son Donavan committed the beating death and was sentenced to twenty to life. The date he was sent to prison was almost twenty one years ago.
Cassie was stunned. One of the articles mentioned a younger brother Flynn. Her hands began to shake when she realized her father had an older brother and she couldn’t help but wonder what this meant to her. With shaking hands, she dialed Deke’s number on her phone. When it went to voicemail, she groaned. She waited and dialed again. When it went to voicemail a second time, she wanted to throw the phone against the wall but she didn’t. Instead, she dialed Zipper’s number.
“What?” Zipper’s voice was questioning.
“Zipper, this is Cassie, can you come and see me?”
“I’m a little busy right now, can it wait till morning?”
“No it can’t,” Cassie insisted. “If you can’t come to me, I’ll come to you. Ten minutes.”
“You can’t,” he insisted. “You’re on bed rest.”
“I won’t be if I have to come to you,” she told him and hung up the phone. Her thoughts were driving her crazy. Was this the reason why Deke was pulling away from her? What exactly did this man have to do with her? Was she in danger? Her hands covered her belly and she rubbed her stomach.
A few minutes later, Zipper joined her. When he sat on the edge of her bed, she flipped the laptop around to him.
He frowned when he saw the page she was looking at. “Where did you find that?”
“Apparently, when you copied the programs over, you copied your latest searches,” Cassie informed him. “Who is this guy?’ She tapped the screen.
Zipper closed his eyes for a moment and muttered under his breath, “Deke is gonna kill me.”
“If he doesn’t, I will,” Cassie threatened. “Who is he?”
“He’s your dad’s brother,” Zipper finally told her. “He might be coming after you or Paige to find out what happened to his brother.”
“And why did Deke not tell me this?”
Zipper shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him.”
Cassie growled. “Why? He won’t tell me the truth and I’d rather he didn’t lie to me. Not about this.”
“Why would you think he would lie to you?” Zipper asked.
“A lie by omission is still a lie.” Cassie shrugged. “He wouldn’t want to worry me.”
“What are you going to do?” Zipper asked.
“Is Donavan out of prison?”
“We don’t know yet,” he admitted. “We also don’t know what he’s going to do about Flynn.” He shrugged. “Hell, we didn’t know he existed until Sam told us about him.”
“How the hell did Sam even know him?”
“Sam grew up in Quincy. He knew Flynn and your mother, he also knew about Donavan. And from what I read in the newspapers, Donavan is not a nice guy. He beat the hell out of his father because his father was beating on Flynn.”
“Flynn’s entire family are nuts. There wasn’t one of them worth a damn.”
“Well, that’s true enough but Donavan just spent the last twenty years behind bars. If he’s out he’s gonna be looking for his brother. We don’t know if Flynn kept in touch with Donny or not but if he did, he might have told him about you and Paige. If Donny can’t find Flynn, he might come after one of you girls to find out what happened to his brother.”
Cassie snorted. “I don’t go by Flynn’s name and if he knows my name is Ryan he’ll figure I call myself Josette. He won’t be looking for Cassie Ryan.”
“But he might know Flynn gave Paige away and to whom. He could be looking for Max and Peggy.”
Cassie began to sweat. “You have to warn them to stay here. They can’t go home.”
“Deke said he would talk to Max.”
“Did you warn Peaches’ father as well?” Cassie wanted to know. “If Donavan gets the word Flynn is dead and by whose hand, he’ll go after Calderone.”
“Deke told him to look out for Donny.” He shrugged. “We don’t even know if Donny is out of jail yet.”
“Calderone can get that information,” Cassie told him.
“Yeah, well right now, we don’t have much information on the guy. Sam might have more but he’s not exactly on speaking terms with us.”
“What about Max?” Cassie suggested. “He grew up there too. Wouldn’t he know Donny and Sam?”
Zipper sat up straighter. “He just might. I don’t know if Deke would have realized that or not.”
Cassie moved around a bit to get to a more comfortable position. “So, I have an uncle out there somewhere that might be looking to kill me, ain’t that grand?”
“Why would he be looking to kill you?” Zipper frowned.
“I ratted my father out to Calderone,” Cassie admitted. “The night Peaches found her father again, I found mine too. He was working for Calderone under the name Theo Billini. He warned me not to say anything but I wouldn’t keep quiet. I let Calderone know exactly who brought Peaches to Janelle’s house and why. Calderone didn’t take too kindly to the news and he made Flynn pay with his life.”
“Flynn kidnapped Peaches and took her to Janelle’s house?” Zipper repeated.
“Yeah, he did. He also caused the accident that killed her mom. Calderone was not a happy guy when he ordered Flynn to be taken away.”
“Why did you rat him out?” Zipper was curious.
“My father took away everything in my life that meant anything to me, my mother, my sister and me. He threw us all away like garbage and for what? He didn’t give a shit about us, only himself. He couldn’t face the world without drugs or booze. No one has any idea what my life was like because of him. I went through hell but I survived. I think I survived because I wanted to track the bastard down and see him on his way to hell before I gave up on life. When Calderone dragged him away that night, Flynn was begging for mercy and I knew in my heart Calderone would have none and Flynn didn’t really deserve any. I was more than happy to see the fear in his eyes that night.”
Zipper sighed heavily. “I’d better let Deke know about this.”
“Yeah, you do that.” Cassie scoffed. “He knows most of it already.”
“Are you okay?” Zipper asked.
“No I don’t think I am. I expected him to be honest with me. This isn’t being honest. I know he doesn’t want me to worry but I don’t like lies and he lied to me. He can pretend he didn’t, but he did.”
Zipper got to his feet. “He just didn’t want you to fuss about something that probably won’t happen anyway.”
“I had the right to know,” she whispered.
Zipper leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “Right now, all you have to worry about is those babies in your belly. Deke and the rest of us will worry about anything that threatens them and you.”
Cassie narrowed her eyes and stared at him. “I can take care of myself. I have been doing it for a long time now and I will continue to do it. I’m not some wilting violet that needs some big strong man to hold me in the dark, you know.”
“I know that. Why do you think Gator named you Spitfire?” Zipper nodded. “I will tell you one thing though, those are Deke’s babies too and he will protect his family same as me and the rest of the guys would. You aren’t alone anymore Cassie. You have us for a family and we care about what happens to you. Maybe you should think about that for a while and realize just what it means.” He turned and left the room.
Cassie sighed and laid back. Her babies moved inside her but Cassie paid them no mind. She was too busy thinking about what Zipper just said.
~* * * *~
Deke and the other sat in his office and planned. They hadn’t found any information and Donavan Rearden yet and that bothered him. When his phone rang, he answered it and listened to what Zipper had to say. When he hung up, he stared at Deacon and Iceman and he wasn’t happy at all. “Cassie found out about Donavan. She isn’t happy about it but she suggested that Max might know about him.”
“He might at that,” Deacon agreed. “He knew about Flynn, he might know about Donny too.” Shrugging he continued, “I didn’t know Donny myself, Flynn never really talked about him, and I was just a kid anyway. He was gone by the time Flynn and Jemmia got together.”
“We have to keep Max and Peggy here under our protection. If Donny is out and looking for his brother, he might go to old school friends.”
“Too bad there isn’t a way to find out who Donny hung with before he went to prison,” Iceman suggested.
“Maybe Max would know,” Deke suggested reaching for the phone. “We’d better find him and ask while we can.”
“Did Zipper say anything else?” Deacon wanted to know.
Deke nodded. “Yeah, he said Cassie wasn’t happy about us lying to her about this mess.”
“You didn’t want her to worry about it right now,” Iceman reminded him.
“It’s still a lie according to her and I can’t blame her for being mad about it.” Deke shook his head. When Max answered the phone Deke asked him to come over, they needed to talk.
Just then, Nash, one of Iceman’s men came to the door. “Iceman, can I talk to you man?”
Iceman joined him in the hall and when he returned a few minutes later, he wore a frown.
“What now?” Deke sighed, not liking the look in the other man’s eyes.
“My guys were talking about the new developments and Axe remembered something. Another of the guys, they call him Motley anyway, his dad Fang used to know Donny Rearden. Back in the day, Fang and Donny hung out together. Motley is second generation Sinner.”
Deke sat up in his chair and scowled. “Are you telling us the Donny was a Sinner too?”
Iceman raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know but I asked Axe to call his friend and check it out. Twenty years ago was a little before my time. He said he would let us know if he found anything out.”
Deke thought about that for a moment then suggested, “Maybe we could use your group to search Boston for him.”
Iceman nodded. “If he’s there, we can find him. Let’s wait and see what Axe can find out before we start anything.”
Just then, Max came to the door and Deke invited him in. When he heard about Donny, he went pale and began to sweat. He did indeed remember Flynn’s brother. “Fuckin A…this could get very ugly when Donny finds out his brother is dead,” Max muttered.
“Why is that?” Deke asked.
“Flynn meant everything to Donny,” Max told them. “After his mother, Estelle walked out on them, Donny took Flynn under his wing and became both mother and father to the boy. His old man, Roman, wasn’t father material by any means and most days the boys came to school with bruises and black eyes. Roman drank a lot, couldn’t hold a job and made the boys steal what they could to keep him in beer. Flynn was fourteen when Donny beat Roman to death and got sent to prison. That was a couple of years before Flynn met Jemmia but yeah, he was in touch with Donny after he went to prison. He used to go every week to see him. Even when he was high, he always went to see his brother. I’m sure he told Donny about Jemmia being pregnant too.”
“Did Donny have any other friends, maybe in Boston?” Iceman asked.
Max thought about that for a moment then nodded. “Yeah, for a while be belonged to a MC called the Sinners.” He looked over at Iceman’s vest and saw the patch. “Damn, that’s your MC isn’t it?”
Iceman nodded. “That was a long time ago now. After twenty years, most of those guys are dead or gone. Most of the present group is younger.”
“True, but he had a couple of friends back then that I do remember. One was a guy by the name of Fang and the other was Ricco. Those three guys hung out all the time. We used to call them the Three Musketeers. They all got in trouble together too. They were just plain mean and didn’t care who they hurt. ”
“Ricco died a long time ago. He was shot to death in a drive by,” Iceman told them. “Fang is still around though.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t use the Sinners to search for Donny,” Deacon suggested. “We really don’t want him to know we’re looking for him.”
Deke looked over at Max. “We also don’t think you and Peggy should go back to Quincy until we find Donny. He might come looking for you to find out what happened to Flynn.”
Max nodded. “Yeah, running into Donny is not on my list of things to do. He would remember that Flynn and I used to be friends and he never did like me. According to Donny, I wasn’t cool enough to hang with him and his friends.”
“Damn,” Iceman suddenly swore.
“What?” Deke asked.
“Fang was there the night we took Peaches back to Calderone. He would have seen Flynn being dragged away by Calderone’s men and he would have heard about what happened to him.”
“Shit.” Deke got to his feet. “He’d know right where to tell the bastard to start looking for answers and where to find Cassie.”
“I’d better let Calderone know about this. He isn’t gonna be happy about it either,” Iceman added.
“We have to keep Peaches and Paige with Cassie,” Deke advised. “All three of them could be in danger.”
“Maybe we should move this back to the compound and go on lockdown until we know more about this guy,” Deacon added.
“Yeah, I think so.” Deke nodded. “I don’t want him to have the element of surprise on his side.”
~* * * *~
When they left the club, no one noticed the man hiding in the shadows of the building. His dark eyes narrowed when he saw the vest Iceman wore, but that wasn’t the one he glared at. His glare was aimed at Deke and he recognized Max from a long time ago.
His lips raised in a snarl and he vowed both men would die at his hands. He was remembering the conversation he had with an old friend two days past. Fang had been a mountain of information for him. He knew what happened to his brother and his vowed to bring his killers to justice, the old time justice way where it was an eye for an eye. Not only would Calderone Vincinti die by his hand but this woman Cassie Ryan would as well. She ratted his brother out to Vincinti and that alone, would be her death sentence. Whatever Flynn had done to her, it wasn’t worth his life.
He turned and walked away, back into the shadows. He had plans to make. As he stepped back, the sunlight sparkled on his skin and the red glow of the sun reflected off the snake tattoo on his shoulder. Donny had gotten the tattoo in prison and the snake had become a symbol of power behind bars. Donny Rearden became a legend in prison. He served his time, kept his nose clean, but held a position of power that nobody messed with. Not the other prisoners and not the guards either.
He was the man with the power behind the system. No crime could be tied to him but there were several men that ended up dead with no explanation and while the warden had his suspicions, nothing could be linked back to him. He’d served his time and been released and there was nothing that could stop him from leaving. He just wanted to see his brother again and get back to the way life should have been. That wasn’t possible now. He was on a mission to avenge his brother and he wouldn’t stop until those responsible were as cold in the ground as Flynn was.