Warlords MC: Book 4 – Deuce : Chapter 10
Luna slowly looked around at their shocked faces. “Yes, I do, or I did as of yesterday. H-he’s hurt but he should still be there. He’s waiting for my dad to get him out of the country. They have been busy setting up their empire overseas somewhere.”
“Well, that isn’t going to happen now.” Shay snorted.
“Where is the bastard hiding?” King looked almost enraged.
“To have this man captured. After all this time…” Joker shook his head.
Luna looked confused.
“He has killed people we knew, among other things,” Ace almost whispered.
“Where. Is. He?” King asked her again.
“At a safe house my father owns in Bozeman,” Luna told them. She then gave them the address.
Shay immediately called in a team to close in on him.
Then Luna turned to look at Jade. “I wouldn’t worry about my father laying claim to Annabelle. I would however worry about Carmen laying claim to her. He doesn’t love her but he would try to get her just to use her for his freedom or for whatever he can. He would lay the blame of what he did to my sister on my father and try to convince people he’s the innocent one here. He’s a prince that way.”
Jade nodded. “Yeah, he almost got us all blown up and he rushed to be first out the door. He didn’t care then either about his daughter, did he?”
Joker had been busy on his own laptop the whole while. He had taken some of what Luna had told them and began piecing the puzzle together, in order to help bring down the two men in question.
When he ran the address in Bozeman, he stopped in shock at the name on the title to the house. He pushed his laptop closer to Shay and when Shay saw what he did, he snapped his head over to Luna. “Why does the house in Bozeman belong to you and not your father?”
Luna stared at him confused. “What? I don’t own that house. My father bought it awhile back.”
“Yes sweetheart, you do,” Shay assured her. “The deed says you bought it ten years ago.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t have bought it ten years ago. I was only fourteen at the time.”
Shay looked over at Joker and asked, “How many other properties does she own?”
Joker shook his head as he stared at an entire list. “Lots.”
Looking over at Luna, he smiled tiredly. “At least he can’t come after us for unlawful entrance. All we need to get is your permission to be on the property.”
Luna nodded. “Hell, you got that. What was he thinking when he did this?”
“I don’t imagine he assumed we would ever think to check the name on the title,” Shay explained.
“But what does it mean? I mean the sales weren’t legal as I was underage when he bought the houses. I never signed any of the papers.”
“There could be any number of legal consequences on your side and none on his,” Ace informed her. “You’ll be held liable for the crimes if anything is found. He can walk away free and clear.”
“Or he knew he was leaving the country and he switched the titles over,” Deuce suggested. “So, if and when he came back someday, he could get back what he lost. All he would have to do is find Luna and get her to sign a quit claim deed.”
“Unless he could prove she titled the properties in her name as a fraud,” Jade commented. “If his attorneys have the original paperwork if and when he comes back, that’s all he needs to show the court. The original paperwork would have the real date the property was sold to him on it and everything else would be fraud.”
Shay’s phone rang and when he answered it, he began to smile.
Everyone waited until he disconnected the call.
King asked him, “What?”
“We got the accounts froze just in time.” He looked over at Luna. “Your father’s attorneys rushed to set bail and when they did, they couldn’t get the money to pay it. Your father is pissed. He’s still in custody but he’s pissed. His attorneys are ready to walk out on him because they know now, they might not get paid.” He looked at each and every person in the room then looked back at Luna. “He must have figured out you hacked his accounts and knew exactly where everything was.”
Luna shrugged. “I knew he would figure it out at some point. He’s ignored me all my life, what did he really expect? I’m not the same yes woman as Collette used to be. She would never disobey him, never give him a moment of grief. I was the one who questioned him all the time. I was the one that stood up to him and tried to protect my sister from his wrath.” She shrugged again. “He had to know I wouldn’t take the news of her death without a fight.”
“Did he know you were making your break this morning?” Deuce asked.
Luna nodded. “I’m sure he did, why?”
Deuce looked around at his brothers and their women. “He sat on the patio this morning as cool as a cucumber sipping his coffee while Guthrie was chasing her with a gun in his hand. Chasing her to bring her back for god only knows what. When she climbed into the truck this morning all she said was that we had to leave or die.” He shook his head. “What a fucking bastard.”
Shay turned his head and looked at Luna. “The judge did set bail though. Three billion dollars, all cash. That was before he got the revised paperwork. When the judge saw the additional charges, he rescinded the bail and your dad is still in custody. This time, he’s under armed guard.” He grinned, “Oh and his attorneys aren’t taking his calls.”
Luna shook her head. “Everything changes on a dime, doesn’t it?”
“I got my men looking for this man Guthrie and Carmen Vance. It’s only a matter of time now.” Shay nodded.
Luna walked over to the windows and looked outside. Wrapping her arms around her waist, she shivered. She was safe for now. Her demons couldn’t get her here. But she looked into the shadows, and she knew they were waiting for her still. These four walls would protect her for a while but she knew her demons would always be there waiting for her and one day— they would come for her.
She’d wanted freedom for years from her gilded cage. Her father had an estate that rivaled kings. Two pools, tennis courts, his own lake and dock with boats. Furnishings you might only see in magazines. Wealth that stretched beyond being wasteful. Yet, all she ever wanted was to be free of it. She’d always known it was all bought with blood money or made from the detriment of others. She’d wanted none of it.
Deuce came up behind her and wrapped his arms around hers. Leaning over, he whispered in her ear, “I got your back, Luna.”
She could feel the warmth of his body seeping in to her skin. She had been so cold, so alone most of her life. Even with her sister. Collette had been the good twin, never stepping out of the shadows, never disobeying the rules, never asking why. Luna had been the opposite in almost every way. She was always the one who got them into trouble. If their father told them to do something, she would always ask him why. She didn’t mean to cause trouble all the time, she’d just wanted him to give her a reason other than because he said so. She had been beaten and whipped many times over, but he could never seem to beat the resistance to his rule from her small body.
When Carmen took Collette away, she’d been heartbroken. She knew deep down inside that she would never see her sister alive again.
Luna knew the type of man her father had chosen for his daughter. Brutal, vicious and self-serving. When she looked at her father, she could see a gleam in his eyes that told her he knew what the man would do to Collette. He stood there and let that evil bastard take his daughter away, to use and abuse— and he didn’t lift a finger to stop him.
She knew what her future would be like too, because he had the same gleam in his eyes when he told her she was going belong to Guthrie. She tried to fight back but his mind was made up. She had no say in the matter at all.
So this morning under the cover of darkness, she’d run. And almost got caught. It was while she was running that she figured out their little game this morning. It was then she knew she had played right into his hands. It was to her good fortune that Deuce had been waiting at the top of the hill.
She had made her escape, she had snapped the steel chains to her father, and now she was working to bring him down. She knew it and so did he. That’s why he took off this morning. To get one step ahead of the police.
But it was too late for her father. Luna had been working behind the scenes to get everything in place for many months. It was why she reached out to find someone to help her and had found Mr. Montross. And now the dominoes were falling… She had learned from the best, just how to destroy a person’s hard work and effort to gain a living. He was about to find out just how well she had learned her lessons.
Lesson number one: study your victim’s weaknesses, and hit him hard. She had made the first strike against her father and now, he was down but not out for the count. Not yet anyway but before she was done he would be. Lesson number two: make sure the man is down before you actually walk away, so he cannot come after you.