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“Well, I met Danny when I was thirteen and in foster care. We got to be friends and we had each other’s backs against the others in that house. There was something bad going on there and it didn’t take us long to figure things out. Anyway, Danny stopped me from walking into a trap with the bio kids and then they got rid of him. But I wouldn’t shut up about what we found and the social worker removed both of us from that little house of horrors. They also shut down that foster house. Of course, everyone blamed the two of us but it was their own damn fault. We were afraid of revenge from that family for a long time but they never bothered us. We stayed in touch for a long time but then we lost touch. Until about two weeks ago. He found my email address.”
“The family found me a couple of years later,” Danny told Sam. He looked at his daughter sitting on his lap and all he would say was, “They weren’t very happy about losing their foster status even then. Then they asked about Melora and when I wouldn’t tell them where she was they weren’t happy.” He stretched his neck up and showed off the scar on his throat.
Sam frowned and he could feel his rage grow. “And they got away with that shit?” he asked in a low voice.
Danny shrugged. “It was my word against theirs and they thought they couldn’t be touched. But at least they didn’t get their hands on Melora. When I could, I got word to her and she was alerted to the fact anyway.”
Melora nodded. “That happened about the time I turned sixteen and was one of the reasons I left the foster system. I had a feeling I was being watched and that just creeped me out. The foster house I was in at the time wasn’t a good one anyway, so one night I just walked out and never went back. I watched the house for the next few days and I think it was the next night the bio brothers came looking for me. They kicked the door in and they were holding baseball bats. I called the cops and they got there before they did too much damage but the boys got arrested. They went to jail for fifteen years each.” She shook her head. “I can’t say I was sorry about that either.”
She looked at Sam and said, “That began my stretch of living on the streets. Shortly after that, I met Izzy and we’ve been friends ever since then.”
“Your dad is on his way over,” Sam told her. “Why don’t you get Danny some clean clothes from mine. They might be a little large, but he can wear ‘em. Maybe get one of TBone’s PJs for the girl. While they get cleaned up, I’ll throw together some lunch. I’m sure we’ll all have more questions after we all eat.”
Melora nodded and stared at him for a long moment. She slowly got up and went back to the bedrooms to get Danny some of Sam’s clothes and Breanna something from TBone’s dresser.
When she came back, Breanna didn’t want to let her dad go but Melora sidetracked her while Danny got up and headed for the shower. She held her in her lap and spoke softly to Breanna to assure her they were safe here and no one would hurt them under her roof. Then she checked on Shaw in her playpen to find her asleep. She took Breanna and the PJs to the kids bathroom and gave her a quick bath.
Finally, she brought the little girl back out and again checked on the baby, still sleeping.
Mountain and Izzy showed up and Breanna was afraid of Mountain as he was such a big man.
Then Danny showed up, looking a little better. Breanna ran over to him and he picked her up to talk softly into her ear, this seemed to calm her down a little.
Sam got Danny a bag to put his blood-stained clothing in, and then he introduced them to Mountain and Izzy.
Mountain looked really upset and Izzy had red tired eyes as she kept watching Melora in concern.
While they broke for lunch and everyone was eating, Breanna was looking pretty tired. Sam moved Shaw’s playpen into his and Melora’s room. He turned Shaw’s crib into a toddler bed for Breanna. There was already a futon in the room for Danny to sleep on, so when Breanna finally fell asleep in her dad’s arms, Sam showed him where he could put her down for a rest.
Melora took Shaw to their bedroom and laid her daughter down for a nap. When she returned, Mountain, Sam, Izzy, Melora, and Danny spoke about what happened over the last few days.
Danny sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair. He looked tired and a bit pale as well. Glancing over at Melora, he began to tell them his story, “Breanna’s mom Rylan and I were never married, although we lived together for a year before she got pregnant with our daughter.’’ He shook his head. “I’ll never know what happened but just before she had her, Rylan changed so much. She went from a loving mother to be to someone else I didn’t recognize. Then she had the baby and she wouldn’t even look at her, let alone take care of her. I couldn’t leave to go to work without wondering if the baby would even get changed or fed when I got home. I would come home from work and Breanna would be crying for something to eat or a clean diaper. Sometimes when I got home, she would be the only one in the house...her mother would be gone.” He sighed heavily. “She stayed for two more years, then she just up and left. She just stopped coming home and she was gone for about two years, then she came back one day and she was really interested in Breanna.”
Sam and Mountain raised their brows at this.
Izzy slowly shook her head as she looked disgusted.
“I asked her what she wanted,” Danny went on. “She said she came to get her daughter. I told her no way was she leaving with my little girl. She laughed in my face and told me she had every right to take the girl. When I asked her why she wanted her girl now after never caring about her before, she told me she was going to give her to her dealer/pimp. She got in trouble and she needed the girl to pay off her debt.” Danny shook his head as he looked angry. “She couldn’t love her daughter but she would use her to pay off her dealer. I told her no fucking way was I going to let her do that to my daughter.”
“Did she leave or what?” Mountain asked.
“She did, but two days later, I got another visit. Six or seven motorcycles came to my house. They went around and around it. They were so loud, they scared Breanna. They laughed and began shooting their guns in the air while they were shouting for me to send the kid out or they would come inside and snatch her. I called the cops and they took off when they saw the police coming with their red and blue lights flashing. Then of all the crazy things, Rylan called me later that night, swearing at me to give Breanna to her. That was when I knew this wasn’t going to stop, because no way would I turn Breanna over to her mother. So I packed us up and left the house.” He looked over at Melora. “I needed somewhere safe for Breanna and me to stay, so I asked Melora if she knew of somewhere I could go. She told me to come to New York.”
“Where were you living all this time?” Sam wanted to know.
“In a suburb of Chicago called Little Creek. I had to leave in the middle of the night to escape but I didn’t know they had someone watching me. Things got a little dicey on the road when three bikers tried to force me off the highway. I got away, but they did some damage to the car I was driving. Knowing they were following us, we had to be careful. So we hid during the day and only traveled at night when the darkness hid us. My car finally died in Geneva, New York.”
“When he contacted me I dropped the kids off with Cassie and went to get them,” Melora took up the story. Tears were running down her face when she recalled what happened, “I really believed I could just go and get them and get back before too long. I knew Sam would take care of the kids if I ran late but I never expected what happened to us.”
“What exactly happened, honey?” Mountain asked Melora.
Sam crossed his arms over his chest as he looked stone faced. None of this set right with him, considering that she could have come to him to help.
Izzy glanced over at him and she glared at him
“When I got to where Danny and Breanna were hiding,” Melora explained. “Suddenly, I had motorcycles surrounding me. I didn’t know what to do, so I left. I texted Danny to meet me after dark and I would pick them up then we would leave for home. I didn’t know the bikers would come after us the way they did.”
“We barely got into the car,” Danny interjected. “When the bikers showed up. I begged her to just take off and when she did, they began shooting at us. One of the bullets caught me in the side but I told her to just drive. The cops stopped the bikers and we were able to get away. Then the car began to smoke and it finally died along the road near some small town...Bath, I think it was. We walked into town to rent a car to get us home again. We ran out of gas about five miles from here. So we had to walk the rest of the way.”
