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‘SHADOW’
ZOEY
That the sounds of these men in agony calms my nerves, says a lot about how I’ve dealt with my life. I’m in the downstairs of the trucking company, in the last bay. I have Rebel, Wildcat, Avalanche, and Panther helping me. There’s five of us working on five of the Thunder Club Knuckle Brotherhood assholes. I made sure Rebel and Wildcat had two of the more passive jerks since they are learning from me. Just in case, you never know what will happen, and our club needs at least one insane enforcer and so far, they both are holding their own.
Avalanche has one of the biggest jagoffs I’ve seen in this kind of situation. Though Big Bird has surprised me tonight with his way of getting information from this big mouth racist prick. Since we are in our garage and not at my wet room we have to improvise and, man, does he ever. His prisoner is hanging by chains from the main level into the bottom bay. His toes are lying on the ground and at the moment Avalanche is pulling the skin off of his feet that he burned with a torch. At this point the asshole is begging to tell us whatever we want. So much so that Avalanche stuffed a rag in his mouth.
Panther works another way. He plays mind games with his prisoner. The man was blindfolded immediately so he has no idea what’s going on. He hears the moans and screams of his friends so he naturally assumes he will be getting the same treatment. Panther, though, doesn’t do that. By the time he goes to put his hands on the man, his mind has been so manipulated and fucked up he’s screaming like a banshee just from Panther cracking or pinching him.
It’s been a few hours and we’ve gotten a few things out of them but, let’s face it, these are the bottom feeders. The ones with all the power aren’t sharing their plans with these guys. In all reality, they are sent and considered collateral damage. So, I ask the question I need answers too.
“Motherfucker, were is Lilly and don’t act like you don’t know who she is to us. If you work with us, I’ll make sure you die quick and painless. Otherwise, by the time I’m done with you you’ll be begging everyone you’ve ever known to put you out of your misery and pain. So, let’s try this again, where is Lilly being kept?”
“Even if I knew and told you, it won’t help you get her outta there. She’ll never leave, they have her right where they want her.”
After a few planned strikes on his already bruised body, I pull my hunting knife out and start to make crisscross cuts on his chest. Not too deep, but deep enough so he feels it. And by the way he’s flinching and trying to pull back when I get close, it tells me his nerves are firing on all the right circuits. Getting a bit more zealous, I cut through some muscle which has him howling. Now we’re getting somewhere.
“Why do you think Lilly wouldn’t leave if we were to go and rescue her? Probably would be the best day of her life getting away from your psycho club.”
“Well, your demented bitch Lilly has been trained from when she was a young girl, and she knows what happens if she disobeys by the way she’s been taught. Now, the reason she won’t ever leave—well not for the next ten to twelve years—is because if she walks away Lilly will never see her child again.”
The rage takes over immediately when what he says registers in my head. Not sure how, but the next thing I remember is Panther screaming at me in Navajo while at the same time Avalanche walks up to the jagoff. I am literally chopping into him with my Bowie. He grabs the knife out of my hand and slits the guy’s throat. Seeing the blood squirt all over, it dawns on me that I feel like I’m watching from above and not in my own body. How in the fuck am I supposed to tell my friend and sister, Glory, that the daughter who was taken away from her years ago is now a mother herself? And shit, Lilly has to be no older than Squirt’s age, which I believe Hannah is almost twenty. So that means Lilly’s about eighteen-ish. Got to find out how old her child is. I walk to the next prick, who’s watching me with huge eyes that are leaking wet. Fuck you, asshole, you’ll be meeting the devil tonight for sure.
“One question and then you won’t suffer any longer or else, I swear to God, I’ll pull you apart layer by layer. When you’ve been skinned, I’ll gut you and wrap your guts around your neck, using them to strangle you. Now I want the truth. How old is Lilly’s child, and is it a boy or girl?”
He swallows nervously, looking at the other guys in the room. At this point it’s everyone for themselves. He looks me straight into my dead icy-blue eyes.
“I don’t know for sure, not good at guessin’ but I’m think she’s between like nine, ten or eleven years old. I’ve never even seen the girl, but from what I’ve been told she’s as gorgeous as her momma. But that’s hearsay.”
I can see and smell his fear but I gave him my word, so I reach to the table, pulling my Sig, and put a bullet right between his eyes. All of a sudden, the exhaustion takes over and I scream for Rebel and Wildcat to move, and I shoot the remaining three men. Enough is enough. We found out all we would have, so now got to figure out how to break the news to Glory.
“Motherfucker. How the fuck am I going to be able to tell Glory that her baby was raped and had a baby when she wasn’t even a teenager? I want to jump in the truck, or better yet, on my bike and find each and every one of those in the brotherhood and put them to ground. Panther, I can’t deal with this, it’s going to literally obliterate our VP’s heart and soul. And she’s finally moving on and trying to live. And they say there’s a God, then why does he do shit like this to people who’ve suffered enough?”
Feeling my emotions start to bubble over, I’m shocked when Avalanche tells my two sisters to go upstairs and find some cleaning supplies so they can start cleaning the place up. After, he walks directly to me, pulling me into him. Then he shocks the shit out of me.
“Zoey, you’ll tell her quickly, like pulling off a Band-Aid. Then you and the rest of your Devil’s Handmaidens sisters will be there for her to hold her up. I’ve seen it time and time again, so take a breath, for Christ’s sake. You’ve got this, little skull anii’. I have all the faith in you, so don’t start second-guessing yourself. Now let me go upstairs, give you two a minute or two alone. Don’t make me regret this because if I come down and you two are fucking around, I’ll be pissed. Mainly because I don’t have that option. Be back in a few.”
Watching him go, it dawns on me I’ve not been calling him Big Bird. Ever since he honestly told me he hated it; I’ve been trying to continue to build our relationship because he’s Panther’s best friend and brother. I can’t let it go now though.
“Hey, Big Bird. No matter what I say, know this now, I’ll always have your back and we will find you that someone you can share shit with or even fuck around with. Now get, brother.”
I watch his shoulders lift then settle back down before he turns my way. The look in his eyes tells me everything I need to know. Then he gifts me with his gorgeous smile, and I wonder why he’s still single. Not the time or place, so going to put that on the back burner. We got enough shit right in front of us to deal with. Then when I’m done, no matter what time, I’ll get my ass over to Glory’s and find a way to tell her what we found out tonight. Then we figure a way to get both Lilly and her little girl out of whatever compound she’s in.
Feeling arms pulling me against his hard body, I relax as soon as Panther’s body presses into me. He always knows how to bring me down and out of my own insane and fucked-up mind. My thoughts are running crazy, thinking what poor Lilly went through as a child, it makes me want to kill whoever did that to her with my bare hands.
“Zoey, let it go. She will be okay. Look at all you’ve gone through and see where you are at now. Life is a circle and we don’t control how it spins and moves throughout our lives. All we can do is our best with what we are given. Now if we all work together, we can get this cleaned up pretty quickly. What are we doing with their bodies, Nizhoni?”
As I think about it, I hear Avalanche making a racket on his way back down, just to let us know they were on their way. Looking at the carnage before me, I go through our options then turn to my ol’ man.
“Let’s make it easy. Instead of burying them with lye, tell one of the girls to go pull in that beater out back. We’ll throw them in there and burn it. Should take care of our problem, don’t you think, Panther?”
He squeezes me tightly then nods in agreement. So much for an early night. Because after this, I’m putting a call out to Goldilocks to meet me at Glory’s. One of the few times I need someone there with me to give this type of news. And I know it’s going to kill my best friend as this is how she conceived Hannah so many years ago. Fuck, this shit has to stop happening. What is our goddamn world coming to?
TWENTY-ONE
‘TINK’
MAGGIE\GOLDILOCKS
