“Well, from what Blanche told me, you suffered when you left the Keep. You had to build a life in a place you barely knew. No family, no guidance. It would have been hard, building yourself up again,” she prompts gently.
“Well, shit, when you put it like that, I definitely had a few Job moments.” She snorts at my joke and makes me fucking feel ten feet tall. “But now, with the DRMC and your help, we get tostand between the darkness and the broken so they don’t have to ask the same fucking question of a God who may have forsaken them.”
“I like that,” she moves to gaze at the people who are staying as guests at the moment.
The curly haired woman and her daughter and a teenager sitting on a swing in a world of his own. The people who find us come to us broken but with enough inner strength to put one foot in front of the other and not be afraid to grab life with both hands and start again.
We stand in comfortable silence, which we often tend to do. There’s a shit ton of history between us, most of it our own, but some of it shared. Children in the Keep played together until the boys were old enough to help the men with the manual labor, and the girls took on cooking and laundry. I’ve known Loyal Blessing since the day she was born, me being only a few months older. We grew up together and yet, I know nothing about this woman. Much like she knows nothing of me as the man I am today. But I don’t mind. We have time.
Clearing my throat draws Loyal’s bright blue eyes in my direction, “Dex, the President of our Chapter, has asked you to join us for Church.”
Her perfectly arched brows fly up at this and I raise my hands to placate her, “Not like that. Shit, not like that.” I huff out a laugh, fuck, I almost sent the woman into orbit with that one. “In a motorcycle club, Church is where we go to discuss things that will affect how we run, and the people we look after.”
“Like the Council?” she asks, suspicion clear on her features.
I get it. I get where she’s coming from. She’s spent her whole life behind these walls. I had the good luck to be kicked out, even though it didn’t seem like it at the time. Shit, even what Blanche went through seems tame compared to what shit went down when our youngest sister Lovely was living here. It seemsafter Mercy Landry’s eldest children left Eden’s Keep, it all went to fucking hell in a hand basket. Loyal is probably thinking the same shit is gonna happen again.
I move to reach out to her, exhaling in relief when she doesn’t flinch. Placing my hands gently on her shoulders, I feel the tension vibrating underneath before it slowly leaches from her body.
“Listen, Loyal, the DRMC, we aren’t like those fucking monsters. We want to help people, not harm them. We have resources to help more than you and I could have ever imagined. You know me, you know my brothers. If you could just, please, trust me?”
She takes a deep breath, my hands rising and falling with her shoulders. Her steely gaze meets mine before she nods her head jerkily. “I will trust you, this time. But if it turns into something too familiar, too much like our past, I won’t hesitate to kill you to protect the others.” Her eyes dart to the play area and the guests we have staying here.
“Thank you, Loyal.”
Loyal
I try to act unaffected when Victory, no, Vex, when Vex removes his hands from my shoulders and moves to walk beside me. I’ve been working hard to not flinch when in the company of men, and I feel like I’ve come a long way, but that one touch, that oneinnocent touch from Vex makes my insides bubble and fizz in a way they never have before.
All my life, from my earliest memory, hands have hurt. They have pinched, slapped, hit. They’ve squeezed and pushed, forced on me and inside me. Then there were the kicks and bites, the implements used to discipline and torture. Always hurting, never soothing, and yet one touch from Vex has me craving something I have never once thought I needed or deserved. Comfort. Kindness.
The thoughts rattling around in my brain distract me from the thought that I am following Vex into a room full of men. Into a place where the council used to decide what happened to us. A place now referred to as Church by gruff, rough, tattooed men. Sometimes I can’t believe this is my life. This is my lot. But then I remember that I’m not useless and dumb and ugly like I’ve been told over and over by men much more useless and dumb and ugly. Ihelppeople.
Vex pushes the doors open and I follow him through, steps heavy. I’ve been here once before. I steady my breathing reminding myself that I’m with Vex, not Elder Goodson. I never once called him husband. A husband is a man who cares for his wife, the type of man who worships her, who chooses to lift her up above all else. Not a man who treats his dog better than the woman he professed to love and honor. I shudder involuntarily, pushing the first and only time I visited this place out of my mind. There is no space for those thoughts. Not when Vex indicates an empty seat for me to sit in.
Following his instructions I try not to stare too wide eyed around the table. The DRMC men are all huge. I’m not a small woman, at 5’5, but I know I’m not big either. Vex is around 6’ tall, the other men around the same. Some hulking, some leaner like swimmers. All of them look at me with kind faces, something that startles me, unsettling me to my core. Men whosit here, in these seats are meant to look at me with disgust, not like I’m a peer.
“Thank you, Loyal, for joining us. I’m Dex, President of the Keep Chapter. This is Sniper,” he points to the dark haired man on his left, who I remember from the day everything changed. He tips his chin, his eyes not even bothering to hide his pain. “He’s my vice prez, if you ever need anything and you can’t find me, Sniper is your man. Chef is our Sergeant at Arms, he helps with security, that sort of thing, Omen is our Enforcer, similar to Chef but he helps with the moreunsavorypeople we have to deal with.” I nod and smile at Wisdom Landry, now known as Omen, “TumTum is Road Captain, and you know Saint from your childhood.” I smile at Christian Landry, who grins back, the less serious of the three brothers.
“Yo, what am I? Chopped liver?” A gruff, growling voice draws my attention to the end of the table where a grizzled looking older man sits. The leather of his cut looks soft and worn over the years, much like his handsome face. His eyes twinkle and he gives me a wink that has my lips automatically tipping up.
Prez lets out a sigh. “And that is Flack. Kinda like the granddaddy of this chapter.”
“Whoa, shit, watch your mouth, I ain’t no chapter granddaddy!” he growls, but I see the smirk he gives me.
“Flack, you areliterallya granddad,” Chef points out and I’m surprised by his low, smooth voice.
Flack flips the bird at him. “I’m Jovie’s granddad, no one else’s. Especially not you shitheads.”
“Classy,” Dex, or Prez, as his vest says, looking bored before he settles his gaze on me. I try not to squirm in my seat, locking down my expressions like I have time and time again. “Loyal, we asked you here because we want an update on how the Keep is running. How many families do we have, their needs, howyou find rescues, what you do with them once they come in? I want a better understanding of how we run. I want to know your suggestions on how we make this better, more efficient, running costs, all that sort of shit that us boneheads know nothing about.” He nods gently at me, obviously ignoring the surprise on my face.
For the first time in my life, someone is asking my opinion and thoughts on something. Actually, no, that’s a lie. Vex asked me my opinion when he approached me about his plan to use the Keep as a sanctuary. I was all in. The plan was solid and I have experience after my time funneling rescues to Blanche Landry. The woman who unknowingly saved me the day she helped me get a young, pregnant woman away from her abusive husband. She gave me a lifeline to the outside world. A much needed contact who would update me on the new lives the women and men Justice and I had saved.
Clearing my throat I glance at Vex, who nods encouragingly before I make eye contact with the Prez.
“Um, in terms of families, it depends if you mean here at The Keep, or in the wider Keep community,” his brows furrow a little. I glance at Vex who gives me a warm smile to keep going. “In the Keep community, which runs our gardens, orchards and livestock we have six families. They were good people who opted to stay after the ah, clearout. Justice checks in with them regularly to make sure business is ticking over and that they feel safe and happy.” I take a deep breath and exhale. “As for this side, the sanctuary side, we have two families and a young man at the moment. We have Nell and her daughter Greer, Roger and his daughter Izzy, and River. They came from a cult up in New England, and arrived around a month ago.” My hands twist a little.
“And how do you find them? The rescues?” Sniper asks softly.
