Chapter Five
Hawkeye made his wayback through the main room and down the hallway to where Smokey had set a charge on a rear door and blown a hole in the wall big enough to drive a pickup through.They hadn’t needed anything that big, but it made for an impressive show of force.The tug around his waist let him know that the tiny woman he’d found curled on the floor of the pantry was still with him.
It had been too dark to get a good look at her, but she didn’t look as beaten down as he had expected.Were the Crows better to their club mamas than he’d assumed they would be?Something felt off, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.He needed to make sure they’d taken care of all of the Crows and gotten all the women out, or at least any who were being held against their will.He hadn’t found any records that there were any old ladies among the Royal Crows, but it could be that none of them had made it legal.It wouldn’t surprise him considering how much contempt these men had for the law.
“I cleared my rooms,” he said to Shotgun, after joining him at the rear of the box truck with generic delivery service stickers on the side.They’d used it to transport the weapons and explosives into Eagle’s Rest.The motorcycles had been parked a couple of blocks away, so they wouldn’t be heard approaching.
Now, there were several blankets spread out and his brothers were settling the women they’d found inside the clubhouse in the rear of the truck.Pike had found several battered women’s shelters in nearby towns.Towns far enough away that the Crows wouldn’t have any influence on them, or at least that was the hope.
“Find anything?”
“One woman.She was sleeping in the pantry.”Hawkeye reached behind him to take her hand, but reached and reached and couldn’t find her hand.The pressure around his waist was still there, she had to have deliberately moved out of his reach.
Scowling, he turned to face her.The woman’s pale blue eyes went wide then she dropped her gaze so she looked down at the floor instead of at him.
“You’re safe.Climb in.We’ll get you somewhere you don’t have to worry about these men again.”He watched her but she didn’t move.She didn’t look up, just stood frozen, her fist still clenched around his belt.
“She’s not one of us,” one of the women in the back of the truck said, her voice filled with venom.
“What do you mean?”Hawkeye asked, turning to look at the woman who’d spoken.Her skin was sallow, eyes sunken and dead looking and her hair hung in dark, greasy looking clumps.He couldn’t help but wonder when she’d bathed last.
“She was special.She showed up and they never took turns with her.They never did to her what they did to all of us.”The anger and hatred in the dirty woman’s eyes made him want to step between her and the woman still holding on to his belt.He turned and looked at the woman standing beside him, clinging to him.
She didn’t seem as dirty, though he wouldn’t have said she was clean.She wore a long-sleeved dress.It was shapeless and hung to her ankles.It was a stark contrast to the nothing or nearly nothing the rest of the women wore.Her hair looked cleaner, what little he could see of it because she had it pulled back into a bun low on her head that reminded him of the old woman in the cartoons about a cat and bird he’d watched as a kid.
As her face lifted, he saw the yellows, greens and purples of bruising at different stages of healing.Clearly someone had slapped her around.He looked back at the women in the back of the truck.There were half a dozen of them now, as his brothers returned with one or two at a time, loading them into the back with the one who’d spoken up before.
None of the women were unharmed but it was clear that there was something different about the one next to him and the rest of them.She clearly didn’t want to get in with them.He had to wonder what was going on.But they didn’t have time to get to the bottom of it, not here and now.
“Take her and get to your bike.We’ll take care of them and meet you at the meet up point,” Shotgun said, tilting his head toward where they’d stashed the bikes.
Hawkeye looked at her again, wondering what she was thinking, and if she would ever say anything.
“Those are your choices, in with them, or come with me.We can talk a little more once we’re away from here.”
“You.”Her voice was so soft he barely heard her, but it was enough.
“Okay, hold on.I need both hands in case we run into trouble.”
She didn’t say anything but nodded.He took it as a good sign and turned around.He needed to be focused and aware of where they were and who was around.
