Page 9 of VIM Redux 10

“He has changed in many ways,” Deke noted.

“Then he is the same in other ways,” Sam added.

“Except when he faced Cricket,” Deke said. “When an old enemy took Dusty.”

“Man, I don’t think I will ever forget that day,” Sam agreed. “Never seen Bane taken off guard like that before or since.”

Deke nodded as he told this story...

“Cricket didn’t betray you when she finally told us about you being alive,” Deke told Bane. “She should have told us as soon as she realized it but she didn’t. I get the whole second chance thing. I do and if this hadn’t come up, you would have had it.”

Bane stood tall and glared at the other man. “Could have, should have, would have, it doesn’t matter anymore. My past will always be there anyway. Men like me, we don’t get a second chance.”

“No Bane, that isn’t right,” Cricket told him. “Everyone deserves a second chance, even you. You can change the course of your life if you want it bad enough. But that’s the thing, you have to want it bad enough to try.”

Bane turned to stare at her. “I did want it bad enough to try, but someone out there doesn’t want to let me.”

Cricket took a step closer to him and got right up in his face. Bane would have stepped back but she grabbed his shirt and wouldn’t let him move. She snarled, “Then you do what you do best. You protect your family with everything you’ve got. You told me once that you begged Grace for forgiveness for forcing yourself on her and you told her that Orrin was a better man for her because he could show her the kind of love you never could. Well, step up to the plate, Uncle Bane and show them how much you’ve changed. Protect your grandson. Protect Grace’s blood, your blood.” Cricket let go of his shirt and shoved him out of her way, then she turned and went back into the clubhouse.

Bane just stared at her disappearance and for a moment, he couldn’t believe she had challenged him. Then he shook his head and looked over at Deke. “Is she crazy?”

Chapter Six

Shay smirked. “Well, whatever we may think of the man. He has saved lots of lives, including me and Stone.” He looked over at a silent Drew.

“The man is a killer. No one had to tell me that.” Drew nodded. “I saw that myself and he never hesitated. Lucky for me.”

“He has a motto,” James said. “At the dawn of decision, the coward sat down to wait and while waiting, the dumbass died.” He grinned at them as he shrugged. “But my favorite line of his is... Every man's life ends the same way, so fight that shit every-damn-day.” He chuckled.

Shay grinned. “I like those... ok, let’s go and see what he’s got cooking.”

The men all went down the hall.

Drew followed them to the security room. When he stepped inside, he froze and slowly looked around.

The room was fitted with the latest equipment that technology could produce. All of it displayed in a sophisticated arrangement.

Shay strolled in as he looked up at Drew and smiled.

“Is this a command center?” Drew quietly asked him.

“This is Bane’s security room inside his private home, but he primarily lives at another address. Jasper Owens lives around here and when he walked out of prison, Bane came back here to find him. Then he found James all beat to hell. James had gone after Owens himself. So he and Bane have been busy taking Jasper and his friend Charlie out of the equation, then Spencer ordered the Black Wolves to take our copter down as we were finally gonna nail his ass to the wall.”

Pappy now took up the story, “Bane grew up here and he had a pretty good idea where to start looking for us. When he got there, he found us and these men did a good job of getting us back here.” He motioned at Deke, Sam, Mountain and Hound. “Then Bane went after Jasper’s brother Spencer Wagner. But after he captured him, Spencer being the arrogant asswipe that he is, bragged about how the Blood Wolves would come after us.”

Shay shook his head. “Only problem with that is the Wolves don’t know that Bane took all his money and Spencer doesn’t have a dime left to pay them with. And the Wolves sure as hell don’t work for free.”

Drew shook his head. “I’ve heard Spencer’s name before, he’s got more money than God, how the hell did Bane get his hands on all of it?”

Shay shook his own head. “That’s not something I ask about, that way he doesn’t have to lie about it to my face. But one thing he did tell me was to look at his properties again because a man like Wagner would always keep enough cash available so that he didn’t have to go to the bank if he ever had to run. He was right about that. We found three million he had stashed away, all in cash. But Spencer wasn’t the only one who couldn’t get caught here. Besides his brother Jasper there was a third child, a sister named Lisbon Parks. And they all have a mother named Miranda Gaynor. We found Lisbon at Spencer’s place, hiding in a closet but we haven’t found mom yet. You see mom had a habit of getting together with wealthy men, giving them a child then walking out the door leaving dad and the baby behind.”

Drew just shook his head. “And the babies she left behind? Did she ever see them again?”

Shay nodded. “Oh yeah, she has. She began grooming every one of them. They all fell into line and they all made big money doing very bad things. And I have no doubt that she trained them all to serve her need for money. Now that we’ve arrested all her children, she’ll be on the run and we won’t stop until we have her behind bars.”

Bane came in from the next room and handed James a bag. “There’s some gadgets in there that you might like.”

“All for me?” James batted his eyes at him.