Some and the Flame

by Michelle, Christine

  Chief – Agreed. I’ll supervise if it comes to it.

  Chief – He’ll come around. He just needs someone to blame right now.

  Me – I know it. Doesn’t mean I like it.

  Chief – I’ll keep you updated.

  Me – Where’s Ghost?

  Chief – took off with Tuck and Hopper to go run something down.

  Me – fuck.

  Chief – go get a shower and some clean clothes on. You’re starting to smell

  Me – You can’t smell through texts, asshole.

  Chief – That’s how bad you are.

  I didn’t bother responding, and instead, glanced down at myself. I was still wearing the same fucking clothes I’d been in days ago when I was told to haul ass home for yet another emergency. Chief might have had a valid point. When I managed to get back to my apartment and hop off my bike, I could have sworn I saw a familiar car sitting there in the lot. It couldn’t be though. She wouldn’t have the stones to come around me during a time like this. Would she? I shook it off and went inside. No way was that my ex, Julie, sitting out there.

  I don’t know that getting a shower and putting clean clothes on made me feel any better, but it certainly rejuvenated me a bit. I grabbed a quick bite to eat as well before texting Ghost.

  Me – Whatever Quickshot sent to you, I need to know.

  Ghost – 2233 Forest Side Ave.

  That was all he sent. I tossed the address into the GPS on my phone, connected the Bluetooth in my helmet, and headed that way. The open road is a funny thing. We all talk about the freedom we feel when we ride, but part of that freedom is in being able to just let it all go. The negative thoughts, the shit that bogs you down, all of it just flows off with the wind in your face and the feeling of flying. Not to say it doesn’t come rushing back the minute the engine is cut, but for those moments when the road has your focus, you become one with the journey, no matter how lengthy or short. The rest of the shit in your life just falls away until you reach your destination.

  In this case, my destination was an older, two story brick home. It was unassuming, a little off to itself, but not unlike the other houses that I’d passed to get here. The faded blue shutters looked like they’d seen better days and the lawn was slightly overgrown as if the house had been vacant, or simply uncared for by its owners. There were three other bikes pulled all the way up into the driveway, so I assumed the house had been sitting vacant for a good while.

  Ghost stepped out the front door and waved me on up as I parked my bike facing out toward the street. I didn’t even make it into the house before the smell hit me. “What the fuck?”

  “Looks like someone was tipped off that they might be getting a visit here. They left their supply behind,” he offered up grimly. Supply? What the fuck kind of supply smelled like rotting corpses?

  I got my answer once I managed to move past the smell and down into the basement level of the house. There, cages lined the walls. There were four down one side and they didn’t go to the ceiling. They were about four feet tall from ground to top and looked more like something you would set up if you were kenneling dogs. The bodies inside some of the cages were not dogs, though it didn’t appear they were treated much better. There were literally dog dishes set inside the cages that had once held food and water, or at least that’s what I hoped they had been placed there for. Fecal matter and piss stained the far corners of the cages and small, thin bedding was placed to one side. The bedding was no more than tattered blankets on the floor. The women – because that’s what they had once been – inside each cage were pitiful looking remnants of what they once had been.

  There wasn’t much left to the four of them, each in a cage of their own. Three were in cages on the left side of the room while the fourth was off to herself in a cage on the right. It wasn’t clear how long they’d been dead, but judging by the smell, I’d say at least a few days. A small choked cough coming from the far right cage where the lone girl was kept startled all of us, and Hopper quickly jumped to action.

  “Fucking hell, I thought they were all gone!” Ghost yelled from behind my shoulder.

  “We all thought that, judging by the smell and the shape they’re in,” Hopper answered back as he used bolt cutters to pop the lock on the cage.

  “Check the others,” Ghost ordered. Tuck and I immediately moved to open the other cages, but the three women on that side of the room were long gone. I came out after checking the last of them to find Hopper carrying the ghost of a woman up the stairs.

  “Jesus, I can’t believe she’s alive. Did you see her?” Tuck asked.

  “She might not be for much longer. Hop’s taking her to Doc Burns.”

  “Let’s hope she can last long enough to help us catch these pricks,” I muttered.

  Ghost shook his head. “I wouldn’t hold your breath on that,” he insisted, and while I knew he wasn’t wrong, I still hoped.

  “That could have been Sophie,” I managed to choke out. “If she hadn’t died, they could have taken her, and this could have been her life.”

  The look on Ghost’s face nearly buckled my knees as my words sunk in. He pulled his cell out and dialed someone. “No women and children allowed out of the compound for any reason without an escort until further notice. Keep a heavy guard on them.” He listened for a moment and then tucked his phone back in his pocket. It was a good call. These assholes had already proven they didn’t mind taking women and children out. The last thing we needed was for an old lady or any of the kids to go missing and end up in a place like this, left to die after suffering unimaginable shit.

  “We need to find these bastards and take them the fuck out.” My words were a demand. Ghost only nodded his head. Obviously, he felt the same way. “I’m putting in a call to Jamie. They dealt with traffickers in their territory before. Hopefully, their experience will be helpful.”

  “Are they coming in for the…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the fucking word. It was like the word funeral was stuck in my throat and refused to come out. Maybe if I didn’t say it, I wouldn’t have to live through watching my little sister be lowered into the cold, unforgiving ground.

  “They are. I’m going to make some calls and get someone busy cleaning up this fucking tragedy.” He turned his watchful gaze on me. “You should get back to the clubhouse and check on Poppy and Brant.”

  Brantley had been released from the hospital the day before. I’d stayed with him at the clubhouse that night but left him with Poppy and the women of the club afterward. I had too much on my mind, and too many things to do today, like picking out caskets and tracking down the leftovers and trash of a group of men who never saw those women for what they really were. People, who deserved to be treated better than lab rats locked in cages, only to be used until there was nothing left.

  “Do you think she’ll want to live after what she went through?” I asked, thinking of the woman who had been taken away by Hopper.

  Ghost shook his head. “She’ll have to be pretty strong to come back from this physically, brother. Not sure there’s a strong enough mentality to wash this kind of shit from a person’s soul though.”

  That’s what I had been thinking too. “Might want to make sure she gets put on a suicide watch if she pulls through. We’re going to need her to talk.”

  He scrubbed a hand down his stubbled jaw, turquoise eyes moving off to stare at the cinder block wall coated in grime. “Much as it pains me to feel like we’re using her just as much, I know it’s necessary.”

  I nodded and moved to get up the stairs. “Heading out. Still have some arrangements to make.”

  “You don’t have to do all this shit alone, Smoke.”

  “I know it, but I need to.”

  Walking into my sister’s house was like moving through a tomb. Everything was quiet and undisturbed. There were things thrown about haphazardly, no doubt from when they’d gotten ready to go on their little family trip. It looked like they walked out the door expecting
to come and pick back up where they left off in their life. Soph and Bender would never get that chance again though. They’d reached their ends, and now I had to go through their shit to find outfits to bury them in. It wasn’t fucking right. We couldn’t even have an open casket for either of them because of the trauma they’d both suffered to their faces. Still, I wasn’t going to disrespect them by sending either of them off to another life in anything less than the best. Didn’t matter who saw. Maybe the thing you wore when you died was what you spent your eternity wearing. Maybe, you got to choose to slip into your funeral best? Who the fuck knew? I sure as fuck didn’t.

  I climbed the stairs to the master suite and glanced around at the unmade bed, the few pieces of clothing strewn about still. My sister had trouble deciding what to wear again and never bothered to clean up before they left. It was typical of her, and seeing that remnant of her personality was like drilling a spike right through my damn heart. Jesus. I took a breath, and another before I found myself sitting on the edge of her bed crying for their loss all over again. “I’m so fucking sorry, Sis.”

  I gave myself a few minutes to give in to the grief I was feeling and to mourn two of the most beloved people in my life. Then I hauled myself up off of their bed and moved to the closet where his clothes hung on the left side and hers were on the right. It smelled like a mixture of the two of them in there and knocked me back once more. I could close my eyes, inhale, and it was as if they were standing there with me.

  “You can do this,” I could hear my sister telling me in her sweet, encouraging voice.

  “Take care of my boy,” Bender’s voice seemed real as the deep baritone resonated through me. I’d swear they were really there talking to me, even though I knew it was all in my own head.

  “I will not let you down,” I promised them both as I grabbed some clothes I thought they’d want to wear to their own send-off and got the hell out of there before I decided to never leave the comfort of their imagined embrace.

  My next stop was Brantley’s room across the hall. I took an old diaper bag out of the closet and started filling it with some of his clothes, a few of his favorite toys, and bath time stuff before I called it good.

  Two days later, I was on my way to the graveside service for both Bender and my sister when I remembered our mother’s necklace. I turned around and headed in the other direction to Sophie’s house in order to retrieve it, because I wanted it to go with Sophie so she and mom could be together in death in some way. It was probably stupid, but I couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I followed my gut. I was about to call Poppy and tell her I’d be running a little late and ask her to meet me there, but my cell was dead. I knew it wasn’t fair, me leaving Brantley with her all this time while I was out trying to run down leads, but I couldn’t stop or I’d think and fall apart. All I had to keep me sane was diving headfirst into anything that kept me too busy to think about what today meant for my family.

  It took me far too long to find where Sophie had the damn necklace hiding. Once I found it and looked at the clock on her wall, I realized I might be cutting it close just getting to the cemetery on time. I’d never hear the end of it from Kent if that happened so I tried to haul my ass there quickly.

  As if someone out there in the cosmos was trying to fuck with me, I heard my name called the minute I parked my bike. I ignored it and started walking at a brisk pace toward the area where I could see everyone gathered. I was nearly there, just on the outskirts of the mourners who had gathered when a manicured set of nails wound around my upper arm and pulled tightly, forcing me to stop where I was by a tree.

  “What the fuck?”

  “Oh God! Smoke, I’m so sorry about Soph.” It hit me then, the sickeningly sweet smell of her perfume.

  “Julie?” I questioned just as she managed to latch onto me like a suckerfish. It was an apt description too, because I had zero doubts that she was going to try to use my sister’s death and my grief as a way to get her foot back in the door with me. She was dead fucking wrong about that. I reached up and attempted to prise her off of me, but I had my mother’s necklace clasped tightly in the one hand, and didn’t want to drop it so my efforts were hampered a bit. The more I tried to get her off of me the harder she would cling. I was nearing the point of losing my fucking mind with her when I heard Brantley call out to me.

  “Unc Moke!” My attention snapped directly to him, and the person carrying him, in time to see the weary look on her face. Shit. Just fucking great. I couldn’t even come to grieve my family’s deaths and say goodbye without Julie causing a scene and fucking shit up with the woman I had been neglecting. It would be my luck Poppy would think Julie had been where I was spending all of my time away from her and Brant. It didn’t help matters that everyone else was now watching too as Chief walked over to Poppy and whispered something to her before tossing a glare back at me over his shoulder.

  “Let the fuck go, now!” I demanded of Julie. I don’t know if she heard the threat in my voice or not, but she let go and looked up at me with wide, innocent eyes.

  “Smoke, I just want to be here for you.”

  “Yeah? If that were the case, you wouldn’t have just caused a fuckin’ scene at my sister’s funeral. Now, get the fuck off of me!” I told her again. She had eased off of her hold before, but her fingers still clung to the front of my kutte as if she were holding on to a lifeline. She no longer had access to that shit, and I wasn’t playing games with her thinking that she could just waltz back into my life.

  “Poppy!” I called as I started moving towards where she was headed. I was confused at first, because it looked like she was trying to leave the funeral with Brant. That wasn’t fucking right. He should be here to say goodbye to his mom and dad.

  She managed to get all the way to her car before I caught up and grabbed hold of her elbow to keep her from getting herself or Brant inside.

  “You might want to back off a minute, Brother,” Chief demanded.

  “Seriously?” I asked, taken aback by the order coming from my club brother.

  “Seriously,” Chief answered as he maneuvered me back a bit so Poppy could get my nephew strapped into his car seat in her car.

  “What’s going on?”

  Chief stood back as Poppy finished and then turned to me looking ready for a fight. “I’m taking Brant home, because he’s tired, and I think he’s had enough today. I’ve been answering questions all day for him about why we were saying goodbye to the boxes when his mom and dad are in heaven. Why can’t we go to heaven to see them? Why can’t they come visit? Why didn’t they take him with them? It’s been nonstop. Frankly, I’m not even sure I’m telling him the right things, but you haven’t been around to ask. Kent is angry with me for some reason and won’t speak to me. You’ve been God knows where with Lord only knows who, and I just can’t help thinking I’m the last person your sister would have wanted answering these questions for her son. She only met me the one time, and she didn’t have a high opinion of me for at least half of that time.” She blew out a sharp breath once she was through speaking and stood there staring back and forth between myself and Chief.

  “You look tired,” Chief’s soft words for his sister made me take notice of the dark circles under her eyes. “I’ll come back with you and watch Brant so you can get a nap, okay?”

  “There’s no need for that. I was planning on heading out with them when they went,” I responded to Chief before she could.

  “Really? Up until they spotted you with your ex hanging all over you, Poppy wasn’t even aware you had shown up for the funeral. She didn’t know if she’d see you there at all before she left. I get that you have a lot going on right now, man, but that kid ain’t hers. It isn’t her responsibility to do all the tough stuff with him, and have you come in once the dust has settled and finally decide that you have time for him. My sister isn’t your damn nanny, and you need to remember that. She’s already had one man treat her like she was only good for keeping his hous
e when he wanted to be there. She doesn’t need a repeat performance with extra responsibilities thrown in for fun.”

  “Jesus, Chief!” I ground out, raising my voice a little more than I wanted to. “You know where I’ve been! I’ve been hunting down the maniacs who took my fucking sister. You’d be doing the same goddamn thing!” I took a step back, trying to shake off the anger I was feeling in the moment before I continued on. “Look, I don’t know how to do this. He’s my nephew, and I’ve watched him before, but I’ve never had to prioritize him before like this. I don’t know what to do here, because I can’t let Soph and Bender’s deaths go unanswered. I can’t exactly take Brant with me when I do those things. I’ll find someone else who can help with him for the time being if it’s a problem. I didn’t mean to put the burden on Poppy.” I turned to her, to make sure she knew I meant what I was saying. “I didn’t mean to leave you holding my family’s bag, I swear.”

  “Brant is not a burden. Not knowing what you expect me to say to him or do with him is though. I can’t be the one making the decision about what to tell him about his parents, or how to cope, or God, any of it. I can’t because I didn’t know how to do those things for myself when I lost my family and I was an adult.”

  “Plus, she hasn’t been feeling well. Not that she’d tell anyone and admit she’s not perfect,” Chief informed me, and I felt my stomach drop.

  “What?” Poppy huffed out in a shrill tone as she stared daggers at her brother.

  “Saw you get sick this morning,” he told her while looking her over as if he could see inside of her and all of her secrets were suddenly clear to him.

  “Probably just something I ate,” she managed to spit back out at him.

  “You were sick?” I tried to clarify as I took in her less than stellar pallor and again, those darkened circles. I had thought she was just tired, but I supposed they’d be there if she was sick too.