Cat awakened early, as her mind just wouldn’t shut down. She’d wrapped a throw blanket over her shoulders to ward away the chill she felt and headed out to the main room. She went into the kitchen and made some coffee. Not that she needed it as she was wide awake, but she needed to keep her hands busy.
Finally, she headed over to the window in the main room as it looked out at all the trees. She found herself standing there, watching the sun break free. Dawn was a reflective time for Cat. Throughout her life, she never knew who she really was and she could only feel connected to the world when she watched the sun rise.
When this story about Luna and Tatum unfolded, she realized bits and pieces of her life were being brought forward too.
Her past was coming into focus, bit by bit and it didn’t seem to be a very good one. She used to dream of finding out about her past and living happily ever after. Sadly, the more she found out about her past the less likely she felt her happiness would ever happen.
So far, the only good things in her life were Luna, Davey and now Titan. Well maybe Hawkins and Kota. She tried hard to remember her father or his role in her young life. All she could remember about him was the fact that he’d never been around for her and that did bother her.
It had become more than clear to her that Isobel had never wanted her. At some level, Cat had known this all her life though. There had always been one small part of her soul that wanted to believe her mother had loved her. At times, she desperately wanted to believe it, she now accepted that hope was gone forever. Isobel had never cared one way or the other about her child.
Cat leaned forward laying her forehead against the coolness of the glass window. She found Luna when she was seven and that had been enough. She felt a connection with the other little lost soul, together they found a connection and neither of them had forgotten over the years. It was a connection forged within the both of them while needing someone to belong to. They needed to be loved unconditionally by at least someone, but Luna’s life was unsettled as well.
Cat thought of Hawkins, she had a grandfather who at times, she felt like he loved and wanted her, but maybe too much time has passed between now and the time he last saw her. Then again, maybe he was also unsure of his feelings due to her visions and who her mother was….she didn’t think he would want to keep her around though. But she was his son’s daughter too. So many secrets had been uncovered. So now, would he, or would any of these men be comfortable with having her here?
She didn’t know how much time had passed but she did hear men coming into the room and the sun was all the way up now.
Titan came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, gently kissing her neck. “What are you thinking so hard about this early in the day?” he whispered in her ear.
He still dwarfed her just by his sheer size but she always felt safe in his arms. “I was just thinking how much my life has changed since I got here. It’s been a busy few weeks. And not all of it very good. Some of the changes have been good, most of them have not.” She turned her head and glanced at him then looked away. “It’s hard to take, much less accept that your mother never wanted you, even harder to realize your dad was always too busy to even look out for you. Then to know said mother killed said father and then took you away from everything you knew just because she was selfish, and she just didn’t want you to stay where you could have had a decent life. I mean what was her reasoning? Why did she take me, only to leave me with strangers who she came back and killed a few years later? Then to be taken to a place that was supposed to love and nurture children. Only to find years later you were sent to your grandmother? One who ruled your life with disgust and cared nothing for you, hating you just because.”
Titan let out a sigh and tightened his embrace around her.
She sighed and went on, “Despite everything, you grow up, you start living your own life, then you meet someone special. Finally, there’s someone who loves you, all of you. Then your own mother rips him away from you in yet another effort to destroy you. On top of all that, you find out your mother is nothing more than a drug dealer who also deals in the theft of children, one who operates in a constant deceit Committing murder and who knows what else she has done. I came here because of a lost soul that said mother has taken and found a man who is related to me, my grandfather. He says I should have been raised here, yet everything he’s done tells me he doesn’t want me here. He wants to remember his son Jesse as a good man, but Jesse was human just like everyone else. He had his faults and when I was young, he was just never there for me. Hawkins doesn’t want to believe that but it’s true. All I remember of my childhood was that I was alone all the time. My parents did nothing but fight from dawn to way into the night. Oh, I knew his face and I knew his voice but I never really knew him. Same as I knew my mother’s face, I knew her voice but there was nothing else of her that I knew. I got more love from Bear than I ever did from either of them.”
Titan gently smoothed her hair with his large hand.
She shook her head. “I… Well, there was a reason I never wanted to come back here. It wasn’t just the ghosts in the woods crying out for justice. There was nothing here for me, but maybe, just maybe I had to come back. Maybe it was best that I came, so I could finally lay the past to rest. Everything needs to come out and most of the past has come out. So now, I’m just wondering what’s left here for me, once the story all comes out into the open.”
Titan held her close and didn’t know what to say to her. He didn’t want to lose her. It would be like ripping his heart out to see her walk away from him. His life was here and he couldn’t imagine leaving. He could see the pain building in her eyes and she believed that she couldn’t stay here. He just didn’t know what he could do to stop her from leaving. “Honey, nothing is settled, not by a long shot. You aren’t safe out there on your own and I don’t want to let you go, not yet, maybe not ever.”
Cat bit her lower lip and stared at their reflection in the glass. “I feel glad that you care about me so much, Titan. I am but I know this isn’t over yet, it won’t be over until Isobel is dead. As sad as that thought is, it’s what needs to happen for this nightmare to finally be over. Only that will bring peace and justice to this area. Only her death will quiet the rage in the woods out there. That is just sad isn’t it?” She turned a bit to look up into his eyes and bravely told him something that she’d kept secret all her life, “I-I’ve never told anyone this. I mean it is so frightening and I don’t know why. I have seen murders in my dreams, but this keeps me from sleeping lately. I’d seen him in the past but just fleetingly. I keep seeing this face in my dreams now. Since I was little his face has been in my dreams, or maybe he’s part of my nightmares. Then I never saw him for many years, I don’t really recall how long it’s been but I saw his face again last night.”
“Whose face? Do you know what his name is?” Titan asked.
Cat shook her head. “No, I don’t and I don’t think I want to know who he is either. He scares me, the rage in his eye is growing. I almost feel it. He’s a very tall man, his once dark hair has become snowy white, but he’s still very strong and he’s mean. He’s always been mean and brutal to those who piss him off. He’s got a big scar on the left side of his face and his left eye is ghostly white. That’s why I said rage in just one eye. He can only see out of one of them. I don’t think he has any sight left in it.”
“What brought all of this up?” Titan wanted to know.
Cat raised her hand to her heart and told him, “I can feel him in my soul and I know he’s on his way here. It feels … I feel death following him and I know when he gets here, someone will die.”
Her words echoed in the room.
The men who had been quietly gathering, drinking their coffee growled.
Cat looked around and found several pairs of eyes watching her. Hawkins and Cash looked worried. Then when they shared a knowing look, Cat got the impression they knew who she was describing. “You know him, don’t you?” she asked softly, looking between the two men.
Hawkins nodded. “I think we do.”
“Who is this bastard, Dad?” Kota asked with a growl in his voice.
“I think she’s describing Big Mike Pasquel,” Hawkins finally said his name out loud. “And she’s right, he’s not a man to be messed with.”
“No he isn’t,” Cash spoke up. “But my question is where does a man like Big Mike fit into this picture?”
Cat clasped her hands together as if she hesitated to tell them. Then she took a deep breath and spoke, “I saw more of the vision, when Cheryl was left by her biker. I saw their faces. His was the face of the biker who’d left her alone and pregnant in Eau Claire.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t sure at first because he didn’t have the scar yet when he was with Cheryl. He is her baby daddy.”
Hawkins snorted. “Well, at least we know where Isobel gets her meanness from. She gets it from her daddy, doesn’t she? That man is a hellacious bastard if what we heard over the years is true. Lawless as fuck and twice as coldblooded.”
Wilder nodded. “He makes all bikers look bad. Hell, he started a whole slew of MC wars over the years. Many men have died on just his whims.” He paused and asked, “I wonder if Cheryl ever told Isobel who her father was?”
Brute snapped his head around and glared at the older man. “What difference would that make?”
“Because Isobel knows she’s not welcome around here,” Wilder explained. “She’s going to have to find a new place to live and do her cartel thing from. And while Mike is a cruel fucker. He could be swayed by cash.”
“We have her money and the ledger book,” Cash replied. “That could be why she’s still here. She could be planning on distracting us long enough to come in here and try to get her shit back.”
Hawkins growled. “The money and ledger book isn’t here anymore. The cops have that shit. She’s more likely to come here, not find her shit and then burn us out just for shits and giggles.”
Wanderer sat back in his chair and surmised, “What if she had more than one bank? She wouldn’t put all her eggs in one basket. She probably thinks even if we find one that we wouldn’t find the other one.”
“Yeah, that’s a good possibility.” Hawkins rubbed his hand along his jaw while thinking about it. “Just where do you think her second bank would be?”
“Somewhere out of the way,” Wanderer told them as he looked distracted. “Some place no one would ever think about. Like the cave, it would be hidden, yet right out in plain sight.”
Cash cocked his head to one side as he stared at him. “You know of such a place?”
Wanderer nodded. “Maybe, and it just got me thinking. She used the cave in the woods because we never went up there. What if her second bank is also in a place we never bother to mess around at?”
“What are you saying?” Wilder questioned.
“Remember that old barn near the edge of the property,” Wanderer suggested. “The one on the south side. It’s at the farthest point on the back acres. It has been years since we explored it and hell…when was the last time any of us were there? We just don’t go out there much.”
“What makes you think she’s going out there?” Hawkins asked.
Wanderer shrugged. “Some nights as y’all know, I walk. I get restless and walking helps to calm me down.” He rolled his eyes. “Hence, why I’m called Wanderer. I have trouble staying still. So I’ve found myself out there a few times. The last time I was out that way, I saw some footprints, didn’t think anything of it. Recently, I recalled seeing some tire tracks out there as well. Damn, if it never crossed my mind at the time. I just didn’t think much about it, but now I’m thinking maybe, she’s got something she wants to hide out that way too.”
Hawkins looked over at Juju. “Can you get some cameras out there, so we can keep an eye on that old barn?”
Juju nodded. “I can do that.”
Hawkins rubbed his fingers against his chin in thought, then looked over at Wanderer and then at Brute. “Take a few men with you and go check things out, if you find anything bring it back here. I don’t want her to have anything left. Just make sure you guys come back, with enough men you should be able to watch your backs.”
“As soon as you guys get back,” Cash added. “We’ll start getting ready for just about anything. It’s about time we started using those five tree stands we put up a couple of years ago.”
Hawkins stared at him as he nodded. “I forgot about those stands but damn, we’ll use them now.” Turning to Wanderer he said, “You boys be careful, go to the barn and find if she’s got a bank out there and if she does bring the booty back here.” He glared at them all. “And I don’t want you to leave a fucking red cent behind, either.
Wanderer nodded.
Brute and a couple of other men went to get their weapons and then met Wanderer and Juju out in the parking lot.
They drove off toward the old barn on the south side of the property.
When they got there, Juju went about setting his cameras up.
Nash and another brother went with Wanderer as they all entered the barn.
Two more took their places outside the barn to keep watch.
Wanderer and the men split up and each of them took a different area of the old barn to search.
Wanderer went to the back of the barn, looking around. He planned to work his way forward and the three of them would meet in the middle. He kicked his boot at the old hay around, raising a low cloud of dust. His foot grazed a metal latch of some kind and he squatted down to check it out.
He cleared off the hay as he realized it led to a hatch. But what was a hatch doing in the barn floor? “Nash, bring me a flashlight, would ya?” Wanderer called out.
Nash and another brother came over and shined the flashlights on the floor.
Wanderer peered up at them and said, “Well boys, it appears we might have found something here.”
“Open it up and I guess we’ll find out,” Brute told him.
Wanderer grabbed the ring and pulled. The hinges gave way easily and when he lifted the hatch cover, they found a deep dark hole. He shone the light into the hole and saw a ladder at the edge. He looked up at the men with a smile on his face. Turning his body sideways, he went down the ladder. The earthen room he found was about ten feet deep and eight feet around. He called up to the men, “You guys get down here. You ain’t gonna believe what’s down here.”
When Brute and Nash came down, they shone their lights across the room. There were shelves all the way around. Those shelves were full of boxes and bags of heaven only knows what.
Heading further into the room, Brute found a safe against the far wall and walked over to it. The door had been left open about an inch. He opened the door completely and found the safe full of ready cash.
Stacks and stacks of bundled money.
He looked over at Wanderer and snarled. “Well shit, we’re going to need to get some extra bags to haul all this shit out. Hawkins doesn’t want us to leave even a dollar behind.”
Nash went back up the ladder. A few minutes later, he returned with several old burlap bags.
They loaded them full and began to haul the booty up and out to the truck.
