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Chapter Four: Unprinciple d Nerd

Della

“So, we will have issues getting at him in this underground area,” Talon stated from the screen.

I nodded. “You will probably have to wait until he resurfaces. Otherwise, it could really endanger your group. But he has cameras along that whole block, so you need to watch for that and stay back.”

Talon nodded. “We will use a few drones and satellites. Ace has programs we can use. I don’t want him to disappear yet again. We know he won’t ever stop.”

“How do you know that?” I asked. “I mean he got caught and he realizes you know a lot about him now.”

Talon slowly shook his head.

From next to him, Liv said, “Because he’s a Walker. Maybe we don’t like that fact, but he is. And Walkers never quit.”

“Yeah, just ask my brother, Dagger,” Talon agreed. “O set him up and he did seven years in a maximum security prison. She sent assassin after assassin to kill him there. He beat them all and he never gave up.”

I slowly shook my head as tears filled my eyes.

Dante took my hand again. “What is it?”

I stared at the screen as a tear rolled down my cheek. “Now it all makes sense.”

“What does?” Liv asked from the PC screen.

“O used to recite poetry. And there was a poem I never heard of before.” I stared at the screen and asked, “And don’t tell me that you have a brother called Hawk too, right?”

Tallon blinked at me. “Yes, that happens to be Dagger’s identical twin.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed in disgust. “It’s so maniacal. So sick.”

Dante patted my arm and asked, “What is it?”

“She repeated it so much that I know it by heart.” I swallowed heavily then recited it, “As the hawk flies free, the dagger takes a knee. The ripping claw knows where the blood flows. He can tear flesh at will, but he can never get his fill. The truth will set Liv free, yet her love can never be. The raven’s wings carry the song as the only one to stay strong. Simply give honey to that queen bee and they will all take a knee.”

The room went quiet.

Then Talon whispered, “Fuck…

Liv nodded. “It’s…” She pushed out a breath. “My God.”

“It’s awful,” Dante scoffed. “That’s not poetry. It’s more like babbling.”

I shook my head at him.

“She was talking about the Walkers, Dante,” Giovanni said quietly.

Liv nodded from the screen. “After our father was killed, Hawk left town. Talon stayed with the military to fight and did not come home. Dagger was sent to prison.” Liv sighed. “I went off to college and was later engaged to get married. O arranged for Deacon to break Logan and I apart, so we never got married. Raven stayed with our mom and he took care of things as best as he could.”

“Then that final line,” Glory spoke up again. “That’s about Ma…Bea Walker, isn’t it?”

Liv nodded again. “Our mom’s name is Bea,” she explained to me. “We have since found out that O was extremely jealous of her sister Bea.” She then looked angry as she added, “The poem never mentions Rip though, did it?”

“Rip?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Talon replied. “Her son, our cousin, his name is Rylan but he goes by Rip.”

“O left without taking her son with her,” Liv explained.

“She just left him behind?” I asked.

Talon nodded.

“Why?” I felt confused. “I mean she grabbed Valencia, so she could have a sibling for Deacon, right?”

“Yes, but it was more complicated than that,” Liv explained. “The night she killed her husband by setting her house on fire, she got burned. That’s why she had those scars on her face. Rylan was out at the ranch, staying with us. She was pregnant with Deacon at the time but didn’t know it.”

“She killed her husband too?” I just couldn’t keep up with her crimes at all now.

“Among others, yes,” Talon answered me. “If you are like any of us, you will keep asking why. Why she committed so many crimes. But as far as we can tell, it was all about jealousy. All about her feelings. And she wasn’t sane. Not at all.”

Liv nodded and jumped in, “And don’t blame yourself for anything she perpetrated. She fooled more people than we ever realized. She managed to stalk us and attempt to ruin our lives for at least ten years while we never knew it or guessed it. So do not waste your time on guilt or regret because she fooled you.”

Talon nodded in agreement then he looked over at Stephano and said, “We are going to do some recon and wait for him to resurface.”

Stephano sat forward and told Talon, “Call us if you need anything. I still want him dead.”

Talon nodded at him. “We will let you know.”

“Liv,” Glory spoke up as she nodded at Liv on the PC screen. “Call me if you want more firepower.”

“Hell yeah, cousin,” Liv replied as she smiled.

The PC screen went dark.

Stephano turned to look at me and noted, “That was quite the tale about the explosive garage. Didn’t you wonder about Deacon’s excessive security measures?”

“I asked Deacon about it. It was just recently too. He showed me a video of someone killing his guards on the freeway and a couple of the killers were bikers, he said they were hired by an enemy company.”

“Recently, si?” Stephano asked as he stared at me, then looked down at his cell, scrolling through it. He raised the phone up so I could see the screen. “Would this be what he showed you?”

I stared at the familiar video of the freeway chase and explosions of the vehicles. I gasped and looked up at him.

He explained what I was looking at. “This was his men going after my son, Giovanni and his fiancée, Glory.” He nodded at the couple who were sitting on the couch.

“Glory shot out their tires,” Tito stated proudly. “She saved our cans.”

I slowly shook my head. “There were so many lies. Layer upon layer.”

Dante grasped my hand and spoke softly, “At least you’re here with us now.”

I looked up at him to see genuine warmth and sincerity in his gaze. I squeezed his hand.

“But remember, we are part of the Familia,” Romeo reminded me with a smile on his face.

Dante chuckled then shrugged. “But we never lie about it.”

I let out a sigh and explained, “That’s what hurts the most. I was lied to for almost ten years. Everything I believed wasn’t true. I’m beginning to see that Deacon probably knew the truth about me. I mean, neither of them told the truth. O took me after killing my parents. She knew I was a Walker and related to her. Yet she put me to work as an employee. But she killed Valencia’s nanny, took her and pretended that she was family?”

“Look, I never met her,” Glory spoke up. “But I watched all the videos they had of her.” She shook her head and went on, “She did not live in reality. She truly likened herself to a Shakespearean character. Ophelia in Hamlet as a matter of fact. She even quoted lines from that very play when she died. And you may have heard this already but she started killing before she was even eight years old. As far as we could find, her first crime was killing a young boy that she didn’t like. Pushed him out of a tree and he broke his neck. Then she burned the family home down with her parents and a sister inside. And that was just her beginning. I spoke to a few of the Walker women. They are married to or with a Walker brother. One of them, Cinnamon…” Glory paused and let out an uneasy breath. “She’s married to my brother Redemption. She witnessed O actually killing a girl, her and other women that O actually owned as prostitutes, working for her. O wanted them all to see what happened to someone who tried to leave her operation. Make an example out of the girl as she’d been caught trying to escape. Cinnamon told me she had been forced to watch O skin a young woman alive.” Glory looked down at her hands. “Cinnamon said she still has nightmares about it.”

I stared at Glory, horrified.

“That wasn’t the entirety of it,” Giovanni said from next to Glory. “Talon’s wife, Katya is a Russian girl and he met her when Katya was brought to the US by a company O owned that was supposed to be like a foreign program to help the young women to get into college and get citizenship.”

“Yes, Periwinkle.” I nodded. “I did the books for that company.”

Glory shook her head and stared at me. “Really? So did you see any receipts for the selling of these young women to slave rings?”

I sucked a deep breath in and shook my head as I replied, “Of course not.”

“Well, there must be two books then,” Glory concluded. “Because the day after Katya and her sister arrived, they were abducted and held prisoner. O threatened Katya’s little sister if Katya didn’t infiltrate and spy on the Texas Walker family. O sent her to ruin the Walker clan through Talon. Then there were over fifty Russian women for sale at an auction the night Katya escaped.”

Upon hearing these facts, I felt sick to my stomach. I almost couldn’t believe this story. Slave trafficking right out of Periwinkle? Owning prostitutes? But I knew Glory wouldn’t make this shit up. I felt rage at the fact that I unknowingly helped Periwinkle to grow as a company. I helped four of her legitimate corporations. Only now, I wondered if any of them were legit? I lowered my head and looked at my hands. I felt so hollow inside. Empty and lost. “I really lived in a pretend world. I never even guessed any of this.”

Dante patted my hand in an attempt to comfort me.

“Join the club,” a familiar voice chimed in.

I looked up to see Valencia in the doorway.

She strode into the study to stare at me. “I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure where to go. Hell, I don’t even know who I am.”

Julianna stood from the sofa and walked over to put her arm around her.

Valencia placed her hand up before her twin could speak. “I know you are here for me. And I really appreciate that. But I need to figure out what to do with my life.”

I stood from the table to tell her, “Maybe neither of us know that. But I have an idea about what we should be doing right now.”

Valencia stared at me. “What do you mean?”

As that rage from betrayal grew inside me I got an idea. I intended to do something about this helpless feeling I was drowning in. “Between the two of us, we know enough to bring down all of O’s companies.”

She looked startled by the idea and then she laughed. “Hell, yeah! That would feel pretty damn good. You think we can?”

I nodded then looked over at Dante. “Do you have someone here who's good at say…hacking? Like a nerd with no principles?”

Dante opened his mouth to speak then he shut it, like he changed his mind.

Stephano laughed loudly.

I glanced from Dante to his father.

Stephano explained as he motioned to Dante, “You are looking at him.”

Dante appeared to be a bit red in the face as he admitted, “Yeah, that would be me. The nerd with no principles.”

I stared at him then I laughed. “Perfect!”

“Perfect for what?” Julianna asked.

“We are gonna take all of Deacon’s money,” I announced.

Everyone in the room stared at me.

“And just what are you going to do with it?” Legend-Giovanni asked me.

I shrugged. “How about giving it to specific charities? Like ones that help women who’ve been in the slave rings. Or maybe for orphaned children? Hell, how about feeding the homeless? Pick your charity and give them a million.”

“A million?” Glory asked.

I looked over at her and told her, “I managed the legit companies and each one has a base net worth of 50 million. In fact, Periwinkle has 300 million in accounts alone.”

Stephano stared at me then he looked over at Dante.

“No Papa,” Dante spoke up. “The Familia is not going to be involved in this. They have enough money already. We will steal from the devil and feed the angels.” He gave his father a grin.

Juliana patted Valencia on the arm. “I am happy for you to be able to do this, but I cannot be in attendance.”

Romeo came over and took Julianna’s hand as he glanced at me then at Valencia. “I’m in the same boat. We can’t be involved. We support you both, but we cannot know any of it.” He grabbed Julianna’s hand and they left the room.

Dante chuckled. “Ethics…” He joked. “What are ya gonna do? Lawyers are a breed all their own.”

“No, figliolo,” Stephano cut in. “They are just being smart. If some legitimate legal arrow is aimed at us for this. The two of them can defend us in a court or handle a settlement.”

I looked over at him. “I never thought of that.”

“Well, I know how to cover our tracks,” Dante interjected. “No one will know it was us at all.” He gave me a wink and a nod. “Unprincipled nerd at your service.”

I laughed at the title.