“They killed my sister,” I hissed back at him. “This is out of your hands now. Take care of your family so they don’t end up dead too. We will get the bastards who did it.”
“Jesus, I can’t believe I did this.”
“You did not do this!” I whisper-yelled, trying not to disturb Brantley while getting my point across. “No one in this damn room is responsible for this happening. You hear me? Any one of us would choose to help you out all over again if you called, even knowing what might happen. It’s the life we live, man. We don’t let family down, and you are my family too. So, let go of the guilt, and just worry about getting the women out of town.”
“What about your woman?” Shep finally asked as he took in Poppy sitting there watching everything go down.
“We’ve got her, and all the rest handled. Everyone’s on lockdown for now. They’ll be plenty safe. Don’t worry about us. Worry about your family, and if we need to get them out of town we will. The Dakotas will take them for sure, probably Sierra High too, maybe they can even stay with the girls of S.H.E. down there?” I turned my attention to Ghost, silently asking him if that was okay, or if I was stepping over a line.
“Already put in a call. Angel Girl said they’d take them in, no problem. They also volunteered some people if we need them. Keys and Quickshot are working their collective magic as we speak to get us the information we need to find these bastards.”
“See, we have this covered,” I offered up as reassurance.
Shep didn’t say anything else for a long time, he simply stood there watching Brant as his chest rose and fell peacefully. “What’s going to happen to little man now?”
“He’s going to stay with me,” I explained with no hesitation.
“Does he know?”
“Not yet.” I told him. I’d talked to Brant about the fact that I wasn’t going to leave him, but I didn’t think he understood what that meant just yet. Hell, I wasn’t so sure he’d even remember the conversation we had since I hadn’t realized they’d been giving him some pretty strong medications for the pain. “How the hell is a someone so small supposed to comprehend that his family is gone?”
I must have spoken the question aloud because Poppy answered me. “He’ll get through, because not all of his family is gone. He has you, Kent, and the club at his back. He won’t want for anything.”
“Except his parents,” I muttered, hoping she was the only one who would hear that part.
“There’s no helping that part, but we’ll get him through it.”
Chapter 9
Arranging the funeral of my little sister is not something I ever thought I would have to do in my lifetime. I always figured as the oldest sibling; I would be the one going out first. Arguing with my little brother over every detail was also something I didn’t think I’d have to do. Kent had taken the bad news and immediately put it off on the club, as if we had all caused this shit to happen personally.
“They don’t have any right to be involved!” His voice rose as we stood there looking at caskets that would hold our sister and her husband. Bender didn’t have family outside of the club, so his arrangements fell on our shoulders too. Ghost had already tried to take that burden from me, but I wouldn’t hear of it. Bender and Soph would want to go out together in every way. I was going to see to it that they did. I sighed at the thought before turning to my brother.
“Bender was a member of the club. Soph was heavily involved. The club was their family just as much as we are. They would both be extremely disappointed if the rest of their family were banned from coming to say their farewells, little brother.”
“The club got them both killed and took them away from their son. I don’t think they’d care about that right now.”
“The club didn’t get them killed.”
“You’re saying this wasn’t the result of something the club did?”
“I’m saying the club got involved in the business of a private family with no affiliation, because they were in danger. We saved their lives. Bender would do it all over again if he were here to make that decision. No one knew what the fallout from helping other people would be, but you know what? I fuckin’ do it every day. If not for the club, I do it for the department. You gonna shun the men from my firehouse if I die in a fire?”
I could see his anger burning underneath the surface, but I didn’t stop there. “If you were to die on the ice in some freak accident, or because some punk-ass fucker from another team took a pot shot that went wrong, am I supposed to blame your whole team and tell them they can’t show up to pay their respects?”
“It’s not the same!” He yelled out, face red with the frustration I knew he was feeling. He wanted something tangible to blame, and the club fit the bill, even if he knew deep down that they weren’t really responsible.
“It’s exactly the same, and as soon as you pull your head out of your ass and realize that you’re going to feel like a jackass for shitting on your sister’s family when they’re all devastated at her death just as we are.”
“You’re comparing them to our blood bond?”
“No, I’m fucking not. The difference is, we are blood bonded. They chose to be in her life, and they want to be there to celebrate it and say goodbye. It’s not a choice for us because we are blood. They took her in and loved her just because they wanted to. That’s the difference. The only difference, Kent. My club will be the ones taking care of Brantley when I’m on shift, or if something comes up. They are the family that Brant knows more so than you since your schedule keeps you away so often. They will be there for him. If for no fucking other reason, they will be there because that little boy can’t take losing any more family right now and those men are his uncles. The women are his aunts. He needs them. He expects them to be there, and saying goodbye is something that is more important for him than any of the rest of us so we’re going to honor that, whether you like it or not.”
“Fuck you, man!” Kent shouted before storming away. I knew he’d put it all together and get with the program. He just needed time to grieve and work through the anger over losing our sister so pointlessly.
The funeral director approached me wearily for my choice of caskets. “We’ll take two. One in black and the other white,” I told him. Black for Granger and the white for Sophie.”
“Yes sir, I will make sure everything is set. We have all of your other choices?”
“You do,” I told him. Even though every other choice we had made was like pulling teeth from Kent, we managed to agree on all of the little stuff aside from the guestlist. There was no way I was keeping the club away from their funeral though. It didn’t matter how big a fit Kent threw. If he even thought to cause a scene at the funeral, I would toss him in the goddamn hole waiting to hold my sister and club brother. Someone else could fish his cantankerous ass out of it.
My phone pinged and when I glanced down, it was a text from Quickshot.
Quickshot: Think we found something. Tracking real estate. There’s a couple places not too far away.
Me: Send the addresses, and we’ll run them down.’
Quickshot: I’ll send them after the funeral.
Me: Send now, or there will be another funeral you won’t have a choice in attending.
Quickshot: Damn it, Smoke. You have too much going on right now.
Me: Right. So don’t fuck with me.
Quickshot: Sent.
Me: Did not receive.
Quickshot: Sent to Ghost. You can get the info from him.
That fucker. I’d always respected the man especially since he went to go help start one of our new chapters about a decade ago. You had to respect a man who would move away from everything he knows in order to get out from under the shadow of his father and the other men who had raised him. On second thought, maybe he took the easy way out by doing it. Who knew? The only thing I knew in that moment was that when I saw Quickshot again, he had an ass whooping coming to him.
I wondered brie
fly if I had been able to go with them to Georgia back then, would I have met Poppy sooner? I let the fleeting thought go just as quickly as it had come. While I’d felt abandoned by the younger generation of Aces High Cedar Falls at the time, there was no way I could have up and moved states away when I was taking care of my siblings. They had already been through enough.
Still, back then, there was something calling me to join them, if only my circumstances had been different. Maybe we weren’t ready for one another then. The way Chief talks about how in love his sister and Walker were in the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have stood a chance. Then I would have been just another Snake pining over another man’s woman. Yeah, I knew about him. I also knew that Poppy never gave a single thought as to what it would be like to jump from her man to him. Part of that was probably because she knew Snake was well aware of the shady business her ex had been getting up to and he stuck by the code and never told her.
I shook off all my wandering thoughts when I realized I was standing in the fucking funeral home looking at caskets. Moments like these made me question if I was losing my goddamn mind. My fingers slid along the showroom casket I had chosen for my sister and brother-in-law. They would be buried side-by-side, just the way they had lived their lives since meeting one another. It was a fitting tribute, the last I could give them besides making sure their son was taken care of and raised up to be the man they’d both be proud of. Another incoming text pulled me out of the morose thoughts that were starting to swarm.
Chief – Is little man with Poppy?
Me – yeah
Chief – Kent is asking to see him.
Me – supervised only. He doesn’t have to know that. Kent’s not taking shit well, and he’s blaming the club.
Chief – I figured that when he demanded I bring his nephew to him away from the shithole den of evil.
Me – Fuck me. He walks his ass into the den and deals with the devil in order to see his nephew. Not gonna have him saying vile shit to the kid. Club is his family. This ain’t the time.
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.
Redemption Duet (Aces High MC - Cedar Falls Book 0) Page 33