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I was finally home.
Twenty-Nine
Montana
The call came unexpectedly. I knew seeing the time, it was going to be bad news. Calls after one in the morning generally were but what I didn’t expect was to hear a three-year-old crying, begging me to help her mommy.
No. That was the farthest from my mind when I picked up my cell and heard little Talia crying. “Unka Tana. Help.”
It took me a few minutes to figure out who it was, but when it sank in, I jumped into action. For Talia to call meant something terrible happened. I knew it was only a matter of time, but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see.
Thirty minutes after I called my brothers, we descended on the large mansion just north of Central Park. I’d been to the home many times but never in the dead of night. Parking my bike, I ran to the front door, along with my brothers. It surprised me to see the door unlocked. They had generally locked up the place tight. But not tonight.
Another bad warning.
The second I entered the sprawling mansion, I could feel the tension in the air. Something bad happened here tonight, only I didn’t know what. Proceeding with caution, I made my way deeper into the home as the sound of whimpers propelled my feet towards the back of the house.
I’d seen my fair share of horror movies, even created a few of my own. I never claimed to be a decent man, but the scene I walked into when I entered the kitchen would stay with me for the rest of my life. There, lying on the kitchen floor, in a pool of her own blood curled on her side, lay Kaliope. The sweetest, kindest woman I’d ever known. Next to her, her three-year-old daughter Talia looked up at me with fear in her eyes. No child should ever have that look. The entire kitchen was in complete disarray. The table and chairs turned over. One chair completely shattered into pieces. A pot on the stove boiling over, the walls dripping with blood. But what held my attention was Kali. Her small body, naked as the day she was born, beat to hell and cut so badly I barely recognized her.
“Kali!” I cursed, rushing to her as I covered her neck to stop the pulsing blood from escaping. The motherfucker cut her throat. “Jesus Christ! What did that motherfucker do to you? Mercy, call an ambulance!”
“Is she alive, Prez?” Vicious asked, moving Talia out of the way. That’s when I saw Kali’s boys. All huddled together in the corner. The baby was sleeping in his car seat, his sleeper spotted with his mother’s blood. The fucker did this in front of the kids.
He was a dead man when I got my hands on him.
“Barely. Get the kids out of here, Vicious. Then call detective Montoya. Tell him I need him and to hurry.”
She moaned.
“No, don’t speak.”
“Babies.”
“I’m going to take care of them, sweetheart. Don’t you worry. Just don’t speak. Fucker cut your neck. I’m gonna kill that son of a bitch when I get my hands on him. Where is that ambulance?” I yelled, as brothers moved to get the kids out of the room.
“What do you want me to do?” Malice asked, kneeling beside Kali, applying hand towels to her most severe wounds. Keeping my hand on her throat, I looked at the only brother I trusted with this and clearly said, “Find the motherfucker.”
Malice nodded, getting to his feet, Payne taking his place.
“You know you just unleased the devil on this city, right?”
“Don’t give a fuck. I want the bastard found and hanging in the mailroom. He will pay for what he’s done tonight. I should have stepped in earlier. She had injuries on her back and shoulder at the Foundation Ball. I should have done something sooner.”
“What are we going to do with Kali and the kids? I mean, she can’t stay with any of us. He will fucking know we’re hiding her. When she can travel, she’ll need to leave the state, brother. This city is unforgiving. Come morning, what happened here tonight will be all over the news. There will be no place she can hide. Unless.”
“Unless what?”
“You call someone no one will suspect. Someone no one can find. Someone with ties to the club, but not.”
I looked at Payne, wondering just who in the hell he was talking about, when realization dawned. The thought of calling him and asking him to do me a favor curdled my stomach more than the bloody scene before me. That motherfucker walked away from everything and never looked back. He was dead to me.
“No.”
“You know I’m right, Prez.”
“I said no,” I muttered, as I heard the sounds of police and ambulance from outside. “He won’t do it. He fucking left. Walked away from everything.”
“He still bears the brand. Bring him to heel.”
“He won’t do it. Not after what I did.”
Payne smirked. “Then make him.”
Looking at one of my best friends and club brother, I knew what Payne was suggesting. He was right. It was the only way.
Resolved, I knew what I had to do.
It was time to call in a family marker.
