They were on alert for a long time but finally, the men came down from the roof. They all felt as though Hogg wasn’t in the woods any longer.
Brute stayed on the roof, just in case.
When Titan and Wanderer came down, Titan looked at Cat and demanded to know what the hell happened. She was pretty much out of it by this time.
Titan went to her and gathered her into his arms, “What the fuck did you do to her?” he asked of no one in particular.
“We didn’t do anything, boy.” Hawkins assured him. “For some reason, she remembered more from the day Jesse died. She remembered the fight her parents had. She recalled the words they were screaming at each other and it wasn’t a good memory.”
Titan held her closer as she seemed to be shaking so hard. “What did she remember?” he asked.
“She remembered that her mother is a cold hearted bitch that only used her dad,” Cash told him in disgust. “That her position here was nothing more than a business choice. She remembered her mom never wanted her and killed her dad while telling him that she would drop her off and she would be lost forever. That she would walk away from her kid and never think about her again, as she started a new life.”
Titan held her closer and
Cat finally seemed to realize his touch and began to cling to him. She whispered between hiccups from crying, “I don’t— think those people she left me with her family.—I don’t know who they were but I—must not have meant anything to them. She lied to me and to them. She just left me there and walked away like I was nothing.”
“I’m so sorry she did that to you, Little Cat,” Titan whispered.
“I think I would have been better off if she’d just put a bullet in my head too,” Cat sobbed.
Hawkins snapped his head around and growled, “Don’t you ever say that again, girl.” He was angry and it showed. “She might not have wanted you, but I know Jesse and the rest of us did.”
Cat just stared at him. “My dad was too busy to even notice I was there. The only real friend I had here was Bear. And when we left that day, she left him behind too.”
Her words were softly spoken but the effect was staggering and everyone could hear the truth in them.
Hawkins hung his head. They were all guilty, none of them had paid the little girl much attention. They had been more interested in getting themselves established. She had been overlooked when she was little.
Suddenly, Cat’s eyes widened as she sat up and turned her head to gaze at Titan. “I remember now.”
“Remember what, baby?” Titan frowned.
“I remember what the cartel man called her,” Cat explained.
“What did he call her?’ Luna asked.
“He called her Gellis and she answered to the name.”
Luna stared at her in horror. “Are you sure he called her Gellis?”
Cat nodded.
“And this woman has long red hair right?” Luna asked.
Again, Cat nodded.
Hawkins turned to look at Luna. “What are you thinking?”
Luna looked stunned as she slowly shook her head. “I think I might have actually seen her once. I was almost five when my dad got a visitor one day, it was just a few days before he got arrested for the drugs and they took me out of his house. It was a couple, and the woman had long red hair. My dad saw her before he opened the door and he told me to go to my room and stay there. I went but I heard him greet the couple. He called her Gellis and he asked her what she wanted. He was kind of rude and she must have slapped him. Then the guy she was with stepped up and pushed him away from the door. They had a fight and when they left, I came out of my room. My dad had a black eye and a cut on his mouth. He saw me and he screamed at me to get out of his sight. I ran back to my room and hid. But he never came looking for me. Two days later, the cops showed up, and he had been taken into custody. The cops found me in my room and they took me out of there. I was sent to the orphanage the next day.”
Cat took her hand and squeezed her fingers.
Luna was blinking her eyes as she went on, “I never thought about that before but when the couple came into the house, they called my dad Jag. I guess I dismissed it because it wasn’t his name but when you said the cartel called her Gellis, I remembered it.”
Cat sat up and looked astonished. “Oh man, it’s beginning to make some sort of sense now.”
“What are you talking about, girl?” Hawkins asked.
Cat turned to him and shook her head. “It wasn’t Bojangles, it was Beau, Jag and Gellis. The unholy trinity! That’s what my dad found, he found the evidence he needed to bust her little racket and probably send her to jail. That’s what she needs to find.”
Hawkins growled and stood up. He walked over to the nearest wall and slammed his fist into it. “That fucking bitch!” he shouted. “I’ll kill her when I find her.” He turned his head to glare at Wilder. “I’m gonna kill your fucking brother too.”
“You can’t kill them yet,” Cat warned him. “We need to find the evidence first. We need to know what he found back then and why it was worth his life. And we aren’t the only ones looking for it. We have to remember that.”
Hawkins turned around to stare at her. “Finding the evidence is secondary to killing those two. We missed your mother once but we won’t miss her again, you can count on that, young lady. We have enough pointing right to them to make that happen. Besides, Hogg just opened fire on us and that alone, will sign his death warrant.” He looked over at Juju and Wanderer, “You get on your computer, and you find everything you can on Isobel McCormick, her parents and what happened to them. She made fools out of all of us and I’m nobody’s fool.”
The two men went to his office and got busy tracking down Isobel McCormick aka Gellis.
Afternoon faded into evening and the men were still keeping watch in case Hogg came back. But they didn’t see him at all… or anyone else.
It was late in the afternoon when Hawkins told Kota and Titan, “We need to put plywood up over the back door. Hogg shot it full of holes. It’s no good anyway. I’ll be damned if he’s going to use it to get inside. Board the whole fucking door over.”
Kota stared at his dad. “That only leaves us one way in and one way out, Pops. What if Hogg comes back and decides to burn us out? We’ll be sitting ducks.”
“I plan on having a couple of the guys up on the roof, watching over us tonight.” Hawkins assured him. “We got night vision goggles and we’ll see them coming. We can be ready for just about anything in no time.”
Kota nodded. “Ok Pops, it’s gonna be a long night around here.”
Hawkins agreed, “Yeah, it probably will be but I’m not giving in or giving up on what this club stands for. Have we made mistakes? Hell yeah, we have. Will we learn from those mistakes and do better in the future? I sure hope the hell we do.” He looked over at Cat and shook his head. “She didn’t deserve what we did to her back then and now, there is no way we can make it up to her.”
“But we can protect her now.” Titan snarled. “Both her and Luna, whether they are sisters or not, they’re links and if Dennis Matchy is this man Jag, then she deserves our protection as well.”
Cash nodded his head. “Better late than never I guess. But yeah, those two girls are under our protection. I hope we can figure out the rest of the puzzle and find all the players. We need to put down their plans before they destroy us.”
“We’ll watch over the house and the club tonight,” Titan stated. “Do you really think Hogg or Isobel will be back tonight?”
Hawkins shrugged. “Isobel? Who knows what the fuck she’s up to but she isn’t one to back down from a fight. She’s here for a reason and that reason is to destroy us, so she can find what Jesse hid twenty four years ago. Hogg? Yeah, he’ll be back. That man can hold a grudge and he thinks we did him wrong all those years ago. But damn it, he knew the rules… we all did. And he agreed to them, just the same as the rest of us. But he used his connection to Wilder to try and get away with it. When Wilder wouldn’t back him, he took Nash and left but he didn’t leave willingly and he was pissed. Does it surprise me that he’s back now? Hell, no. I figured he would come back one day. Then when Cat linked him to Isobel, I knew nothing good would come from that connection. Could those two be the ghosts in the woods? Who the fuck knows? These next few days, the Rogues will be fighting for our right to live and there will be nothing held back in this fight. They won’t give any quarter and we won’t ask for any. All we can do is be smarter than they are.” He shook his head. “Cause you can bet, they are going to try every trick in the book.”
Kota went up to the roof.
Brute came down to grab a sandwich and something to drink.
It was getting dark now and anything could happen.
Hawkins suggested Brute get some sleep and be ready to go back up on the roof in about four hours.
Brute paused before he left and said, “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary but that doesn’t mean they won’t come at us again.” He turned to look at Cat and Luna. “I don’t know if this means anything or not, but the wolves are out again. They disappeared after ole Bear went back but now, they are out and roaming the woods.”
Hawkins nodded. “Nighttime is when they hunt for food. This is their territory. Isobel and Hogg might not know that. But even their dumbasses should figure where there is one wolf… there are always more.”
Brute nodded. “I’m gonna hit the hay for a few hours.”
Hawkins looked around the room.
There were brothers at every window and they would keep watch all night long if they had to.
Wilder was over talking to Nash and the women were in the corner talking low.
He looked up at Brute. “Get some rest in case we need you later.”
Luna looked over at Cat and asked, “Are you okay?”
Cat shook her head. “Not really.”
“What’s going on?”
Cat looked around the room and shrugged. “I don’t know but my belly is churning.”
Luna glanced around as well. “That’s never a good thing. Do you remember that night when you had that same feeling, something like this happened?”
Cat nodded. “Yeah, I do and I’m getting the same feeling now that I had then and it’s not gonna be good.”
Luna took a deep breath and exhaled. “Ok, well let me find a weapon I can use then.”
Cat turned to look at her and shook her head. “The trouble isn’t coming for you, it’s coming for me. That much I know.”
Luna turned to glare at her best friend. “Well guess what, friend? I’m not gonna let the bitch win. This is one fight she doesn’t get to win. I don’t care if I go down, I’m not letting her hurt you anymore. She’s hurt you enough for one lifetime.”
Cat shivered and rubbed her upper arms. “I feel the same way about you, Luna. It looks like she had something to do with what happened to you as a kid. All I know is that she’s evil and evil doesn’t stop until someone bigger stops it.” She got to her feet. “Come on, let’s go get some rest.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “Who can sleep with all this tension?”
“I didn’t say sleep, I said rest.” Cat smirked.
“Ok, ok. I hear you,” Luna grumbled.
They walked down the hall and Cat went into her room while Luna went into hers.
Cat walked over to the window and looked outside into the woods. Everything was dark and she couldn’t see the woods but she knew they were there.
She was still standing there when Titan came in. He walked over to her and she leaned into him when he wrapped his arms around her. “How are you doing baby?” he whispered.
She shrugged. “I’m doing okay, I guess.”
“Are you really?” he asked. “Or are you telling me what you think I want to hear?”
Cat sighed. “Ok, so I’m not doing so great.” She continued looking at the woods.
“What do you feel?”
“I feel that evil right down into my bones. I know its coming and it won’t be long,” she whispered.
“Well, we got men on the topside and men at all the windows. If anyone is coming, we’ll see them before they do any damage, hopefully.”
Cat shivered. “I hope so.”
“Come on, let’s try and get some rest.” Titan pulled her over to the bed. “I know we won’t sleep but we can rest. I have to go up on the roof in a few hours.”
Cat nodded and laid down in the bed.
Titan curled around her and held her in his embrace.
Closing her eyes, she felt safe. If only she could stay right here. She thought. But she couldn’t live the rest of her life safe in his arms. After a few minutes, she heard Titan’s breathing even out and she knew he was asleep. She laid there. With her nerves stretched beyond the limits, her whole body hurt now.
She wiggled out of his embrace without waking him. Sitting up, she pressed her hand into her stomach to soothe the pains she was having. She reached for something on the nightstand and put it in her pocket. Then she got up and went toward the door. The lights were all off and she made her way through the darkened clubhouse.
Pausing when she heard footsteps on the roof, she hoped whoever was up there stayed safe. She made her way to the front door without seeing anyone. She reached for the doorknob and pulled the door open. Stepping out, she waited for a moment then in the darkness surrounding her, she heard slow measured footsteps walking toward her.
The footsteps stopped just beyond her viewing.
Then she felt a shift in the wind and caught a scent she hadn’t smelled in years. Cat smiled. Her hand dropped to her sides and she spoke quietly, “Hello mother.”
