Page 3 of Starting Over (D.O.A. DRAGO #1)

Without missing a beat, Dream was speaking, “Danny Houdon is a big-time gang leader of the Guardian Angels. It’s a biker gang and rival of the Hell’s Angels out of Montreal.”

Dream got quiet a second, then said, “Oh wow, this guy is a real piece of shit. His hands are into a lot of shit. Guns, drugs, sex trafficking. Hell, he even went to jail for murdering twenty-eight people and wounding twelve others.”

“Holy shit,” Bren gasped.

“They suspect the shit for far more murders… especially if the man is being tried for something. Hell, if not for the courage and somehow resourcefulness of a guy named Rain Stanley, Houdon and his buddies wouldn’t be serving twenty-eight concurrent life sentences right now… but… holy shit! He escaped.”

“What? Who escaped?” Rylee anxiously asked.

“Houdon and his men. It says here that a fucking helicopter came over the prison, dropped some lines and all four men were carried away. How the fuck does that kind of incompetence even happen?” Dream asked in horror.

Hearing everything Dream said verified Rain’s story, and he looked at the man who was looking back at him with an “I told you so.”

“Oh wow,” Dream whispered.

Bren let out a low growl, before saying, “You say that shit a lot, Dream. What is it now?”

“Well there’s good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” Dream asked.

“Give us the bad, that way we can cheer up later,” Rylee quickly said.

Dream snorted, saying, “Okay then. It seems after the trial that Rain was given a new identity to help protect him. It wasn’t much of one though.”

“What do you mean?” Bren asked.

“They kept his first name, but gave him a new last name. He now goes by Rain Sterling,” Dream said.

Rain gasped, but Jude held up his hand to keep him from speaking. Instead asking the question he knew Rain would want to know. “If his name was changed for safety, how the hell did you find it?”

“Besides the fact that I’m a fucking awesome investigator?” Dream asked.

When no one said anything, the man let out a huff, “Fine. It’s why I said whoever set him up did a piss poor job. They were either lazy or wanted him easily found, because keeping his first name and then using his mother’s maiden name was just stupid.”

“Maybe Rain decided what to be called.” Rylee quickly defended the man he didn’t know.

Dream replied, “He might have, and maybe keeping his first name might have been his decision. People tend to go off of television shows and think it’s okay to keep your first name and just change the last, and if his name had been Joe, Frank, Ben…

something like that, no biggie. However, a name like Rain is not the norm.

The last name… the person putting together his new identity should have immediately nixed the idea of using his mother’s maiden name.

As it is, all I had to do was look at Rain and use alternate last names.

I found only one Rain had taken a plane out of that Provence the night the trial was over.

When I looked into Rain’s genealogy, that’s when I found that Sterling was his grandma’s last name. ”

“Damn, okay. So, do you think that Danny Houdon is going for him?” Bren asked.

“He may have found him. That’s the bad news.

Rain Sterling disappeared three days ago.

His employer put in the report. From what I’m seeing here, he’d been at work and was called to the front.

When they went looking for him, he was nowhere to be found.

It was highly unusual for him, so they made a missing persons report,” Dream answered.

“Shit! Should I ask Pit to look into this?” Bren asked.

Jude jumped in saying, “No!”

Everyone was silent, until Bren slowly said, “Jude, if Rain is in trouble we should be trying to help. It’s kind of what we do.”

Knowing he needed to think fast, Jude said, “Yes, but with the move and all now really might not be the time. Besides, we don’t know that Danny Houdon has him. I think maybe we should have Dream see if he can figure out where he might be before we get the guys involved.”

“Jude’s right, Bren. Dream is really good at what he can do. Let’s have him see what he can find and go from there,” Rylee said.

“Actually…” Dream jumped in, “I can, but this is where we get into the good news.”

“What do you mean?” Rylee asked.

“Well, it seems that when Houdon and his goons escaped, the mayor didn’t waste any time. He called in a team known for finding people just like this,” Dream answered.

“And just who are these people?” Jude asked.

Dream quickly replied, “Thunder Bounty Hunters Plus.”

“Bounty hunters? Really?” Bren asked in astonishment.

Dream laughed, “That’s where the plus comes in. If there is someone you need found, these are the guys to call. I’m kind of surprised though.”

“Why?” Jude asked.

“Because word is they’re closing shop. I don’t know if they’re aging out or if it’s burn out.

I mean they’ve been doing it a long time.

Hell, if I’m not mistaken, Thunder has been around for a really long time.

The business itself was started in the mid eighteen hundreds and passed down from son to son.

However, it seems these boys are gay, and that means no sons to pass it on to.

Again, it isn’t like I know them, but if rumor is right, this might be their last hurrah. ”

“Cool, thanks, Dream. I still would like for you to do some looking into on Houdon. I don’t like that Rain is missing. If you run into problems, let me know and I can see if Wiz can help you out,” Bren said.

Dream let out a “Pfft,” then said, “I don’t need Wiz to do my job. I’m on it. Give me a few days and I should have a location.”

“Thanks, Dream,” Rylee said.

“Yeah, thanks, Dream,” Jude murmured.

The moment Rylee hung up, Jude knew his friends were going to ask questions… questions he didn’t want to answer right now, so he quickly said, “Thanks, guys, I appreciate your help on this.”

“Jude…”

“Bren, I’d love to keep talking, but I really need to get to the cabin. It’s getting dark and I don’t want to drive on that road at night. Call you soon. Bye,” Jude said as fast as he could.

He could still hear both Bren and Rylee screaming his name when he hung it up, looked at Rain, saying, “Okay, we’re going to head to my cabin. We can figure out what we need to do from there.”

“O… Okay,” Rain said, looking even more terrified than he had before the call.

It couldn’t be easy to know that a killer was looking for you. Jude knew that feeling, and he also knew that if there was anything he could do to help the man through this, he’d do it. Even if it meant contacting Casper.