Find A Way Or Make One (20 page)

As I think about her relationship with Wyatt, both professional and personal, it all makes complete sense. Zandoville needs a company to transport his product, and Wyatt’s family owns a shipping company.

I can’t say that it doesn’t hurt that Wyatt believed me capable of such heinous atrocities, while at the same time he is involved with the woman who actually has committed these crimes.
It does, but even so I still love him and want him safe.
I still have to fight down the urge to call Wyatt to warn him. Even if he doesn’t deserve it, I love him and always will.
Even though I love him, I still don’t call. Not because he had
hurt and this is my way of getting revenge. No,
the real reason I don’t call Wyatt to warn him
is simply that I don’t have time. I have more important things to do.

27

“
Just when you think it can't get any worse, it can
.”

Nicholas Sparks,
At First Sight

Tiarnan

As I sit on the cold hard ground out my dubious father’s unfinished basement in the main house of his compound, I can’t help but think of the downward spiral that my life has taken in the last few days.

My life should have been going great, and it had. I had finished my Bud’s training
; had become best friends with my swim buddy and that was just the beginning. As soon as we finished our initial Bud’s training we were
sent on
an assignment that would allow me to see my family.

My family. Hands down, the best thing that ever happened to me was my family. Four years ago, when I took the baby that hadn’t even been named to the woman that TB had told would give him a good home, I never had realized that he had actually planned on me
having a family and a home as well.

It had taken awhile, but I finally realized I couldn’t leave.
I couldn’t and Kye wouldn’t let me. Even when I tried to keep my distance, she wouldn’t let me. She refused to let me relegate myself to the periphery of our family, and overtime I realized that I needed her and my brothe
rs’ love to make me feel…well
human, and I did for the first time in my life.

Not to say I wasn’t scared as shit that it would be taken away from me. For the past four years I feared the day that she realized I was Cian’s father and not his brother
. I just knew
that she would see me as the no good piece of shit that I really am and ban me from my family.

When we ran into Sable with the current project she was working, I had been scared. To find out that Kye had always had an idea of the demons I faced was surprising, but that she loved me anyway was humbling.

The thing is, I should have always known that Kye loved me, hell she was more of a mother to me than the junkie whore that pushed me from her womb ever was. And now it was too late to make it up to her, to even let her hear me call her Mom, and not that half assed
Mamacita
shit that I usually said. Now as I sit here, waiting to find out what
Daddy
has planned for me, I wish I could just get one chance to tell my
Mom
that I love her.

I am jerked out of my morose thoughts by a few of Zandoville’s henchmen coming in the room I have been put in. The looks of maniacal joy on their faces as one pops his knuckles and the other pops his neck make
me realize that I am not going to like what happens next.

Damn, I should have remembered; just when you think it can’t get worse; it can.

***

As I crawl to a sitting position, I spit out the blood that is pooled in my mouth. Looks like I am not the prodigal son after all. I sit on the floor for a minute, with my head resting on the wall trying to catch my breath. Suddenly I hear a commotion coming from outside the room and groan; not again! Right when I get to my feet, the door opens and
I almost
collapse to the floor in relief. “You know, your ugly mugs have never looked
so good right now. Where’s Mom? Is she ok?”

Chip, Crow, Ken and Sunny look at me in surprise; I have never called her that, just
Mamacita
. Their surprise is quickly overcome with happiness.

Putting his arm around me to help me walk out, Ken slaps the top of my head. “You finally got your head out of your ass boy. I am glad. Once we get you out of here we can worry about getting your Mom back.”
I don’t understand what they are trying NOT to tell me, but it whatever it is, I bet it is not good.

I don’t like the sound of this, and my face tells them that. Cale, who has been quiet this whole time finally says, “Zandoville has wanted your mom for a long time, kid. You know this. So not long after his goons took you, a note was found; her life for yours. She took the deal.”

At this Crow starts yapping incessantly. “But Kye and Cale worked out a plan; we’ll get her back.”

Something just doesn’t feel right
. I look to Cale and raise my eyebrow as much as I can, which isn’t much considering the black eye beneath it. Cale turns his head away from me, and somehow I know. “There is no plan to get her out, is there?”
He doesn’t say anything. Just slowly reaches in his pocket and pulls out an envelope that has me suddenly remembering a conversation I had overheard her have with Cale about the letter that I had given her that day at the cemetery.
“He knew Cale, he knew he was going to die. That is why he wrote me that letter. He went into that mission knowing he would never come back and he wanted to let me know that even though he had known that he wouldn’t make it back he still loved me.”
I have always heard it said that the bond between mother and child was so strong that the mother always knew if her child was in danger; well the same is true about children knowing if their mother is in danger I guess, because the fear that threatened to take me into the abyss was the strongest emotion I had ever felt. “Fuck no. She is not going to leave this world with
out hearing me call her Mom. That shit just ain’t gonna
happen.” I purposefully stride to the door, but am stopped by Cale’s hand on my shoulder.

“The entire compound and everyone in it is rigged to blow in thirty
minutes. There isn’t enough time.”

I continue on, barely pausing to look over my shoulder and say, “Well I guess I will have to do it double time, won’t I old timer?”

Crow laughs. “Fuck you both, we can
all
move fast enough to get her out, and we will.” And with that we all head to the steps.

***

I knew when I stepped in front of the door; I wasn’t going to like what I saw. I was right. Mom was hung up by a rope around her wrists that had been slung over the chandelier. She was naked and she had been beaten to within an inch of her life. As we got closer we could tell that she had been stabbed as well. A sudden movement came from the corner of the room. I could see Zandoville laying face first on the ground. He was fully clothed and for that I was profoundly thankful. I knew that my mother hadn’t been raped, because I knew his MO. First he humiliated the girl by causing her to be naked in front of all his men. Then he would beat her four hours. Then he would rape her, while his men watched. When he was done, he would watch his men rape her as well, but he would stay naked so he could have a go at her again if she wasn’t dead by the time that the men got finished with her. Since he was still clothed I knew that no one had raped her yet.

I walked over to the drunken monster that had provided me with half of my DNA. I
didn’t’ stop until I got next to him, and then I slowly pulled out the Glock that Cale had let me borrow and shot him three times in the head.

When I went to get my mother down, all the men stared at me in shock. When I finally had my mother in my arms I looked at them and shrugged. “What? It might have been more rewarding to know he suffered in the explosion, but I don’t think any of us want to take a chance that he might survive, do we?”

We made good time leaving the compound. Even so, we could still fill the ground beneath our feet shake and the heat radiating from the explosion behind us.

28

“Sometimes you have to inflict pain in order to relieve it.”

Tiarnan

Cale

I don’t know how, but we got Kye out of the compound and to a hospital still alive
by the grace of God, or at least something greater than me. As we sit here waiting to hear from the doctor to find out if Kye would live or not, the entire waiting
area was eerily quiet; Chip and Crow were staring out the window overlooking Morocco, Ken was standing quietly in the corner letting Kye’s family know what was going on, Sunny was pacing up and down the long side of the room, and Tiarnan was sitting at a table with his head bent over his fisted hands. And me? I was standing in the very middle of the room, with a panoramic view of it all. Some might have said that we were all calm and taking the events of the evening, but not me. I recognized what this room encapsulated; the fucking eye of the storm.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught the movement of Ken putting his phone back in his pocket and motion me over. I walked over, not knowing what to expect. Yeah, we had all met
Murad and Rashid, the two brothers Kye was closest to in age, but we had never met her parents
. Kye had always talked about how great they were and how much she loved them and they loved her, so I guess it was just the dread of being accused of
allowing
this to happen.
Because really? In a way I had.

Ken smiled, I don’t know how he managed it, but the fucker actually smiled. “Kye’s dad told me to tell you that he knew
how stubborn his little girl is and that he doesn’t want you to blame yourself. He sure knows his little girl, and even though he has never met you, he had you pegged too.”

After looking at him in total shock for a moment, I emitted
a soft growl. “Fuck, what did they say? Are they coming?”

Nodding his head in affirmation, Ken told me they would be here as soon as possible, but that they had called in a
doctor, a childhood friend of Kye’s that had been since childhood who has been in Spain for some type of doctor exchange program. She should be here within the next
two hours.”

“Fine. If they know some hotshot doctor that can help, more power to them. I am going to go check on the kid.” I leave Ken and walk over to Tiarnan; even when I am standing just a foot away from him, he still doesn’t look up. I am about to clear my voice to get his attention, when he suddenly begins speaking without every looking up.

“Oh my God, Cale, she really loved me, even when we ran in to the fucking washed up asshole and
The Whore
last week, and she told me that she had always loved me, I wouldn’t let myself fully believe it. I have always assumed that keeping me around was just what she had to do to make sure that Cian had all his family. Even when she told me she had always known who I was and had known what I
thought
I was, I still thought she had kept me around just for my brothers. Sure she cared about me, but that was the underlying reason I was kept around. Now I found out she loved me
enough
to give up her life for me? And all she ever got from me was a lousy, chicken shit, half-assed
Mamacita
? It fucking rips my heart out man that I never even called her mom. And now it might be too late? Wha
t am I supposed to do? How do I live with myself if she doesn’t
make it?”

As much as I felt for Tiarnan, what he said couldn’t stop pestering me. “The whore? You said “the whore” like you knew the bitch.”

“Yeah, she was one of my father’s whores. But she decided to fuck me too to get his attention. Up until
Mom and I had that confrontation with him outside with her and the douche bag outside of the warehouse, she let me believe Cian was mine, the bitch. Why?”

I quickly explain the connection, and as I was talking, I can see his eyes narrow. Where worry had been his fuel before, his fuel was now hate. As I start to recognize just as far his hate
reaches, Tiarnan abruptly let out a low growl that sounded throughout the waiting room. After he regained some control of his emotions, Tiarnan turned to me and asked with no emotion at all, “Do you have the ass’s number?” I didn’t have to ask who he meant, because I knew.
After I nodded he went on to give me one simple direction. “Call him. Call the mother fucker and get his ass here.”

“Do you want me to tell him what is going on with Kye?” To say I was confused would be an understatement of epic proportions.

“No. Don’t tell him anything. Just tell him that you need him here. I don’t care how you do it, as long as you don’t bring Kye into it, but get his ass here ASAP!” I could hear the frustration in his voice start to rise, so I quickly got my phone out of my pocket and made the call.

Not really knowing why, I made the call. It didn’t take long, all I had to say was that his team needed him here. He told me he would be there in twenty without even asking me why. Shaking my head I pushed end, and put my phone back in my pocket
and stared at Tiarnan, trying to figure what was about to happen.

After staring at him for a full minute, I finally just ask, “What is your game plan here T? What are you expecting to gain from this?”

The look that crossed his face was positively sinister. “Well Cale, right now I am in pain. And everyone knows the sometimes you have to inflict pain in order to relieve it.” He walked off and slammed into the restroom.

As I stood there and watched the door to the restroom close, one thing kept racing through my mind: Oh holy hell, what is going to happen in fifteen minutes?

29

“
Truth doesn't always heal a wounded soul.
”