Seeking Vengeance (16 page)

Molly rose on one elbow, her other hand warm against his stomach.
“What's wrong?”

He wanted to pretend everything was fine, but even without speaking, she must have sensed the change in him. Sam didn't want to cause fear, but he
couldn't keep her in the dark—not when her child's life could be at stake.

“
I think I made a big mistake. I should have thought it all through, especially since I’ve experienced it first-hand. It'll only make it harder on both of us.”

She withdrew her hand, her eyes wide with shock.
“What do you mean?” Her eyes narrowed as she tapped his chest. “You swore you'd never do anything to hurt us. What was that? Just a lie to get me into bed with you?”

Sam shook his head.
“I'd never lie to you. I will admit to poor judgment though, in not thinking this through.” He let his head fall back against the headboard with a thump. “There's more I have to tell you. After what happened to Sean, I vowed to get revenge on the Ravens’ enforcer. I didn’t expect to live through it, or if I did, I’d end up in prison. It didn’t matter to me before.”

“But it does now?”

“I want to make him pay. That desire will never go away, but I don’t want to lose you in the process.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“First I need to convince you to stay a few more days. I just want to be sure you’re safe. Will you do that for me? I don’t think Howard has connected me to this house, but the guys who followed us from your house are sure to have told Howard about you and that I was there too. He knows I’m looking for him, and that means, you’re at risk too. It’s like you have a double whammy hanging over your head. First, Johnny, then me. I’m terrified that Howard will try to get to me or Johnny through you and Kelsie. He’s ruthless and he’s already proven that he’ll kill innocents to send a message. I was so hell-bent on getting Johnny away, and finding Howard, that I didn’t stop to consider that he’ll realize that he can send a message to both me and Johnny by hurting you and Kelsie.” Sam closed his eyes and shook his head. How could he have been so stupid? His desire for vengeance had sapped his ability to think clearly. To think as he’d been trained to think.. “Will you give me a few more days?”

Molly tilted her head up to meet his eyes
and he read fear in hers, but there was also something else lurking there. Guilt? He shook it off. It was his own guilt reflecting in her eyes. She finally nodded. “Yes. I want it over, too. I feel like our lives are on hold.”

* * *

Sam held Molly the rest of the night and wished morning would never come. He had no choice. He had to go find the man who had killed his son, and in doing so would ensure Molly and her daughter's safety too. 

Around two a.m., he heard a car pull in the driveway, and after a door slam, Johnny loudly thanked
Victoria for the good time. Victoria's reply was inaudible, but she sounded annoyed. Sam grinned against Molly's curls. It took a lot to get Victoria in a bad mood. Johnny must have done something to really piss her off.

Johnny's curses were loud in the quiet house as he seemed to careen down the hallway, bumping into the wall several times.

Worried about Kelsie waking up from the racket, Sam flung back the covers to go talk to him when the door to Johnny's room slammed, rattling the windows in the house. Molly started in her sleep, but didn't awaken. With an ear cocked towards Kelsie's room, Sam slid back into bed, but held his breath waiting to see if the noise had awakened the little girl. The house was silent, and Sam closed his eyes with a sigh.

In the morning, it took
very little convincing to get Johnny to go. His eagerness surprised Sam, but he didn't dwell on it. He had too much on his mind. There was a lot to be done. Sam needed a new bike as his was back at Molly's and they couldn't leave Molly without a vehicle, so that meant finding one to buy. Sam knew a guy in the area who always seemed to have one for sale. He fixed bikes but sometimes the owners couldn't pay for the repairs or were only fixing them so they could be sold, so the guy had an ear to the ground about the best bikes for sale. By late afternoon, Sam had paid cash for a good used bike. He'd also secured enough cash to get Molly through a month if need be. He'd had the phone reconnected, since cell coverage was sparse. The next day, he took Molly and Kelsie shopping for items they hadn't brought with them and some extra clothes. He opened another bank account and transferred enough money to get them through several months.

If it hadn't been for the threat looming over them, the excu
rsion would have been fun. Every minute he spent with them sealed them in his heart. His girls. Molly was the kind of mother he'd always wished Sean would have had.

More and more often, his thoughts of Sean brought a smile to his face instead of daggers of pain to his heart. If only they could live like this forever.
He tried to fight his feelings. The timing was all wrong. Love was supposed to come when he was ready for it, not like a bolt from the blue.

Sam sat down to dinner, keenly aware that tomorrow night, he'd be in another town an
d already a sliver of pain stabbed at him. “This is great, Molly. I'm no good at cooking fish and this rice is fantastic.”

Molly smiled and said,
“You keep catching them, and I'll keep cooking them.”

Sam grinned. He and Molly had taken Kelsie fishing and with all the chattering Kelsie did, he was shocked he'd caught anything, but the bass and walleye had been more than enough for a meal.
“Deal.”

“
Why do you have to go, Mr. Sam? It's not going to be any fun here without you.”

Molly's s
mile died and Sam felt a mouthful of rice stick in his throat. They had told the little girl that Sam and Johnny had to leave to take care of some business, but he had been unprepared for her tears. Even now, as another fat drop rolled down her cheek, he was torn between wanting to make her feel better or savoring thought that she'd miss him when he was gone.

“
I don't want to leave, punkin', but I have a little job to do, and as soon as it's done, I'll be right back here.”

Kelsie moped and poked her fork into her dinner.
“I hate fish.”

“
That's not true, hon. You used to love fish.” Molly smoothed Kelsie's hair off her forehead and said, “Try the rice. I think you'll like it.”

He caught the worried glance from Molly
, but could only shrug helplessly.

In bed that night, Sam held Molly, almost afraid to move for fear he'd forget the feel of her warm curves pressed against him. He kissed the top of her head.

“I don't understand why you have to find this enforcer guy, Sam. Why can't Johnny just move to another state or something?”

Sam sighed and tightened his arms in a gentle squeeze.
“I wish it was that easy, but these gangs, they have connections all over the country. If Johnny surfaces somewhere, you can be damn sure that somebody is going to get the word back to the Ravens. The only possible way to get him in the clear is for us to find the enforcer, set him up and get him to admit to what he's done.”

“
Won't that get Johnny in trouble too?”

“
I wish I could guarantee what kind of deal he'd get from the DA, but I can't. I can only speak up for him. My goal is for him to get off light with little or no time. Possibly one of those work release programs. He's managed to fly under the radar so far, which is a miracle that might work in his favor. Besides, it’s not just Johnny he’s after. By now, he’ll know about me and you, or at least be pretty close to putting two and two together.”

Molly waved as Sam and Johnny rode out of the driveway. Crossing her arms, she leaned against the pillar on the edge of the porch. Logically, she understood what Sam was trying to do, but it didn’t make it any easier. She was worried for his safety and her brother’s, but with a sigh, she pushed off the pillar. There wasn’t anything she could do.

Sam had left her an ATM card and given her the PIN, so she had access to money. He said he had a few accounts and had transferred a sizeable amount to get her through a few months if she had to, but he had promised to be back well before then
, probably in just a few days. She wandered through the house. Kelsie was still sleeping, so she went into Sam’s room and made the bed, resisting the urge to pick up his pillow and hug it to her.

The house already seemed empty
. Restless, she went to the kitchen and began cooking pancakes for Kelsie. She told herself that she didn’t miss Sam already. It had only been a half-hour. It was just that the house was so quiet with just her and Kelsie in it, ignoring the fact that only she and Kelsie lived in her home and she should be used to it. She went to wake up her daughter hoping that once Kelsie filled the house with her chatter, everything would be fine.

The next few days, Molly spent the mornings with routine chores while Kelsie played with a few stuffed animals and Barbie dolls they had picked up on their shopping excursions with Sam. In the afternoon, they headed to the beach for a few hours of swimming and playing in the sand. Dinners were grilled chicken b
reasts, hamburgers or hot dogs.

By the fifth
day, Mollie had to get out of the house and see other people. She loved Kelsie more than life itself, but she was going to go nuts if she had to play Barbies one more time. At home, Kelsie had her friends in the neighborhood or the TV, but Sam had discontinued cable television shortly after his son had died, since he hadn’t intended on coming back. He had offered to get it re-installed, but Molly hadn’t wanted him to go the trouble. Besides, it would do her and Kelsie good to get away from television for a while. There were loads of books in Sean’s room that were the perfect reading level for Kelsie. In her mind’s eye, she had pictured reading aloud to Kelsie every night before bedtime, but the reality was that Kelsie fell asleep before Molly could finish more than a few pages. All the swimming and playing outside wore her out, but that left Molly with long evenings with no one to talk to and no television to fill the silence.

Tonight was no different. The sun hadn’t even fully set although it was after nine. Bored, she picked up the book she had been reading at the beach and made herself comfortable on the sofa. For a half hour, she tried to dive into the story,
but instead of getting lost in the pages, she was lost in her thoughts. Sam was foremost. What was he doing? Was he okay? Wondering was torture, so to save herself from imagining what horrible things might be happening, she replayed every intimate moment she and Sam had shared.

A knock on the door made her jump to her feet, the book falling to the floor with a thump.
She didn’t know anyone here, but maybe it was a friend of Sam’s. That was the most likely possibility, but there was also a remote chance it could be one of the Ravens. Unsure of what to do, she hesitated until she heard a familiar voice come through the door.

“
Sam? It’s me, Victoria.”

Molly rolled her
eyes and opened the door. “Hey, Victoria. Sam’s not here right now. Is there something you need?”

The other woman frowned then shrugged.
“Is Johnny here?” Her eyebrows rose in an expression of hope and Molly relaxed. So this was the real reason. “Sorry, he and Sam went out.”

Victoria pouted.
“Will they be back soon?”

“
I’m not sure. They were taking a road trip on their motorcycles and playing it by ear. You know men. They don’t plan anything.”

“
Oh. Well, I suppose that will be good for Sam with the year anniversary of little Sean’s death coming up soon. Maybe he’ll find some peace out on the road.”

Surprised
at the insight, Molly pushed the screen door open. “You’re probably right. Would you like to come in? Maybe have a drink or something? I believe there’s a bottle of wine in the fridge.”

Victoria hesitated, then shrugged.
“Sure. Why not? I don’t have anything else to do.”

Molly hid a smile. This was the Victoria she had first met.
“Come on. I can rummage up a snack too.”

After pouring them each a glass of wine, they took it out to the front deck along with
a plate of fresh fruit and dip.

They sipped their drinks, quiet for several moments. Molly cast a sidelong look at Victoria. Had she and Sam ever been intimate? For some reason, she couldn’t see the two together because Sam was such a quiet no nonsense kind of guy, while Victoria was loud and didn’t seem to filter anything she said. Molly gave a mental shrug. Wh
o was she to judge? It wasn’t as if her track record with men was anything to brag about. On the other hand, she could totally see Johnny and Victoria as a couple.

Molly took a slice of apple and dunked it in the di
p. “Did you and Johnny have a nice evening the other night?” She bit the slice, savoring the light creamy dip with its hints of black cherry and vanilla. Her brother had only mumbled something when she had asked him the same question, so now she was curious.

Victoria chuckled.
“You mean he didn’t tell you?”

Puzzled, Molly shrugged.
“No, but then he doesn’t normally tell me too much. Did something happen?”

“
Johnny got wasted, which is fine—it’s not like we’re married or anything. We were having a good time and I was introducing him to some of the locals. He was playing pool with some of the guys.”

“
That doesn’t sound so bad.” Molly was relieved. She had expected something much worse.

“
Wait, it gets better.” Victoria paused to sip her wine. “Some rough looking men I don’t know were playing pool at the other table, and before long, Johnny was challenging them to some games. Still nothing bad, but he was getting more and more drunk, and started talking—no, make that bragging—about getting shot at by some motorcycle gang. He made it sound like he fended off a whole posse single-handedly.

A jolt of fear stabbed through Molly’s stomach. Johnny knew that he was supposed to keep everything quiet. She tried to act casual.
“What did they say?”

“
They laughed him off at first. I mean, no disrespect, but your brother doesn’t exactly look like the tough guy he pretends to be.” She threw Molly an apologetic look and continued, “I was laughing too, but then he mentioned Sam and how the two of them fought off some gang called the Ravens.” Her tone became serious. “I saw some of the guys give each other a look like they knew something. It scared me, and I tried to get Johnny to shut up, but he just kept going on and on about this gang and how he and Sam were going to take them down.”

Molly’s heart had stopped beating somewhere around the time Victoria had ment
ioned the Ravens. What if those men knew one of the Ravens? What if word got back to the enforcer? Would they come looking for Johnny way up here? She set her wine down. “Did they say anything?”

“
Hell yeah they did. They laughed, but it was the kind of laugh that makes you shiver, you know? Not the kind that makes you feel good. Anyway, Johnny said Sam had been shot so he’d had to save him. He even mentioned something about his sister patching Sam up.”

“
Oh God.”

Victoria held the stem of the glass with one hand while tapping the rim idly with the thumb of the other.
“I’m sorry. I finally got him away from the group by telling him it was time to go. I’ve been worried about it ever since.” She shrugged as her mouth twisted into a wry smile. “I know you don’t like me.” She waved off Molly’s instinctive protest and continued, “I don’t blame you. I don’t like you either.”

Stunned at the candor, Molly could only gape at her guest.

“It’s not personal, Molly. You seem nice enough, but I’ve loved Sam since he was a seventeen. He never noticed me though. I was just the kid sister of his best friend. By the time I was old enough where he might have paid attention to me, he was out of college and didn’t come back here very often. Unlike Sam, I was stuck here year-round. I didn’t get to leave when school started and go live someplace where shopping at the local “Fleet and Farm” isn’t the highlight of the month.”

Molly gazed at the lake as the last rays of the sun turned the water the color of fire. The eastern sky was a deep blue wi
th the first few stars emerging to twinkle on the horizon. A loon’s call echoed over the still water. “I can’t imagine wanting to leave this place.”

Victoria rolled her eyes.
“Sure, it’s pretty, but it’s also boring as hell. I dreamed of moving to Chicago or New York.” She toyed with the empty glass, and Molly thought about offering a refill, but since Victoria had already admitted to not liking her, all she wanted to do was get her out as fast as possible and call Sam on his cell. The other woman raised one shoulder in a careless half-shrug and said, “But, it wasn’t meant to be. I got pregnant when I was nineteen and got married. I lost the baby a month later.”

“
I’m so sorry.”

“
Yeah, me too. If I had miscarried just a month earlier, I would have had my chance to pursue my dreams. Instead, I stayed here with Don. He had a good job at the sawmill, but we never got ahead.” She glanced at Molly and must have read the horror on Molly’s face at her callous recount of her miscarriage, because her eyes turned cold. “Don’t judge me. I was devastated at the time, but it was years ago. I stayed married thinking we’d go off and have the whole dream of a little house and children, but Don liked to hang out at the bars more often than he liked to be home with me. I tried for years to make that dream a reality, but I ran out of energy. While I was working two full-time jobs to save money for our own house, he was out at the bars drinking up our savings. I finally had enough and kicked him to the curb.”

Molly didn’t know how to respond. She had her own rocky history with men and didn’t consider herself even close to being an expert.
“It sounds like you did the right thing.”

“
Yeah, well too little too late, as the saying goes. I’m pushing thirty and my dreams of being a model died a decade ago. When I heard Sam was back in town, I thought we’d finally have our chance, but instead, he had you and your little girl.” She didn’t sneer, but her tone came close.

M
olly had heard enough of Victoria’s sob story. She stood, picking up her own glass and taking Victoria’s as well. “Look, you can say what you want about me, but don’t use that tone in conjunction with my daughter ever again. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m beat and was about to call it a night.”

Victoria stood and took the last apple slice from the plate, and dipped it.
“I don’t know what tone you’re talking about. I think your daughter is adorable.” She popped the apple into her mouth.

Molly gave her a long look, but shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter. Thank you for telling me about my brother’s encounter with those men. I’ll call Sam and let him know.”

* * *

“Sam?” Molly sat on the steps of the porch, wishing Sam was here. “Victoria stopped by last night and she had some news.” She recounted her conversation with Victoria. “I’m worried.”

“I’m not sure how much I trust Victoria’s account of things, but I think we’
re about done down here. I got some info from an old contact that the Ravens haven’t been around for a few weeks.”

“So does that mean you’re coming home?” She’d intended to say, ‘coming back
’, but coming home had slipped out instead. This little cottage had become a home to her and already she hated the thought of leaving, but they couldn’t stay here forever. She stood and leaned against the railing, craning to look around the corner to make sure Kelsie hadn’t gone near the water. Molly was happy to see that she was still engrossed in some kind of Barbie drama with her new dolls.

Sam seemed not to have noticed her
slip about home . “Yeah, I don’t see any point in staying down here. The trail’s gone cold.”

She heard regret in his voice and it reminded her of Sam’s personal mission in regards to The Ravens.
If only he could achieve peace without seeking vengeance. Molly dipped her head, scuffing the toe of her tennis shoe at a dried chunk of mud on the porch, sending the small clump sailing off into the grass. “I hope Johnny’s not causing too much trouble.”

“No, he’s doing okay. We picked up your mail and got the other things
you asked for. If we get on the road in the next hour, we should be back by dinner time.”

“I’ll make something nice for dinner.” As soon as she hung up, Molly spun in a circle, cheeks aching from the grin that couldn’t seem to wipe away. Sam was coming home. It had only been a few days, but she felt like the time had crawled by.