Legend (Requiem MC #6)

Chapter Three The Rabbit Hole

Legend

I held Glory’s hand as she still hadn’t let go. Finally, we both sat down at the table with everyone else.

I never thought I would see this day. Where both of my families would be sitting together. I should have but I suppose it had to happen eventually. Yes, I hid this from most of the MC and most of the Walkers. Hid may not be the correct word but in the end, that would be what it was called.

Yes, I’d hidden my true identity. I knew it probably wouldn’t matter to most of the MC and the Walkers, but I still hated the fact that I needed to explain this part of my past to them. I would get to it eventually, but Deacon’s threat was ever prevalent. To think that threat had even reached my estranged family.

“Tell us about what Deacon has done,” Justice spoke first.

“He was snooping around, asking about Legend,” my father replied.

“Snooping how?” I asked my father.

“Making online checks about you. Hacking into our systems at Descalia corp.”

“Then we got an actual visit,” Luca added.

I looked over at him. “He came to la tenuta della Luna Nascente?”

“Came to what?” Zed asked as he looked confused.

“Home of the Rising Moon. That's the name of my father’s estate,” I explained.

“No, it is the name of your family’s home, Gio,” my dad argued. “It is your home as well.” He glared at me.

I slowly shook my head as I wanted to avoid this same old argument. I refused to reply. It wouldn’t help anything right now. My father was old school in the Italian tradition, the family all did what was expected of them. I felt differently. I was the middle son actually, so I figured Luca would inherit or take over and I could be a doctor like I had always wanted. My father came to me when I was 18 and proposed what he expected of me, it pushed me too far. In fact, it pushed me to leave the family. At that time, I felt like he’d given me no choice.

Luca shook his head and answered my original question as he too seemed to want to avoid a family argument. “He came right up to the gates.” Luca nodded. “He had these Russian guards and a small army with him. He said he did not come for war. But you coulda fooled me. He looked ready to start one”

“He asked if we knew the Walkers,” my father explained. “And were we aligned with them? I had to look like an idiota and tell him I did not know who these Walkers were.”

“Damn it,” I muttered.

“Si…” My father nodded. “I told him we knew nothing about them. He laughed as he told us that you, Legend…Giovanni was a member of the Walker family and the Requiem MC. After all the years we searched for you, a man like this comes to our home and tells us where you are.”

“Yes, father. I have lived here for almost ten years.”

“Maybe someday, you can tell us how that happened, son. I mean I know you like motorcycles but this is a little too much. To actually become an MC member?” He shook his head. “But for now, we need to align forces and wipe this man out.”

“Amen to that,” Zed spoke up as he nodded his head.

“Why would you do that?” Justice asked my father. “Align with us?”

My father glared at him as he explained, “My son is aligned with you, the Walkers. And with that association, he is endangered by this war or feud. We do not allow family to be harmed. Ever. ”

I shook my head at him. I knew this to be true, but I really didn’t want them to get involved with this.

“Do not argue on this point, Gio,” my father stated as he stared at me. “We, your family, are already involved in this and arguing won’t help. We have just skimmed the surface of this supposed FBI agent’s operation.”

Luca nodded. “However, we do not have all the pieces to this puzzle. Are we to understand that this is a family war? “

“Sort of,” I answered. “He is a Walker as well. But it all stemmed from his mother Olivia. She wanted revenge on the family.”

“Revenge for what?” Luca asked me.

Shrugging, I felt reluctant to answer this fully. “All of it was just a story I heard. I mean I’m not sure of the real reason it got to the point it has.”

Justice clasped his hands together and said, “I have spoken to the Walkers and had many conversations as well as being shown videos of O they had after they finally captured her. I didn’t understand either until I saw the video where she…” Justice shook his head. “...Committed suicide. Olivia had been mentally ill for perhaps her entire life as she finally confessed to killing her own parents at twelve years old, no less.”

“How on earth did she accomplish such a thing?” my father asked in incredulity.

“She burned the family home down,” Justice went on with the tragic story. “Luckily, her sister Bea wasn’t there. However, her other sister and parents did die in that fire. That was just one of the many murders she had committed. She went on to kill others in the family as well. My uncles were both murdered by that woman. In the end, she finally confessed why she had killed them. Although, her reasoning was twisted and not really explainable. Her parents had been talking about taking her to a specialist as they worried about her mental state. They had signs early on that she was causing harm to others.”

“So, she took them out,” my father concluded. “I imagine this woman was highly dangerous.”

“Even as early as eight years old perhaps,” Justice agreed. “When she finally reached adulthood, she was a full on serial killer. As to killing our uncles, she was in love with one uncle who’d married her sister Bea. My dad’s identical twin in fact. So she married the other brother in hopes to…Well, I’m not sure why. But she ended up killing him and a woman she chose to be her in death, in another house fire. So, Bea believed Olivia was dead for many years and never had any idea that Olivia was responsible for all these tragedies. Not until they captured her. She brought ruin to the town the Walkers lived in, she framed one of my cousins for a crime he did not commit and he did 7 years in prison. She ran gangs and killed anyone who opposed her. Buying up businesses, selling drugs and partaking in human trafficking. She became a criminal organization unto herself.”

“The notorious Ophelia,” my father whispered in a bit of awe as he now looked stunned.

I stared at him and asked, “You knew her?”

He tisked and raised his hands up at me. “I have only heard of her. We never dealt with her directly.”

“Well, since her passing, Deacon is now leading this war,” Justice said. “He was an actual FBI agent. She made the money with her illegal schemes to fund his college and advancement in the government. To help her someday and it worked very well for many years. We also believe he still has contacts within dark government groups to this day. All while he works in crime. Not to break it up but to keep profiting from it.”

“We know a few people like that,” Luca said. “Not insane ones like Ophelia but people who are in the business.”

I looked over at him and wanted to roll my eyes at the gall of his statement. They know a few people like that? My family worked in those very businesses for profit as well. But I didn’t want to make this about that old but still touchy subject, so I kept my feelings to myself.

“She was known as being methodical,” my father concluded. “I heard stories. Si, she was highly feared because of her unbalanced mental state. A bad temper and she would kill people simply for kicks or if she felt they had slighted her in some way. Many felt she wasn’t safe to do business with.”

“So, her son took over for her then? And he feels justified, right?” Luca asked. “He believes he is going to get revenge for her death.”

“Yes, that seems to be true,” Justice said. “He was the one who dragged us into it.”

“I was taken prisoner by this Deacon,” Zed spoke up.

We all looked over at him.

“I, of course, never knew any of these people existed at the time. I was out in town one day and my men were ambushed with tranq darts. Then they threatened my men’s lives if I didn’t go with them. Oh yes, you can bet that Deacon is a psychopath just like his mother,” Zed explained. “He took me to force my son to hand over a woman my son was in love with.”

“What?” Luca sat forward while looking intrigued. “That is foolish. Like why would he do all that just for…” He paused. “…Sesso…Um, sex? There are plenty of females to have.”

“You’d think so, right? He had said something about his mother insisting he keep the bloodline of her side going,” Zed explained. “He claimed Jewel was the perfect woman to have his progeny.”

“So in essence, he wanted her as his baby mama,” Glory piped up as she looked disgusted by the whole idea. “Can you imagine? Like she would have been forced to have kids with him? When she didn't even really know him. How crazy is that? I mean, people have the right to choose their own mate.”

“It is not unheard of,” my father told her. “To arrange marriages for having children.”

I shook my head as I knew what he meant. The Italians were big on doing arranged marriages. I also knew Glory wouldn’t ever agree that this idea was fair at all.

Zed shrugged. “But who really knows what that crazy man thinks. When it all fell apart, he blew up a whole city block. Just to get away, with no care of who he might hurt.”

“I wasn't surprised by that at all,” Justice said. “We knew that when he took Glory.”

My father and brother turned to stare at her.

She raised her hands up at them. “No, it wasn’t for baby making, thank God.” Shrugging, she said, “I never even saw him or spoke to him the whole time he held me. I was taken for a trade.”

“A trade?” Luca asked her.

“Yes.” Glory nodded. “They had captured O. Deacon had been instructed by her sometime back to take me if she was ever captured, so they would have to release her.”

“And you are here, safe. So they did make the trade?” my father asked.

Shaking her head, Glory said, “No, my cousins along with my brothers, rescued me. O is dead now.”

“Oh, really?” Luca looked curious. “So the Walkers executed her?”

“Hell no!” Zed interjected as he looked insulted by this conclusion. “They didn’t do that, she committed suicide.”

“Interesting,” Luca commented. “And she did this while in their custody?”

“It is a long story, father,” I told him. “But we got Glory back.”

“And you all came back here,” Luca concluded.

“No, not all of us,” Zed replied. “Their father Jarret is now with Bea. So is Jarret's oldest son, Redemption. The entire Walker family had to split up into groups as Deacon seemed to have located where they were hiding out at.”

“So, he wants them all dead?” my father asked him. “Just like the old days of a famiglia war?”

“Yes, in the past, he had threatened to blow up the Walker ranch in Louisiana,” Glory said.

“We need to end him,” Luca stated coldly.

“Not so easy to do,” Zed said.

“He's right,” Justice agreed. “He literally seems to be living underground. We found out that his mother had a hobby of building underground bunkers. So he has been using them for months now.”

“They have had leagues of men hunting for him,” Zed added. “The Rebel Saints have been their army in this and they have had men all over the area, looking for his hideouts.”

My father paused to stare at him as did my brother.

I studied them. Funny how even after all these years, I still knew them so well. They knew something about this. “Do you know of the Saints?” I had to ask.

“Si, we do, son. I’ve met Bones and Keys who run the two chapters. They work for a friend of ours. Nothing illegal really as far as I know. Mostly for security. But they are damned good at what they do. This, we do know. So if the Rebel Saints cannot find or defeat this Deacon, then he is a real danger for sure.”

“Wow, so that makes it a small world, doesn’t it?” Glory said. “You know the Saints and we know them as well.”

I glanced over at her, wondering what she was getting at.

“Yes, my dear,” my father replied as he raised a brow at her.

Cocking her head at him, she asked, “So, after you help us to defeat Deacon, what are your intentions then?”

He stared at her.

Yes, I knew where she was going now…same as I said to her earlier…right down that rabbit hole.