by Harley Wylde
I held on tight as Dingo skidded around a corner, approaching the compound gates at a speed that was a bit concerning. The gate flew open as he got closer and he pulled through, not stopping or even slowing down. If anything, he floored it and sped toward the house. When he came to a stop in the driveway, there was a woman in our front yard, yelling at who I thought must be Badger. I seriously needed a meet and greet or something. Regular names were hard enough to remember, but this was getting ridiculous. I’d end up calling someone Coyote or something and their name would really be some other animal. Like Wolf. Although, I’d already met him so I figured I was safe remembering his name. Maybe.
I got out and slowly approached the couple. “Hi. Are you Adalia and Badger?”
They stopped mid-argument and faced me. I didn’t understand why he didn’t want her here. Was it because of my past? Adalia smiled and started to move closer, but Badger grabbed her arm. Everything in me tensed at the move, but she didn’t seem to be in any pain. But she was plenty pissed if the narrowing of her eyes and flash of teeth was any indication. She snarled at him like a feral animal.
“Badger, so help me God, if you don’t let go right now, I’m going to rip off your balls.” He growled and pulled her closer to him. Adalia only slapped at his hand. “Let go!”
“Y’all aren’t inspiring confidence in Mei right now,” Dingo said. “She’s going to think we abuse our women.”
Badger released his woman and folded his arms over his chest. “She fucking walked here after throwing a fit like a damn child.”
“Well, you were being unreasonable,” she said.
“You’re still recovering, Adalia.”
Recovering? I didn’t know what was going on, but she looked fine to me. Had something happened? Had she been sick? I was glad he hadn’t tried to stop her from visiting because of the life I’d led, and his worry for her was kind of touching.
Her shoulders drooped and she gave him the most pathetic look I’ve ever seen. “I lost our baby, Badger. I didn’t die. I’m not going to die. We’ll just… either give up or try again when the doctor says we can. You can’t keep me locked up in the house, watching my every move. You’re doing the overprotective thing and it’s making me lose my mind a little.”
Oh. Oh! I approached them again, this time I didn’t stop. I knew a little of what she was feeling. Maybe I hadn’t exactly wanted my baby -- any of them -- and the decision had been taken from me either by Fate, my foster family, or Trotter, but it didn’t mean I couldn’t offer her some comfort. From one almost-a-mom to another. Or in her case, she’d probably already thought of herself as a mom. And she had been. Even if that little one hadn’t lived, he or she had been wanted and would have been loved. That much was plain to see.
“Would you like to come in and have some coffee?” I asked. “I’d offer some hot herbal tea, but I don’t think we have any.”
“You drink tea?” Dingo asked. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Peppermint. The hot kind,” I said, “and I didn’t say something because it wasn’t important. We have other stuff going on. Tea is the least of my worries.”
Adalia heaved a shuddering breath, obviously trying to pull herself back together, and gave a nod. “I’d love to come in for some coffee. And Badger is going to stay right the fuck here and give me some space before I decide to smother him with a pillow.”
Her husband, or whatever he was, rolled his eyes but didn’t move. I could see how much he loved her, and he was just worried about her. It was understandable after they’d suffered a loss like that.
“Come on. I’ll brew a pot, and we can get to know each other,” I said. “I’ve never had a friend before, but if you’re taking requests, I’d like to sign up.”
Adalia smiled and looped her arm through mine. “I think I’m going to like you.”
“Same here.” I glanced at Dingo. “Keep Badger company. Outside the house.”
My husband winked at me as I led Adalia inside. She sat at the kitchen table while I started the coffee, then I claimed the seat across from her. I’d never really done the girl talk thing before, but it could be fun. Assuming I didn’t fuck it up.
“I know why you’re here,” Adalia said. “So you don’t have to feel like you need to go over what happened to you. We can just talk, or just sit. Whatever you want.”
“Thanks. I guess news of what I’ve been through has spread through the club.”
“Yep. If it makes any difference, every woman here has been through hell before getting saved by the Devil’s Fury. Their names sound so ominous, so… angry. Threatening maybe? But really, they’re a bunch of teddy bears when it comes to women and kids.” She smiled. “And the clubs they hang out with are the same way. I know there are some really bad ones out there. Your foster family would fit right in with those. But Devils’ Fury, Devil’s Boneyard, Hades Abyss, Reckless Kings, and Dixie Reapers are all solid guys. They may do dirty shit to make a living, but they protect their own, and they won’t stand by and let a woman or kid get hurt.”
I’d kind of already figured that out about Dingo, but it was nice to know the entire club was that way. I was still not certain how I felt about Demon and Grizzly, but letting go of that first impression wasn’t going to be easy. Maybe with time I could get past it. After all, Demon had come to help when I’d been shot.
“You said women. How many of us live here?” I asked.
“I have two adopted sisters,” Adalia said. “My adopted father is Grizzly.”
My mouth opened and shut a few times. “I’m sorry, I know it’s been mentioned before, about him adopting kids, but he just doesn’t seem the type. It’s a little hard for me to picture.”
“He did more than that,” she said. “When he brought me home, he was still married. May was the best mom I could have ever had. Cancer took her from us. But Grizzly and May tracked me down after Badger saved me and went to prison.”
“Wait. Badger was in prison?” I asked.
She nodded. “I was a teenager when I was raped. Badger happened to walk by and hear me. He pulled the guy off me and killed him with his bare hands. Went to prison. When he got out, I’d been living at the compound for a while with Grizzly and May. Well, just Grizzly by then. I’d been in love with him since that night, so I got my happy-ever-after in the end. Sort of.”
I reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’m so sorry about your baby. I know that must have been hard.”
“It was.” She sighed. “And it’s not the first time we’ve lost one. Maybe I’m just not supposed to have children. I have endometriosis, so I knew there was a chance I’d never have any, but I’d hoped that we could.”
I wished I had some words of wisdom, or even comfort, for her, but I was out of my depth. The coffee finished brewing and I got up to fix us two cups. I placed them on the table, then got the milk and sugar, but Adalia waved me off. I put a little in my cup, then put the items away before sitting down again.
“Who are the other women?” I asked, hoping to distract her from her melancholy thoughts.
“My adopted sisters are Shella and Lilian. Grizzly brought Lilian home when she was fifteen. She’s twenty-one now, but she kind of keeps to herself. Like you, she was a prostitute not by choice but by force. My dad took her in and has tried to help her heal.” She sipped her coffee. “And Shella is nineteen now. Her baby sister, half-sister, is part of another club. Shella didn’t share the same dad so mine took her in when she needed a home, and gave her a place to have a fresh start.”
“Is she… was she…” I didn’t know how to ask.
“She was abused and neglected but not like you or Lilian. She’s stronger than Lilian by far, and more outgoing. At least, when she’s outside the compound she is. Around here, she’s the quiet one.” She smiled. “They just haven’t seen her when she’s in town with her friends from school. Totally different girl then. Not a wild child, exactly, but she lets loose more.”
“I hope I g
et to meet them sometime soon. It would be nice to have some friends. A family.” I traced the woodgrain pattern on the table. “I met my father for the first time today. I’d thought I didn’t want to know him, but I was wrong.”
Adalia tapped the table with her finger. “You know what we need?”
I raised my eyebrows and waited for her to continue.
“We need a girls’ night. I seriously don’t see Badger letting me leave the compound without him, but my dad set up a room for us girls. It has a huge TV, two arcade games, and an entire bookcase full of sappy movies. You in?”
I wanted to say yes, but going into Grizzly’s home? I still didn’t know how he felt about me. There was this voice at the back of my mind saying he didn’t really want me here, and I had brought a lot of trouble with me.
“My dad won’t bite,” Adalia said. “He just needs a chance to see that you fit in here, that you’re part of us. Dingo claimed you, so you’re not going anywhere. Might as well tame the big bear now.”
“Fine. I’m in. But if your dad is pissed that I’m at his house, then I’m leaving.”
“Fair enough.” Adalia smiled. “Now, let’s go tell the men they aren’t allowed to come with us. Watch. Badger’s head might explode. It’ll be fun.”
Her idea of fun and mine didn’t seem to mesh, but I’d go with it for now. I only hoped she was right about Grizzly. He didn’t look like the kind of man you wanted to piss off. Then again, maybe he didn’t know that my dad was Blades. Would that make a difference? I wasn’t just tied to the club through Dingo, but through my dad too. That meant I really did belong here, right?
If this all went wrong, I hoped Dingo wouldn’t mourn my loss when Grizzly ripped off my head for daring to enter his house and speak to his kids.
Shit. Why had I agreed to this?
Chapter Twelve
Dingo
Knowing that Mei was safely hidden away at Grizzly’s house gave me the freedom to handle a few things. Namely, the social worker in charge of Mei’s case. I was saving the foster parents for Blades, unless we couldn’t get him out of prison. Then I’d handle those fuckers too. But first, I needed to have a conversation with Miss Demoira Humes. I double-checked the information Outlaw had given me before knocking on the door. The kids’ toys in the front yard didn’t bode well. I’d never been the kind of man to take a kids’ parent away from them, not knowingly at any rate. I didn’t doubt that some of the men I’d help bury had left behind women and kids. Then again, their families were probably better off without them. This time was different, though.
A woman who appeared to be in her forties answered the door, a flour-dusted apron tied around her neck and waist. She smiled before her gaze landed on my cut, then I watched as the blood drained from her face. Yeah, bitch. Time to pay the piper.
“You can either let me in, or I can come back at a more convenient time. Like, maybe when you’re sleeping?” I asked.
She stepped back and let me into the house. More signs of children were scattered around the living room, and I heard giggling from down the hallway. So there were kids in the house. Hers? Or was she fostering? Even more important, were they safe with a woman who sold out countless young girls?
“What do you want?” she asked, fisting her apron. “I’ve never done anything to your club.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong.” I pulled out a photocopy of Mei’s original birth certificate and held it up for her to see. “Recognize this?”
She whimpered and her lower lip trembled. Good. Bitch needed to be scared right now. She pointed to it with a shaking hand. “Where did you get that? Judge Proctor got rid of it.”
“So, you have seen it before. We’ll get to the judge in a moment because that’s a story I need to hear. For right now, I want you to understand that there’s no escape from what you’ve done. The man listed on this birth certificate is none other than Robert Young, or as we call him, Blades.”
She slumped against the wall at her back. “I didn’t know he was part of your club. I didn’t… I…” She audibly swallowed. “The judge said the father wouldn’t be a problem.”
“And the mother? Did he say anything about Xi-wang Chen?” I asked. We still hadn’t determined what happened to her, and that bothered me a fucking lot. I wanted to tell Mei that her mother was fine, or at least give her some sort of closure. The more Outlaw discovered about this fucked-up mess, I knew it wasn’t likely that Xi-wang was still alive. “What did he do to her?”
“You have to understand. I was fresh out of school, and Meiling was one of my first cases. Judge Proctor was a powerful man. Still is. He made it clear that I’d pay the price if I didn’t follow along.”
“I need to know everything. Start at the beginning and work up to the point where Beau Stevens found her being whored out at the Ruby Slipper.” Her eyes went wide. “Yeah. I’m guessing Beau was one of yours too. He’s been far out of your reach for a while, though, hasn’t he?”
She tugged up the sleeve of her shirt and showed me some deep burn marks. The kind that looked like they came from a blowtorch, or something equally hot. “This is what happened when Beau ran off and I couldn’t find him.”
“And you didn’t call the police? Report the judge and anyone else involved? Why? Because you were in too deep by then?” I asked.
“The judge owns this town and everyone in it. Well, anyone on the legal side of things. The District Attorney is his golfing partner. The Chief of Police has dinner with him every Sunday night. There isn’t a single place I could have gone.” She sighed and motioned to the living room. “Have a seat. I’ll tell you what I know, but I need a promise from you.”
“Do you really think you’re in a position to make ultimatums?”
“I have some kids here who will need homes. Part of my silence was paid for by the right to keep them safe in my home. They’re different. I don’t like the word disabled or retarded, even though some would call them that, but my children are special. I needed to ensure they didn’t fall into the wrong hands.”
I hated it when the bad guys decided they had a heart. It fucked with my head. “Fine. I’ll make sure the kids are taken care of if the need should arise.”
“Meiling wasn’t the first, nor was she the last. I was paid to look the other way and make sure she ended up in a certain home. Same for Beau Stevens.” She twisted her hands in her lap. “I’ve been haunted every night of my life by what might be happening to those kids.”
I pulled out my phone and accessed the video Outlaw had sent me. I still couldn’t watch the damn thing, but I started it and made sure the bitch watched every second. She was sobbing by the time it ended, and I was back to wanting to murder every fucker who’d ever hurt my wife. Not that the need for bloodshed had ever truly died down.
“That’s just a small taste of what Mei suffered because of you and every other fucking asshole who put her with that family. I’m not here to ease your conscience, Miss Humes. I’m here to make you pay.” I hope she could tell I’d rather spit on her than show her any respect. I put my phone away. “It was your fucking job to protect her, protect Beau, and all the other kids you fucked over because you were scared. Be thankful I’m the one on your doorstep. If Blades were here, you’d be begging for your life, and he wouldn’t give a shit there were children nearby.”
“He’s in prison,” she whispered.
I just smiled because I knew it wouldn’t be long now before that wasn’t the case. Outlaw had assured me that several pieces were already falling into place. Either by tonight or tomorrow morning, Blades would be back home where he belonged. And this town, this fucked-up shithole, might very well burn to the Goddamn ground before he was done getting vengeance for his daughter, and I had a feeling for the woman he’d loved.
“Xi-wang. What happened to her?” I asked.
“I was told not to ask, and I didn’t. Not exactly.” She looked at me with haunted eyes. “She was young. Beautiful. And Chinese. It’s the non-whi
te girls that are in the highest demand for the prostitution and pornography. He has a special clientele.”
“So she ended up having the same fate as her daughter?” I asked, needing her to be as clear as possible. If there was a chance Xi-wang was still alive, we would find her and bring her home.
“She was sold. To a brothel.”
I waited, knowing she would give me more, if she knew it. And something told me if she’d learned that much, she’d have kept going.
“She’s not the same Xi-wang Mr. Young knew, and she never will be.”
“But she’s alive.”
Humes -- because I refused to even think of her as Miss Humes - nodded. “If you can call it living. They stole her soul, wiped out every trace of who she once was, and now she’s just a shell. I’ve been to see her a few times. Not that I ever approached, but I observed from a distance.”
“She’s a bit old to be a whore, isn’t she?” I asked, not meaning in a cruel way, but I knew the younger they were the better in that type of work. If men wanted to fuck a forty- or fifty-year-old woman, they’d just stick with their wives. It was the thrill of being with someone younger that they couldn’t land on their own, without having to pay for the privilege. The younger the girls, the more they were willing to spend.
“She trains the new girls. She’s a den mother of sorts, I suppose. Can’t think of what else to call her. They used her up, but kept her for whatever reason. Usually, when the girls are done, they’re shipped off elsewhere or just tossed in a shallow grave.”