A/N: Happy Holidays to everyone! Thank you all for your support and patience. Sorry for the delay in posting, things have been hectic lately and this was a difficult chapter to write. Please let me know what you think of the story, I'd love to hear from you.
Quick shoutout to Ghostwriter-As always thank you for your reviews! Dani's kept her shit together so far through an incredibly difficult day. It's almost over though, so we'll see how she goes.
Ok folks- Happy reading!
Chapter 32
Dani took a deep breath to steady herself. She shot a worried glance at Chibs who gave her a quick nod and clasped a firm hand on her shoulder.
"You ready, Lass?" Chibs asked her as the vehicle began to slow.
Dani closed her eyes. "I can do this," she whispered to herself, then opened her eyes and made eye contact with Chibs before nodding. "I can do this." She said again with forced determination.
Chibs gave her a look of approval. "Just walk right inside. Your brother and Opie will be right there waiting."
Dani nodded again. Chibs opened the door and guided her to step out with the hand that was on her shoulder. Dani didn't think Opie meant his advice to take this one step at a time literally, but that's exactly what was going through her mind as she forced her feet to keep moving, one in front of the other in a quick walk. Before she was ready, she was walking through the door. The familiar comfort of Jax and Opie did little to quell the tightness spreading across her chest. She took in a deep breath and took in her surroundings for the first time. They were standing in an open, well-lit photography studio. She was surprised; she knew of course that it would be unlikely she would walk through the doors into sinister looking surroundings, but she wasn't expecting anything quite so ordinary looking.
She looked to Opie. "What's happening?" she asked.
"We got him. We're taking him somewhere we can deal with him. We found some messed up shit, we can't find the kid, though." He told her as he guided her towards the back of the studio. "Take a look around. See if we missed anything." He led her to the back of the building and began heading down a flight of stairs into a basement.
Dani hesitated at the top of the stairs. She felt her chest restrict even further at the thought of going down those stairs. Jax put his hands on her shoulders and she looked back at him as she immediately took comfort in the reassuring presence of her brother.
"You good?" Jax asked. Dani nodded, took a shaky breath, and walked down the stairs. Opie was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs and took her hand. He gave it a squeeze before leading her through the basement.
Dani looked around as he led her first through what looked like a storage room with backdrops and props, then into a darkroom. At the other end of the darkroom there was another door that was open and led into a narrow hallway. Opie guided her into the first room the hallway led to, which was an office. It was an ordinary looking office, by all accounts, with a wooden desk in the middle and a row of file cabinets along the back wall.
It was remarkable to Dani only because it was exactly how she remembered it. The only addition to the office was a fairly new looking desktop computer sat on the desk where before there was nothing. Her memory was of a neat and orderly office. The chaos of crooked furniture and papers strewn about only added to the slew of painful memories coming to the forefront of her mind. The phantom shouts for Diana echoed in her ears, her cheek tingled with the remembrance of a slap. She systematically tensed all the muscles in her body in a futile effort to keep from trembling.
Sucking in a breath she looked at Opie. "You said you found something?" she asked.
Opie's jaw clenched and his eyes hardened as he nodded. "They were pretty well hidden, but we found these in a false bottom of one of the desk drawers." He gestured to a small stack of file folders. "They each have a girl's name on the label. There's one labelled 'Diana.'" He told her.
Dani swallowed. "Did you look at it?" she questioned.
"Just enough to know that it was yours," he said tightly.
"I—can we take it with us, or do you think someone might come to check on things when he's gone and might notice its missing?"
"There won't be anything left for them to notice." Dani started to ask what Opie meant but he cut her off. "Go with Jax. Make sure we didn't miss anything when we looked for the kid."
Dani nodded but before she turned to leave the room, she put a hand on Opie's arm and gave it a squeeze. "I don't want—the file you found—I don't want anyone else to see it, or I want to see it first, at least."
Opie agreed then gave her a nudge to go. She followed Jax into the hallway. "Where did you look for her?" She asked him.
"Everywhere," Jax told her. "There's not many places to hide someone in the studio upstairs but we looked. We searched the storage room we came through, the office, and there's a kids' room and a kitchen at the end of the hall."
"What about the closets?" Dani asked as she forced her feet down a hallway she hadn't traversed in over a decade. She knew Jax was speaking, but she could no longer hear what he was saying. Forcing herself not to stop, Dani nudged the open door so it would open fully and stepped inside the room that held so many of her nightmares. The walls were painted a pale blue with white fluffy clouds, but they had been faded and dingy even when she had been there and time had not been kind—the walls were dreary and gray looking, the attempt at false comfort and cheer morphed into the grim despair this room had brought her, like the walls couldn't lie. One corner of the room held a table and two chairs. A long, low bookshelf sat along one wall, filled with children's schoolbooks, papers, crayons, and pencils, a dusty chalkboard mounted to the wall. The area served as both a study area and dining table. The opposite corner held a loveseat and armchair facing an older television sitting on a small media cabinet, which held a handful of children's movies. The third corner of the room held a door that led to a small bathroom, and a twin bed, covered in white sheets with a pale pink blanket. The final corner of the room held a wardrobe and a tall bookshelf filled with stuffed animals and other toys. A large rug sat in the middle of the room, the only area that had a cover over the cold concrete floors.
Jax brushed by her as he began another sweep of the room, looking under the bed, disappearing into the bathroom to look in there before coming back out a moment later and moving to the wardrobe. He yanked open the doors and swept the clothes aside. Dani finally was able to tune back in to what Jax was saying. "…not here. Where else would he put her?"
"That's not the closet," Dani said. "That wasn't here when I was," she told him as she moved past him to stand in front of the bookshelf. "Neither was this. The closet was here; it was right here." Grasping the edge of the bookshelf, she started pulling, but the shelf did not budge. Giving another tug she looked over at Jax. "Help me with this."
Jax went to the opposite side of the shelf and pushed, frowning when it didn't budge. He came over to her side, maneuvering her out of the way. He pulled on the shelf, but once again, it did not move. Inspecting the shelf, he knelt down as something caught his eye. "Look. It's on a track," he said, pointing to where there were tracks set into the floor. At first glance it looked like a crack in the floor, but it was too uniform looking. Jax began running his hands along the shelves, moving some of the objects on the shelves as he went. "There's got to be a latch somewhere." Dani wasn't sure what Jax did, but he must have found the hidden latch because a moment later the shelf was sliding easily to the side to reveal a closet door.
Dani moved forward to open the door, but Jax held her back and reached for the door himself. He looked over his shoulder at her and nodded, then, with one hand on the doorknob, the other resting on his gun handle as it rested in its holster and opened the door in one swift movement.
Huddled in the corner of the closet was a young girl, maybe six or seven years old, with copper-colored curls and bright green eyes staring up at them, eyes wide with fear. Dani pushed Jax out of the way and knelt in front of the open door. "It's ok," Dani said softly extending her hands out, palms up in a reassuring gesture. "We're here to help. We're going to take you home." The girl pushed back further into the back of the closet, clearly not convinced.
"I know you're scared, but it's ok. Can you tell me your name?" Dani asked.
The little girl stared at her for a moment before stuttering out a reply in a tone just above a whisper. "Sa—Sarah."
"Is that what they call you here?" Dani asked. The little girl hesitated again before nodding. "Did you have a different name before you came here?" When the girl did not respond, Dani continued. "When I was a little girl, someone took me away from my family and they brought me here. They made me use a different name and tried to convince me that my family wasn't real, that my life wasn't real. Eventually, I played along and pretended because I didn't want to get punished anymore. It took a long time but eventually I escaped and found my family. I promised that one day I would find the people that took me from them and make sure they couldn't hurt anyone anymore."
The girl in the closet had inched closer as Dani spoke. Dani took that as a good sign and kept talking. "I'm going to help you find your family. No one is going to hurt you again. Do you believe me?" The girl hesitated then nodded. "Is Sarah your real name?" The girl hesitated again. "It's ok. You can tell me. No one will hurt you, remember? Is Sarah your name?" The girl shook her head. "Do you want to come out of the closet now? I'll take you out of here, and once you tell me your name, we'll start looking for your family."
Dani held out her hand to help the girl up, but she darted right past her hand, launching herself into Dani's arms. "My name is Savannah," she gasped out as she began to cry. Dani's arms wrapped around Savannah, holding the girl as tightly as she was clinging to her. Dani felt her own eyes start to fill with tears when she felt a large hand on her shoulder. She startled, then relaxed as she looked up at her brother.
"We need to go." Jax told her. Dani nodded and adjusted her grip on Savannah before standing up while keeping her hold on the young girl. Dani frowned as she tried to ignore the ache that ran through her newly healed elbow. So much for not lifting more than five pounds.
"Hold on," Dani whispered to Savannah. "I'm taking you out of here, ok?" She felt Savannah nod into her shoulder. Dani's vision was blurred with the tears she was trying but failing to hold back. If it wasn't for Jax's guiding hand on her back Dani would not have been able to safely walk down the hallway, through the storage room, up the stairs and out a back door to the waiting van. She climbed in carefully and settled on the floor with Savannah, unaware of the looks of shock and surprise at the sight of the girl in Dani's arms.
When the men had searched the building, there had been a mutual feeling of disgust when they found the kids room in the basement, but upon completing their search and not finding a child, they had assumed that either Dani had been wrong about there being a kid there, or that the kid had already been sent off someplace else. They had brought Dani in mostly to humor her and ease her mind that they weren't leaving a child behind.
The van door closed, cutting off the looks and as the van started moving Dani began rocking with Savannah, trying to sooth the child's sobbing, even as Dani's own tears were now falling freely and she was barely able to contain her own sobs. "It's ok Savannah, You're safe. I know." Dani kept repeating these same phrases over and over.
The van had been travelling for about ten minutes before it slowed to a stop, not that Dani noticed. She was too focused on Savannah, offering comfort, taking on as much of the girl's pain as she could—pain that was ripping open the scars of her own emotional wounds.
"Lass," Dani heard Chibs speaking quietly in her ear. Dani looked up at him, lost. "If you can put yourself together a bit for just a moment, there's something I think you'll want to see." He told her. It took her a moment to process what he was saying, but when she did, she nodded and closed her eyed, took a few deep breaths and tried to will the tears to stop, as she continued to soothe Savannah.
Her vision cleared somewhat as the tears slowed to a trickle and she looked back up a Chibs. He opened the siding door of the van, and she could see they were parked at an overlook on the side of a hill. The overlook showed the small town outside Tacoma, and she looked at Chibs in question. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"Just watch." He told her. "You'll see it any minute now."
Not even a full minute had passed before she saw the reason for their stop. A glowing burst of red and yellow erupted from the edge of town. Despite the distance, she could hear the far-off sound of the explosion. It took her a few moments for her to process what it was she was seeing and to put it together. "Is that…?" she trailed off, not even sure how to ask her question, or what question it was she was asking exactly.
"Your old man does good work." Chibs commented.
Dani looked at him in surprise before everything clicked into place. Opie had served time for arson. The urgency in his eyes as he told her to make sure they hadn't missed anything in their search for the girl. His comment about no one noticing her missing file. There wouldn't be anything to miss. "O—" she glanced down at Savannah. They had been careful not to use any names around her. She didn't think the girl was paying attention, too lost in her own head at the moment, but it was best to be careful. She cleared her throat and started again. "He did that?"
"Aye." Chibs told her. "We all agreed to send the building, and the sorry sack of man we found in it both to hell. As soon as we get some information on this one," he nodded to Savannah, "you can have a talk with your old acquaintance while we figure out how to get her home."
Dani nodded, her eyed travelling back to the fire. They were too far away to feel the heat of the fire, but warmth spread through Dani anyway. It was as if the force of the fire was burning through her soul, but instead of destroying her as it had the building in her sight, it fortified her, strengthened her, the spark of the flames that reflected in her watery eyes sparking her anger, allowing her to put a damper on the pain and fear and every emotion that made her feel weak. Opie had set this fire, this explosion and with it had sent her his strength. She had been so close to falling apart, but she now had what she needed to continue with the remaining tasks of the day. She took it in, breathing deeply for a moment before she leaned back and wiped the last of the tears from her face. She knew what she had to do.
Ninety minutes later, Dani had calmed Savannah and gotten as much information as she could from the girl. Savannah Montgomery was six years old from Portland, Oregon. Her mommy was called Beth and her daddy was David and they had a cat named Snuffles. She didn't remember her phone number but was able to recite her address. Dani wrote down the information and passed it to Chibs, who pulled out his phone to call, she was sure, Juice to relay the information. Dani made them stop and pick up some food, had to insist upon it, but when she saw how quickly Savannah ate the chicken nuggets and french fries they had picked up for her, she was glad she hadn't agreed to wait.
Having grown tired from the emotions of the day and a full stomach, Savannah had started to doze off when the van once again slowed to a stop. Chibs had leaned over to whisper to her before she nodded and turned her attention to the sleepy girl. "Savannah," Dani said softly. The young girl opened her eyes and looked up at her sleepily. Dani shrugged off her jacket and tucked it around Savannah as a makeshift blanket. "I have to go and take care of something and work out how to get you home. You stay here and
sleep. I won't be far, and my friends will be right outside. I promise you no one will hurt you here. If you need anything, you just call out and they will come get me ok?" Savannah nodded hesitantly and closed her eyes again. Dani sat with her for a few more minutes until she was sure Savannah was sleeping again.
Dani crawled out of the van and closed the door softly behind her. They were parked outside an old warehouse and standing just a few steps away, waiting for her, was Opie. He moved to her, arms open ready to bring her to him, but instead of allowing herself the comfort of his embrace she grasped his hands in hers and stepped closer, close enough that she could feel his warmth but not actually touching him except for where their hands were intertwined. "I'm holding myself together, but just barely. If you touch me, I think I might fall apart."
Opie looked at her in concern. "Are you ok?" he asked, running his thumbs over her hands.
"Better since I saw that fire of yours," she said with a weary smile.
A smirk flashed across Opie's face for the briefest moment before turning serious again. "Ready?" he asked her. Dani sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Keeping hold of one of her hands, he led her inside the warehouse. Just inside the door, Jax, Clay and Tig were standing in wait. Bobby and Happy were standing further in the warehouse and from this angle it appeared they were glaring a pillar they were standing in front of. She craned her neck slightly and could see that a man was tied to that pillar. A breath caught in her throat as she caught the briefest glimpse of the man who had carved out a large part of her nightmares. She could only see part of his head and shoulder as he was tied facing away from her, but that glimpse was enough to rattle her. A few men she didn't know that she assumed were from the Tacoma charter were scattered about as well.
Tearing her gaze away, she turned her attention to Clay as he began to speak. "Ok kid, it's your show now." He told her.
Dani nodded, then hesitated. "I know we have a deal," she said looking to Clay, "that after this we are done, no more retribution, and I still stand by it, I don't think I could take another day like this. But I have to ask him about the people I went to after him. I can't not ask. I don't know if he will tell me anything, but I have to try. I have to know. Mayb—"
"Today changed a few things." Jax broke in, giving Clay a look before turning to Dani. "We'll talk about that later though. You do what you got to do."
Clay gave Jax a hard stare, then looked to Dani and seemed to lose a bit of that heat and then smiled sardonically. "Let's go say hello to your old friend then."
Not sure what to make of the exchange between Jax and Clay, and not having the mental or emotional capacity to think about it, Dani turned and started walking towards the man tied to the pillar, flanked by her small army of bikers. Summoning the embers of the internal fire that was fueling her Dani rounded the corner and got her first look in years at the man. Dark hair, now salt and peppered, with a well-groomed mustache and beard, his six foot frame was lean and muscular, though a bit thicker around the middle than she remembered. His eyes were steel gray and assessing as she approached.
"Hello Eric," she said, and was surprised by the calm, even tone of her voice. "Do you know who I am?" she asked.
As he took her in the look on his face was almost delighted when he responded. "You were always one of my favorites. So strong, such spirit, such fun to break. Though you never would break completely, would you? It's good to see you again, Diana."
It wasn't until she felt the sting on her hand that she realized she had taken the three steps necessary to close the distance and slapped him across his face. "You dreamed Diana," she said sarcastically. "You made her up, but she doesn't exist. Say my name."
Eric chuckled, he actually chuckled, which shocked Dani. "Oh, Diana, that tickled, my little feisty mouse."
Dani scoffed with disbelief. "You're awfully confident for the one whose been caught in the trap this time. Maybe one of my friends here can help you remember my name without tickling." She stepped back as she spoke.
As if it had been previously arranged, Opie stepped forward and, using the momentum of his approach he landed a punch square in Eric's jaw that was so powerful that it knocked two of his teeth out. Stepping up into his face Opie growled "Personally, I don't want to hear her name uttered from your mouth, but she wants to hear it, so you fucking say it."
Eric turned to the side and spat out a mouthful of blood. "Very well, Danielle. I must commend you on the brutes that you've hired in your little quest here. I wonder how much they cost you… must have taken everything you have. I wonder if they would be interested in a counter-offer," he mused.
"These brutes as you put it, aren't hired help. This is the family I was taken from. The family you kept me from. No one is here for money, we're all here for payback." Dani informed him and for the first time, she saw that arrogant mask of his slip and his face flash with worry before looking resigned.
"Bravo, Danielle," Eric said, his voice full of resignation. "You finally have the upper hand. What is it that you want, my dear?"
"I want you to know that I'm the one who stopped you. You are a sick fuck, and you won't hurt anyone else ever again. Your little house of horrors you masquerade as a photography studio is gone. Blown to tiny bit— don't worry though, we found the girl. That bookcase trick was clever If I hadn't been there, we might not have found her." Again, a flash of emotion showed on Erics face—this time anger. "What happens with you, well I haven't decided yet. That depends on how much information you want to give me."
"What exactly do you want to know?" Eric asked.
"I want to know about your friend, the one you gave me to."
"Oh no. I didn't give you away. You brought in a hefty price tag. Little virgin whores always do, especially ones with as much spirit as you." Eric interjected, but was met with a second punch from Opie.
"You will speak to her with respect." Opie said in a dangerous tone.
"Your friend, Nicholas. I want to know everything you know about him, including where he took me, and where he is now."
"I don't suppose it would hurt you to know." Eric said. "Nicholas Jennings is the man you are asking about. While you were a guest of his—"
"Guest? Diana interjected with disgust. "Is that what you call us?"
Eric smirked but continued speaking as if he hadn't heard her, "- you were held on his property somewhere outside Billings, Montana. He's not there anymore though. About six years ago, he became a longtime resident of Montana State Prison. He wasn't as careful as he should have been with his circle of friends, trusted the wrong people. He got too greedy too, started hosting multiple guests at the same time."
"It was hard to keep track of time while I was… a guest of you and your friends, but it was about six or seven years ago that he sent me someplace else." Dani said, faltering as she started processing this new information.
As if Eric could sense the change, his tone turned taunting. "Yes, I spoke to Nicholas about three months before he was arrested, he had just sent you to your new host and was looking to host a new guest himself. I wasn't ready to part with mine yet, and I was losing trust in him, so I turned him down. Just think. If the police had moved a little sooner, if he had held on to you a little longer, you could have been rescued sooner, returned to your family sooner. How much longer did you have to endure? Months? Years?"
The information hit her like a punch to the stomach as she gasped out loud. As if sensing her pain and wanting to inflict it back on Eric, Opie rammed his fist into the other man's midsection.
'Don't lose your shit yet,' Dani thought to herself. 'Keep it together. Feed the fire. Think angry.'
"Why aren't you in jail then? Seems he might want to turn in some of his friends to have made a better deal for himself." Dani asked.
Eric's response was a bit wheezy as he recovered from Opie's latest blow. "Because he knows if he turned anyone in, a shorter sentence wouldn't matter, it would buy him a death sentence from all of us."
"What do you know about where I was sent after him?" Dani demanded.
"Nothing," Eric replied. "When I spoke to Nicholas, he mentioned you were somewhere in the northeast, but didn't specify where or who. As curious as I was, don't have many contacts out that way."
"Are you telling the truth?" Dani asked.
"I would never lie to my Diana."
"Thank you, Eric." She said, putting a hand on Opie's shoulder and pulling him back. After the had backed away a few steps she held out a hand. "Jax. Give me your gun, please, will you?"
"What?" was the same response from Jax, Opie and Eric.
"What are you doing? Let take it from here." Jax said, appearing at her side. "You don't have to do this," he told her.
"Trust me," she said. "I know what I'm doing. Let me do this." She looked from him to Opie, silently giving them a look of pleading determination.
Jax, Opie and Clay exchanged glances before Clay gave a single nod. Jax slowly pulled the gun out of his holster and placed it in her hands. "Do you remember how I showed you to use it?" he asked her. Dani nodded as she checked the safety on the gun, and raised it to take aim at her target.
Eric let out a dark laugh of disbelief. "You won't shoot me. You might have been a bit feisty, but you don't have the killer instinct."
Dani lowered the gun for a moment as she made herself meet Eric's gaze. "Do you know how I escaped?" she asked him, knowing he didn't and continued. "I stabbed a man. Repeatedly. I don't even know how many times I stabbed him, I just kept going until he was dead."
"Twenty-three." Happy chimed in. "It was a thing of fucking beauty."
Surprised, she turned to Happy. "You saw it?"
As happy nodded, Jax spoke. "Not all of it," he assured. "Just the end of it. That day we were making plans, you mentioned it, and when Opie pulled you out of the room, Happy asked about it."
"It was Like Lizzie fucking Borden," Happy commented.
"Lizzie used an ax, not a knife," Dani said. "But we are getting off track." She turned her attention back to Eric. "The point is that I've proven I'll do what I have to," she told him as she raised the gun again. She took aim, took a deep breath in, and as she exhaled, she pulled the trigger. The sound of the gunshot made her ears ring and almost drowned out Eric's cry of pain as the bullet tore through his upper right thigh.
"You trying to hurt him or kill him?" Clay asked from behind. "Cause if you're trying to kill him, you're a bit off your mark."
"I missed my mark," Dani agreed breathlessly as her hands trembled slightly, "but only by a few inches." As the men in the room realizes which appendage Dani had been aiming for some of them shifted on behalf of their own equipment, others smirked.
"You fucking bitch!" Eric shouted, anger and pain mixing in his voice. "You act like a fucking victim, but you liked it, you little slut! You whores always like it."
Dani's whole body rolled with a violent tremor and in the blink of an eye, the gun was out of her hand and in Opie's as he emptied the clip into Eric's chest. Jax reached out and put his hands on Dani's shoulders to steady her. Dani's eyes glazed over as she felt herself start to lose control over herself.
'Not yet!' she told herself. 'You still have to help Savannah.' She didn't notice when Opie lowered the gun or handed it off to someone. She barely felt his hands as they cupped her face, barely heard him ask if she was ok. She began to count to ten, slowly. "One…two… three…" she whispered under her breath. Ten seconds was all she would allow herself to let the events of the day this far wash over her before she reigned it all in and pushed everything back into tightly packed little boxes of control. She closed her eyes as she continued to count. When she reached ten, she pushed everything down, down as deep as she possibly could and opened her eyes to look at Opie. He was watching her with concern, a concern that deepened as he saw the nothingness that was reflected in her own eyes as her body stopped trembling and she regained control over her motor functions.
"I'm ok… for now," she told him, her voice a little hoarse, but devoid of emotion. "I still have things to do today. I'll lose my shit when we're done." Opie eyed her carefully before nodding and taking her hand to lead her out of the warehouse. As he did, she turned her head over her shoulder to look at the deceased man, still standing in death, suspended by the ropes wrapped around the pillar. "Goodbye Eric," she said quietly and turned back to follow Opie out and into the light of day.