by Gillian Zane
I got out from behind the wheel and looked one more time at Hannah. She was being led away by Alexis. She never glanced back.
So this was what it felt like to be debriefed. It was tiring. I told the story of Murphey and Pratt’s deaths three different times. Once to Poche, then again to Zach and Blake and then again to Tammi Ryan. Luckily they didn’t want to know details about the rest of the adventure, but they did want to see what I had gotten and how we could hook it up. They had even poached a few panels while we were gone.
It was a fairly simple set-up and I showed them how to do a basic unit that would run a small appliance, realizing too late that I should have hoarded my knowledge - if I was the only one that knew how to do this, they might keep me around longer.
I hooked up the inverter that would feed the communications area and my head shot up when I heard the distinct sound of gunshots. At least five shots in quick succession. I looked around me for some kind of reaction from the people in the room. Nothing. I was being watched by one of the troopers who made it clear he was only here because he was ordered to be.
“Are we shooting at the dead now?” I asked.
“They ain’t shooting the dead, firing squad, buddy,” he drawled.
They were shooting my brothers. The ones they found guilty. Hannah had warned me.
“That’s the second one today. I watched the first trial this morning. Brutal. Went quick, the good ones are going to be tomorrow and the next day. Gonna put the girl on trial, the one that they are bringing from the island. Heard she went crazy and tried to kill Alexis, you know the tall brunette that has the Marines panting after her?” He looked at me, waiting for a response, so I nodded.
“Then they gonna put up your leader, Junior. If you ask me, a bullet is too good for that one.” Again he waited for a response, but my mouth had gone dry.
“Wonder when your trial is scheduled for?” He laughed and crossed his arms, jutting his chin out and staring me down.
I wonder.
FIFTY-TWO | Firing Squad
“Where are the boys?” I asked Alexis. We had pulled up chairs in the alcove of the main building. She had taken out a bottle of vodka she had claimed for herself. She poured a shot and pushed it in my direction as gunshots rang out in the distance.
“They’re in the trial.”
“We’re already doing it?” I asked. I grabbed the shot glass and knocked it back. It burned something awful, but the burn quickly faded to a nice warmth that spread over my whole body. I had left him out there. I hadn’t even looked back. Making him pay for his stubbornness.
“Yeah, we started today, we’re doing two or three a day. The first one was found guilty. I’m guessing from the sound of that gunfire, the second one was guilty too.”
“Who’d they choose to be judges?”
“Blake, Zach, Poche, Ryan, Grace and a civilian that was with the troopers, called Phoebe. Romeo is filling in if Blake or Zach can’t do a trial, and Poche and Ryan have back-ups too.”
My whole body tensed up and Lex noticed it. I grabbed the bottle and poured two more shots, throwing mine back quickly so she would stop staring at me. I had been able to hold my liquor before Z, but there wasn’t much liquor left so I was becoming a lightweight. My head buzzed pleasantly.
“What are you freaking out about, you look nervous? I haven’t seen you this shaken up – ever. Did something happen with Murphey you’re not telling me?” She looked at me curiously and sipped her shot. Who sips shots?
“So, they’re putting all the bikers on trial?” She raised her eyebrows when I didn’t answer her question.
“Yeah, all of them, Clara and two of the civilian men are also up to be judged.” All of them. She made a face, thinking I had reacted because she brought up Clara. Clara Clark, Blake’s ex-wife. Clara, the woman who tried to kill Alexis in some weird, misguided attempt to win Blake back. Clara, the reason Lex had been sold to the bikers and landed us in this mess. Lex shouldn’t have to even say that woman’s name.
“They’re not going to kill her, are they? I don’t see them doing that, fucking bleeding hearts. And I’m assuming Blake won’t be a judge on that one?” I asked, channeling anger over the ex, instead of the other emotions that wanted to take root. Anger was easier to deal with, I could work with anger.
Alexis shook her head and explained, “ Zach won’t either, Romeo is stepping in for the two of them. Putting it at a five person panel, so no ties. That will give her three hard-asses and two civilians. There is no one else that can judge her without bias, even Romeo is pushing it. He’s voiced that he doesn’t feel like he should. But they keep ignoring him.”
“Are you going to be there?”
“I have to be, I have to speak for her.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The idea is that witnesses will speak for the accused, that’s how they’re deciding guilt or innocence. Whether you speak positively or negatively will sway their decision.”
“And if they’re guilty they-” I was hesitant to say it.
“Firing squad. Or that’s been the sentence so far. But it’s all been some bad shit. Zach told me about this morning’s trial, some guy named Eagle. Fucking sociopath. This gang was full of them.”
“Crap.” I poured another shot.
“Yeah,” she agreed and grabbed the bottle from me.
I stumbled when I got up from the table, but only a little bit. I had done a few too many shots with Lex. I had needed some kind of escape. But the alcohol was making my emotions more pronounced. Maybe I shouldn’t have done quite so many. But, I wasn’t scheduled for any kind of watch or mission, which was a first. No reason to stay sober.
I came to a stop as I walked toward the temporary bunks where I would be sleeping. A large chalkboard had been affixed to the wall and dates and names were scribbled on it. At first I thought it might be a watch schedule, but names stood out. Jazz, Eagle, Tiny- those weren’t soldiers.
Lex came up next to me and looked at the sign with me.
“The trial schedule,” she said what I had already figured out.
I focused in on one date, four days from now. And a name, scrawled haphazardly.
Rebel.
FIFTY-THREE | No Better
“We did give it careful thought, Rebel. Your work here has been nothing but helpful and we found four of your brothers along with a considerable amount of food stores because of your tips. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll advocate for you on those points. We have to make sure this is fair and it’s been decided that all the members of the Southern Clan will be tried. We’ve also taken testimony from the civilians and we’re bringing charges against two of the civilian men because of crimes they’ve been accused of during the Southern Clan’s occupation, so we’re doing this as fairly as we can,” Poche told me as he led me to my new living area. It was an empty office on the second floor. Still basically a cell, but not as heavily guarded as the third floor.
“It’s the only way we can bring justice back to this world,” he said as he closed the door on my new quarters, leaving me alone.
He was right. It was only fair that I would stand trial with the rest of my brothers. If I was judged and found guilty, then that was that. Poche was the only one from the military that showed me any respect, the other soldiers and troopers had no respect for what I did to help. In the day that I had been back, I had taught three of them how to hook up a system, charge the batteries and hook up a battery bank to an appliance. Now they were done with me. I had no more information to give. No more usefulness. I wasn’t allowed out of this room from now until my trial.
I would wait until they decided if I was guilty enough to kill.
I hadn’t seen Hannah once and I didn’t expect to see her again. She shouldn’t waste her time with me. I overheard one of the soldiers joking that she and Alexis were getting drunk downstairs. She probably regretted what we did. I basically took advantage of her. She was looking for a shoulder to cry on and gave her a
lot more.
I was no better than the rest of my brothers.
FIFTY-FOUR | My Business
“What’s the matter?” Alexis’s words weren’t slurred and she did more shots than me. It helped that she had practically a foot and thirty pounds on me.
I was still staring at his name. I guess they had decided to give him a trial. She had said all of them. I hadn’t wanted to believe her.
She followed my eyes to the board and turned to me with a questioning look on her face that said, “spill.” I wasn’t talking. I looked away and she stepped in front of me.
“Lex, really, I love you, but get the fuck out of my way.” I went to walk past her, but of course, the stubborn broad stepped to the side, blocking me again.
“One, you told me you loved me. Right there, I know something is screwing with your head, and two, you need to spill, now.” She was an obstinate one. I would have to come up with something to get her off my back.
“Look, I think he did a good job, he helped us out. He helped me out. He saved my life. I don’t want to see him taken out by a firing squad. He was with that group because of his father and because he was too scared to leave and go out on his own, it shouldn’t be a death sentence.”
“And that’s all?” she asked, ever the insightful wench. I guess I couldn’t blame her; I gave her the third degree when she was going back and forth with the boys.
“Yeah,” I shrugged.
“I call bullshit,” she chirped with a smile.
“You can call bullshit all you want, that’s it. That’s my story, I’m sticking to it.”
“What’s bullshit?” One of the boys in question came behind Alexis and put his head on her shoulder. Lex was a tall girl, but Zach had her by a head. I used to have some major hots for Zach when I first started with MJ Security. It couldn’t be avoided. He was a walking, talking piece of male perfection. But those feelings had faded quick when he proved more of a leader than a possible love interest. Not to mention he had no interest in me whatsoever. He actually hadn’t shown any interest in a woman until Lex came along. And now, well, he sort of shared her with Blake. It was a weird arrangement that I didn’t get, but they seemed to make it work. It got a lot of whispers, but they didn’t let it bother them.
They didn’t care. They did what made them happy.
“The fact that Baby is lying about something, something that I think has to do with Rebel,” Alexis answered.
“I’m not lying,” I said stubbornly.
“Well, you sure as hell aren’t sharing all of it.” She crossed her arms and stared me down.
“If you know something, Hannah, we need to know about it. Did he tell you something when you were out there?” Zach, of course, was missing the direction of this conversation.
“Yeah, Hannah, what did he tell you when you were out there,” Lex snickered and Zach caught on from her tone.
“You hooked up with the biker?” he said, truly surprised.
I threw my hands up in exasperation.
“Jesus, you did.” Lex’s voice was surprised. She really didn’t think I had, she was only harassing me.
“That’s rather out of character,” Zach said diplomatically.
“He’s a good person,” I hissed, looking around me to make sure no one else was all up in my business. I hated people in my business, judging me and my actions. I would put up with Lex, or even Zach, but no one else. No one needed to know my business. Well, maybe Rebel.
Lex looked at the chalkboard and then back at me and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
FIFTY-FIVE | Guilty
Lex asked me to go to Clara’s trial with her and I agreed. It was the only one I planned to go to, I didn’t want to witness the show. It was a shit show to say the least. They were holding the trials in the empty area that was once the drug store. Anyone was welcome to attend, as long as they didn’t have a job to do.
The place was sparsely attended for this trial, no one but our group really knew about Clara. A few of the women, former Clan property, were seated in the audience, which surprised me. Blake was already seated in the front and Lex went to him. She sat next to him and slipped her hand in his, I sat on the other side of her. Zach was at the back of the room, trying to be unobtrusive, but I knew this was eating him up inside. I was there when he told Blake he wanted to be the one to kill Clara. From his expression that statement still held true.
The room hushed as the judges came into the room. Poche, Tammi Ryan, Romeo, Grace and the civilian I didn’t know. They came out and sat behind temporary tables and looked out on the crowd.
Poche cleared his throat and stood. “Bring in Clara Clark Miller,” he announced.
Two soldiers led her in. She looked terrible. Her once bottle blonde hair was halfway grown out, her dark roots down to her ears, the ends faded and washed out looking. There were dark circles under her eyes and she had lost weight.
They sat her in a chair off to the side so she could look at both the judges and the audience. It was a good position, she could see the people that spoke for her and the ones that would judge her.
“Clara Clark Miller, you are here today accused of attempted murder and disregard for the safety of your compound. Your reckless actions have caused terrible repercussions and you are here now to be judged. Once a verdict is given your sentence will immediately be carried out, do you understand this?” Clara nodded warily and looked into the crowd with a pleading look in her eyes. Her gaze landed on Blake and tears began to stream down her cheeks.
She looked pathetic, but Clara was a good actress.
“We ask if anyone in the audience will speak for Clara, do so now. The floor is open.” Poche sat down and looked directly at Lex.
Lex stood and glared at the woman who had wronged her.
“I speak for you, Clara, I want you to know what you've done to me. How you tried with everything in your arsenal to take away the man that I love. I’m here to tell everyone how you lied and maneuvered your way into our compound and then did nothing to benefit our group. How you realized you couldn’t get your way with me around so you decided to take me out of the picture. How your stupidly constructed plan almost got both of us killed, hell, it almost endangered the entire compound,” Lex took a deep breath and continued.
“You attacked me, held a gun to my head and made me smash through the gates of our safe haven, not giving any thought for the people behind those walls that you endangered. You were ready to kill me and dump my body; you didn’t plan for me to fight back.”
“You’re lying!” Clara called out. “You were trying to get rid of me! You held a gun to my head! The only reason I’m sitting here and you’re over there is because you’ve got Blake all wrapped up in some weird sex– “
“Enough!” Poche interjected and Clara shut up fast.
Alexis faced the judges.
“She had me run through the gates of the compound until we got to a deserted area. I had a knife, so I stabbed her in the leg. When the gun went off, I crashed the SUV. The sound of the crash or the gunshot, I won’t ever know, brought men to our location. They were looking for victims and we were a gift. They took both of us and sold us to the Southern Clan. If it weren’t for Clara, I would have never ended up here, at this place. I was beaten regularly…and other things,” she said, her voice wavering. “But I got out.”
“Yeah, I helped you get out,” Clara shot out.
“Bitch, I’m the only reason you’re alive and sitting in that chair. I got your ass out. After everything you did to me, I saved you,” Alexis hissed and Clara kept quiet for once. “I’m done.” Lex threw up her hands and sat down. But then thought better of it and stood back up.
