About a year ago, we finally tracked down and punished the man who was almost single-handedly responsible for our existence. Ghost. A serial killer who killed one of our own—Angel, Rogue’s first love and one of my best friends in the world since before I can remember.
Finally bringing Ghost the justice he so richly deserved was supposed to be the end of an era for us… and the beginning of something even better. But the past year has been one crisis after another, first dealing with Hydra, a powerful organization that wants to destroy us, then fighting in two wars that we didn’t start and didn’t have much to do with.
Now, at the end of all that, our relationship with the police and other authorities, which has always been very good, is shotto shit. I doubt we’ll ever be as useful in fighting crime as we once were. But Rogue believes we can claw our way back to our former standing and esteem and I’d like nothing better than to believe as he believes.
It’s easy to do that when listening to him, he has this way of talking that sucks you right in and transports you to any place he wants you to see. He’s better at that than any priest, or other leader, I’ve ever heard speak.
The plan is that we’ll just resume out work and see what happens. But the meeting has been going on for over three hours and we still haven’t decided which case to take on next. There’s just so many deserving ones needing someone’s attention. Needing our attention.
I have a case that deserves our attention too.
My case.
The case of Father Gael and all those little girls still suffering because I never reported him, never told anyone what he was doing to me.
He has been out of the country for many years, stationed in South America somewhere. But he’s back now and I know where he preaches now. I know that church has a day care and a community center attached to it. And I know his victims are suffering.
Plus, I was shot and almost died during the last war we took part in. The wound itself wasn’t very severe, but all the blood I lost while we waited for reinforcements and the docs to arrive almost cost me my life. I lived. But next time, I might not be so lucky. And if I die, who will make sure Father Gael never has a chance to hurt another little girl again?
But the others might view this as my own personal case. We don’t put our personal cases before others more deserving. Going after Ghost for killing our Angel was the exception, not the rule.
Yet, I need to stop Father Gael. I can do it on my own.
I have the words for this request rehearsed, I’ve been repeating them to myself since the start of this meeting. Now I just have to say them.
“All right, so it’s settled,” Rogue says. “We’re going after the child prostitution ring that no one wants to touch. The one ran by persons unknown, but heavily frequented by some of LA’s best and brightest?”
He looks over the room and the rest of my fellow execs nod.
“You don’t agree, Alice?” Rogue asks, looking at me pointedly, noticing I didn’t nod along with the others.
I clear my throat and sit up straighter, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. “I want to go after Father Gael.”
The silence that falls over the room makes me feel like I’ve fallen down some dark, bottomless well. Kind of how I felt every time Gael took me to the basement after that first time when I thought I’d get a bunch of sweets to take home by following him.
“I’ll go on my own,” I say. “But I gotta do this.”
I look over the room, imploring my brothers and sisters—my best friends in the whole world, closer to me than blood—not to object. And not to make me explain.
Talking about Father Gael and what happened to me still makes my voice shake, still makes me stutter, and no one needs to hear their Sarge stuttering in a shaky voice. The fact that everyone is looking at me with stark, painful pity in their eyes isn’t helping any either.
Rogue has a very expressive face and eyes, but right now I can’t read a damn thing about what he’s actually thinking from them. Probably because he’s about to tell me no, you can’t go, we need you here, we put those who need our help the most first. All things I agree with. But I will argue if he tells me no.
Rogue clears his throat, but it’s Blade who speaks. “Yes, go. Do what you need to do, Alice.”
Blade is our Vice President and the most level-headed and calm man I’ve ever known. Except where the love of his life, Bella, is concerned. He can and will be fiercer than all of us combined for her. As the war we’ve just helped Bella’s brother win clearly proves.
Blade is the exact opposite of Rogue in almost all ways, which is why they work so well together in running our MC. Rogue casts him a sharp look, but then smiles at me.
“Yes, of course, Alice. Do what you have to do and take backup,” he says. “There’s no need for you to do this alone. We’re all behind you.”
I smile at him too, even though my chest is still a jittery mass of nerves.
“Good, thanks,” I say, my voice still shaky. “Gael’s not a big threat. I won’t need a lot of backup. I just need to get enough evidence on him to pass on to the cops. He’s not even being careful anymore, from what I’ve seen so far.”
“Skye will help you as much as she can, I’m sure,” Rogue says, inclining his head towards her. She smiles and nods and I do the same.
Skye is our information officer and an amazing hacker. But the kind of info I need on Father Gael needs to be gathered up-close and personal. And I want him to look me in the eye and know it was me who brought him down when they come to arrest him.
