“I wanted to speak about Ella.”
My eyes narrow slightly. “Prez told you?”
She nods. “I didn’t go through anything like she did, Slick. That must have been bad. But when I was taken, they stripped my control, and I thought I was going to be raped. That was terrifying enough.”
I nod. We’d rescued her just in time.
“I spent a lot of time with the women who’d been through much worse than me.” She pauses, and I wonder whether she’s getting to the point. “I just wondered whether it would help if I spoke to her? Or just made sure I was here when she comes to the compound again?”
There’s a workbench beside me, and I hook my leg over it. “I don’t know when that will be, Sam. She’s pretty spooked by the whole idea. But thanks for the offer. I’ll think on it, okay?”
“Sure.” With a smile, she walks away. Fuck, Drum did good when he brought her back to the clubhouse. Viper must be over the moon finding out she is his daughter as well.
Over the next couple of days, I keep in touch with Ella, but do as she’d requested and keep my distance. As expected, Heart’s taken off the drugs keeping him under, but as of now there’s been no change in his condition. Like my brothers, I’m not giving up on him yet, but I just wish he’d give us some sign he’s going to be okay. I don’t know if there’s anyone that can hear me, or fuck it, whether they’d even listen to a sinner like me, but I’ve taken up praying and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Heart must recover.
Thursday evening, Mouse calls me into his cave, a dark hole with the windows blacked out so light doesn’t reflect off his screens. I find it depressing. He seems at home.
“Jayden’s on the move. Marsh called it in. He’s following, but if he thinks it’s too risky, we’ve still got the tracker.”
“She gonna meet with this Diego fucker?”
He watches the screen for a moment, expertly rolling a joint at the same time. “She must be in a car with the speed the tracker is travelling. There’s not much talking going on. Can’t tell much yet, but I reckon we can assume she is.”
“You keep eyes and ears on it, and I’ll get the boys together.”
Going into the clubroom, I whistle to get their attention. “Looks like Jayden’s meeting the mark.”
Wraith, Peg, Dart, and Beef step forward. As we’d discussed in church, they’d volunteered to come along. Drum emerges from his office, tucking his gun into his cut. “I’m coming with, Slick. Wanna see the fucker who’s playing around with kids.”
At that moment, Mouse emerges, waving his phone. “Marsh thought it was too risky, that they’d notice him following, so he’s on his way back. I kept on tracking her phone, and now they’ve stopped moving. I got the location.” When he tells us where it is, it surprises me. It’s in a residential area, and not in a seedier part of town as I’d have expected.
Going to our bikes, we waste no time getting rolling, followed by Marsh who’s jumped off his bike and is now behind the wheel of the crash truck. It takes about forty-five minutes until we’re riding up the right road. Drum waves us to stop a good way down from our destination so the sound of our pipes doesn’t raise the alert. We gather around him.
“What you got, Mouse?”
Mouse touches his hand to his ear piece. “I’ve been listening on the way. There’s a number of males there, drinking. There’s a lot of talking and laughing. I can’t hear the girl.”
At least she’s not screaming.
“Can you tell how many?”
“Three, four? Maybe.”
“Right. Slick, Peg, we’ll go in by the front door. Wraith, you and the others try and find a way in around the back. I want an in and out. We get the girl out of there.”
“What about the men in there?”
“Diego I fuckin’ want. The others? We’ll play it by ear. See what we find. But let’s be prepared and get silencers on those guns.” He leads us to the back of the crash truck where we open a hidden compartment and take out what we need.
Peg points to the body armour—yeah, we’re always prepared. “Think they’re gonna fight back?”
“Have to expect it. Hoped we’d just be dealing with one motherfucker.” Drum reaches in and starts passing the protective clothing out.
As I swap my cut for the armoured vest, I’m very worried and starting to dread just what we’ll be walking into. What the fuck is happening to that little girl?
“Anything Mouse?”
Mouse has his hand to his ear but shakes his head. “Sounds like they’re having a fuckin’ party.”
“Let’s do this thing.” Drum leads the way and we follow his lead, carefully walking along the street, trying to avoid crunching gravel as we approach the house Mouse points out. Blinds are drawn, presumably to prevent people seeing in, but that serves our purpose as we can approach undetected.
Drum takes his gun out of his cut; Peg and I do the same. We approach the front door. It’s solid. We could kick it in, but…
“Knock?”
“Why not?” Drum answers me with an evil sneer.
As he motions, I press my fingertip to the doorbell. To my surprise, it’s opened. Drum’s arm’s rising ready, but the man just gives the three of us a cursory look then waves us in. Surprised, we look at each other, then follow him in. What the fuck? Guess they must be expecting more people to arrive. Bastards. What is this, a fucking free for all?
We follow him into a living area, open and spacious, but there the normality ends. What isn’t normal is a barely dressed young girl, drunk out of her mind, swaying in the middle as though trying to dance to the music playing, while a man stands behind her, holding her up. The man who’d let us in joins two others who are walking around as though inspecting her, their hands coming out to grope her tits. As I watch, her top is pushed down, and her perky little breasts are now showing. They’ve already removed her pants.
“Good girl. I told you my friends were coming tonight, didn’t I, honey? And you’re going to be good to them, just like you are to me.” Now the man holding her sees us and grins. “Hey, welcome. Want to inspect the goods?”
Christ! He thinks we more punters. He must be high or something, hasn’t even noticed we’re wearing bulletproof vests. Just what’s going on?
Drum’s face has gone black, his eyes sharp and narrowed. His focus on the man holding the girl who I recognise as Jayden from the Facebook page Mouse had found. My breathing quickens and I roll my shoulders to loosen them up. I flick my eyes to my prez, waiting for a sign that we can put an end to this scene that’s making me feel sick. My rage is building as Jayden squeals when a man pinches her tit. If Prez doesn’t speak soon I’m gonna…
“Stop what you’re fuckin’ doing and let the girl go,” Drum’s voice thunders out.
All motion in the room ceases as one by one the men turn, seeing our guns pointing at them, a flicker of fear crossing their faces as they realise they’re outnumbered.
“I wouldn’t do that.” The prez focuses his unblinking stare on a man who looks like he is reaching for a weapon. “Take your gun out carefully and put it on the floor.”
The man starts to obey, then obviously plans on being a hero. I shoot him as he takes aim, a muffled pop from my silencer being the last thing he hears. That leaves two and Diego. Whichever one he is.
“What the fuck?” Jayden’s captor doesn’t seem to know what to do, but the situation’s obviously making him regain his senses and fast. “Who the fuck are you?”
“What’s going on, Diego?” One of the others looks at the man in the centre of the room, giving Diego’s identity away.
“Who are you?” Diego repeats.
Drummer ignores him. “Everyone take out your weapons, now.” Seeming like cowards, they’re not going to argue. One by one they do as Prez says. Peg collects the discarded weapons. The only man who hasn’t complied is the man who’s still got Jayden in his arms. “Diego?” Drum asks, his steely eyes land on the man in the centre of the room.
>
“Not carrying,” he gasps out, looking nervously at the two men who take steps back, as though distancing themselves from him. They can’t be friends, more likely customers. Bile churns in my gut as Diego continues, “Just take the girl if you want her.”
He gives her a hard nudge and she staggers forward. Without blocking Peg’s aim, I reach for her and take her in my arms, pulling her top back into place, then push her behind me into the arms of Wraith who, having made a rear entry, is now waiting ready by the door.
“Rest of the house is clear. This one was takin’ a piss.” Dart pushes one final man into the room. Knowing my brothers, I can trust he’ll already be disarmed. Wraith, after taking Jayden outside and leaving her with Marsh, returns. Beef and Mouse, having completed their search of the house, enter the living room space together.
With us at his back, Drummer walks toward Diego. The prez stands in front of him, eyeing him up. “So, you’re the man who likes playing with little girls.”
“Ain’t no harm in it. She wanted it. She was begging for it.”
Ignoring the statement which is blatantly untrue, Drum continues, “And your friends here? You were gonna share her around?”
The remaining men shuffle nervously and look anywhere but at us. As Diego doesn’t answer Drum fists his hand and strikes him hard on the face, ignoring the crunch of bone breaking. He follows up with another cut to his stomach. As Diego goes down, Drum goes behind him and pushes him to the floor. Taking out a zip tie he cuffs his hands, then forces him up. “You’re coming with us.”
As he pushes Diego out of the doorway Prez turns back around. “These men are all trash. Time we clean up Tucson. Let’s get this job done.”
Surrounded by my brothers, I walk into the room, paying no heed to the protestations of innocence. “It was all Diego.” “We weren’t doing a thing.” “Didn’t mean anything by it.” “We weren’t gonna hurt the bitch.” Yeah, and I’m the virgin Mary.
There are five of us, three of them, and I doubt any are expecting this to be their last night on Earth. One even starts smirking, watching as Diego vainly struggles in Drum’s hold. I can see another relaxing, believing now we’ve got what we came for we’ll leave them alone. No such luck, fuckers. You were touching the wrong girl.
As we line up in front of them, postures change once again, flickers of fear suggesting they’re expecting a beating. Oh, I’d love a chance to bloody them up, but Drum wants this quick and clean. It’s probably only seconds since we’ve approached them, but time has stood still for me as I position myself in front of the man on the end, alternatively going from watching their eyes and viewing any slight tensing of their bodies. My trigger finger hovers as I watch hands clench into fists, readying themselves to receive punches just like Diego.
We’re here to remove this stain off the face of the planet. I focus and imperceptibly shift the grip of my weapon.
“Just get it done already.”
At Drum’s terse instruction, I take a deep breath and hold it as I raise my gun up at the same time as my brothers take a similar stance. A bullet to the forehead of each of men in front us, muffled pops as the silencers do their jobs. Bodies hit the floor, not one breathing. Too clean a way to die in my opinion, but too many for us to take alive and deal with back at the compound.
“What the fuck?” Diego screams from the doorway. “That was my brother!”
“You’ll be seeing him again soon,” Drummer says ominously as he hands him over to Peg, who marches him out the door.
“We’ve got a problem,” Wraith snarls, pointing up to the corner.
Mouse leaps into action when he sees what it is, pulling up a chair and reaching to take the offending object down.
“They’re fuckin’ filming this shit, the sick fuckin’ bastards.”
“We need to search this place,” I spit out. “They may keep the tapes.”
Mouse is examining the camera. He’s extracting an SD card and waves it at us. “Look for any of these, and any computer or laptop. I want those taken back to the compound.”
“Slick, get yourself and the girl back to the clubhouse. She needs to be seen by Doc as soon as possible. We’ll stay, get it all cleaned up. Send Marsh back with the truck for the bodies and anything else we find.”
I’m nodding at most of his instructions, but, “Wouldn’t it be better to take her straight home? She should be with family.”
“Get her sister there.” The prez waves his hand around. “We don’t fuckin’ know how far this rot goes. We know the youngster, Sy, is still out there. What that girl’s been through? I want to make sure she’s fuckin’ safe.”
Chapter Fourteen
Ella…
Sometimes I wish I could control the way my mind works. It’s confusing, even to me. One moment I’m not regretting telling Slick to stay away, and the next I’m wishing he was here. He’s kept in touch by phone, but I can’t help but wonder whether there are things he’s not telling me. If he was here, I’d be able to see if he was holding anything back.
I’m so worried about Jayden, distressed at what’s been going on in her life. Feeling so useless there’s nothing I can do. If I hadn’t been so wrapped up in my own misery, I might have noticed something was wrong and been able to put a stop to it before it had gone so far.
When I start thinking down that route, I’m glad I told Slick to give me some space. I never meant to tell anyone about what had happened to me, now having disclosed my nightmare, I’ve got to come to terms with it all over again.
I’d appreciated Slick taking some of the blame, but at the end of the day, either of us could have stopped it but didn’t. The result was to expose me to animalistic behaviour that I didn’t even know humans were capable of, my body used totally out of my control. That I got out with my sanity is a miracle, the level of abuse forced upon me unbelievable. I’m torn into pieces, and I’m not sure it’s going to be possible to put myself back together.
Because I’d walked voluntarily, if not knowingly into the situation, I’d been believing I deserved what happened to me. But Slick’s reaction has at least made me put that first foot on the road toward considering maybe I wasn’t asking for the treatment I’d received. It certainly doesn’t hurt knowing the vast majority of my abusers are dead and will never be able to molest any woman ever again. That fact allows me to sleep easier in my bed. An extreme punishment, but one I deem fitting. They’re gone, they don’t deserve to have a place even in my nightmares. My conscious brain knows it, but I’ve still got to convince myself in my sleep.
This time away from Slick has been necessary to start to process what happened and permit myself to begin to move forward. Will I ever get over it? That’s the million-dollar question, and there’s no way of knowing. But hiding away, trying to cope on my own hasn’t helped much. Perhaps Slick’s right, and I should try counselling. For the first time since it happened, I’m making a conscious decision that while I can’t wipe the slate clean, I can try and work past it. Maybe talking with a professional could facilitate that.
Whichever way I look at it, while I’m taking the first step, it’s one hell of a long road I’ll be having to travel. While he says he will now, how much time will it take before Slick gets impatient and gives up? Slick’s a man with needs I can’t fulfill.
Being left alone has been useful. I’ve started looking to a future where I can deal with my past. That is, when I’m not worrying about Jayden.
When I went around to see her, my heart had fallen. If anything, she looked even worse than the last time I’d seen her. She was sullen and non-communicative, and now I had evidence it’s not just a teenage phase. I felt so sorry and useless.
It was easy to drop the tiny bug Road had delivered to me into her purse, far harder not to divulge I knew anything about what is going on. At several points during our conversations, I had to bite my tongue, knowing Slick’s right. If I let on that I know who she’s meeting, she’ll only clam up. If they’re holding threat
s over her, she certainly wouldn’t be admitting it. Limiting myself to gentle probes, I hoped she’d let something escape on her own, but I got little more than grunts out of her.
I wish to God I could lock her away, keep her safe so she never has to see them again. It kills me I’ve got to let her continue with whatever her plans are for seeing this man one more time so the Devils can do what they do best and deal with the problem in a permanent way.
I manage to hide my distress while I’m speaking to her, but as soon as I leave, I stagger as the emotion hits me, and walk home with tears running down my face. Oh Jayden, why did you have to get involved in something like this? How is it possible this Sy and Diego managed to corrupt such a sweet girl? Such things shouldn’t happen—it’s something you read about, something that happens to somebody else, not a member of your own family. Just how did they manage to reel her in?
Slick listened to me cry on the phone after I’d come back from seeing Jayden, not saying a word as I let it all out. Strangely his silent support gave me strength to go on.
It’s Thursday today, getting near the end of the week, and I’m a complete mess. Contemplation of my own problems has become overshadowed with fear for my sister. Nervous anticipation has me hanging by the phone wondering whether this will be the day when their plan to save Jayden is put into action. Now the worry revolves around my dread that something will go wrong, and she’ll end up getting hurt. I desperately want to call the whole thing off, but Slick is adamant. Their plan, he’s told me, is the only way to get her out cleanly and give her a chance at a normal life.
As usual I dress in jeans to walk to work, only changing into the clothes my boss provides for his staff when I get there. Entering the bar, I see it’s already busy—there’s a stag party in, never a good sign. I take a deep breath as I approach their table and, not totally unexpected, as I stand with my tray full of drinks a man tries to grope me, his hand going up under my too short skirt. I jump back in horror, and glasses and bottles go smashing to the ground.
Satan's Devils MC Boxset 1 Page 84
