Warlords MC: Book 5 – Joker : Chapter 11
The afternoon passed slowly with tension building. Ace hadn’t left Charli’s side since she told him her good news. She was indeed carrying his child and he was slowly going out of his mind with the threat coming their way. She kept telling him to go away as she had chores to do. He then told her everyone else would do them.
Well, that did not go over very well. Ace lost that battle.
Deuce rolled his eyes and handed King a twenty. He lost that bet.
Jack shook his head and chuckled.
Rowen was sticking to Joker like she was afraid he would just disappear on her.
Finally, they heard a single motorcycle coming their way.
Everyone grabbed their weapons and waited in the shadows when the biker stopped outside.
The rider paused then got off his bike and took off his helmet slowly.
Ace looked out and saw their visitor was Shay. “What. In. The. Fuck?” He shook his head and sighed deeply. “What the hell are you doing here on a bike?” Ace exclaimed as he opened the front door.
“Oh, didn’t you know? I’m MC now.” Shay shrugged.
“Sure you are.” Ace shook his head. “Is this another undercover job, Captain Overton?”
Shay shook his head and looked around at the brothers. “Where’s the forgiveness, boys?”
“A DC man wearing a cut?” Jack asked in shock.
“Yeah,” King agreed. “Is this bizzaro world now?’
Shay smiled. “You all think in one D, instead of 3. You need to look outside of the box.” He paused. “Or maybe you should have looked inside.” He turned his back, showing off his cut. When he turned around, he saw the look of shock on their faces.
“When did that happen?” King demanded.
“I quit my government job about three months ago. Then I went to Texas and joined Pappy Masterson’s group,” Shay told them as he joined them on the front porch.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Deuce demanded. “When we called you in on this, we believed you were still in DC.”
“I didn’t quit living my friend. I also am still very much connected there, no worries on that. In fact, Pappy’s network has grown to include some of my handpicked men and connections that I still have in our network of watchers from shore to shore to stop something like 9/11 from happening again on this land. From time to time, we take on cases like this. I had someone check the things out that Rowen told me about. Including the boats. We were able to track them all the way until they dumped into the Gulf.” He shook his head. “It has been a busy day my friends.” He looked beyond the door and found Rowen staring back at him. Looking over at Joker, he said, “Can we go inside? I have news for your girl.”
Everyone sat down in the living room.
Shay glanced over at Rowen. “I have news for you. It may not be what you want to hear but it is what’s going on. We went to the local LEOS and asked what was going on with your grandfather’s estate this morning. We were told your uncle had petitioned the courts for a quicker resolution to his probate because you had disappeared. The courts moved up the hearing to tomorrow.”
She gasped. Paling, she glanced in concern at Joker then back to Shay. “Did you talk to Stafford about this?”
Shay nodded. “The courts failed to advise him of the change and he’s fighting it. He claims as Austin was his client, he wasn’t notified about the change but Jared is claiming that isn’t his fault and he shouldn’t have to wait to claim what’s his. Then Stafford really pulled a surprise out. He put a spanner in the works and listed Jared’s birth certificate into evidence.” Shay glanced over at her and asked, “Did you know Jared isn’t even related to your grandfather?”
Rowen paled and looked over at Joker. “What do you mean? He thought my grandfather was his own father. He grew up in grandpa’s house all his life.”
“I know this and he did go by the name Jared Davis but he isn’t your grandpa’s son. He was four months old when your grandparents were married. The courts now have to settle whether he’s entitled to any part of Austin’s estate.”
“Damn,” Joker swore. “What a fucking mess this is turning out to be.”
“Yeah well, you haven’t heard the best part yet,” Shay assured them.
“There’s more?” Rowen whispered.
“Oh, yeah.” Shay nodded. “There’s more. It seems the Eagles were sitting in the courtroom when Stafford brought his evidence forward. They weren’t happy about the fact Jared might not be as rich as they were led to believe. In fact, I’d go as far as to say, they were downright unhappy about it. Stafford said Jared asked for a police escort back to the mansion. He also asked that the police throw his visitors off of the property. Then while Grinder and his men were on the other side of the fence, Jared changed the codes. Within minutes, a new security team showed up and began guarding the house.”
“What did the Eagles do then?” Deuce asked.
“Grinder left a big enough force to watch over everything then he and some of the others drove off.” Shay shrugged. “I would imagine he went back to his compound but when he finds there’s nothing left for them there, he’s gonna be one very pissed off MC Prez. His whole operation is gone now and that’s not gonna sit well for him.”
“Oh, my god,” Rowen whispered. “He’s going to come back for Jared and he isn’t going to let a fence and security guards get the better of him. Grinder isn’t that kind of man.”
“You’re right about that,” Shay agreed. “Oh, by the way, Stafford called me after the court hearing. He asked me some questions. But I expected that. I asked him some questions too. Questions he didn’t want to answer but he finally did. The police are investigating the incident at your granddad’s cabin. It seems the families of the members of his hunting party are suing your grandfather’s estate for answers as to what really happened there and you were right. Those men died in four different areas of the cabin and it seems they all died at the same time, as if four different bears all attacked at once. The questions were raised as to what really happened.”
“Did he have anything to say about my grandfather?” she begged him. “Is there any word on that?”
Shay stared at her and shook his head slowly. “I asked but Stafford didn’t say anything.”
Just then, they heard another vehicle driving up the driveway.
Ace and all the brothers grabbed their weapons then stood by the door and windows.
The car stopped next to Shay’s bike and the driver just watched the door. Then after a couple of minutes, he opened the vehicle door.
Stafford got out and just stood there for a moment. He seemed to be waiting for someone to open the front door and step out onto the porch. He called out, “I want to speak to Rowen Whitney please.”
“What makes you think she’s here?” Ace asked him.
“I tracked her phone call this morning.” Stafford smiled.
“Stafford, you little snake,” Rowen called out from the living room. When she came to the doorway, she growled. “I have no idea why grandpa trusted you, but I don’t. Not anymore.”
Stafford threw back his head and laughed out loud. “Oh honey you should, you really should.” He stepped to the back door on the limo and opened it.
Someone sat there and when he exited the vehicle, Rowen gasped and ran from the house. She was so quick Ace couldn’t stop her as she flew down the steps toward the man who got out of the backseat of the vehicle. “Grandpa, you’re alive!” she called out as she was swept into his arms and cradled as if she were particularly precious cargo.
Joker joined Ace, as did the rest of them. They all watched the happy occasion as grandpa and granddaughter were reunited.
Finally, the three of them walked up to the top of the porch steps.
Austin Davis looked at the lineup of men standing there. “I want to thank you for protecting her. I don’t know how she came to be here but I’m so glad you watched over her.” Then he looked down at the top of her head. “I couldn’t stay away any longer. Not after Jared pulled this shit. I knew he didn’t care for her but I never thought he would allow her to be taken and sold to a skin game. That little bastard went all the way.”
“Grandpa, what happened at the cabin? Why did you just disappear like that?” she had to ask.
Austin shook his head. “Can we go sit down? I promise I’ll answer all your questions but I’m not really completely healed yet.”
Ace allowed him into the house and they all sat down.
Austin looked over at Rowen and began his story, “The night of the cabin incident was like any other night. We hunted that morning and that evening we processed the meat. It was late when we were awakened by someone breaking into the cabin. John reached the living room first, I heard a gunshot, and I grabbed my own gun. I was sleeping up in the loft. I came out and saw the first floor below me. I saw Jared and his friends shooting and killing my friends. I knew I would be next, unless I could get out of there, so I used the back stairs. I was about half way down when someone found me. They shot at me and I stumbled down the rest of the steps. I think I broke my leg at that point but I was trying to get away, so I could alert the cops about what happened. Two of the men followed me and when they caught me, they both stabbed me. I knew I was bleeding badly but there was no way I could move. They left me there to bleed to death and I would have done just that but at dawn, another hunter found me. He got me to the hospital and the police came around. I’ve been staying out of the picture because I wasn’t in the best place to confront Jared but after all this shit hit the fan and he moved up the day of probation, I knew I had to at least see you before the court date.”