A voice speaks up, crisp and clear. “Viking, are you part of Zoey’s family?” Twisting on my feet, my jaw temporarily drops before clamping shut while my teeth grind together. It’s my goddess from the streets. The one who captured my mind and has held it hostage ever since.
“I am. Tell me how to help free you, all of you,” I emphatically state, stepping closer to her, crouching down. “Are you Letti?” I question as I open the kennel door.
She cautiously nods then says in a raspy voice, “Yes, I am. Who are you?”
“Your savior,” I reply, reaching in and gently pulling Letti out of the cage. Going with my intuition, I remove my cut and hand it to Indiana so it doesn’t hit the ground, then I take off my shirt and help Letti put it on to cover her nakedness. Once she’s covered, I retake my cut and slide it back over my shoulders.
“We’re gonna need help,” I murmur. “You start letting them out and I’ll take Letti upstairs to Zoey then ask Rip how he wants to proceed. This is bigger than we anticipated or expected in a lot of ways. May have to temporarily get in bed with the feds or something just as blasphemous.”
As I head upstairs with Letti in my arms, I pause to catch my breath and calm my rage as I hear Indiana begin opening up the kennels one by one. “We’re not here to hurt you, we’re here to help,” he repeatedly says.
“You’re with the Kings, aren’t you?” I hear one of the women ask. “Seen you around town.”
Letti wraps her arms around my neck and nestles her face into my neck, causing my entire body to shudder. What would have happened to her, to all of them, if our hand hadn’t been forced to come and look for our girls?
“Yeah, and all of y’all are now under our protection. Just so you know, nobody fucks with the Kings, ladies. We’ll take care of the trash who thought they could do this to y’all and help you return to your families or your homes, whatever you want.” When my brother says this to them, I agree wholeheartedly by nodding my head. Letti clutches me harder and I hear her hum with approval.
“Can you find my baby?” one of them inquires. “They took my little boy last month after I gave birth.”
“And my daughter?” another woman pipes up and asks.
Indiana clears his throat, saying, “First things first, let’s head upstairs so we can get a true headcount of y’all. We’ll get you transported to our clubhouse and have our medic check all of you over. While we’re doing that, my old lady, Zoey, will start a list of your names, and any information you have about your child or children. We’ll be reaching out to the Feds for help on this because this is far more involved than we anticipated.”
“Some of us need help,” the first woman who spoke states. “They don’t feed us much so many of us are in a weakened state, andif we disobey, which nine times out of ten we did, they withhold food.”
“We’ll get all of y’all upstairs,” he promises them, and that’s my cue to continue up the stairwell and get Letti to safety.
After Letti gets checked over by Splicer, our medic, she starts assisting the ladies as well. I’ve been following the two of them around instead of interrogating the assholes we have in our underground catacombs. I can’t seem to pull myself away from her or let her out of my sight.
So far, from what we’ve gathered from the women as they’ve been treated and we’ve talked with them, we know of ten babies that have been taken from their mothers shortly after birth. The dates of birth are vague and varied since the women didn’t really have any way to know what day or month it was, but they knew how many months ago, which is a start.
It’s not the best lead we could have, but Booker is digging into the dark web. Scouring it for any auctions that went down recently or around the timeframes the ladies gave us. It’s our hope that we can find not only those hosting it, but the bidders as well. All of them have a special place in Hell reserved for them and not a damn one of us will bat our eyes while sending them down below to pay for their crimes.
We’re waiting on transport to show when Splicer comes walking our way, his face grim. “These ladies are not only malnourished, but I suspect several of them have broken bones and there are contusions and wounds I can’t treat because I don’t have theantibiotics needed on hand and they’ll need a strong dose to fight off the signs of infection I’m seeing.”
The club funded a non-profit clinic for those less fortunate. It’s where we take those requiring help but needing to stay under the radar. Splicer runs the facility and hired the best faculty he could find who know how to keep their mouths shut when the circumstances call for it.
“Too big of a job for the clinic?” Rip asks, outrage pouring off of him in billowing waves.
“I don’t have the space for all of them,” Splicer discloses. “And some of them need more invasive treatment than I am capable of giving them. The alternative is sending them to the hospital, but I don’t want them being admitted to Canton’s. We need to send them to a bigger city where they can blend in and sign in under the guise of Jane Doe.”
“All of them?” Indiana inquires.
“Yes. If we send them to Dallas Methodist, I have a relationship with the CEO and can get them covered,” Rip conveys. “Also, we have brothers that way that I can call in to watch over the women.”
“Madman’s going to flip his shit,” Indiana laughs. “Those guys get grumpy when it comes to protection details.”
“Don’t start your shit, Indiana,” Rip orders, jabbing his finger in his direction.
“He’s just messing around, Rip,” I state with a straight face. “He knows Madman would start a world war to help any of the Kings.”
Rip’s eyes swivel in Indiana direction with a ‘what the fuck’ expression, but it doesn’t faze me. “Know that, Icer. Now’s not the time for playing around and joking.” I nod my head and resume pacing. Most of it is done between Elodie and Letti. But my ears are open and alert. I listen in on their conversation because I don’t want to miss anything crucial in regard to any of my girls.
“Elodie’s woken something inside of him and Letti seems to keep it alive and alert,” Indiana establishes. “But it only seems to extend to those girls, Zoey, and me.”
“I’ve noticed,” Rip grouses. “I only see him get that passionate about one thing, and that’s busting heads together. It’s a nice change of pace, but with that being said, I’m not sure how he’s going to handle it.” I roll my eyes at that because he’s not the only one who’s confused about my shift in demeanor and attitude.
“I think he’s going to have to figure that out for himself,” Indiana suggests. Or I could hide my head in the sand and pretend it’s not an issue.
