Page 18 of Starting Over (D.O.A. DRAGO #1)

Rain knew he shouldn’t be doing this, but when he’d heard Ryan say that one of the men was going to give up information on Danny… well, there was no way in hell he was not going to be there when the man talked.

His mom had always told him nothing ever good comes out of eavesdropping, but damn it, Rain knew there was no way in hell Wyatt would let him anywhere near this guy or any of the men that had been trying to shoot at them.

Then again, Rain had heard Ryan say the man hadn’t been one of the ones shooting his gun… so did that count?

Rain was going with no.

Besides, Jude was down in the basement with them talking to the man. Why should he be left out? After all, wasn’t it his life that was in danger? Shouldn’t he know what was going on?

Scuttling his butt as fast as he could, Rain made quick work getting down the stairs, thankful Wyatt or one of his men hadn’t closed the door.

Everyone that found out that Rain could shift into a shrew, always made fun of him.

However, Rain had always loved the fact that he could shift into a tiny creature.

It allowed him to move around in silence, and other shifters rarely could scent him when he was in a room.

One of the best parts though, was how people always underestimated just how much damage he could do if he had to.

“I swear I had no clue they were going to shoot at any of you. The job was for us to find the kid and bring him to Danny, that was it. Shit, we wouldn’t get paid if we didn’t bring him to the man alive for fuck’s sake.”

“Then why would they shoot at him?” Casper asked in a deadly calm tone that had Rain’s hair standing on end.

“I don’t fucking know! I’ve told you this a thousand times I don’t know,” the man said, sounding anxious and scared.

“Where’s Danny?” Casper asked in that lethal tone that most likely brought terror to many.

“I don’t know, damn it! Danny put out an alert saying that as long as he was out of prison, he wanted the kid brought to him alive, and the first to do it would get one million dollars.

If he was caught before that happened, then he would give five hundred thousand for him dead.

It was odd, and I had no interest in killing anyone. ”

“And yet you tried to kill him,” Casper hissed.

The guy shook his head frantically, practically shouting, “I told you, I didn’t.”

“You showed up with a gun, Rob. Why show up with a gun if you didn’t plan to kill Rain?” Casper snapped.

Rob looked at Casper, as if he’d lost his mind, before saying, “Because, as you saw, there were others out there that were trying to collect the bounty too, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think it would be healthy for me not to be able to protect myself.”

Casper leaned, and with that deadly tone that sent shivers down Rain’s spine, snapped, “And yet, bullets were fired and my mate along with Rain were damn near killed. I have a big problem with that, Rob.”

Rob drew back and the scent of his terror was evident to Rain’s senses. Fuck, Casper was terrifying when he was pissed and Jude getting shot at… yeah, the man was beyond pissed, he was livid.

“I didn’t fire. I wouldn’t have. I’m no killer, man. You have to believe me,” Rob practically begged.

Rain couldn’t blame him. Hell, if Casper ever spoke to him in that deathly tone, Rain would piss and shit himself. Thankfully, the few times Casper had spoken to him, it had always been… well normal.

When Wyatt walked closer to the guy, Rain thought he was going to beat the shit out of the man, but instead, his voice was calm as he said, “If you don’t know where Danny is, why am I here?”

Rob looked at Wyatt, licking his dry lips, rasping, “Can I have some water. I swear, I’m gonna tell you what you want to know, but I really need a drink of water.”

“Yeah, and people in hell want ice in it,” Ryan snapped.

Shaking his head, Wyatt grabbed a water bottle and put a straw in it and put it on the table in front of Rob who immediately looked as if he downed half the bottle in two swallows.

“You’ve had your drink. Stop stalling and start talking,” Wyatt demanded.

Rain wouldn’t lie, that tough tone kinda turned him on… even in his animal form. Damn, who knew that could happen?

Rob sat back brushing his head onto his shoulder to most likely wipe the bit of water that had trickled down his chin. He looked at Wyatt, saying, “Like I said, I was interested in the job when I saw it.”

“And just where did you see it again?” River asked.

Rob looked as if he might not answer, until Casper let out a low growl. “It’s a dark web site called FOR HIRE. It’s where we find jobs we might be interested in and… well, if you go to it, you’ll see what I’m talking about. You might have some problems. You have to be invited in, or…”

“I’ll get in,” River said, cutting the man off, immediately beginning to type on his computer he had sitting on a small table.

“You were saying?” Wyatt asked without hesitation.

Rob looked to Wyatt again, saying, “I saw the job. Like I said, I’m no killer.

Normally I take the jobs that are to find someone that made themselves scarce or some shit.

When I saw the one on the kid, I figured it would be easy enough.

However, seeing it was put out by Danny and knowing who the guy is, I knew I had to do some homework on this one. ”

“Why’s that? I thought there was honor among scum?” Ryan said with a snort.

Rob looked at Ryan with anger in his eyes.

“You guys are bounty hunters. What the fuck makes you any different than me? Yeah, I turn my bounties into some low lives, and yeah, they might kill ‘em, but you turn yours into the cops and they end up on death row a lot of times. So, what’s the fucking difference?”

“Our bounties are legal,” Ryan spat out without missing a beat.

Shrugging, Rob said, “A man’s gotta eat.”

“Enough! Tell me what you have to say, or I swear I’m going to turn your ass over to Casper here and let him deal with your ass,” Wyatt snapped angrily.

Rob gave a quick look to Casper and then back to Wyatt. “I knew that shit might go down and I wanted insurance.”

“Insurance?” Ryan asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Word out there is Danny promises to pay you what you’re owed when you do a job for him, but his idea of what you’re owed isn’t the cash…

it’s your life. I didn’t want to end up dead, you know?

” Rob asked, then looked to Wyatt, Ryan and even Jude.

When he got no answer or nod, he continued, “I did some digging. I figured if I could come up with a insurance policy, it would get me the money and I’d get to keep my life. ”

“So, you’re saying you’re not as big a dumbass as we think you are?” Ryan asked in a smart ass tone.

Rob huffed, saying, “I’m no dumbass. Would a dumbass know that Danny has a kid no one’s heard about?”

Wyatt turned to River in confusion. “Danny has a kid?”

River shook his head, answering, “I didn’t find anything on a kid and neither did Wiz, or he’d have told me about it.”

“Who’s the dumbasses now?” Rob snapped, “I said it’s a kid no one knows about… well, no one but Danny, me, and a couple of people here in town.”

Wyatt looked as if he didn’t believe a word Rob was saying, but stayed quiet as the man spoke, “Danny was raised in this town named Amos. It’s about forty-five minutes from here.”

“I thought he was from Val D’or?” Wyatt asked.

Shaking his head, Rob answered, “He was born here, but he was raised by his aunt in Amos. The thing is, his aunt was a real strict bitch so he’d come here from time to time to raise shit and cause trouble…

and it was during one of those times that he got a girl in trouble…

” He smirked, saying, “If you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, asshole, we got it. So why would the fact that he has a kid be an insurance policy?” Ryan asked with a snort.

Rain watched Rob roll his yes as if Ryan was a fucking idiot, then spoke to him the same way, “Duh, asshole, the fact that Danny had a kid isn’t something a lot of people know about… as a matter of fact, very few know it at all. I got lucky when I found out about him.”

Wyatt sat in the chair across from Rob. “I’m listening.”

Rob took another drink of his water, before talking, “Danny was seventeen and the girl was sixteen when she got knocked up. Danny knew his aunt would kick his ass out or force him to marry her if she found out, so he tried to get her to get rid of it, but the girl refused. Word is, he threatened to have her killed if she didn’t get rid of it, but instead she took off to another small town named Rouyn.

It’s about an hour and a half from here. ”

“As interesting as this story is, I don’t understand what this has to do with Danny and using the kid to keep you alive,” Ryan said with a snort.

Rob gave Ryan another angry glare. “Because, as much as it might sound like Danny didn’t want the kid, it couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

“Explain.” Wyatt demanded.

Damn, Rain liked that authoritative tone his mate gave. Who knew he would be into that kind of shit?

“I grew up in Maniwaki. It’s about three hours from here, but I had friends that were raised in this town.

I hit them up and it’s how I found out about Danny and Daniela.

They told me everything. Danny didn’t know he had a son until the boy was twelve, and by then his mom had died in a car accident, and he was living with his grandparents.

At first, Danny was all about rushing in and claiming his son as his own, but he saw that the kid’s grandparents, although not well off, doted on that boy as if he were everything.

Add to that, Danny was into some dangerous shit, and decided to just watch him from a distance, and even came up with ways to get money to the kid’s grandparents.

His plan was to wait until the boy was old enough and then go to him, but then two things happened that stopped him from doing it. ”

“Two things? What two things?” Wyatt asked.

“One, by the time the kid hit eighteen, Danny was the leader of The Guardian Angels,” Rob said, then stopped speaking.

Wyatt sat back, calmly asking, “And the second?”

Rob snorted, “He’s as queer as a three dollar bill.”

When a low growl came from just about everyone in the room, Rob must have realized his mistake, because he anxiously said, “Whoa now! I’m not saying there’s shit wrong with taking a dick, but in the biker world that shit will get you killed, and from what I’m told there is no way Danny could hide the fact that his boy is a wannabe girl. ”

Wyatt was out of his seat so fast the chair flew behind him. Asod was right there pulling his friend away. “Don’t do it.”

Jude stood up and walked to the table. “Let me tell you something fuckwad. I’ve been listening to your bullshit long enough. Just tell us who the fuck this kid is and where to fucking find him, or I swear you’re going to regret every life choice you ever made in your life.”

Rob snorted at the smaller man, but instead of backing down, Jude leaned in, and whispered, “Oh, darling, I’m not the one that’s going to take your ass out. My mate, love of my life and future father to my children will do that for me.”

Jude looked at Casper and blew him a kiss, saying, “Won’t you, baby?”

“There is little I would do for you, my love,” Casper said, then turned to Rob and took a step.

“Noah! His name is Noah St. Pierre,” Rob shouted, then added, “And he lives really close to this place. Just up the river… hell, he’s maybe three houses to the north. You can’t miss it, man. It’s bigger than this place with a boat dock and everything.”

Jude nodded, “Okay, so I’m still not understanding, what makes knowing he has a kid and where he is an insurance policy?”

Rob snorted again, “Are you serious? Do you have any clue how many people would kill for that information. Danny has his hands in a lot of cookie jars… even in fucking jail, and he has a lot of pull with some really top ranking fuckers. Add to that all the people he fucked over? If anyone found out he had a son, they would either kill him or do what I was doing… hold it over the bastard’s head for leverage. ”

“And Danny didn’t just kill you when you told him what you had?” Wyatt asked.

“Because I’m not a fucking idiot. I have everything on my computer with a fail safe. If anything happens to me a mass video will be spread throughout the dark web and into certain enemies of his e-mails. His kid will be as dead as he wants this Rain kid to be.”

“And just when is this fail safe set to go off?” Jude asked.

Rob gave a smile that had Rain’s blood running cold. “It was set to go off two hours ago.”

Rain would have gasped if he’d been in human form.

If this man was telling the truth, it meant that an innocent guy was about to have his worst nightmare come to life.

It meant that he could die just because Danny was a fucker and put a hit out on him.

There was no way Rain could let that happen.

Rain couldn’t live with himself if someone else got hurt because of him.

Rushing up the stairs, Rain wanted to just take his shrew ass out the door and get to this Noah… but he knew that wouldn’t be smart… well, not as a shrew anyway.

Not because the guy most likely had no idea shifters existed.

Rain could just shift back into a human…

no, the biggest reason was because he would shift and be buck ass naked…

now wouldn’t that be a shocker to Noah… a naked stranger at his door telling him he needed to run and hide because bad men wanted him dead because a father he didn’t know was an asshole a shit ton of people wanted to hurt.

Instead, Rain rushed upstairs, to his room, shifted and grabbed some clothes, pulling on his socks and struggling into pants as he tried to get out of the room.

He was already pulling his shirt on as he got to the bottom of the stairs, barely taking the time to shove his feet into his shoes and racing out the back door.

Rain knew he should have waited for Wyatt and the others before going to find No,ah, but he also knew that two hours had passed since whatever Rob was doing was put out there and if they waited much longer Noah could die… and in a stupid way it would be Rain’s fault.

At least Rain felt it would be his fault.

Once Rain was to the river he turned north and started running alongside it as fast as he could.

Rain just hoped he got to Noah before someone killed the poor guy.