Life After High School - Ten Years Later
By Risty and Silver
Disclaimer: Uh...err...heh...Oh damn, we don't own them.
Summary: ::yawn:: read and find out.
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(Benny's POV)
I'd only gone home to get changed, check on Crystal and Galia and get some clothes for Damon. After giving Galia some money, I had briefly gone down to the hideout with Lucas so that I could check out some figures for a job we had just done. That was when the phone rang. It was Jaime, telling me that her father and Emma's father were on the prowl again. I think she was hoping that I would be able to say something to comfort her, but I was not going down that road. I was a good friend of hers once, and I knew that her brother would be devastated if he had learnt what was going on, but Damon and Emma had done a lot for me and, like Lucas, I was one hundred percent loyal to them. I took down a couple of notes and told her that I would call her back as soon as possible.
"Bad news?" Lucas enquired as I sunk into the nearest chair and sighed. "Not another job, I hope?"
"Worse" I told him what Jaime had told me and I could see that he was shocked. "What am I supposed to do, Lucas?" I asked, when I had finished. "I can't tell Damon about this, not yet. He has enough to worry about."
"At least we have progressed with the case" Blaze commented. "We know that Emma and Jaime's fathers are the new leaders of the Black Dogs and we know that they are in Bree."
"True" I agreed. "But now we know that, what do we do?"
"Well, you have to get down that hospital" Lucas told me. "Damon needs you. But since all our men are out on other business, having you and Damon down means that we have just five men here; Forrest, Blaze, myself and the two relieves who Damon hired to protect our backs in an emergency."
"That makes things difficult" I said thoughtfully. "Well, send the other two down to Bree, not to attack because they won't stand a chance against four of them, but to question people and to sneak around, see if they can spot anything. If Forrest and Blaze stay here, with Galia and Crystal, do you think you could ride to Hobbiton with Prince and Jack and bring Kane and Vince back? We can protect them here."
"I can do that" Lucas nodded. "I'll leave tonight if you wish, I can there by tomorrow evening then. But what about Ria, they seem to be after her too, right?"
"Yes" I said with a sigh. "But Ria is not my problem nor my concern. Let Jaime and Frodo deal with it."
I noticed the look Forrest was giving me and shook my head. "I know," I said. "Randal and the others have a large gang behind them, a gang much bigger than ours who will go to nothing to get Ria if that is what they want."
"Probably burn down their bloody house or something," Blaze agreed. "Or sneak in and murder them in their beds."
"I know that" I told them sharply. "But I cannot give them any protection because we have no men. If they are that worried they will just have to send Ria away somewhere, until we have gotten to the bottom of all this."
There was nods all round. Anxious to get back to the hospital, I picked up the phone and dialled Jaime's number. She answered after just a couple of rings.
"Benny" she sounded very relieved to hear from me so soon. "Have you spoken to Damon?"
"No" I told her. "And I am not going to, not until Emma's condition has improved. However, I have spoken to Lucas and we have decided what action to take."
"What?"
"We are sending two men to Bree to find out what information they can" I told her. ""And Lucas will be arriving some time tomorrow to pick up Vince and Kane. We can protect them here."
"That's all?" she sounded both angry and amazed. "What about Ria?"
"There is nothing I can do, Jaime," I said firmly. "I simply don't have any men who I can send to protect you. You will just have to deal with it however you can. At the moment, my priority is Emma and the safety of her and Damon's children. When Emma is stable, me, Damon, Lucas, Frodo and yourself can have a meeting and discuss this properly, share information and see if we can shed some light on the situation, but at the moment it is all I can do to investigate what has been happening and see if our men can prevent another attack." She sniffed and I knew that she was crying. She always was good at that. "Look" I continued. "I do not want to alarm you, but you do realise that your father and Ivan Silverblade are the new leaders of the Black Dogs? The Black Dogs are a powerful thieving group who specialize in illegal deals, murder, and stuff like that. Their main base is somewhere in Gondor, but they have other bases in many towns and cities in Middle Earth. They are a big and powerful group and very few people will dare to cross them. By becoming their leader, possibly with the use of money, Ivan has ensured that we cannot stop him from getting what he wants this time. Our group on the other hand, has at best twenty members. Yes, we are all skilled in what we do, but we don't have the strength to take on a group of that size. We are currently in an impossible and dangerous situation and all we can do is to find out what we can and try to keep our children safe."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Jaime asked. "If these people are as dangerous as you say…"
"There is a way" I said, an idea forming in my mind. "I won't blame you if you don't want to trust us in this but it is all we can do. Send Ria to us."
"You what?" I could hear the disbelief in her voice and I didn't blame her, not really.
"Send her to us and let us protect her" I repeated. "You don't have to tell me your answer now, Lucas will be arriving tomorrow afternoon and although he has no wish to make any conversation with you, giving that he has not forgiven you yet, if you decide to take me up on my offer, just have Ria ready along with Kane and Vince. The choice is yours. Oh and one other thing. If there are any children around when Lucas arrives, don't let any of them, or any small animals, run up to the dogs. They are trained to attack strangers on sight."
Having said all that I needed to say, I put the phone down. I knew that I had given Jaime some things to think about and I wondered if she would take me up on my offer. Things were getting serious and I could not help thinking that we were in over our heads…