Chapter 129: Chapter 129: A Nuisance

Click was surprised at her sudden fear…how she changed in an instant. Billowing fire one minute then meek as a lamb the next. He turned his head to look at Leon.

Leon caught sight of her and paused. “Is there a problem here?” he asked Zeus.

Zeus growled and said, “One of my men found someone sneaking around the fence line last night. She refuses to tell us who she is or what she’s doing here.”

Click reached behind him to pull her around to face them.

The girl stared down at the floor and refused to look at them.

Leon reached out to gently grasp her jaw and raised her face to his own. He stared at her dark hair and unusual eyes. He paused to study her for a long minute. “What is your name, child?”

“My name is unimportant,” she insisted.

“Oh, I disagree. If you have no name then what are we to call you?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

She refused to reply.

“You must have a reason to be here,” Leon went on in a very soft voice. Too soft in fact. “No one would sneak onto property this well guarded if they did not have a damn good reason. So what are you doing here?”

“I’m not here to harm you or these bikers,” she insisted. “But my mission here is my business not yours and not theirs either.” She motioned her head to the men around her.

“She said something this morning about Barrett having his own money,” Click interjected. “But she didn’t say how she knew that.”

She turned to glare at him. “What are you, a damn tattletale?”

Click grabbed her by the shoulders and let her have it, “Listen, whoever you are, I’m part of this family and as such, I will not put anyone’s life in danger by keeping secrets. That means you, included. We got a hell of a mess going on here, a mess that’s dangerous. To me, to them and to you, so don’t you give me any grief about not keeping what you told me this morning secret. This is a need to know situation and we all need to know.”

“Does that mean you need to know where Barrett is hiding?” She mocked his need to know statement. “Like maybe you all need to know that he’s wounded and bleeding?”

Click narrowed his eyes at her. “Why didn’t you tell me all of this last night? We could have gotten him already.”

“Because you would have gotten him medical help and he’s a man that deserves to die in the filthy dirt from where he came.” She growled. “He deserves to bleed out and die in the same kind of pain he caused others to endure time and time again.”

Leon shook his head. “That, mio caro, is not for you to judge.”

“Fuculo,” she swore in Italian and snarled. “Maybe I have a good reason to judge him. Un fastidio per il mondo.” A nuisance to the world.

Leon froze when he heard her curse and then he shook his head. “You do your grandfather proud, little raggazi. Girmondo would be smiling if he ever heard you.”

Staring at him, her face went utterly ashen. “My grandfather is dead!” she screamed this at him. “Barrett’s bastard sons shot him down in cold blood after they set his barn on fire. He was on his way to let the animals out when they shot an unarmed man down. I escaped out the back door and had to watch as those fuckers set fire to the house. I had to leave my grandfather laying in the dirt to get away. Would that make him proud, Senor? Would that make my grandfather smile? I don’t think so.” She pulled out of Click’s hold and walked wearily to the table and sat down. Raising her zip tied hands up, she wiped her tears away from her face. Then she laid her face on the table and wept.

Zeus looked over at Leon and growled under his breath. “Who is she?”

Leon shrugged. “I don’t know her name but I know her grandfather. The man had a phrase that always made me laugh. ‘A nuisance to the world.’ He was usually right too, when he said it. His name is Girmondo Luccanto. We were children together in New York City before my father moved us to Boston. I heard he moved to somewhere in Montana the last I knew.” He shook his head, “I’m sorry to hear about his death. He was a good man.”

Pulling out his knife, Click cut the zip ties from her wrists.

The woman just didn’t seem to care anymore though. She didn’t look at him. She just sat there with tears on her face and a faraway look in her eyes. As if telling her story had brought it all back and she was suffering in silence.

“What do you know about the man?” Zeus asked Leon. “Her grandfather?”

“I don’t know what happened between him and the Ragettis. But I know he lived with strong convictions.” Leon pondered. “He left New York City as a young man and made his way west. I received a letter after he got settled in Montana. He found himself a woman and soon they were working the land. I heard they had one child, a girl I think and then I heard his wife died in childbirth along with his second child. He raised his daughter alone and when the time came, she left him to make her own life. I don’t know what she did but I did hear she ended up in New York City again.”

“She left Montana to find her relatives in New York,” the woman at the table finally spoke up. “On her way there, she stopped in Chicago for a few days. While there, she met Barrett. He wanted her but she knew he was married and to her that was a sin she wouldn’t commit. But Barrett wouldn’t let her go, he kept her prisoner for three weeks. He used and abused her during that time then he kicked her to the curb. She escaped and made her way to New York. He found her fourteen years later. He was there on business and he wanted her again. When she told him no, let’s just say he didn’t take the news all that well. I came home from school and found her on the floor in a pool of her own blood. She hung on long enough to tell me who killed her. I always knew he was out there somewhere but I prayed he would never find us.” She hung her head. “My prayers went unanswered. I left the city and went back to Montana to my grandfather’s place. When my grandfather found out what happened, Barrett was already in prison so he went after the sons. That ended up killing him.”

The silence when she finished telling them about what happened echoed through the main room.

“I loro peccati non finiranno mai?” Will their sins never fucking end? Leon swore in his own language.