Deep Redemption

by Tillie Cole

  “Yeah,” Rider replied. “She helped me escape, getting us information from Judah’s inner circle. She’s fucking drowning in that commune. And Judah has given her up as his consort and gifted her to this Meister . . . and the bastard is killing her day by day, I could see it. Beating her, raping her and God knows what else. She ain’t the same person she was. She’s fading.”

  AK’s expression turned ice cold, his arms crossing over his chest.

  “And Bella?” I signed. “How the fuck did you get your hands on her if you were locked up, never seeing no one? How the hell did you just so happen to stumble across my bitch’s dead sister?”

  Rider slumped at the mention of Bella, losing all his fucking newfound balls. “She was brought into the cell next to mine. Her commune was the last to arrive in New Zion. Judah had no idea another Cursed Sister lived among us. I had no fucking idea either. When I spoke to her through the wall separating our cells, she said her name was Harmony. The people caring for her changed her appearance—dyed her hair blonde, gave her dark-brown contacts, gave her a new name.”

  Rider ran his hand down his face. “There’s a group of people in New Zion who want to bring the commune down, ruin the place once and for all. Their lives have been ruined by my uncle, too many people’s have. These people were the ones caring for Harm—Bella.” The fucker looked me right in the eyes. “I fell for her when she looked completely different to how she looks now. I had no idea she was Mae’s sister. She was—she still is—Harmony to me. I didn’t want her because she was Mae’s sister. I wanted her because I fucking fell for her. This hasn’t got shit to do with Mae. I don’t think of Mae anymore. And that’s the fucking truth.”

  I rolled my eyes. I didn’t believe one ounce of that shit.

  “It was Harmony’s people who helped me get out. It was down to a man called Brother Stephen.” Rider hesitated. Then he sighed in defeat and said, “Harmony doesn’t know this, and I haven’t told her because he didn’t want me to, but . . . ” he trailed off.

  “But what?” Ky asked through gritted teeth. His tolerance for this little show-and-tell was waning.

  Rider looked at me, then Flame. “He’s their father.” The temperature in the room seemed to fucking drop by thirty fucking degrees. “Mae, Bella and Maddie . . . Brother Stephen is their biological father.”

  I felt my eyes grow fucking huge.

  “They don’t know their parents,” I signed, my heart firing like a fucking cannon in my chest.

  “You’re right; it isn’t our people’s way to know their children,” Rider said. “But Brother Stephen wanted to raise his girls from the minute they were born. He fought for them, to see them, but had to be content to watch them from a distance. But when my uncle branded them Curseds, he tried to take them from the commune. He knew what happened to Curseds. He couldn’t bear that happening to his children. So he tried to take them. He almost had them out, but he was stopped by the disciple guards. They almost killed him with the punishments they made him suffer, then, when he wouldn’t repent, they banished him to the defectors’ commune.”

  “Defectors’ commune?” Ky made his way back to my side. Where he fucking should be. “What the fuck is the defectors’ commune?”

  “Where they sent all those who didn’t stick to the commune rules. Those who tried to get their families out. Those who tried to put a stop to the Lord’s Sharings and celestial awakenings. I didn’t even know it existed until Harmony and her keepers were brought to my cells. They found out who I was and told me everything. Including how my uncle was a convicted pedophile before creating the faith and, along with his equally sick friends, started a sex ring. They used religion as a front.”

  “So,” Ky said, laughing. “Your whole fuckin’ life, everythin’ you did—turned on us, took the girls, ended up in a cell—was all for a crock of shit? All for Uncle David’s kiddie-loving dick?” Ky laughed louder, right in Rider’s face. The brothers all joined in. But I didn’t. I watched Rider. I watched for his reaction. I’d always been able to sniff out deception. And I was fucking shocked at what I saw—the fake prophet slumping further down, feeling every one of the laughs coming his way. Shamed that the purpose for his entire fucking existence was so his wrinkled dick of an uncle could rape kids.

  Rider’s head fell forward, a fucking devastated look over his face. If I’d been a better guy, I’d have felt sympathy for the pathetic loser. But I was a cunt too, so I didn’t even feel a fucking twinge.

  “Yes,” Rider croaked. “It was all for nothing. My whole life, all the shit I’ve done . . . it was all for nothing.”

  When the laughing didn’t stop at his confession, I whistled, the deafening call silencing the room. I lifted my head to each of my brothers, my cold stare silently telling them all to shut their fucking stupid mouths.

  They all did.

  “Bella was in the defectors’ commune? How?” I signed, pulling the focus back to the clusterfuck that was clearly coming our way.

  “Yeah. It was in Puerto Rico,” Rider said, raising his head. “She was nearly killed by the elder that schooled her her whole life, Brother Gabriel.” Rider’s voice dropped, and it was clear—the fucker wasn’t lying about his feelings for Bella. The fucker sounded murderously mad about the pedo we all thought had killed her. ‘Bout as mad as we all were when we put bullets and knives in their heads.

  “One of the defector commune’s guards was visiting the old commune, meeting with the elders—it was a front they had to put on, a role they had to play so no one would discover that they were just waiting to take them down. It was the day Mae was due to marry Prophet David. The other guards were busy, so he was ordered to dispose of Bella’s body and give her a Cursed’s burial—an unmarked grave. But when he opened the cell and saw her inside, it all changed. At first, he thought she was dead, but when he saw she wasn’t, he managed to take advantage of the commotion caused by Mae running away and smuggle her out.

  “When she arrived in Puerto Rico, Brother Stephen knew who she was straight away—her coloring, the Cursed’s Revelation tattoo on her wrist. So he cared for her, and hid her away in that commune from that day on. Some people in the commune didn’t even know she existed . . . until my twin’s men came to close the camp. She could have tried to run, but she agreed to go back to help bring down the commune. She was told her sisters had all died when you last attacked, so she wanted to see the place burn and the innocent freed . . . Her nightmare started again that day.”

  “Until today,” Smiler said, shocking the fuck out of me that he had spoken. Rider stared at his former road brother. And just like before, I could see the pure hurt in his eyes. He’d fucked over his best friend for nothing. Smiler hadn’t been the same since Rider had betrayed us. He’d vouched for him years ago, brought him into the club. The brother barely spoke to anyone now.

  And it was all Rider’s fault.

  Rider ran his hands through his hair in frustration, the chains pulling on his wrists. “We tricked Judah on the day of his and Harmony’s wedding—today—to come to me in my cell. The defector guards had infiltrated Judah’s personal circle—they are hard and strong, and they played their roles to perfection. They seized him and I took his place. We had only minutes to do it right. And it worked. After the wedding, I got Harmony out of there.” He looked up at me. “When I found out Harmony was their sister, I knew I had to get her here . . . and tell y’all about the attack.” Rider sat up straighter. “Because make no mistake about it, if he isn’t stopped, he will come, they all will. And they’ll be coming in their hundreds. The Klan will get them here unnoticed, and all the people—women and children included—will be bringing hell to your door.”

  “And why the fuck should we believe you?” AK asked tightly. “That’s your twin you’re sellin’ out. You expect us to believe that after all the shit the pair of you have brought to us lately, you’re just gonna hand him over, no questions asked? I don’t believe it.”

  Darkness washed over Rider�
��s face. “He’s gone too fucking far this time. He’s hurting everyone. He hurt Harmony. He’s letting Phebe be beaten half to death without a care. But worse than that, he’s letting kids get assaulted. In fact, he’s pushing it. He’s keeping the people who want to leave trapped behind the fences against their will. If they try to escape, he’s killing them.” Rider’s entire body tightened. “He may be my brother, but he needs to be stopped.” Rider went silent. He closed his eyes like he’d just taken a dagger to the heart. “He needs to be . . . killed. It’s the only way to stop him. It’s the only way to stop the pain he’s inflicting on others . . . and I’ve kept him alive for you. He’ll be there for you to kill.”

  None of us spoke after that confession, but we all met each other’s eyes. We couldn’t have these fuckers rolling up on our doorstep. There was no time to get the other states’ Hangmen here. We had to do this shit ourselves. There was no time. No fucking time at all.

  “Your call,” Ky said to me, reading my damn mind as always.

  “Brother Stephen and the other defectors are still in there, Phebe too. I need to get them out. We swapped my place with Judah. He is being kept in the cells. If everything has gone to plan, he’ll still be there. I—as the prophet—am supposed to be in my celestial cleansing with Harmony for four days. Four days of undisturbed seclusion—no one would dare disturb the prophet’s cleansing of a Cursed. The guards will believe Judah is me, he has been dressed as I was. But there will be a pause in the daily beatings for the wedding festivities, so no one should suspect anything. It has bought us time.”

  My head was full as I tried to think of what the fuck to do. “Styx,” Rider said. My eyes snapped to him. “Go in before he can bring the fight to you. You’re outnumbered. Judah’s target is you, but worse, it’s also your women . . . my woman too. He wants them to pay for fucking everything up. He truly believes they are the devil’s servants. If we don’t go in, what we’ve done will be discovered. My friends will die and Judah will attack.”

  I took two steps forward and looked down at the prick that had been the cause of so much fucking shit for my club. I had to fight my hand from forming into a fist. I had to resist the urge to plow it right into his face.

  “Do this. Let me help you do this . . . then . . . then just do whatever the fuck you want to me. I won’t resist. I . . . know I deserve it.” He swallowed, then schooled his features. “There are innocent women and children in that commune, and some innocent men too. They need help. They don’t want to fight, they’re shit-scared, but have no way out.” His gaze got more intense. He looked at every brother in the room. “I know I fucked you all over.” He looked at Ky. “I know I allowed shit to happen to the women that I should have stopped. But the only way to stop Judah is to get him first . . . and for that you’re gonna need me.”

  “Why, when we can just go in and blow everyone apart?” AK asked, his eyes narrowed.

  “I have people on the inside that have Judah for you. Then I—as Prophet Cain—can get the innocent people out safely. And I can gather the guards and elders for you to take out. Then there’ll be no one left to continue the faith.”

  “I get your brother,” Ky snarled, never moving his blue eyes from Rider’s. I read the pain on Rider’s face over signing his brother’s death warrant, but he would agree.

  We all knew that cunt had to be stopped.

  Rider nodded his head once, unable to fucking speak those words.

  Tanner burst through the door. He gave me a single nod of confirmation. Rider slumped back down to the ground.

  Turning to my men, I signed, “Church. Now.”

  “What are we doin’ with the proph’?” Viking asked, pointing at Rider.

  I stared down at him on the floor, broken and shackled in heavy chains. “Leave the fucker here. He ain’t goin’ nowhere . . . not until we decide if he gets to help us end this cult shit once and for all. Or if we decide to sink a machete through his heart. Whatever the fuck comes first.”

  I led the way out of the barn and across the yard to the clubhouse. The brothers filed in behind me and we took our usual seats in church.

  Ky leaned forward on the table and put his head in his hands. “Can you believe this fuckin’ shit?”

  I tapped the gavel on the wooden table; all the brothers looked my way. “So,” I signed, “How the fuck do we play this?”

  Ky translated, then a silence fell on the brothers. It was AK who spoke first. The brother always took the lead in these kinda things. “We go in. For once—and I can’t believe I’m gonna fuckin’ say this—I think Rider is tellin’ the truth. I say we go with what he said. There’s people in there I ain’t down with killin’—kids, women . . . ” He cleared his throat. “The people who brought Bella back need to be got the fuck out—especially the dad. Then we’ll take the rest of the fuckers down. Anyone that gets in our way dies. Man, woman or child. We go in thinkin’ anyone Rider hasn’t got out is an enemy, and we fuckin’ stick to that shit.”

  “The ammo they have is serious. If they’ve been gearin’ up to attack like that asswipe said, we gotta go in when they don’t expect us,” Tanner said.

  “Offense is the best defense,” Cowboy drawled in his thick Cajun twang, sitting back in his chair like he had no fucking care in the world.

  I roved my eyes around the table. All of the brothers nodded their heads in agreement.

  “And afterwards?” Ky asked. I knew what he was asking. So I responded with my own fucking plan for when we returned to the compound. All the brothers were in agreement with that too.

  “Shit,” Bull said and poured himself a shot of tequila. “Can’t believe we’re goin’ in to that fucked-up hell again.” He knocked back the shot and slammed the glass onto the table.

  Viking took the tequila and knocked back a shot directly from the bottle. “Well, I for one have a huge fuckin’ boner right now. Things have been too fuckin’ quiet ‘round here lately. Ain’t the same if we don’t got some delusional fucker to take down. It’s just the fuckin’ cherry on the fuckin’ sundae that it gets to be the cult pricks. I love watchin’ those cunts run from us in their long white dresses. Most of ‘em die ‘cause they can’t move their legs fast enough under all that long fabric. Fuckin’. Hilarious.”

  “They’re tunics, not dresses,” Hush informed Viking dryly.

  “Yeah?” Viking turned on his seat toward Hush. “Tunics, eh? Well we don’t see your tight pretty-boy ass struttin’ about in a dress, do we, blue eyes?” Viking smiled and winked suggestively. “Then again, you and Cowboy are fuckin’ each other, aren’t ya? Boyfriends, bumfuckers and all that shit? If you’re the designated cumbucket outta the two of y’all, the tunic might make things easier. Quicker access for the pink cue to sink the black hole, so to speak.”

  “For fuck’s sakes, we ain’t fuckin’ each other! I’ve ‘bout had enough of your fuckin’ loud mouth!” Hush roared back.

  “I wanna kill,” Flame growled, his outburst just about stopping Hush from launching off his chair to kick Viking’s stupid pale ass. Flame was running his knife along his arms. But the blade never drew blood. He just made the action, in fuckin’ sets of eleven. He looked up at me, and his eyes seemed even darker than usual. “I wanna kill ‘em, Prez, for what they did to my Maddie. I wanna feel their hearts stop in my hands.”

  “You will,” I signed. “We all will.” Flame smiled. A fuckin’ psychopathic grin.

  “Then we’re goin’?” Ky asked.

  “Aye,” said each brother in turn.

  “Then we’re fuckin’ goin’.”

  “Tomorrow,” AK announced. “I’ll get a better plan together tonight. But we go tomorrow. I ain’t takin’ no chances. If we wanna take the fight to the cult, we gotta go tomorrow before someone finds his brother in those cells and changes the whole fuckin’ game.”

  “Then we go in tomorrow,” I signed. “AK, tell the brothers what we need from the armory. Guns and all that shit. We go all night gettin’ ready if we need t
o.”

  “And Rider?” I followed the sound of the voice. Smiler was looking at me. Again, the brother fucking spoke. Twice in a night. A new fucking record.

  “What about him?” Ky asked.

  “He goin’ in first?”

  I looked to AK for him to answer. “I’ll scope out the plans of the commune. I still got them in my room. I’ll look into it. But I say we give him three or four hours to get there, do his prophet shit and get the innocent the fuck out.”

  “Then what?” Smiler asked.

  Ky smiled. “Then we bring the hounds of Hades to their door.” The brothers grunted in a mix of excitement and bloodlust. I slammed the gavel down on the table to end church. AK led the brothers outside to assign roles.

  Ky didn’t move; neither did I.

  Once the door was closed, he said, “You believe this shit, man? With Rider and Bella . . . their fuckin’ father?”

  I shook my head and ran my hand down my face.

  “You gonna tell ‘em?” he asked.

  “N-not y-y-yet,” I stuttered out. “A-a-ain’t no r-reason in t-t-tellin’ ‘em if h-he doesn’t m-m-make it out a-alive.”

  “Yeah,” Ky said. He sighed and, sitting back in his chair, said, “I can’t believe that after tomorrow all this shit with the cult could be done. They’ll all finally be dead. I never knew how much those cunts still bein’ alive bothered me until tonight. I need to fuckin’ breathe again, Styx. That’ll only happen when we’ve burned that place to the ground.”

  “Y-yeah,” I agreed.

  Ky got up from his seat and put his hand on my arm. “I’m gonna help out. I ain’t gettin’ no sleep tonight, and Li will no doubt be with Bella. I need to fuckin’ do somethin’ to stop me goin’ back to that barn and puttin’ an ax through Rider’s skull.”

  My VP left, but I stayed in the church for fuck knows how long. I replayed everything Rider had said. Hundreds and hundreds of those fuckers to take on if shit went south.

  I knew one thing. Not all of us would be comin’ back alive. I never said shit ‘bout it as Rider had spoken. I never said shit as we all agreed to walk back into that fucking place. But it was true. Eleven of us against potentially hundreds of heavily armed brainwashed cunts? Those odds weren’t good for no one, not even us.