V
It was sweet really,how they all tried to keep the little woman away from seeing anything troubling, but I’d been through enough shit to be prepared for the evil men can do, and let’s be honest, the bikers were the good guys in this scenario.
Had I not seen the state that Has-Been had been in before I came in here, I might have felt differently, but his struggle to cope had made it very clear. They’d committed real evil against him, and for that, they deserved to suffer. I was aware I was about to watch torture and murder, but I could always leave if it bothered me. I just wasn’t so sure it would, because I wasn’t the same woman I’d been before. I’d hardened and become almost unrecognisable, even to myself.
“How do you want to do this?” I heard the older guy murmur to Has-Been. Older, taller, and generally with the kind of presence that said he was in charge. Plus everyone had deferred to him for his decision about me, so I figured he was the real power here.
Has-Been squared his shoulders and dragged a hand over his short hair.
“Kinda been planning it for so long that I have a million things I wanted to do. Hard to know where to start.”
The older guy chuckled. “Not sure they’ll survive a million, but we can try, son.”
Something occurred to me, and I don’t know why I butted in, but hey, that’s me.
“Did they do something they should be confessing to?”
All eyes fell on me, and the weight of their stares was actually intimidating as hell, but I wasn’t one to back down, was I?
“What’s your point?” A guy with long blonde hair and a beard asked. He had a VP patch on too, so another man in power. Oh. The big guy’s patch said President. And so did the big beefy guy. Hell. I had no idea what the dynamic here was. Wasn’t there some old adage about too many cooks? That’s like this, right? Too many Presidents?
“If they committed acts they should be publicly admitting to, shouldn’t they be encouraged to do so on, like… I don’t know… a video or something?”
Has-Been dragged his hand over his hair again, tugging at the short strands as he took a deep breath.
“I mean, she has a point. It wasn’t just me, and fuck… it probably still happens now. There could be hundreds of… of victims. Maybe… maybe they owe it to all of them.”
Another guy joined them, and I wished I knew more about them, aside from what their patches said.
“I could record their confession on my phone, then release it after.” His name patch said Ice, and I could see it; a coldness about him, but was it just about the situation at hand?
“What if there are others?” I asked suddenly and all those eyes fell on me again, so I felt the need to elaborate, “I mean, others who do this and get away with it. Like them.” I still hadn’t beentold what ‘it’ was, but at this point you’d have to be a fucking idiot to not get it.
“There was a third, but he died of cancer,” Ice said, glancing up at the taller blonde man who was at the centre of this whole drama.
“She means others in their particular circle of predators, besides him,” he said dully, glancing over his shoulder at them.
“We need them to name names then,” the President called Reacher said.
“Let’s get this going. I can help Ice make sure the release of the videos is clean, and can’t be traced back to us, but think about how we finish them, because if they’re confessing, maybe they should be uh… taking their own way out…”
“You mean no golden gun, man? I was so hoping to watch you stroking it off again,” Ice said, grinning at him, and suddenly looking anything but cold.
“Yeah, they’re not eating my golden one, man. I don’t want their filth on it.”
Has-Been cleared his throat.
“Okay, let’s do this. They took enough of my life back then. They’re not taking my whole fucking night too. Ungag them.”
Oh god. It was beginning. Rocket reappeared beside me, having stepped out of the way for all the discussions that had ended up involving me, when I’d meant to be quiet and watchful.
“Good thoughts, V. Still okay if you wait outside.” I shook my head, leaning closer to him as Nixie reached over to nip at his cut.
“She’s due for some of that milk stuff soon,” he said quietly, as we watched the men being ungagged, and they immediately started speaking over each other.
“Whatever this is about, we can resolve it.”
“I have money. We both have money. That’s what your kind is after.”
