Page 18 of Protecting His Woman

Damion’s wedding was in exactly two hours. He was showered, dressed, and had already made sure every arrangement was in place. Nothing could go wrong. He had planned for everything.

He hadn’t planned for Frank to walk into his office, looking like death warmed over. There were a couple of bruises on his face, a split lip, and since the last time he saw him, he had lost a lot of weight.

“Are you on drugs?” Damion asked.

“No,” Frank said.

He looked at Frank, and the kid looked like he had aged a decade.

“You look like shit.”

“You said if I ever need your help, that I am to come to you.”

“You started the initiation process with The Lords, there’s not a lot I can do.”

He saw the tears in Frank’s eyes. “Please,” Frank said. “I ... I fucked up and I know this, but what they want me to do ... I can’t do it, and it has to break some kind of code.”

Damion wasn’t interested, and he had given Frank a warning. As usual, the kid thought he knew best. He had to wonder if he was like that when he was a kid. If he had thought he knew best about everything.

“I don’t have time for this,” Damion said. “I’m marrying your sister in two hours, and I need to make sure everything is in—”

“They want me to kill my sister,” Frank said. “They want me to kill Vicki in front of you, then Dhalia and Betsy.”

This stopped Damion.

“If I don’t kill them, they are going to find someone who will,” Frank said. “Doesn’t that break a damn rule in Old County? Please, tell me it fucking does.”

It had been a long time since Damion had felt rage. From time to time, he was annoyed, but right now, on his wedding day, he felt an all-consuming rage. He moved toward the cabinet, typed in the code, and opened it, revealing the multitude of weapons he had at his disposal.

“Not only does it break one rule, it breaks at least four. Killing three civilians is three rule breaks. Coming after me, someone I love, is the fourth, and that has just guaranteed the end of them.”

“You’re about to get married,” Frank said.

“I don’t give a fuck. Do you think they’re going to sit by waiting? My woman, your sister, is not going to have this day ruined.”

“What about your ... clothes?” Frank asked.

“What’s going on?” Neil asked, stepping into the room.

Damion looked at Neil, then toward Frank. “The Lords want him to kill Vicki, Betsy, and Dhalia. And that shit isn’t happening. So, before I marry your daughter, I’ve got to do some killing of my own.”

Loaded up with several weapons.

“I’ll come,” Neil said.

“No,” Damion said. “The only person who is coming is Frank.” He turned to look at the young boy.

“Damion, this could be a trap.”

“Which is why I’m taking the boy with me. Trust me, I’ve got shit in place, and I am going to be here before it’s time for me to make your daughter an honest woman.” He reached for Frank, grabbing him at his jacket by the scruff of his neck. “It’s showtime, buddy.” He looked toward Neil. “You’ve got to stay here, because if I’m not back in time, it’s your job to keep Vicki and her family safe. You got me?”

Damion saw that Neil didn’t like it and clearly wanted to argue, but he didn’t. He simply nodded his head, and he knew the other man wanted to kill today. The only person who would do any killing today was him.

He dragged Frank out of his home, across to his car, and threw him into the passenger side. He kept the kid’s lock on the door so he couldn’t escape.

“You think I’m setting you up?” Frank asked.

“I’m not willing to take any chances. You didn’t want to listen to your sister or me, and you decided you knew fucking best,” Damion said.

“I had no idea they were going to make me kill my own family.”

“The Lords are a fucking law unto themselves. Out of all the families, they’re the ones that have been pissing me off for a long fucking time, and they’re not showing signs of stopping now.” He pulled the car out of his parking space and put his foot to the gas, feeling the wheels spin as he made his way across town, breaking every speed limit as he got closer to The Lords’ territory.

He didn’t go straight up to the door, instead, he brought the car to park and then handed Frank his phone.

“Call them,” he said. “Call Lord.”

Lord was the leader of The Lords. Every leader along the way refers to himself as Lord. It was a title to mark him as the head of the family. Everyone else had a name, with the last name being Lord. For instance, if Frank had joined and completed his initiation, he’d be known as Frank Lord, if Vicki ever had, Vicki Lord. This was true for anyone who joined. Lords owned them. They had no choice but to bow down to the power of The Lords family.

That shit ended today.

“But, it’s your cell phone.”

“And I have opened it for you. You can say you got one better. You got Damion, and that your sisters are in the trunk of the car.”

Frank made the call, and Damion also made sure it was on speaker.

As he suspected, Lord may be the leader of the family, but that didn’t mean he was too bright.

“I wasn’t going to double-cross you,” Frank said. “I could never hurt my sister. Not a single one of them. They’re my family.”

“You’ve been gone a long time, Frank. Trust me, people change in a short time. They get you to do stuff you didn’t think you were capable of, and before you know where you are, you’re killing people for a living, hurting animals, or doing unspeakable things.”

“I never wanted to hurt my family. I was trying to protect them, and they lied.”

“Good,” Damion said. “Maybe now you’ll learn that in Old County, it’s sometimes better to be a civilian than a member of a family.”

Lord came out of The Lords’ headquarters, and Damion had thought a lot about how this would go down. The Lords were a small group of people, mainly because they tended to kill amongst themselves. They were bullies, and if anyone in their family was weak, they’d target that person until they either showed their worth, or ended up killing themselves, or were killed.

Damion had thought about this moment with Lord. Waiting for the moment he would fuck up so bad it would end him. He was pissed off.

Vicki’s wedding day. His woman. Frank’s sister. All of them Frank’s target. To him, that made Lord a coward, and as Damion rolled down his window, he didn’t even take good aim. He fired his gun, then pressed his foot on the gas.

Shooting his gun, he saw the moment Lord realized what was happening, then hit him with his car, running him down, but Damion didn’t stop. He charged into the house, and his car, which wasn’t a great one, did plenty of damage. Damion brought the car to a stop with the impact, and he got out, bringing his weapon out, and firing at the men and women that came toward him.

The moment his gun ran out of bullets, he got his two knives and slashed at people. Before he knew what had happened, ten people were dead, and no one was coming to attack him.

Getting into his car, he hit the reverse, and pulled his car out. Frank was panting in the passenger seat. He wasn’t interested in making small talk with the little shit.

With his car clear of the building, he was back out, and Lord was still fucking living. He was badly injured but that was okay. Damion grabbed his shoulders and pulled him toward The Lords’ property. Damion always had a plan in place.

Being the head of Old County with a bunch of snakes in his midst, he always knew it was best to be in charge and prepared for anything. Dragging Lord back to where he was meant to be, he walked back to his car, opened the trunk, and pulled out the canisters of petrol. He made his way back inside, started to pour it over Lord, then made sure plenty of the house was covered.

“You’re breaking the rules,” Lord said, gasping.

Damion looked at him. “I’m breaking the rules? You’re the one that went after the brother of the woman you knew I wanted. You think I didn’t know what you were doing, or what you had planned?” He crouched down so he was eye level with the enemy. “You think I don’t keep an eye on you all? That I don’t know what you’re planning? You’ve been wanting Old County for a long time, and you thought taking out my woman would get to me and that would make you king. It was never going to work.”

“You’re a piece of shit.”

“No, you’re the piece of shit that uses kids to kill kids.” Damion stepped back, lit the match he also kept, then threw it down to the where the petrol started. He watched the flames start to engulf, and he stepped back, got into the car, and took his place behind the wheel.

“Does that not bother you?” Frank asked.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because you think if you had failed, they would have given you another task? That would have made you weak. You didn’t complete your initiation, and couldn’t do a simple task. They’d have killed you within a week. Their goal was not to win you over, Frank. It was to kill Vicki, and to take me out. They wanted Old County. That was their goal. You were just a means to make it happen.”

“I never wanted to hurt my family.”

He looked toward the kid, and it was like this had given him an attitude adjustment. Frank was crying, but Damion wasn’t going to comfort him.

“What happens now?” Frank asked.

“I’m going back to marry your sister.”

“I mean, with me?”

“You can either attempt to join another family and see where that leads, or accept you’re a fucking Reid and a civilian, and see the fucking power in that. If you can’t stand that, then I guess what you do is up to you, but you’re not going to last ten minutes outside. What is it going to be?” Damion asked.

“I would like to be there to see my sister get married, and I want to make it up to you,” Frank said. “Please, any way I can, I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be this person.”

“Then start by working hard and don’t panic your sister or fucking hurt her, because if you do that, I’m going to have to kill you.”

It was a good bonding experience, Damion felt.

****

Arriving at the church, he saw Neil was already there, and he climbed out of the car. “I’m not dressed,” Frank said, looking down at his torn jeans, stained shirt, and well-worn jacket.

“Vicki will not care how you look. You know that, and I’m not going to keep her waiting.” He checked the time. He had three minutes to be in his spot, and Damion rushed to the head of the altar and waited.

Just as he got comfortable, the music changed, and his woman began to make her way toward him.

He was aware of people being alerted to what happened to The Lords. Damion would allow the rumors to circulate, and they would all know. Coming after his woman, or her family, would forfeit their lives, as well as their families. There was no way he was going to let anything happen to this woman.

Neil lifted the veil over her head and stepped out of the way. He placed her hand in his, and Neil gave him a quick warning not to fuck this up. Damion had no intention of messing up. He loved Vicki.

Marrying her was just the beginning. Living in Old County, they had to make do, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have a lot of fun while doing it.