Puzzling Pieces
Chapter 31 –By Tempest-Races
Black and Blue
"Tell me what the fuck you know!" Brian roared as he advanced toward Storm, cop sense telling him that Storm knew more then she was letting on. The rest of the team looked on in shock as Brian lost his cool, his meal ticket as Dom had once told him. Storm brushed him off like a fly with a shrug.
"I'ma tell ya one more time Boy, don't push me! You don't wanna know."
"I'll tell you what I wanna know! My sister is out there somewhere. I don't need you withholding information from me."
"Yeah, she is out there somewhere and it's just as much your fault as it is mine! The more you talk like a cop the less I wanna help you with this shit!" Storm bellowed as she lost her patience and control. "So you betta shut that shit up, sit the fuck down and let me handle my business!"
"Handle your business?" Brian snorted sarcastically. "We don't even know what the fuck that is!" Brian came at Storm again, hands out as if to grab her around the neck. She let him get within a foot of having her in his grip before a 9mm Glock materialized in her right hand and became pointed right between Brian's eyes. Her draw was so fast all the rest of the group could do was look on in shock. Brian froze in position.
"My business has taught me how to take carea mine pretty boy, so you gonna step to me you betta bring more then your bare hands. You don't bring a fucken knife to a gunfight cop boy. I woulda thought you'da been taught that in cop school." Storm's eyes had gone from in control to hard as jade. The rest of the people assembled looked on in shock, not sure what to do and not wanting to push Storm over the edge into shooting Brian.
Brian looked on in shock. He couldn't believe she'd pulled a gun on him. His sister was out there lost, and hurting and here was some girl pulling a gun on him. "Go ahead, shoot me. What do I care? Some sick fuck has my sister. I think you know who it is but you won't even tell me! So shoot me!."
"Don't push me or I will!" Storm yelled back, not ready to back off since Brian still had his hands raised as though to choke her.
"Now Storm, put the gun away girl. We don't need to roll like that." Vince tried to calm her down, moving behind her, talking softly.
"You betta tell yo boy to slow his roll then. You know what my business is Vince, so you know I'm gonna watch my own back." Storm shot a look at Vince that was devoid of the warmth he'd seen there earlier that morning. He sucked up his slight hurt and pressed on.
"This isn't helping Stacey." Vince looked from Storm to Brian. Storm shrugged, looking at Brian and clearly placing her blame for the situation on him, where he was still frozen a step off her location. Brian suddenly looked ashamed of his out of character actions.
"You're right." Brian took three steps back and Storm lowered her weapon, sticking it back into the holster concealed in the inside of the waistband of her pants. "What did you mean by this being as much my fault as it was yours?" Brian asked Storm, using his calm voice. Storm shrugged again.
"I don't talk to cops!" She spit out. "I have my own laws, and they don't involve cops."
"This ain't New York Storm." Vince tried to play mediator again, finding he didn't have much skill or practice at it. "And Brian ain't a cop no more."
"It don't matter where I am I don't recognize anyone's authority but mine, and once a cop always a cop. I'ma take carea this my own way. I'm goin for a run." She stalked off to the door.
"Stacey's still missin and you're going for a run?" Letty asked incredulously, liking Storm less and less.
"Yeah. I'll see you all later." Storm strode to the door and threw it open. She found a dark haired individual on her step leaning insolently on her door jam wearing a suit that had never hung on a rack anywhere and a Burberry coat. "What are you doin here?" She growled. The man didn't back off. He knew it was all for show, this time.
"Is that any way to say hello to your favorite older brother?" The man grinned.
"You's my only brother Matty." She laughed, dropping the snarling routine. She jumped into his open arms. "You picked one hell of a day to show up big bro."
Matty rapped an arm around his sister's shoulders after he set her down and kissed her on both cheeks. "Why's that little sister?"
"Shit done hit the fan. At least you had the sense to leave that big dumb Neanderthal you call a best friend at home." A half smoked cigarette went flying down the driveway from a place somewhere near the door of the house. Matty groaned. Storm went back to looking very angry.
"Here we go!" She stood, legs spread and arms akimbo.
"I hope that isn't me you're talking about." A huge, dark skinned man moved to fill the doorway.
"Taylor. What the fuck are you doin here?" Storm growled, advancing on the great hulking man.
"I'm here with Matty." Taylor crossed his arms over his chest. "He decided that you were in trouble."
Storm snorted through her nose. "Nothin I can't handle. You two can run straight back to NYC. I don't need your help. I got shit to do. Matty," she turned to her brother. "I trust you remember your way around the house. Keep them outta trouble." Storm pointed at the Toretto clan.
"Sis, what's up? This looks bad."
"Matty, you didn't want in the business so you can't pick and chose which parts of it interest you now that you're out."
"I'm trying to help my sister, not break into the family business. What's wrong Stormy girl?"
"Don't call me that in front of the busters!" Storm said in a low voice to her brother. "It's bad enough to be stuck with a name like mine let alone have everyone make nick names out of it!" Matty gave her one of his patient looks. She hated them because it always felt like he got all the patience and she got all her dad's bad temper. "He struck again Matty." Storm sighed, totally dejected.
"What?" Matty looked up in shock. "I thought you got to her first."
The rest of the team looked on in confusion, not quite following the threads of the conversation.
"I did. But he found her anyway. She found me in a, um, position and took off this morning and we haven't seen her since." Storm admitted feeling a bit embarrassed. Matty groaned.
"Storm..."
"I forgot she had a damn key ok. Shesh." Storm turned her back on Matty and Taylor only to find the whole group staring at them. "What?!" She roared at them.
"What kinda compromising position did she find you in Storm?" Taylor growled.
"Yeah, we'd all like the answer to that one!" Brian added.
"Taylor, cut your shit. You gave up any say you had over me when you decided that hoe was worth your time more then I was. And you better remember who's the higher up in this relationship. Being Matty's little lap dog won't help you if I tell Benny I want you out." Storm clicked her teeth in annoyance and pointed a finger at Taylor menacingly. Taylor advanced in sheer anger. Matty looked on in worry, knowing getting between the two hot heads would be like getting between two pit-bulls fighting over the same bone.
"Storm, don't start your shit with him." Matty murmured to his sister.
"Don't start my shit with him? You might wanna run that game on your boy. You're just a couplea knockaround guys. You're nothing in this situation Matty and I'm sorry but that's just how it is. I didn't call you guys in and I know you're my brother and you're allowed to worry but you shoulda known what would happen if you brought Taylor around me."
"Yeah, I shoulda. But I thought you mighta needed some strong backup."
"And I might, but it's too damn explosive to have Taylor around. You know it's gonna blow up in your face when I put him in his place," Storm railed at her brother.
Taylor growled when she talked about putting him in his place. He knew his place, in his mind it was the girl who didn't. He never understood what Benny Chains had been thinking bringing his daughter into the business. So Taylor went out of his way to put her below him whenever he could, just trying to restore what he thought was the natural order of things. No matter how well she did, and how perfect she seemed to be for the job Taylor knew he'd never accept her as her father's replacement. She was too female, to small, and too much his ex girlfriend to ever be his boss in his mind.
"I'm sorry. Go do whatever you need to do that this run is a cover for and when you come back I'll trust you have it all under control and we'll go home ok?" Matty gave Storm a little shove toward the door and shot Taylor a warning glance.
"Kay. I'm outta here." Storm opened the door to her house and stood on her porch a moment, leaving the rest of the people in her house to kill each other if they were so inclined. It didn't matter to her. She had shit to do and she needed some clarity to do it. She knew where Stacey had run to and she hoped to find some clues if she followed the girl's last known trail.
She took off at a fast paced jog toward the river. She heard footsteps behind her but she didn't even spare a glance. She knew who it was going to be, she knew his footfalls anywhere.
"Why are you following me?" She snarled as her trailer was about to come level with her.
"I know better then to let you outta the house alone in that mood. People die when you take off in that mood."
"Didn't Matty tell you to mind your own fucken business?"
"Yeah, but how often do I honestly listen to him?" Taylor asked, his voice deep and gravely, a touch of uncommon humor making him sound almost human.
"I wish you'd make it a habit to start." Storm sighed. She knew asking Taylor to stay out of her life was like asking her father to give up the mob. It just wasn't going to happen. Which was exactly why she normally avoided being around him. When he'd left her for his freedom and the right to chase after the easy girls that were as bad a plague around the men of organized crime as they were around winning racers it had almost broken her heart. She'd gotten over him, but it'd been a close call. It didn't help that he still acted like they were still a couple and he had the right to act like a jealous lover.
"Why you putting your neck out over some kid?" His tone clearly told her he thought it was foolish of her to be risking exposing herself to the censure of Stacey's family.
"She's like a sister to me Taylor. I don't expect you to understand."
"Good, because I don't. Some whiney cheerleader isn't worth all this trouble. Stupid bitch likely's just gettin what she deserves. "
"Don't talk about her like that! You stupid mother fucker! Caccati in mano e prenditi a schiaffi! Stronzo di merda!" Storm literally went insane when Taylor implied that Stacey had deserved to be kidnapped, to be beaten. It was like he was telling her her mom and sister had deserved to die. She punched him straight in the mouth when she was done cussing him out. She'd never gotten physically violent with him before and as she shook out her stinging fist she wondered what the outcome of this new challenge to her authority would be.
Taylor calmly touched his tongue to his bleeding lip and looked Storm up and down. He was in such a rage he barely knew how he was holding it in. He wanted to hit her back as much as he grudgingly respected her for her hell of a right hook. "You know I don't speak that god damn language so I suggest you translate." Taylor's so angry I'm calm face rivaled Dom's. Storm met his gaze head on, not a trace of fear to be found in her eyes or face.
"I said take a shit on your hands and hit yourself with it you fucking bastard." Storm shrieked, incensed. "That's my famiglia you're talking about. You ever dare to act like you have the right to talk about her like that again or second guess me again and I'll end you Taylor I swear to god." Storm finished in an icy calm voice and righteously held his gaze. To her absolute amazement it was Taylor who looked away first.
"I'm just sayin I don't get why you're doin this Storm. She's not related to you, she's not really family." Taylor forced himself to calm down; knowing one of them wasn't walking away if it came to a real physical fight.
"I guess she wouldn't be worth anything to you Taylor. But she is to me. I hope you never find out what it's like to have your mom and sister killed while you listen and can't do a damn thing Tay, but I did and I'ma take carea mine this time with Stacey. I'm not helpless this time."
"Come again?" Taylor grabbed her arm and brought Storm to a standstill.
"Ya heard me. I was talking to my sister on the phone when he came in and killed her and my mom. I heard the whole thing go down. Do you have any idea what it feels like to be standing in a different state, gun in your hand, but drawn in vain, ready to kill for someone you love only they're a whole country away and there's not a damn thing you can do? It doesn't matter how many bullets you're ready and willing to shoot because all you can do is sit there and listen to them beg for their lives and get killed anyway. Can you fathom it Taylor? Do you have any idea what that's like?" Storm held his gaze proudly, refusing to look away. She was what she was, life had made her hard, but she still felt like anyone else when it came to family. Taylor could only shake his head no.
"Well, there's a girl out there who I can save at this point. I'm here this time, guns cocked and locked. He's not gettin away with it a second time. It's time that I took care of Carter Verone once and for all. He screwed Dad out of millions and he killed my famiglia, but I'm gonna put a bullet in his head and settle the score. Don't get in my way Taylor." Storm finished, breathing hard.
Taylor had never seen her more worked up or more deathly serious then she was in that moment, staring him into the ground while waiting for him to try and shoot her down, to put her below him where he figured she belonged, like he'd done so many times before. It finally occurred to him that like it or not, female or not, the girl was her father's daughter and she was doing what she was born to do. This was one time he had no desire to try and take away any of her fire. She had every right to want blood.
"Wouldn't dream of it. Let's go find whatever you think it is your gonna find down here Storm."
Storm didn't answer, merely started running again, Taylor falling into step beside her, his big legs and huge chest helping him keep up easily. Storm pulled up a few moments later. "See." She pointed.
"There was a struggle here; someone was dragged along the ground." Taylor speculated.
"Uh huh." Storm agreed. "This is where he took her." She studied the ground. "He headed out that way and he was driving a limo, the impressions from the tires are too far apart for a car or truck." Storm knelt and touched the ground. She held up her finger. It was coated in red. "He hurt her, there's blood. He dragged her by her feet, she was out cold" Storm picked a few blond hairs out of the leaves and stood up with a snarl.
"Let's go back and let them know. Do they know what you are Storm? Can they deal?"
"Only Vince knows. I had to tell him, but he can deal. The rest of 'em I don't know about."
"Why'd you have to tell that fool shit?" Taylor couldn't totally suppress his jealousy.
"Because." She looked at Taylor under her lashes and it was clear he wasn't accepting that explanation. "God Tay, why do you always act like you're my keeper?" Taylor just raised an eyebrow, a gesture he'd picked up from her she was angered to realize. She figured that for the sake of her head she may as well just tell him. "He caught me letting Stacey and her little friend have a party. A party with liquor. And I'd found someone's vodka bottle but it really had tequila in it and I got accidentally drunk." She batted her lashes innocently, trying Stacey's act out on Taylor.
"Yeah, riigghhttt."
"Ok, I got drunk on purpose with the kids, Brian and Dom sent Vince to check up on their little sleepover, he caught me dancing with the girls, all of us loaded and he went to tell Brian and Dom. I ran after him to try and convince him not to, he wasn't listening to me so I decided to drive home after him and stand up for Stacey. He wouldn't let me drive. He said if I explained to him why I was so protective of Stacey from her own brother he wouldn't tell on her so I told him. I told him it all."
"Then he took advantage of you being drunk and decided to fu..."
"TAYLOR STANLEY REESE! Don't even think of finishing that statement. I'll have you know it was the next morning and I was dead sober when that happened, and I guess I wasn't taking no for an answer the night before but he still was a gentleman. Besides the fact that this isn't any of your business anymore."
"I guess not." Taylor sounded mildly disappointed but he did let it go.
"Does this mean we can have a healthy work relationship and maybe even be friends now?" Storm asked, stunned. "All without you killing my dates and challenging my authority on every turn?"
"I guess." Taylor shrugged. "I'll stick around till the Carter issue is resolved at least, make sure the punk treats you good."
Storm sighed but let it go. They started back up to the house, ready to get some rides and go after Stacey.
The team had congregated in a corner of the living room to talk where Matty, someone they didn't know, couldn't hear them.
Dom'd had to prevent Vince from taking off after the great hulking Taylor though, and it made him wonder just what had gone down between his best friend and this Storm girl. Vince had a bigger stake in the whole thing then he was letting on. Dom hadn't missed the fact that Vince's embarrassment had equaled Storms when the 'compromising position' had been discussed.
"Vince, you know more then you're letting on and we need to know what it is." Dom looked at Vince, full intimidating boss face in place.
"I don't know what you're talkin about brotha." Vince looked mutinously down at the ground.
"Don't think I don't know you never came home last night Coyote. You went to check on the girls then you never came back. Where were you?"
"Out at a club."
"Until you came home to get Brian at diner time?" Dom's incredulous look showed just what he thought of that story.
"It's not for me to tell you."
"Vince this is not the time to keep that girl's secrets when they concern Stacey and where she is!" Brian tried to appeal to Vince's sense of loyalty. "Doesn't our team come before some girl you just met?"
"I made a promise." Vince wouldn't give, loyal to a fault. After what Storm had been through she didn't deserve to have him go behind her back and tell people. "She'll be back soon and I'll try to get her to tell you." He walked away and out the door. He sat on the step and lit a cigarette, a habit he'd given up while in the hospital with his arm and bullet wound. He figured if there was ever a reason to start again he'd found it. He moved to take the first drag of his newly lit smoke.
"That's a filthy habit!" Storm called as she walked up the drive toward the house. Taylor snorted his disagreement with her statement.
"You drove me to it." Vince called back, but putting out the cigarette before he even managed one drag. She was right, he was better off not smoking, but damn he wanted that drag.
"How's that?" Storm asked, throwing one foot on the top step beside him and leaning on her raised leg, looking down at him as he was still sitting.
"By leaving me to try and calm them down after you took off. They wanna know the score Storm and I think it's time you told them."
"You didn't?" Storm was shocked. She figured she was coming home to a house full of people out for her blood.
"Not my story to tell." Vince shrugged and looked up at her from his seated position. "You gonna tell them now?"
"Yeah. We found the direction they took her in and where they picked her up. I'll tell them all then we'll move out. Can't believe you never told them." Storm shared a look with Taylor. Such ability to keep one's mouth shut was rare.
"Don't change the fact I think they need to know." Vince stood up. "You ready?"
"Yeah. Don't expect them to take this well. I've been keeping a low profile in L.A. and I'd appreciate it if your friends didn't start telling everyone around what I do for a living, aiight?"
"Tell them, not me." Vince looked at Storm. She sighed. She sure was giving in to other people a lot lately. She didn't like it one bit. She was used to doing her own thing and damn the consequences. People who got in her way just got what they had coming in her book. But here she was making concessions to people left right and center.
"Fine. Let's go tell them."
The three of them walked in the house.
"Nice of you to grace us with your presence." Letty said, tone full of sarcasm.
"Oh shut up battona." Storm growled. Matty snorted his amusement under his breath. "Who asked you?" Storm hit full on bitch mode happily, being more comfortable there then in caring about people's feelings mode.
Letty might not have gotten the Italian word but Dom sure as hell did. "You will not talk to her like that!" He pointed angrily at Storm. He was very aware his girlfriend had just been called a bitch.
"This is my house baldy. You don't like it there's the fucken door." Storm pointed. She might feel for them but that wasn't going to change her general character. She didn't take well to other people being in her business or her face.
"You had something to tell us when you got back?" Brian asked, trying to be the soul of good humor. He just wanted the information. Storm shared a glance with Vince and took a deep breath. What was to come was going to be hard enough without driving them all into a froth of anger first.
"Yeah, you might wanna sit down." She looked around. They all sat. "My mom was the woman who was going to take Stacey in. My sister Tabitha, or Tammy as we called her was Stacey's best friend."
"Wait, now you're talking about them past tense?" Brian asked. Storm nodded affirmative.
"The reason why I came to check up on Stacey was because someone killed my mom and sister." Storm looked around to gauge the reaction to that bombshell.
"What does that have to do with Stacey?" Dom asked.
"That's where my comment about Brian sharing the blame came in. Brian, you remember your little job in Miami?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"You were sent undercover to bust one Carter Verone correct?"
"Yeah, how do you know that? That was classified."
"Carter was one of my men." Storm met his eyes firmly. "He was working for me. For my dad. Carter was not in business for himself. He was working for our organization, my father's. My dad is Benny Chains."
"You gotta be kidden me?" Brian and Rome both looked at Storm in shock.
"No I'm not. And Carter was stupid enough to take the Fuentes bitch and the two of you into his service and trust you two with millions of my dad's money. He got caught because he was stupid and my dad let him take the fall for his stupidity. Use to be we killed people who messed up like Carter did but now you gotta worry about people's feelings and it's getting harder and harder to hide the bodies. So someone had to take the fall with the cops and we threw Carter to the wolves for his fuck up."
"Wait, this makes you a..." Brian was in shock and he couldn't even finish his own sentence.
"That makes me Storm Demaret, daughter of Benny Chains and the person being groomed to take over his empire when he retires in a few years."
"You're a mob boss?" Brian asked, unable to comprehend.
Matty looked on with an unreadable expression on his face, knowing his father would not be pleased with Storm telling all these people what she was, but trusting his sister enough to know if she thought she had to tell them then she likely did. She got away with more then he ever had because she wasn't Matty Dimes, the only Demaret who couldn't pull the trigger. Of course things were better ever since he'd taken out his Uncle Teddy for his embezzling but his father had never really forgotten the scene with Bobby Boulevard.
"No way. I know how Italian families work, and there's no way your father would ever let you get that far." Dom broke in. "In Italian families the woman's place is traditionally in the home." Dom added the traditionally for Letty, so she wouldn't kill him later.
"He didn't want to take me on, but I have a head for it. It's all I ever wanted to do and Matty here is Dad's only son and Matty doesn't want in. Dad either let me take over or picked someone outside the family. He didn't want to do that. But anyway, that's all beside the point. Carter's out Brian. He got off after one year on some technicality. And to get back at Dad for letting him take the fall and go to jail he killed my mom and sister. And then when he found the connection between your sister and mine, and followed that back to Stacey being your sister, you know, one of the cops that put him away, he decided that Stacey had to die too. So he's after her. And I think he found her on the river bank about 15 minutes jog from the house."
"Carter Verone has my sister?"
"I believe so, yes."
"And he killed yours?"
"Yeah, while I was on the phone with Tabitha as a matter of fact. I heard them begging for their lives and had to listen to them die from New York. I know what this asshole is capable of. But what he doesn't know is that I'm capable of far more. He's gonna beg me for his death when I'm done with him, not his life. Strike one was when he stole our money and strike two was when he messed with my family. There won't be a strike three because I don't play fair. But in the mean time he's got Stacey and we need to find them and get her back. And I know what direction he took her in and where he picked her up."
"Then why are we still sitting here?" Rome jumped up. Storm was momentarily uncomfortable to have so many of her ex's in one room. "Let's go." Rome pushed.
"Not so fast cowboy. I'd be happier if it was just me'n Taylor plus maybe Brian. I don't want people who never shot a gun before along. This is gonna get ugly and its family business. In fact it might be best if it was just me'n Taylor." Taylor nodded his agreement to Storm's statement.
"No way am I sittin here twiddling my thumbs!" Dom roared. "I took that girl into my house and while it hasn't been an easy time she's Brian's sister and Brian is family."
"Sis, I'm not letting you and Taylor out of my sight alone. I don't want either of you to end up on the missing person's list." Matty walked over to the assembled group.
"Fine, let's go." Storm led them out of the house with a sigh. "I'm takin the Caddy. Matty and Taylor, you're with me and I want one other person in too." Storm looked around for a volunteer. "People we can not take ten cars. We may as well phone ahead and tell Carter we're on our way."
"I'll ride with you." Leon volunteered at Dom's nudge.
Dom had sensed Vince about to get into the Cadillac and he wanted some alone time with his friend to talk about what the hell Vince's involvement in the whole situation was. Vince shot Dom a look like he knew full well what had just been perpetrated against him.
"Think this car can keep up?" Leon asked, trying to lighten the mood, not knowing how on earth they thought a Caddy could keep up with Vince's Maxima.
"Hell yeah it can more then keep up. Northstar bitch!" Storm elaborated, praising the Cadillac's Northstar V8. Leon laughed despite himself. Storm watched as the rest of the Toretto's coming with them piled into the Maxima, Vince at the wheel. She watched as Dom told Letty to stay at the house with Mia, and watched as Letty fought him but ultimately lost and trudged back inside.
With that she pealed out in her black Caddy and watched the blue Maxima follow suit.
"This don't feel right Matty." Storm told her brother as she drove toward where the road twisted close to the river's bed. "I hate that it's Stacey."
"It's always who you wish it wasn't kid." Matty replied, looking out the window as the scenery flew by.
"You cool with this Matty D." Storm asked her brother, worried about his involvement. He'd proven he could handle himself, but he hated to be involved in this sort of thing. "I can let you out now if you want."
"She was my sister too Storm. I might not have been as close to her as you were but he messed with my family as much as he did yours."
"But I'm down with this Matty, with the life. I'm letting you out if you want out bro. Just say the word."
"I'm in. Let's do this."
They found a building with a black stretch limo parked outside a half hour later in a warehouse district part of town.
AN: Ok cheer. Get to writin. LOL. Cheer says this is a good update, I'm not so sure but what cheer says goes, LOL. So read and review please.