Page 21 of Starting Over (D.O.A. DRAGO #1)

Rain was so confused at what the hell was happening.

One second they were trying to reason with Noah, and the next he’d seen that red light…

the kind you see in the movies. Rain hadn’t taken a second to think about anything…

he’d just reacted. Hell, he’d heard the bullet pass by his own ear when he’d tackled Noah to the floor.

And then Wyatt had rushed out the door and … dear gods in all the heavens, it scared him to know his mate was out there with the very people shooting at them… however, nothing had made his blood turn to ice like the sound of that roar.

Rain knew it was his mate in dragon form… and his dragon was pissed.

“What the fuck is happening? I don’t… I can’t… Oh god.”

Rain turned to see Noah breathing fast and hard as he sat with his back against the wall and head nowhere near the window.

“We told you, your father is a piece of shit that has done some really shitty things to a lot of people and they want to hurt him. The best way to do that is to hurt his son,” Jude said from under his mate who didn’t look as if he was going to move any time soon.

Rain was careful as he looked outside, gasping, “Oh shit! He’s burning the woods down!”

“Get the fuck away from the window, Rain, if more shots are…”

“Jude, you are not listening. Wyatt is burning the fucking woods to the ground. Anyone over there is… oh my gods,” Rain rasped.

“Smoky’s on it. Rain and Asod is as well. The fire is being put out as we speak,” Casper stated as he looked out the back window. “The problem is, our back end is exposed. We really need to get the fuck out of here.”

“Burning the woods down? How the hell is he doing that?” Noah asked, giving them all a confused look, before saying, “You know what? I don’t want to know.

” Waving towards Casper, Noah said, “What he said is a good plan. Go. I just want you all to leave. I… I don’t know what’s going on and my ‘dad’ can’t be here because he died.

My mom told me he died in a motorcycle accident before I was born. ”

“Your mom lied,” Jude snapped out. “I already told you that when you said it earlier. Your father is Danny Houdon. He is the head fucker of a one percent biker gang. He deals in drugs, gunrunning and anything else you can think of that makes him scum. He’s known to promise payment to people when he needs something done, and that payment is their death so he doesn’t have to give them shit. As a result…”

“Jude stop!” Rain snapped, making the other man shut his mouth. “I know you’re pissed that someone almost killed us, but it isn’t Noah’s fault. Just stop.”

Kneeling in front of Noah, Rain softly said, “Noah, your father is alive and Jude isn’t wrong.

He’s a bad man. I watched him go into a birthday party and kill everyone there.

I…” Rain looked away hating what he was about to say and hoping it didn’t make Noah trust them even less, when he continued, “I helped put him behind bars and now he wants me dead. He escaped from prison and put a hit out on me. He’ll pay on million to anyone that brings me to him alive as long as he’s out of prison so he can do the deed himself, and if he happens to get caught and sent back to prison, then he’ll pay half that for my death. ”

“Oh my god,” Noah rasped. “That’s fucking horrible, but you don’t know that he’s…”

“Yes, we do, Noah. We do our research, but I promise you, if you still doubt that he’s your father, we can do a DNA test. His was taken when he got arrested. We can do a blood draw and then you’ll know for sure. But I swear to you, he’s alive.”

“Fine, let’s say he’s alive. What the hell does that have to do with me?

I wouldn’t even know who he was if I passed him on the street.

Why would anyone want to come for me? None of this makes sense.

He never was a part of my life so I doubt hurting me would make a difference to the man,” Noah insisted.

Sighing, Rain said, “When you were young your grandparents started receiving money every month out of nowhere… right?”

Noah nodded, “Yeah, but Grandpa said he’d won a lottery or something and he got paid off from it every month.”

“And then you won a house… right?” Jude asked.

Rain gasped and looked at Jude. “Seriously? A house?”

Nodding, Jude said, “Yeah, Wiz did some checking on this place and discovered that it was a private cash purchase done when Noah was twelve. The cash, the house all of it. Shit, he bought you the car you’re driving right now, paid for your college education and a shit ton more.

The man might be a fucking asshole, but he cared about you, Noah.

He made sure you were raised outside his criminal life with good people and never went without every need and want…

even to this day. He did this by never letting anyone know you were ever born…

but the cat is most definitely out of the bag…

I’d think the bullets ripping through your house might be a clear enough indicator. ”

“Shit! People are coming and they’re not ours.” Casper snapped. “Jude, take Noah and Rain upstairs right now. I need you guys to hide and not come out until I give the word.”

“I’m not leaving you,” Jude frantically said.

Casper’s eyes darkened, as he snapped, “Smoky and the others are on their way back. I can’t be worried about you and do what I need to do.”

Jude looked as if he was going to argue, but Casper wasn’t having it, “We talked about this, Jude. If we’re going to have a family, you need to learn to listen when it comes to your safety.”

Casper stopped talking and Rain could swear he was listening to someone talking, before he let out a low curse, “You guys need to go now! Danny’s men are on their way to the cabin as we speak.”

Jude pursed his lips, pulling Noah onto his feet, as he grumbled, “We’re going, but I don’t have to like it. Come on, Rain.”

Noah said nothing as he was pulled up the stairs by Jude and Rain pushed him from behind. They had to get to a safe spot and Rain had to stop worrying about Wyatt and trust that he knew what he was doing when it came to fighting.

“We need a good hiding spot,” Jude said looking left, then right, before turning to Noah. “You know your home better than all of us. Where’s the safest place for us to hide?”

“My room?” Noah said more in question then assuredness.

Jude gave Noah a look of disbelief, “I have a feeling that would be the first place they’d look. Think, Noah. You’ve lived here over half your life. There has to be a place we can hide that no one will think about?”

“How would they know…?”

Noah! Listen to me. When it comes to men like Danny you have to assume they know everything… and I mean everything about your life, home and even where you take a shit. Now think!”

The sound of crashing glass and breaking furniture had Noah letting out a low squeal that Jude quickly stifled, quietly hissing, “Where?”

Noah’s breathing was fast and hard and Rain didn’t blame him. He was terrified right now.

Thankfully Noah gave a nod and pointed to the back room.

The sound of something slamming into the wall had them all jumping and then flesh hitting flesh along with grunts and shattering glass forced them to move… fast.

Jude closed all the doors as they passed them and when they got to one clear in the back, Noah rushed inside turning when Jude closed that door as well.

Rain looked around in confusion, Where the hell would they hide? There wasn’t even a fucking closet.

Jude must have thought the same because he hissed, “What the fuck? I said we needed to hide, Noah. The only place I can see that’s not going to give them a bird’s eye view is under the fucking bed.”

Noah hissed back, “That’s because you’re not looking in the right place.”

Rain watched as Noah stood on the bed and pushed something before sliding a wood slat back, leaving a giant hole in the ceiling.

“I needed a place to store some of the things for my flower shop, but I didn’t want to lose the extra room in case I needed it for an office or something so I installed this crawl space.

There’s no way anyone would know about it because I did it myself. ”

“How do we get up there?” Jude asked, “I’m ashamed to say I’m not athletic…well except in the bedroom and Spider Man I am not.”

Noah rolled his eyes as he pulled a rope ladder from the hole. “I’m not either.”

“You guys need to hurry I hear someone coming this way,” Rain snapped as quietly as he could.

Noah started up the ladder and once he was inside, Jude quickly followed. However, before Rain could get to the bed in order to follow them, he heard someone getting closer and closer.

He wouldn’t have time to climb the ladder and close the crawl space without being seen. Tossing the ladder up, he snapped, “I won’t make it in time. Close it up.”

Jude snapped, “Damn it, Rain, get your ass up here.”

“No time.” Rain hissed as he jumped off the bed and rolled under it.

Jude barely had time to close the crawl space door before the bedroom door was kicked open, and all Rain could do was pray that whoever it was left thinking no one was up here.

It seemed that if it weren’t for bad luck, Rain would have no luck at all because within seconds he felt his ankle grabbed and Rain was being dragged out from under the bed and coming face to face with Danny himself.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t just the man I’ve been wanting to kill. You just saved me a shit ton of money,” Danny said with his evil as fuck smirk he used during the trial.

“Danny, you don’t want to hurt me,” Rain said, hearing the shake in his voice.

Danny gave a laugh that brought so much fear to Rain he tasted metal.

“Oh, Rain, I want to do more than hurt you, or did you forget you had me sent to prison for life?” Danny asked with a growl at the end.

Shaking his head, Rain crab walked until his back hit the bed before using the bedframe to stand up, anxiously saying, “No. You did that when you killed all those people.”