Cat led the way a short time later as eight of them left the clubhouse and headed south along the road toward Jesse’s old house.
Titan and Luna were right there with her and the others followed behind them.
No one spoke as they left the road to make their way through the tall grass around Jesse’s property.
Hawkins looked up and gasped as he saw how close they were to his son’s house.
Cat ignored him and continued walking. She never once looked at the house her parent’s lived in. She tried not to think about her blindness when Bear brought her here not too long ago.
On the other side, is where the woods were and when they entered, she turned toward the little creek she remembered. The creek now had hardly any water in it and she could easily jump over it. After walking a few more minutes, she ended up at a clearing just beyond the creek. She kept gazing all around. It took her a moment to find what she was looking for but she finally spotted the rock formation she remembered from years ago.
There sat a pile of rocks, one on top of the other, maybe five high. The fifth rock had a B etched into it. She stopped beside it and finally spoke, “I could barely see the top of the pile when I was little. I remember trying to climb it and that was when I saw the B’. Years ago, the B looked scratched into the rock and had been painted in red, but I guess the weather has washed the paint away.” She raised her head to look around. The view was slightly different from the last time she had been here but in her mind, she recalled fond memories of this place. “Bear and I spent a lot of time here. When it was hot, Bear would lay in the creek and I would explore the nooks and crannies of this place. I was curious about everything back then.” She stepped aside.
This allowed the men to gather at the rock pile.
She went over to a fallen tree and sat down. Luna came over to sit down beside her. Together, they watched the men pull the stones away and dig for a while.
Luna finally spoke, “Cat, honey this is almost over. Are you ready for that?”
Cat was lost in her memories, as she nodded. “There is too much pain here. These woods are haunted and my mother caused so much misery. This needs to be over, for all of us.” Shaking her head she whispered, “Can you feel it? Betrayal is practically pulsing in the air. The ghosts are screaming for justice.”
Luna slowly looked around as if she might see a ghost of sorts, placing her arm around Cat. “Oh, honey… I’m so sorry.”
Cat laid her head on Luna’s shoulder. “More will die by her hand if we can’t stop this, if we don’t find a way to stop her.”
Luna just held her friend tighter and nodded. “The pieces of the puzzle are coming together and the men are starting to see what she’s been doing the whole time. Her secrets are coming to light and that’s what will stop her from doing more harm. The more secrets that we bring to light the smaller her world becomes, and the places where she could hide are shrinking. She’s going to make mistakes now, as she tries to keep things quiet. People are beginning to figure things out and she can’t have that.” Luna watched as the men dug and nodded. “Hopefully, they’ll find something we can use against that evil woman.”
They sat patiently watching, as the men dug.
Titan growled as his shovel hit a metal object and he looked up at Hawkins. “I think I hit something.”
Hawkins nodded. “Well, dig it up and let’s see what it is.”
Kota got down on his knees and carefully pushed the loosened dirt back. He peered up at the others. “Yeah, he found something alright.” He swiped more dirt out of the way and brought up an old metal box.
The box had been wrapped in what looked like an old piece of canvas that had deteriorated over time and was now in shreds.
Kota brushed the clinging material and dirt away the best he could, then handed the box to his dad.
Cat frowned at the glimpse of color still on the box after years of being buried. She stumbled toward the men and stared at the box in Hawkins’s hands.
Titan noticed her staring at it and asked, “Do you recognize the box, Cat?”
She raised her head to find everyone looking at her. “I-I think I do.” Raising her hands to her forehead, she rubbed at her temples. “If it’s the same box, there will be a heavy golden pendant inside. I played with it when I was a little kid.” She snorted. “Well, I did for a few minutes then mom came back into the room and boy, did she have a fit.” Her hand dropped to her thigh and she ran her fingers over the scar she had there.
Hawkins watched her closely. “What do you mean she had a fit?” He snarled. “What the hell did she do to you?”
Cat just stared at him for a moment then turned and walked back to sit on the fallen tree.
“God damn it!” Hawkins shouted as he swore.
Kota shook his head, as he stared at Cat too. “Let’s get this back to the clubhouse and have a look at it. Then we’ll know what the next step is.”
Titan began filling the hole in. They had dug very carefully to show as little damage to the ground as possible. If Isobel was searching as well, they didn’t want her to know they’d found what she’d been looking for. When he was done, he and the others carefully stacked the stones on top of the disturbed earth again.
Cat and Luna got to their feet to head back the way they had come.
When they reached Jesse’s old house, Cat paused and stared at it.
Hawkins came up to her and asked, “What’s the matter? Why did you stop?”
Cat just studied the house for a moment then without looking at the older man she whispered, “Did you know Jesse had a hidey hole here?”
“A hidey hole?” Hawkins asked, as he looked perplexed.
Kota joined them and heard the comment from his dad. “Do you know where this hidey hole is?” he asked.
Cat slowly nodded. “He was careful about using it. He didn’t want mom to know about it. I saw him put something in it one time, I-I think it was just days before she—just before he died. He put a small bag inside, then he said, ‘Let her find that. I hope one day her crimes come to light and this will send her straight to the slammer.’ I ducked out of his view so he wouldn’t see me.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess it didn’t really matter because he didn’t even know I was there. I was so scared and confused. I knew they didn’t like each other much but even though I was little, I worried what would happen to me if something happened to one of them.”
Kota moved in closer to her and reached out to her.
Cat took a step back to avoid him.
Kota looked a little stunned as he dropped his arm and asked, “Do you know where your dad’s hidey hole is? Can you show us?”
Cat turned and walked into the abandoned building. She slowly made her way to the fireplace. Standing very still, she studied it for a moment. Finally, she knelt down and ran her fingers around the base on the left side. She found what she needed and pressed down on an odd shaped brick.
The small wall of stone behind the fireplace moved.
Hawkins stepped closer. He turned to glance at Kota and Titan. Shaking his head, he blew out a loud breath. “Well, I’ll be damned. There is something here.” He reached inside, pulling out a bank bag. A layer of dust covered the bag and he shook it off. He stood and said, “Let’s take this back before we look at it. This place isn’t safe.”
They all left the house and went to the clubhouse.
When they all gathered in the main room, Hawkins looked around at them all. “I want two men on the roof at all times until this is done. I think we found what Isobel has been looking for all this time, and it is the reason she wants us gone. We owe our thanks to Cat. We also found something Jesse hid away, something he felt would cook that nasty bitch’s goose. So until we know what we’re dealing with, I want guards up top, and two at the door.”
Two of the brothers went to the roof to watch over the house, and two went to stand in front of the main door.
Hawkins stepped closer to the table to look through the items they brought back with them.
“Just a second here.” Kota grabbed some paper towels and a spray bottle, cleaning the metal box.
Once the dirt was washed off, they all could see the ornate brightly colored metal container. The large A on the outside of it had faded, but they could still see it.
Hawkins opened the box and gasped at its contents. Raising his confused gaze, he stared at Cat. “This is your pendant?” He turned the box and allowed her to peek in it.
Cat looked into the box and nodded.
Inside was indeed a golden pendant. The chain on it appeared to be very thick, the pendant part was the size of a man’s hand and it had been stamped with a capital A surrounded by gold laurel leaves on either side.
Hawkins lifted the entire thing up in his hand to study it then he laid it back down on the velvet cushion, and slowly shut the box up again. He carefully slid the box further up on the table in front of him. Quietly, he stared at it for a moment before he said. “Well, I think we can assume that this belongs to the Alveraz cartel and it is stolen property.” He shook his head. “What the hell was that witch thinking when she took it?”
“And the better question is…” Cash shook his head. “What are we going to do with it? We don’t want it here for any longer than necessary. The cartel wouldn’t be happy to find it with us. In fact, anyone that has it will be decimated if the cartel found out.”
“No, they wouldn’t be pleased,” Hawkins agreed. He looked over at JuJu and Wanderer. “What happened after the Montoya cartel tried to wipe them out?”
Wanderer shrugged.
JuJu spoke up, “I tracked them to a small village in Mexico. I also found there are some members here in the states and they are looking for Isobel. I mean even after all these years, they are still hunting her.”
“And their leader? What happened to him?” Cash wanted to know.
JuJu shrugged. “Word is he survived the attack and is still alive. I found this out through text and chat messages. I hacked into that chat room and found out he is behind the Isobel hunt and his rage against her still burns hard, yet today. There were hints that some sort of event happened just before the attack but no one is saying much.”
Hawkins shook his head and let out a disgusted sigh as he grabbed the bag they’d found in Jesse’s hidey hole. “Yeah, all of this is bad news, for fucking sure. Might as well see what other great news we found today.” He scoffed as he opened the bag and dumped the contents out on the table.
Everyone leaned it to look.
One of the items was a ring. He carefully picked it up and took a moment to study it then he looked around the room. “This looks like a wedding ring, a woman’s wedding ring.” He placed the ring on the table carefully. Next, he picked up a small packet of papers and opened it.
Everyone remained quiet as he read what was in the papers.
A couple of minutes later, he looked up and stated, “Isobel deserves the ninth layer of hell for what she did to the Alvarez cartel.” He passed the packet of papers to Cash who stood next to him. Hawkins kept shaking his head, as he headed over to the bar and grabbed a bottle of whiskey. He didn’t even bother pouring it into a glass. Instead, he lifted the bottle to his lips and drank it straight out of the bottle.
“What the hell is going on here, Dad?” Kota growled. “What did she do?”
Hawkins turned his head slowly and stared at his son. “Those are pages from a diary she kept. I have no idea why she wrote what she did, she should have known better. She outlined her plan to betray the cartel and when she brought Juan back with her, she explained her goal of killing him first then the Montoya cartel would go in and rip the Alvarez cartel apart. But Juan was supposed to die first.”
Cash cleared his throat and got his attention as he had the papers in his hand. “You didn’t read far enough, my friend. Three pages in, she brags about what else she did. She kidnapped Juan’s newborn daughter and let his wife bleed to death shortly after the child was born. Juan didn’t even know his wife had even given birth yet. He was in the States meeting with several new couriers.”
Hawkins took another swig from the bottle then asked, “What happened to the baby?”
Cash shook his head as he read on. “According to the dates on the pages, she wrote this just a few days before she shot Jesse and stabbed that other man.” He paused to read some more. “It doesn’t say what she did with the baby…” Cash then suddenly raised his head and turned to stare at Luna.
Luna stared back at him as she looked panicked and backed up. “No. No, no, no! I don’t think so.”
Cat turned to look at her friend.
Everyone in the room also turned to stare at her.
Luna raised her hands up at them all as her face had lost all of its color. “No! I was born in a hospital and I have a birth certificate to prove it.” She visibly shivered as she whispered, “That child is not me. NO Way—is it me!”
