Chapter 74: Chasing Down A Lead

Charlie Mack's Pasture, Northside, Temperance, South Dakota...

The hum from the engine of Brick Kenneally's motorcycle filled the air as he tore down the dusty road headed toward a large white house that sat smack dab in the center of the vast property covered with dead grass and dark soil. He smirked as he noted the breeze that hit him as his bike parked up beside an old faded red pickup truck too old and too beat up to recall the make in the model by the naked eye. He didn't suppose the old man got many visitors as he climbed off his bike after shutting it down. He still kicked up his fair share of dust before his boots hit the dirt but he weathered it just fine as he approached the house. He had attempted to knock on the door outright noticing the chipped white paint and termite-eaten boards of the porch as he turned his attention to a man that appeared to have been working in the backyard wearing denim overalls and a large white stedson hat.

Brick could tell by the leathery skin and low eyes that this man had been indeed "Charlie Mack" or at least some relation to him from the description Rooster gave him of the old devil. The biker seemed a bit more in his element as he sniffed the air and tested the sentiment and possible dangers that lurked on this odd man's property. He could hear the snakes a mile away and the chattering of birds in the distance and mice beneath the old house.

"You look to be lost boy," said the old man in a gruff tone taking note of the biker that dared to travel to his property. He had known of The Howler M.C. from seeing them in town but he had not been too keen on one of them venturing to his private property.

"I ain't nothin' of the sort," replied Brick with his hands in the pocket of his jeans as he moved toward the old man who'd been kneeling in the dirt and digging for quite some time while making little to no progress due to his age and the heat. "I'm lookin' for Charles McCormick."

The younger man's keen eyes noted the old timer had been attempting to replace a busted pipe all by his lonesome.

"There ain't been a Charles McCormick round these parts since I was six years old." replied the old man narrowing his eyes at Brick before dropping the shovel and getting to his feet as he climbed out of the two-foot-deep sized hole he'd dug into the ground. "They call me Chalie Mack."

"Brick Kenneally." replied the rugged biker.

"Might have known you'd come," said Charlie as he stepped toward Brick.

Up close the younger man could see the sparse blond hairs beneath his hat and the shimmering of his blue eyes as his reddened formerly pale skin continued to sweat amid the blazing heat of the unrelenting sun.

He had been of the mind to do a lot of work on his property although it had not looked like much at the time.

"You lookin' for the whore that broke my late brother's heart," said Charlie Mack in a gruff tone. "She's dead, I'm told but before she went and turned up dead she did a lot of bad dealings, a real shame about it as she often had her little girl with her."

Brick's ears perked at this.

"Her little girl?" he asked once more thinking of Layla.

"Yeah, innocent little thing about five or six at the time, blonde use to use her on my brother night and day hounding him for money and saying it was for her little girl, if you ask me the bastard she took up with had done something to both of them, I didn't like the look of him then and I sure as shit don't like the look of him now."

Brick had taken his hands out of his pockets and folded them across his chest.

Charlie Mack turned his attention to a table with a water jug on it and drank it as he continued his talk.

"I for one believe that while she was playing my brother for a sap, she'd been giving the money to her no good..." was as far as he'd gotten when a sudden and random expression filed across his aged face.

Brick had got the idea in his head the old man was having a heart attack when he dropped the jug and fell backward onto the table he had set up clutching his chest. Much to the younger man's horror, Charlie Mack moved his right hand and there was a good deal of blood coming from his chest. His eyes widened and he reached for Brick before trying to speak as blood oozed from his mouth blocking off his words and choking him to death in the end.

Brick couldn't believe it, rage filled him as he turned his head in the direction of a thick bushel of trees where he believed given the shot's trajectory it had come from and effectively silenced Charlie Mack before he could give the whole story. In the end, he died like his brother, Clarence Mack shot dead on his own land by an unknown assailant. Both cases appeared to have been over the same woman.

Enraged, Brick took off toward the trees determined to catch up to the shooter. The unsuspecting culprit seemed to be caught off guard but fired shot after shot as Brick ducked and dodged a few of the bullets that whizzed by his head and body in hot pursuit of the murderer that had done his or her best to snuff out his lead.

He had almost managed to unmask the culprit when a bullet tore into his right shoulder and the silver from it burned something fierce as he began to slow down in the wake of the agony and the slippery bastard took off clean and free as Brick growled feeling his arm burn from the bullet and turn a sickening black coloration in the process.

"FUCK!" he hissed as the wound appeared to get worse as his blood oozed down his body.

He'd taken a total of three shots directly, and all had burned like mad as he scrambled to get back to his car and back to where he could find assistance in getting the bullets removed.

He knew he only had so much time before he passed out and the bullets had taken effect so he chose the closest route in order to survive the coming infection.