Launching at me again, she holds me tightly. “I’m so sorry,” she wails. “Ella, I’m sorry.” She becomes incoherent as she cries, letting it all out. I’m unable to stop my own tears falling down my face.
When her crying eventually ends on a few last hiccupped sobs, Marsh comes over and tentatively sits on the bed. His hand hovers, and then lands on top of the covers, his fingers squeezing her leg underneath. When he gets her attention, he asks in a gentle voice, “Can you tell us what happened, darlin’? No one’s going to judge you, I promise.”
Her bottom lip still quivering, she glances at me, then Sam, and then fixes her eyes back on him. Whether it’s because he’s a stranger or someone closer to her own age, I don’t know, but I’m grateful when at last she starts to admit the truth, and the whole sorry story starts tumbling out.
Even Marsh has tears escaping down his face when she finishes.
With cold steely eyes, Sam gets up and leaves the room.
Chapter Seventeen
Slick…
Once again, we’re all sitting around the table. Muted conversations cease immediately when Drummer takes the chair.
He picks up the gavel and twists it in his hands, then, with a chin jerk to Wraith begins. “By now I expect you all know who we’re fuckin’ dealing with. The Herrera family.”
Yes, the rumours have spread fast, but that doesn’t prevent exclamations going around.
“Nasty bunch of motherfuckers.” Beef puts it into words.
“Don’t know that we’ll be able to take them on,” Dart warns.
Marvel, recently transferred from San Diego, and Joker and Lady, patched in from Vegas, look puzzled. Lady’s the one to ask, “Who are the Herreras?”
“A family who’s got their hands in too many twisted fuckin’ pies in Tucson. They breed like rabbits.”
“We should leave them the fuck alone.” Peg’s looking to the club’s safety. “If they find out it was us that shot them up last night, killed their punters and two of the family, they’ll be coming for the club. They’ve got their own fuckin’ army.”
I want my brothers to have my back. Right now, it looks like they’re not looking to take on this fight. Banging my fist on the table, I get their attention. “We’re assuming they don’t know who hit them last night, so yeah, fuck, we can walk away. But,” I hold my hand up as Dart looks like he’s going to speak, “it’s not just us we need to consider. If they know the girl, Ella’s sister, is alive, they’ll never stop trying to track her down. One word she was rescued, they won’t stop until they get their hands on her and make her talk.” I shake my head. “Her life’s already been ruined, I don’t want her living under a fuckin’ cloud for the rest of her years.”
“Slick!” Drum growls. “We said we’d make the decision as a club. I know you want them all taken out so Jayden can have her life back, but there are other ways to keeping her safe, as we discussed.”
“If your answer is to send Ella and Jayden away, I’m going with.” I’ve given eight or more years to this club, it’s my home, and I don’t want to leave. But my feelings run so deep for my old lady, I can’t let her go away alone.
All eyes are upon me, some people frowning at the thought I’d desert my brothers for the sake of a woman. But I can see some support from those with their own old ladies. They’re the ones who are nodding their heads.
Drum starts again. “Wraith and I visited Jayden’s mother this morning. We didn’t give the details, but told her Jayden’s got caught up in some shit.” He pauses and shakes his head. “Didn’t take to the woman, she was more concerned about distancing herself. More than happy to let us deal with the girls. She has, however, agreed to report Jayden to the police as a missing person this morning. With Herrera’s reach, I suspect they’ve got contacts in the department and should soon find that out. Hopefully it should satisfy them that she’s gone the same way as the men we killed.”
The bodies we disposed of, where no one would find them—another extension to the dirt track. We’d left nothing incriminating behind, just the empty blood bath of the house, a mystery for the Herrera family to unravel. With Jayden’s mother doing her part, no one will know if she’s dead or alive.
“You think we can trust her to keep her mouth shut, Prez?”
“I don’t think the Herreras will approach her. If she’s reported a missing daughter there’d be no point in them trying to track Jayden through her, as it will appear she’s got no more knowledge than they do. She didn’t seem overly concerned, more keen on having one-on-one time with her new man. Seems like she’s moving him in. Her daughter not being home suits her down to the ground. I don’t know I’d go so far as to fuckin’ trust her, but as long as she goes to the police as she’s agreed, I don’t think she’ll be a problem. There’s no benefit to her in making waves.”
Dollar’s pulling on his fingers, making them click. An annoying habit of his that makes me squirm. “If they don’t know who took them out, they might think it’s a rival gang who’ve taken the girl to sell her. Sweet thing like that would attract dollar signs.”
“Could Ella’s relationship with you be traced back to the club?” This from Peg.
“We’ve had a prospect based outside Ella’s apartment for a while.” It’s all I need to say. If the Herreras started digging and asking around, they’d be able to find that out.
Young Shooter’s starting to get more confident with his place at the table. He raises his hand and Drum indicates his permission to speak. “As I see it, Prez, there’s a possibility they might join the dots. Slick’s ol’ lady’s sister could be traced back to us. If there’s any danger coming our way, I’d rather we were prepared and ready to fight.”
Yeah, Shooter wouldn’t want to be surprised all over again, but he did really good when he needed to and protected Sophie. It was his sharp shooting that got his named changed from Spider when we patched him in.
Prez’s eyes have widened, and he throws Shooter an appreciative nod. “Good point there.” He raps his fingers on the table. “We could hide our heads in the sand, divorce ourselves from this shit. Send Jayden away and lose a good fuckin’ member with it,” he jerks his chin toward me, and I feel warm at the off-handed praise, “and still end up in a fuckin’ war.”
Wraith’s been quiet and now has his say. “I agree with Shooter. But right now, we’re going into this blind. We need to find out what we can about this family and see if it’s even possible to take them all out. It’s gonna be one fuck of an operation. Fuck knows how many we could be up against.”
“The way these families work, or how we’ve seen it in Vegas, is that their foot soldiers have no loyalty. Cut off the head of the snake, the ones who pay their wages, and they’ll be too busy looking for other jobs rather than seeking revenge.”
Joker’s input is interesting. “Don’t forget they’re family. It might not be as simple as that.”
“So we hit all of them.” I glare at Wraith. I’m prepared to do anything to keep my girls safe.
“It would make Tucson a lot cleaner.” Rock tugs at his ear. His observation is valid.
Drum wipes his face wearily, he looks tired. “We’ve got Heart in the hospital and trying to track down who ran him off the road. Now we’re proposing to go up against a family with far more manpower than ourselves.” Breaking off, he gives a little laugh. “And there I was hoping for a bit of fuckin’ peace and quiet.”
But his unneeded reminder about Heart stirs rage in all of us, and if my brothers are feeling anything like I am, it will be easy to redirect that anger onto a target that we can at least identify.
“Okay, let’s take a vote. All those in favour of taking on the Herrera clan?” As he goes around the table, it’s unanimous ayes. A couple, Viper and Bullet, who both have old ladies, give their answers a little more slowly than the rest.
When it gets around to Peg, and the sergeant-at-arms gives his consent, a wave of relief comes over me.
“Looks like you�
�re staying here, Slick. Along with your girls.” Ella’s not going to be too comfortable with it, but I’ll just have to convince her she’ll be putting Jayden in danger if she leaves.
Mouse puts up his hand. “Drum, I know what you need from me. But first, as most of you know, the motherfuckers had camera’s recording in that house we were in last night.” He waits for the roars of disgust to settle down. “It’s another way they make money. Post it online for paedophiles to pay to download.”
“That’s sick.”
“I know, Dart. Slick, man, this is gonna be hard, but I’ve found all the shit they taped of Jayden.”
“Tell me, Mouse.” I know I’m going to want to bleach my ears after hearing what he’s going to say.
“Man, I didn’t want to watch it. But I felt I had to, to understand what they do. It made me fuckin’ sick to my stomach.”
There are nods around the table. I don’t think any of us would want to watch that shit. Yeah, we’re all up for a bit of porn, but not with underage girls who’ve been drugged and forced.
Wiping my hands over my head, I take a deep breath to give myself strength, then focus my stare on Mouse. “Let me have it.”
Drum hits both his fists on the table, his eyes grow dark. “It was one fuckin’ thing for Mouse to have to watch it. We’re not sick bastards wanting to relive that shit. Understand, Slick, why you think you want the details, but I don’t think the rest of us need to be sickened by it.”
He’s got a point.
When he sees he’s got our attention he turns to Mouse, who, for the first time I notice looks tired and drawn. “Mouse, just give us the headlines.”
Mouse nods, seeming relieved he doesn’t have to describe the detail of what he had seen. “I found and deleted all the videos on their website. As of this morning, their business has been taken down. Yeah, Slick, including the videos of Jayden.”
Again I suck in air and suddenly realise I don’t want to know the content. If Diego wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him all over again. “Her videos had been viewed?”
The computer expert shrugs. “Hundreds of hits, Brother.”
I stand, my chair falling over as I pace around the room. In my mind, I’m seeing perverts jerking off to that shit. My hands go over the smooth skin of my head. “What else? What fuckin’ else, Mouse?”
“Slick…” Mouse looks pained as he tries to get the words out. “Jayden wasn’t the only one. But from what I could see, we got there in time last night.”
“In time?” I’m trying to process what he’s saying.
Mouse is slowly nodding his head. “Yeah. They were only just getting started. In the rest of the shit we got from the house, they had films in different files, all linked by the coded name of the girl. Other young girls had multiple videos, Jayden only had the two. Fuck it, I forced myself to watch a couple. Couldn’t stomach anymore.” He pauses, then continues, “And it wasn’t just young girls… boys too.”
He breaks off and breathes in deeply as though it’s hard to continue. I wince, realising how hard watching those tapes must have been for my brother. Fuck knows, I wouldn’t want to.
Then he says something else. “They fuckin’ drug then rape them.”
The shouts and roars are deafening. When Drum manages to call us back to order, he sits shaking his head. “Can’t believe the shit I’m hearing. Jayden, and presumably the others, went back to their families. Why the fuck didn’t they shout out what was going on?”
Mouse briefly closes his eyes. “In grooming cases like this, they’ll use threats to keep them in line.”
“How many files, Mouse?”
“A dozen in the house, Prez. But online, fifty or more kids were involved going by the names. As I said, I couldn’t watch more.”
Wraith’s looking stunned and then repeats Drum’s question, “And not one of the kids said anything? No one’s come forward?”
It’s obvious they didn’t, but why, we can’t answer.
In the ensuing moment of quiet, Drum gets a text. He sends a quick reply and then offers up, “Sam’s gonna join us.” He looks up and then proceeds to explain why he’s taking the unusual step of allowing an old lady into our meeting. “Jayden’s awake, been telling her story.”
Almost before he can finish, there’s a knock at the door. Shooter gets up and opens it. Sam comes in, confidently striding to the head of the table to take her place by her man. Drum eases back his chair from the table, she sits down on his lap.
As the Prez’s arms come around her, she acknowledges us all by raising her chin, and then fills the expectant silence with her voice, unaware she’s answering the questions we’ve just asked.
“Jayden didn’t tell Ella, or anyone what was happening. The short story is she met Sy and thought he was her boyfriend. He told her to keep things quiet, as neither of their parents would let them see each other if they found out.” She pauses and huffs a laugh. “Jayden was more frightened of Ella’s reaction than her mom’s. It was an effective threat on a young girl who was enjoying the flirtation of a handsome boy. She saw no harm in it, enjoying the novelty of sneaking out to see him. Until he introduced her to his uncle. Diego flattered her, and she thought it was great, made to feel so important with the gifts she was given, and enjoyed the attention that was showered on her when she didn’t get much affection from her mom.
“Ella was still healing from what she was going through, didn’t think it was fair to let her sister see how upset she was. She didn’t go around so much and didn’t notice Jayden’s pain or decline until she was hooked and couldn’t get out.”
Sam pauses for breath, but seeing we’re all rapt, continues, “Diego reeled her in, then alternated his flattering with threats. He introduced her to a couple of his friends and, well, I’m not going to draw a picture. That’s when she realised it was wrong, but by then, the promise of intimidation got serious. He told her she was dealing with powerful people, threatening to set her house on fire and burn it down with her mother in it, or making sure her mother or Ella would have a fatal accident. Threats a fourteen-year-old would have no problem believing. Yeah, Slick. They knew all about Ella—threatened to shoot her as she was leaving work one night. One of Sy’s jobs was to find out all he could about the girls he entrapped.”
So that’s how they did it, it was just as Mouse had suggested. They must have been watching Ella as they knew about her job. If they were watching last week, they’d have seen Road waiting outside. I exchange a look with Drum. If we hadn’t already agreed to go after the Herreras, this would have shown us we had fuck all chance of keeping a low profile.
The ranting and raving blow up, then start to die down. Drum strokes the arms of his old lady, she relaxes into his touch. Then he turns his attention to the men in the room. “Right. You know what we voted on.”
As everyone nods, I notice he’s saying no more in front of Sam. That she’s a great president’s old lady is proven when she shows no indication that she wants to know. Fuck, Drum did well when she rode into his life.
But she’s not quite finished. “One thing, Drum. Jayden seems to respond to Marsh. She remembers him from last night. If she needs a man guarding her, I think it should be him. She needs all the reassurance she can get at this stage. She’s terrified Diego’s men will make good on the threats or will come here and find her. Giving her protection from someone she trusts could help.”
Drum’s eyes narrow. “You trust him?”
Sam shrugs. “She trusts him. And at this point I think that’s what counts. She’s latched onto him as she thinks that he saved her. She doesn’t remember anyone else being there.”
I was wondering why the unlikely pair had matched up. Now Sam’s answered my unspoken question. It does make some warped sense.
“Okay, so Marsh can watch out for her. It could help her ease into the club. Which reminds me. It’s a good time to bolster our ranks. We were gonna do it later today, anyway. Let’s call in the fucker.”
As his words sink in, Dart’s first to cotton on. “Patch-in party!” Everyone hollers in response.
Sam starts to slide off his lap, Drum holds her tight. “You can be here for this,” he tells her with a grin.
Brothers thump the table, and I suspect Drum’s chosen this particular moment to lighten the mood. Fuck, we’ve heard some hard shit today, and no one’s been affected more than me.
Still holding Sam, Drum sends a quick text, then at a nod from his prez, Wraith opens a cupboard behind him and takes something out. Even I summon up a small grin, knowing exactly what it is.
Within moments, Marsh appears, hesitantly poking his head around the door. Like old ladies, prospects aren’t normally privy to what goes on in our meetings.
The prez fixes him with his steely glare, the one most of us hope we never have directed at us. Normally, it’s the last sight a man would see before Drum pulls the trigger. Marsh falters by the door.
“Stand there, Prospect.” Drummer points to a spot behind Shooter at the end of the table. Marsh’s eyes seem to measure the distance from the prez as though assessing whether he’s within range.
Drummer gently pushes Sam off his lap. She stands up and waits at his side, her hand resting on his shoulder, her face as stern as that of any of us. Leaning forward Drum bangs both hands down on the wood. “What’s this I hear, Prospect? You takin’ advantage of a fourteen-year-old girl?”
Marsh starts. His eyes flick guiltily toward Sam as though wondering what she’s spilled. Then his hands come up in a defensive gesture. “No. No, Prez. It’s not like that.”
“I’ll say what it’s fuckin’ like!” Drum roars, and I swear Marsh isn’t the only one to jump. “You’re a nineteen-year-old boy, she isn’t even legal.”
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