Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2) (25 page)

“From what I can understand, she was married to him. Has been for over a decade. They stayed married all through her time at the women’s correctional facility in Huntsville. She was released a year and a half ago. Gustavo was there to pick her up as soon as she got out, according to the guards.” Jack’s explained in low tones.

I’d known she’d gotten released. They’d invited me to the parole hearing, yet I’d declined to go. I didn’t want to see her for the rest of my life. She was dead to me, and always would be.

What I hadn’t known was that she was married.

However, now that I did, things started falling into place.

Things that had never made sense all those years ago.

Like why she moved on from me so fast. Why she let that happen. How she’d let that happen to our child.

Then a thought occurred to me. “Wait a minute, when does it say she got married?”

Jack started flipping through a pile of pages in front of him before stopping, when he’d gone through nearly half the stack. “It says here October 3, 1998. Why?”

A sick curdling feeling of dread started to swell in my stomach.

“My daughter died August 12, 1999. She was three weeks old.” I said woodenly. “Her boyfriend of nearly a year killed her. But it’s not making sense. If she was married, why would she have a boyfriend? Gustavo’s not the type to let that pass.”

When the last sentence slipped from my mouth, I stood and started moving towards the safe on the far wall.

It was a large safe nearly as tall as me. The keypad was the old-fashioned type that you had to turn with a dial.

Grabbing the lock between my thumb and pointer finger, I started the painstaking task of spinning the dial and stopping at the appropriate numbers.

After the third was inputted, I stopped, turned the large lock, and swung the door open.

The letter I’d set in my file folder at the top shelf was exactly where I’d put it.

Flipping it open, I began to read.

Tiago,

If you’re reading this, know that I’m too sick to say it to you in person.

I’ve been agonizing over this for sixteen years now, so I’m just going to tell you.

Gustavo Amadeus is the man who killed our child, not Mario Martinez.

I fell in with the wrong crowd before you left.

I can’t tell you how sorry I am for doing what I did. I didn’t know what else to do, I swear to God. I hope one day you find it in your heart to forgive me, but I know that I will be gone from this place when that happens. I’m sorry.

When you left for boot camp my parents welcomed me back home. I’d told them I’d lost the baby. They said I could move back in if I agreed to marry my father’s business partner’s son. Not knowing what else to do, and having nowhere else to go, I did. I moved back in with them, and a month later I wed Gustavo.

I never told them that I was still pregnant, and thought that if I got married fast enough, I could just act like I was pregnant by Gustavo.

I was naïve. I didn’t think he’d figure it out. I didn’t think about you sending any presents for our baby. I was just thinking about myself. I was being selfish, and I will forever pay for that mistake.

He had his suspicions when she was born. I never said anything, but when the package arrived that you sent for our daughter, he flipped. I had to tell him then what happened. When he left, I thought it was going to be okay, but he came back drunk, and so very angry.

He killed her in a fit of rage, and told me that if I told, he would find a way to kill every single person I’d ever loved. My parents and you included. I played along with the story that it
was my boyfriend who’d done it. He made up a scenario to where my new boyfriend did it, and you know the rest.

God, I’m so sorry.

Please know that I have never forgiven myself, and never will.

Rosalie.

The piece of paper slipped from my hands and fell to the floor.

I watched it in dismay as my fear was confirmed.

That man had killed my daughter. Killed my sister. Attempted to kill my woman. What else could he take from me?

All this time I thought the rightful person was serving a life sentence after he’d killed my baby. My precious, innocent child. She never got to take her first steps. Never got to crawl. She’d be nearly sixteen right now. She’d be driving.

My heart hurt. It was like reliving the moment I’d found my child was dead all over again.

“Kettle?” Sebastian asked after the silence continued for way too long.

I looked up into the eyes of my VP, and every single doubt I was feeling earlier disappeared. In its place was cold, hard truth.

Resolve in its truest and purest form.

The man was going to pay, and I was going to make sure of it. Tonight.

I knew what I had to do.

Never underestimate the power of an extremely pissed off woman. They’re the ones that’ll kill you in your sleep.

-Kettle to Trance

Adeline

2:53 P.M.

I walked into the diner and found my sister at our usual booth.

I had to laugh when I saw she was wearing nearly the same thing I was. Dark washed blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and her hair in a ponytail. The only difference was my tattooed arms compared to her tattoo free ones.

“Hey,” I said dropping into the booth. “You’re wearing the exact same outfit as me!”

She smiled at me. “Yeah? I did it on purpose.”

I snorted. Sure she did. Most likely, she just reached into her closet and removed a hanger like she always did. I made sure to match her outfits for her, and then hang them up in the closet. I was nice like that.

“Did you order for us yet?” I asked curiously.

There were no menus on the table, but I knew what I wanted by memory, so it really didn’t matter if they were there or not.

“Yes, I got you a burger and fries. For me, I got a tuna melt.” She said as she leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. “Who brought you here today?”

“Santa.” I replied just as the waitress brought us over some tea.

She looked at me weirdly after I said that, but I smiled and didn’t explain. Viddy knew I was talking about Dixie, and that was all that mattered.

“The waitress gave me a dirty look. What’d you say to her?” I asked when the waitress glared at me from across the room.

Viddy shrugged. “I told her the table was sticky, and the floor under the table felt gross.”

“What’s the big deal with that?” I asked, studying my sister’s features.

She looked different. Tired. She had bags underneath her eyes that showed she wasn’t sleeping very well again.

“She tossed a rag at me earlier thinking she’d just leave it there for me to clean up, except I hadn’t realized it was there, so she did it herself, but then went to complain to Martha, who then told the woman that I was blind. Needless to say, she’s mad at me now because Martha gave her an ear full.” She said before taking a sip of her tea.

I snorted. Martha was a good woman. She was a mother of four, and her husband was a firefighter at the fire department with Kettle and Sebastian. I’d met them a few times at different get togethers that the fire fighters had every couple of weeks. She was a busy woman, and I got along with her well.

“Dumbass. How would she not know you were blind? I mean the glasses...” I trailed off. “Hey! You’re not wearing your glasses!”

I felt stupid for not noticing that right away. No wonder she looked different. It wasn’t very often that I didn’t see her with them.

Viddy grimaced. “They make my head hurt.”

I understood that all too well. I hated wearing anything on my head whether it be sunglasses, a headband, or even a tight ponytail. Although I hadn’t been aware that Viddy had ever had that problem.

“Is there something else going on?” I asked warily.

“Not really, no. But I’ve been seeing things lately. Shadows. Some lights. Movements. It’s really quite weird. Yesterday I woke up, and I swear to God I could see. Not great, by any means, but I could make out my dresser and the window. But then it was just all gone, and I haven’t seen anything like that since. A couple of days ago the pressure of the glasses on my head started to really hurt, and I haven’t worn them since.”

“Have you called Dr. Robbins?” I asked, trying my hardest not to show the excitement I was feeling.

She was shaking her head. “And tell him what? That my glasses give me a headache and I thought I saw something the other day?”

As I opened my mouth to reply, the waitress interrupted us, dropping our plates down in front of us, making them clatter.

“What is your problem?” I asked, alarmed.

“I was told to tell you this meal is on the house, and I’m sorry for your loss.” She ground through clenched teeth.

I watched her walk into the back of the kitchen before turning to Viddy. “What the fuck?”

Viddy was shaking her head, confused as well. “I don’t know.”

It wasn’t until Martha came over with the tea pitcher that we understood. “I’m sorry to hear about Shannon, Adeline. I still can’t believe she won’t be here anymore.”

Then I realized that this was where Shannon worked. This was also where Kettle and I had had our first meal together.

“Oh,” I breathed. “Thank you.”

God, just when I thought I was doing pretty well, I had to be reminded that I had a funeral to go to later for Kettle’s sister, and my good mood shot out the window.

Martha smiled sadly. “Yeah, it’s going to suck working with Tillie over there all the time. Shannon always had a smile on her face. Tillie, on the other hand, can’t stand people. Especially you.” She said, tilting her head in Viddy’s direction.

“Viddy?” I asked in surprise. “Why Viddy? Viddy doesn’t even know that woman.”

“Oh, you sure did. Viddy talked to her ex, and she hates her on principle.” Martha snickered.

“Her ex?” Viddy asked perplexed.

“Oh yeah, remember a few months back when you came in here to eat? Tillie was tending the counter that night and watched you speak to Trance for the entire two hours y’all were here. She hates your guts.” Martha said excitedly.

“I’m thinking that maybe we shouldn’t eat our food.” I observed dryly, staring down at the food Tillie had placed in front of us with a forlorn expression.

“I watched her bring it out here, she didn’t do anything to it. That’s not to say that she wouldn’t have, though, if I hadn’t been watching.” Martha said as she bustled away.

“You’ve got a hater. Way to go, Viddy!” I teased.

She rolled her eyes, and I had to laugh. She used to do that a lot before the accident, and that was the first time I’d seen it since. It made me happy that she was doing it. That was the first I’d seen of the old Viddy in a long time.

Our hour went fast, and soon Dixie was walking up to the table in no time, offering to usher me out the door. “I’ve got an appointment I have to get to. Are you about ready, darlin’?”

Viddy smiled when she heard his voice and turned in his direction. “Hi, Dixie. How are you doing today?”

Dixie smiled down at my sister, and I couldn’t help how awesome it was that the club accepted my sister just as they had me. It made me feel good that Viddy would have the full support of every one of the Dixie Wardens if she was ever in need.

“I’m doing alright, sweet pea. Do you need help to your car before we head out?” He asked her.

Viddy scowled at him, and Dixie snickered.

“Okay, okay,” he said, holding his hands up and backing away from the table. “It was good seein’ you girl; make sure you come out for the New Year’s party this weekend.”

With that, he left, and I looked at the smile still on my sister’s face. She looked happy. “Will you come?”

Viddy turned her smile on me, and answered. “Absolutely. I think a party is in order after everything that’s happened in the last couple of days. That and I’m due for some fun, don’t you think?”

I was happy on my way home from the diner. That was until I realized I was missing my purse.

“Oh, Dixie! I forgot my bag, can we go back and get it, please?” I said urgently.

He played like he was annoyed, but swung the truck around back in the direction of the diner. Luckily we were only about five minutes away.

Nearly five minutes too late.

The first thing I noticed was my sister walking towards the direction of the bus stop.

That had me cursing up a storm because she was supposed to be picked up by Paul.

“What is she doing walking?” I growled, pointing my sister out to Dixie.

He turned his head to the side as he swung into a handicapped spot illegally, at the front of the diner. Which was why we saw the black Hummer stop on the road just in front of Viddy and
cut her off. She startled and froze at the sound of the large truck screeching to a halt beside her, waiting to see her fate.

However, I was nearly out of the car before Dixie grabbed a hold on my hand in an iron grip and held me so tight I cried out in shock and pain.

“Dixie, what are you doing? Let me go!” I screeched.

He silenced me with one look that had me freezing in my tracks before pulling out his phone and dialing. He then set it on the seat between us and reared out of the vehicle, leaving the door wide open as he took off as fast as his big body would allow.

He didn’t make it in time, though.

The man who’d stepped out of the Hummer grabbed Viddy by the hair, opened the passenger side door, and threw her bodily into the Hummer before slamming the door shut.

His pace quickened when he saw Dixie coming towards him, but he didn’t need to, he was in the Hummer and shooting down the road before Dixie had even made it halfway there.

Dixie growled in frustration before turning around and running back towards the truck.

It was then that I heard Kettle’s frantic voice as he yelled for Dixie to answer him.

“Dixie!” He bellowed hoarsely.

“They-they have Viddy. They have my sister, Tiago!” I screamed.