Warlords MC: Book 4 – Deuce : Chapter 6

Luna froze and gazed into the little girl’s eyes. Her heart absolutely shattered when she saw her sister’s eyes looking back at her. She almost fell to her knees. She swung a glare at Deuce then turned to look at the little girl again, before she whispered, “What’s her name?”

“Annabelle.” Ace growled as he stepped over and swung the little girl into his arms protectively. “Why?”

Luna closed her eyes and gathered her strength. Even though she knew the truth, she had to ask, “Does she have a birthmark on her left shoulder?”

Ace narrowed his eyes at her before he glanced at his brothers. Looking back at Luna he asked, “Why do you want to know that?”

“Please just tell me,” Luna begged softly. “Does she have her mother’s birthmark?”

Ace stared hard at her. “How the fuck do you know about her mother?” he growled.

“Her mother is my twin sister,” Luna announced.

Charli gasped, her hand going to her mouth as she swung her head around to look at Annabelle.

“Her father is a man that goes by the name of Gauntlet.” Luna shook her head. “I’ve only seen him once or twice but I didn’t trust him then and I still don’t trust him today. I hate that lousy bastard. I didn’t even know about the baby until I saw my sister’s autopsy report, much, much later. If I hadn’t looked for that, I never would have known she had a baby out there somewhere.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Ace glared at her.

“I didn’t know for two years after my sister was gone that she had a child somewhere. My father never told me,” Luna admitted. “It wasn’t until six months ago, that I found the report.”

“What happened six months ago?” King wanted to know.

“I accidently found my sister’s death certificate. I was tired of getting nowhere with my father. He refused to tell me what happened to her, so I finally hacked into his computer. That’s when I learned, just how evil he truly is. He’s known for two and half years how my twin died and he never told me. As far as I know, he’s never even met his granddaughter.” Shaking her head she asked, “What kind of man does that?”

“A real bastard, that’s who.” King growled. “How do we know you aren’t faking us out, right now?”

“You’re free to think what you want, asshole.” She growled not intimidated by any of these large, fierce looking men. She turned back to Ace, “Does she have the birthmark? I need to know. I’m not going to hurt her, but I need to know.”

Charli got to her feet and took the little girl from Ace. She turned to face Luna and said, “Yes, she has the birthmark. We thought all this time that a woman by the name of Sable Hawkens was her mother.”

“No, her mom is… was Collette Whittaker,” Luna insisted. “She has her mom’s eyes. Kind of like looking into a mirror I guess.”

“Like I said before,” King came back with, “How do we know you aren’t just making this all up now?”

“I know the truth and there’s another man that knows the truth as well. I’ve been working with him off the books to gather information to send my father to jail for the last six months.”

“And just who is this supposed man?” King asked doubtfully.

“His name is Shay Montross,” Luna replied.

Ace looked at his brothers one by one, then he finally stared at Luna. “You know Shay?”

She nodded, her eyes never leaving the little girl. She was about to say something when a voice behind her said, “Yes Truman, I know the girl.”

Everyone turned to see Shay himself, standing in the doorway. He strolled inside the house, shook hands with Ace, and nodded at the other brothers, then he looked over at Luna. “I’m certainly glad you got away from your father. We have him under surveillance at the moment and he’s not happy you escaped him this morning.”

“Poor daddy.” She mocked. “I don’t suppose he is happy. He knows I’ll tell his darkest secrets.” She stared at Shay. “And he knows, I know them too. He suspects I hacked his computer.”

“Are you okay?” Shay looked at her in concern, noting the bruises on her face.

She nodded. “I’m getting there. The only problem for him was that he couldn’t prove it, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.”

Shay shook his head. “You got away just in time girl. We’ve been watching him for some time now and he’s about ready to go overseas and disappear. We grabbed him off the tarmac in Billings.”

“Were Guthrie and Maxwell with him?” Luna wanted to know.

Shay cocked his head to one side. “Maxwell was but Guthrie is in the wind. How did you know?”

“All three have too much to lose if any one of them is caught alone,” Luna told them. “They have to stick together to make sure none of the others are giving the game away for a better deal.”

“Can you prove that?” Shay asked her. “We think we know what he’s doing but we don’t have the proof that will stand up in court and your father knows this. That’s why he isn’t worried.”

Luna gazed around the room at the men there. She saw everything from speculation to disbelief in their eyes…until she looked at Deuce. She saw complete trust in his eyes. She looked over at Ace. “Do you have access to a laptop I can use?”

“Why?” Ace asked with a frown.

“I knew better than to download anything I found from my father’s computer but I did forward enough of his files, so I could access them from an account he wouldn’t know. Every month for the last six months, I’ve been downloading everything to a phantom address. He would have detected a download, so I couldn’t be caught with a flash drive device on me.”

“Wouldn’t he also know if his files are emailed to another email?” King asked.

“My father has a habit of erasing his email accounts after thirty days. That’s one way of not having anything incriminating on his laptop if anyone like Shay here, ever came around. The only problem with that is, only the ones who know him well enough, know where the emails go. I’ve known him all my life. A little trick I learned as a kid growing up in that house was to watch everything and say nothing. I watched the man carefully as only a daughter could. I learned all his little tricks and tells, when no one else did. The only thing I lacked was the courage to try and hack his feed. Then six months ago, I found that courage. I had to know what happened to Collette. I found my sister’s cause of death and I found that he knew how she died all this time. I got so pissed because he told me the reason didn’t matter. Knowing why she died or how wasn’t going to change anything.” She paused and took a deep breath, then went on, “Her life might not have meant anything to him, but it meant a hell of a lot to me. So I began tracking what he was doing and I finally understood what kind of man my father really was. I mean I always knew he was a sly businessman and ruthless in business, but I never knew the half of it.”

Shay nodded and looked over at the brothers. “She contacted me six months ago and at first, I didn’t believe her either. I thought it was a trap of some kind too. But it wasn’t.” Shaking his head, he looked over at King. “To prove she was who she said she was, she began sending me private files and dispatches. One of the files she sent me was of a shipment of guns and flak vests. In that report, his team suggested the shipments be destroyed because the flak vests were flawed and the guns tended to jam when they were fired. Sound familiar?”

King paled. “He knew? He knew and he sent them anyway?”

Luna watched as the big man’s fingers curled into fists. She turned her head away as she couldn’t look at the rage that her father had caused. Then out of the corner of her eye, she caught something strange. A thin red line. With her gaze following that thin red line, she found a small red dot. The red dot was on the middle of Annabelle’s chest.

Luna’s eyes got wide as she suddenly lunged at Charli and the baby, knocking them over backward onto the floor.

For a moment, it was total chaos as they heard the shot echoing in the small room. The window broke as the bullet passed through it.

The men scrambled. They went to the gun cabinet and everyone grabbed a rifle, then each of them took a spot at the windows. They began searching the yard and barn for the position of the shooter. At this point, they didn’t know how many shooters they were looking for but they knew there was at least one— and one was enough.

Shouts could be heard as everyone standing there wanted to know if anyone had seen where the shot came from. Annabelle was screaming from being thrown on the floor and Charli was trying to catch her breath. The fall had knocked the breath of her.

Luna heard and saw it all…she just couldn’t say anything. She was powerless to move as every breath she took— hurt like fire.

Finally, she caught Charli’s eyes and Charli could see her pain. She turned her head and screamed for Ace, “Oh my god Ace!”

Ace turned to Charli and yelled, “Keep your ass on the floor woman, we haven’t spotted the shooter yet. Hang on to Annabelle too.”

“Ace, you don’t understand, Luna took that round. She’s hurt!” Charli sobbed.