Click – Brothers At Arms #5

When Marty’s men arrived, they studied the tunnel map and then got to work. The MC men slept in shifts.

Toward the dawn, Zeus sat at the tables and nursed a cup of coffee. He sat in the silence and he was almost glad he was alone for a time. This whole situation had brought out the beast in him and for a moment last night, he’d been worried. His rage had gotten the better of him and that hadn’t happened in years.

This whole fiasco had tripped the PTSD he never realized he had, a leftover from his time in the desert. And that rage was never a good thing. He’d seen the looks in his men’s eyes and the confusion in Marty’s eyes when he least expected it. It made his blood boil to see the fear and uncertainty in her eyes. He knew his daughter would never understand it either, so he had stayed away from his Angel. He never wanted to scare her.

 Marty came out of his bedroom and walked past him to the kitchen.

When she didn’t return Zeus stared at the door for a few minutes. When she still didn’t join him, Zeus got to his feet and walked into the kitchen.

Marty turned her head and looked at him for a moment but neither of them said a word.

“I’ve been a bastard, haven’t I?” Zeus finally spoke.

“Pretty much,” She admitted “But knowing what’s going on, we know it’s just dealing with the situation.” She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. “I just have to tell myself that this too shall pass.”

Zeus moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. He felt hurt when she flinched at his touch but then decided he deserved it for his behavior. “I’m sorry babe. I thought I left these feelings in the desert a long time ago. I never thought I would ever have to defend my own home, not like this.”

Marty wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “Oh baby, I know. I never expected it either when I came here looking for my sister. Sam was always a problem but I never knew she was in so deep. When she left home, I prayed she would be all right. She was my sister and I loved her, I didn’t necessarily like what she was doing but she had to live her own life. Warts and all. I think somewhere along the line, she figured out she made a mistake. What she didn’t know was that no matter what she did, she had a family she could have returned to.” She shook her head. “But she never did and before he died, my dad asked me to find her and bring her home. That’s why I came here and that’s why when she begged me to get her daughter away from Raggetti, I did. I did that for her and for Lily.”

Zeus shook his head. “You did what you could, what you had to do. We had no clue she was coming and going anytime she felt like it. It was because of you that we found out about the tunnels, and then you got Angel talking again. I never thought she’d speak again but you got her to talk.”

Marty looked at him. “It wasn’t hard, she wanted to talk all along, but Sam had her convinced that you didn’t want her anymore. That’s what hurt her. You were her daddy and she just needed to know you loved her.”

Zeus shook his head. “She’s my baby girl, and always will be.” He sighed hard and said, “When we first bought this place, we were just looking for something we could call home and leave the rest of the world behind us. We all served in the war on terror and that left us shaken and heartsore. We just needed some down time. We came to this town, looked around, and decided we liked it here. So we bought this place because it was big enough and far enough out of town we could walk outside and take a piss off the porch if we wanted to and no one would be there to call us out for it.”

“And that opened you and this club up to the whole Raggetti drama.” Marty shook her head.

Zeus nodded. “Yeah, we sure could have done without that this whole time but now we’ll see it done. With his father and his daughter here, I sure don’t want to be the one to kill him, but I can’t help thinking that’s the only way to put a stop to this chaos.”

“At least, we can hope this is almost over.” Marty sighed hard.

Just then, the kitchen door was pushed open and Diabolus walked in.

Zeus stared at him. “Are you alright brother?”

Diabolus nodded then shrugged his shoulders and winced. “Let’s just say, I’ve been better, but I couldn’t stay in bed any longer, you know?”

Zeus nodded. “I get that.”

“So what’s going on?” Diabolus asked.

Zeus shook his head. “Well, after you got stabbed, Barrett ran down the hall and opened a door we didn’t know about. Before he could escape, Desi shot him but he got into the tunnel. Memphis and Captain went in after him and they found him talking to himself in one of the tunnels. He took off when we got there. We did find out that Barrett has his own men coming the day after tomorrow and he threatened to start a fire in the tunnels and burn us out from below. Something about using the air holes his grandfather put in the tunnel to feed the fires.”

“Holy shit, I missed a lot,” Diabolus grumbled.

“There’s more,” Zeus told him. “Desi found the map of the tunnels we had then she found a newer, cleaner map in her mom’s paperwork. She has no clue where her mom got it or why she even had it. So Marty’s got some connection to a place that produces a foam that hardens into a cement like substance. She called them and they got here in the middle of the night. They’re working off the new map to block Barrett from coming through the tunnels again. As soon as everyone gets up, we’re going after Barrett’s bank. If we can find that, we can neutralize him.”

Diabolus snorted. “Yeah, we can get to him that way but don’t forget, Barrett isn’t a man who accepts defeat very well. He sees us digging around the area, he’ll know what we’re looking for and that’s gonna piss the fucker off.”

Zeus nodded. “And that’s why we’ll have snipers on the roof watching our backs and we’ll have Leon’s men ready to chase him down.”

“But Grave Digger thinks the man is becoming infected,” Marty added. “From being shot twice and losing his everlovin’ mind.”

 “How is Alfredo taking the news?” Diabolus asked.

“I think he’s like the rest of us and just wants this to be over,” Zeus replied. He’s greatly disappointed in his own son and grandsons. He also said if he would have known what his father did so many years ago, he would have burned this place down himself, instead of selling us this nightmare.”

“I think Barrett would have been better off staying in prison than he is coming here.” Diabolus shook his head.

Zeus snorted. “Well, he got a hell of a surprise if he expected to just walk in here and take over, didn’t he?”

“I’d say,” Diabolus agreed. “And I’ll even go as far as to say he’s lost right now without his sons by his side. They are just as vicious as he is and I think he counted on them working with him on this deal.”

Marty scoffed. “Yeah and I’ll just bet he never thought about sharing his wealth with them either. Barrett just doesn’t seem the type to share anything with anyone. Not even his own family. He’s a lot like Raggo.”

“Si, senorita you are right about that.” Alredo and Delany walked into the kitchen. He looked almost shell shocked by the events over the last few days. “Barrett would not be willing to share his bounty with his sons but he might take some of theirs in the end. Well, if we hadn’t found it first he might have.”

Delaney shook her head. “I’m just glad now that Dad doesn’t think of me, as a girl could ever amount to anything.”

Alfredo looked at her. “Your dad never thought you would and that’s a shame. You probably have more money in the bank than he will ever have and yours came honestly. You went to college and got your career. You worked for it and I am proud of you.”

Delaney looked almost shocked at her grandfather’s words. “You are? Proud of me, I mean?”

“Si, mia dolce ragazza, of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” Alfredo frowned.

Delaney shrugged. “I mean no one has ever been proud of me before, I guess.”

“My dear, I have been proud of you ever since you came to live with me when you were a little more than a child. You were so unlike your brothers, they were wild and ran the streets until all hours of the night, but you were studying your lessons every night, then you went on to make something of yourself while they grew up to be nothing but bullies and thieves.” Shaking his head he said, “Si, I am very proud of you and I’m willing to bet when we get to know Desi better, she will be more like you than your brothers as well. At least, I hope we get the chance to know her better.”

“I wasn’t sure you would want that chance.”

They all heard Desi’s voice from behind them as they turned to see her and Click standing in the doorway.

Alfredo smiled slightly and said, “My dear, you are my granddaughter, one I never knew existed until you came here. How could I not want to know you?”

“You realize right that I came looking for my father to shoot him, right?” Desi reminded them.

“Si I know, but he is responsible for that is he not? He and his sons gave you that unfortunate quest. This is not your fault, none of it.” He hobbled over to her and reached out to take her hand. “You are part of our family and I welcome you child. If you can find it in your heart, I would be honored to call you my granddaughter.”

Desi stared at him then turned to look at Delaney. Pausing, she glanced at Click before she turned back to Alfredo. “I might just have to let you. That’s what I missed the most, belonging to a family.”

“Well, I for one have never had a sister.” Delaney smiled. “I always wanted one. I sure didn’t have real siblings. They’d rather try to kick me around than be my brothers. Can you include me in that family too?”

Desi nodded. “I’ve never had a sister either, so maybe we could try it.”

“So what is it you girls do, exactly?” Marty asked.

Delaney shrugged. “I work in cyber security for a Fortune Five company. I do remote work, so I can keep any eye on the old man here.”

“And I work for the US Marshals office, out of St Louis,” Desi told them.

Everyone in the room froze when she mentioned her job. They hadn’t known she was a Marshal. Pausing, they had to wonder just how much she intended to report to her work about the goings on the last few days.

Leon walked in just as she told them where she worked, and he just raised a brow at her admission.

Desi turned to view him and saw his slight discomfort and she had to smile. “Or rather, should I say I used to work for the Marshals. I was almost grown up when the brothers gunned down my grandfather in Montana. When I escaped, I thought long and hard about going after them myself, but I knew that wasn’t what my grandpa would want. So instead, I went the legal route. I got my badge and I went after them in a different way.” She looked over at Delaney and said, “Your brothers have a lot to answer for.”

“Excuse me, but it’s our brothers,” Delany countered. “You have to claim them too. You are my sister but you’re also their sister as well.”

Desi shrugged her shoulders. “I knew I couldn’t come here to kill a man and still be a Marshal. So before I left, I resigned. I didn’t tell them why but my boss isn’t stupid, so I think he knows why I came here. He knew about my grandpa and my mom from the background check they ran on me but he didn’t try to stop me either. At least this way, I can still hold my head up and so far, I’ve done nothing wrong here.”

“No, you haven’t done anything wrong,” Leon told her. “But circumstances have not been on our side here. What you have seen and heard could be used against the lot of us. You could make trouble for everyone here, if you stuck to the rules of the law.”

Desi turned and looked at him for a moment then she said, “Mr. Vincinti, these are not normal circumstances, even you have to admit that. I resigned my commission in the Marshals, so I am not a cop anymore. I am just a citizen now and while I may bend the law, I will never break it. Yes, I have said I would kill Barrett, but I hoped it would be something along the lines of self defense?” She almost smiled at this term. “Besides, I came here with the idea that my own hands would be dirty before I was done. I can hardly blame anyone else when my own hands are not clean. Now can I?”

Leon tilted his head at her his keen steel-like eyes assessing her. “I already knew of your background, my dear. I do not run a sloppy organization and I always check everyone I deal with, so I meant no insult to you. I have simply been waiting for you to offer up this information. It did trouble me, but I knew as always, time would tell me the answer.”