Chapter 16

Silk

For as long as I lived, I was never going to forget the images of those teenagers being stuck with needles and cocks. Another shudder ran through me as I paced away from Eagle. I wish I could have stayed wrapped in his arms, pressed against his hard body, breathing in his scent. But that wasn’t going to do anything other than get him beaten up if Scout or Bulldog saw the display. In an attempt to distract myself and the men, I reached for the thick envelope my father left for me in my box.

“Let me read the letter he left me. At a guess the envelope will have copies of the ledgers for both clubs. But I have no idea what the letter will say.”

Ripping it open, I pulled the contents free and sure enough, the two bound bundles looked to be copies of the ledgers.

“Here are the copies of the clubs’ books.”

I tossed them onto the table and took the letter with me to go sit in a chair a little way away from everyone.

My dearest Claudine,

I have no idea if this is the first of the boxes you’ve found. If so, there are more. I am so terribly sorry this has fallen on your shoulders. It was never my intention. Of all the boxes I’ve had to leave for you, this is the one I’d hoped you never have to see…

I skimmed over all the bullshit excuses he’d written about in the last letter. They didn’t help any more now than they did when I’d read the last letter. It was still all his fault for his selfishness, greed and jealousy. I got serious about reading again when he quit with his apology.

Please, do not look at what the other boxes here contain. It’s nothing good. If neither clubs are chasing you, hand it all over to the police anonymously and run far away from Texas, Boston, Los Angles and New York. If you have been in contact with your uncle, go to him. He’ll know what to do with the boxes.

The thing that had my heart pounding and sweat breaking out over my face was a line he’d scribbled out after saying I wasn’t to look in the boxes. Holding the paper just right, I could see his words underneath.

Your mother wouldn’t want you to see her like that.

I shook my head. “No. Hell fucking no.”

My eyes stung. It couldn’t be. My mother had been one of those young girls the club had forced drugs and sex on? With my quick glance at the photos, I’d seen girls being pinned down to have needles shoved in their arms. I couldn’t bring myself to read the rest. I rose and pushed past Eagle to get to the table. I dropped the letter and reached for the Iron Hammer’s envelopes. My uncle tried to stop me.

“Sweetheart, you don’t want to see them.”

I spun on him and glared hard. “I have to see them. Trust me, I know I don’t want to, but I need to.”

I turned back, vaguely aware of Uncle Clint picking up the letter I’d tossed aside, as I tore at the envelopes, tipping all the depraved images out in front of me. I shifted them around on the table until I caught a familiar face. I froze and swallowed.

“Fuck.”

My curse echoed around the now-silent room as I lifted the image to look more closely at the face of the young teen whose face was oh-so-familiar.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

My uncle’s enraged voice came from beside me.

“It’s her, isn’t it?”

My voice was barely more than a whisper. His strong arm came around my shoulders and pulled me in against his chest. I went to him, seeking comfort from the man who’d been a father to me since that day, fifteen years ago.

“Yeah, honey. That’s your mother.”

There was a moment of shocked silence in the room before the cursing started. I stayed with my face pressed against my uncle’s cut, wishing I would wake up to find myself in Eagle’s arms and discover this had all been some horrible nightmare. My mother had been a club whore, most likely forced into the role as a teen. Was John even my biological dad? I took after my mother in appearance. I had pale blue eyes like my dad, but plenty of people had them.

Steeling my courage, I pulled back and held my uncle’s gaze. “Was he even my real dad?”

He cupped my face and wiped my tears with his thumbs. “Honestly, honey, I have no clue. But he loved you as though you were his own. Just like your Aunty Rose and I do. Do you want us to investigate it? Try to figure out what happened? Or do you want to leave it alone? The choice is yours.”

I blinked up at him, my mind a hazy mess. “I can’t think right now.”

He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my temple. “You don’t have to answer me right now, Silk. Why don’t you go up to your room and lie down for a bit? We’ll finish up here, then Eagle, Mac and Taz will take you back to your cabin. Let me know what you want to do when you get there. We’ll lock all this down till then.”

I nodded and numbly headed toward the door.

“Silk?”

I turned to face Scout. “Leave the photo, honey. You don’t need to remember her like that.”

I’d forgotten I still had it in my hand. I looked down at the image of a young teen being pinned down by her shoulders as another man had a needle in her arm. Her mouth was open in a scream. Bile rose up in my throat and I dropped the thing, feeling as though it had burned me, then spun to sprint from the room.

I didn’t stop until I slammed into my room upstairs, and made it to my little bathroom. Dropping to my knees, I threw up in the toilet. I wretched for what felt like hours my energy leaving me with the contents of my stomach. I couldn’t make my legs move, so I just rested my head on my arm and closed my eyes.

A warm palm rubbing my back snapped me to attention.

“What?”

“Shh, sweetheart. C’mon up off the floor.”

I reached out without hesitation to take my aunt’s hand. She helped me up and I let her lead me to the sink. Just like she’d done when I’d been sick as a teen, she washed my face with a cloth, before she led me back out to the bed. I felt like a zombie. My brain wasn’t firing right so I just followed Aunty Rose’s lead. I knew I could trust her, so I didn’t need to think. My heart hurt from all the betrayal my father had inflicted. It made it worse that they were both gone. Who could I ask questions? How the fuck could I get to the truth if I wanted it? Did I want it? It could lead to all sorts of shit with the other club, and for what? My parents were dead. Nothing was going to change that.

I sat on the bed and Aunt Rose sat beside me, pulling me against her. I went willingly and didn’t even try to stop the sobs that tore free from me.

“Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry this is all happening. You go ahead and let it all out. I’ve got you.”

I didn’t say a word, I couldn’t. I simply wrapped my arms around her and let myself release all the pent-up emotion.

Eagle

I fucking hated this bullshit. I forced myself to stay still as Silk bolted from the room like the hounds of hell were chasing her. I knew the clubhouse was safe and she wouldn’t have any problems between here and her room, but still. It stuck in my craw I couldn’t go take care of her.

“Motherfucker! My brother was such a stupid bastard. I’m calling my old lady. She’ll come and sit with Silk.”

As Bulldog stormed out of the room, Scout came up to me.

“I know you’re feeling her, and I know you want to go to her, but I need you to stay here. Just because we didn’t see any Iron Hammers this morning, doesn’t mean they don’t know about our visit. Word is already spreading about what happened in L.A. Trouble will follow us sooner, rather than later, and I need the skills you three have to help keep the fall-out to a minimum.”

I clenched my jaw a moment, breathing away my emotion, before I gave the President a nod.

“So, what’s the plan going to be?”

I stopped speaking when Bulldog returned.

“Rose is on her way. The prospects on duty know not to let anyone else anywhere near the first floor until I say so.”

Scout gave him a nod and I relaxed a little. Silk’s aunt was probably the best to handle this situation. Our relationship was so new and I was severely limited in what I could do for her while pretending we hadn’t become lovers.

Scout adjusted his bandana before speaking again. “Easiest thing to do with this shit is to blackmail the bastards. Give them a couple of the photos, tell them we have more, plus videos. If they try so much as to step foot into our territory again, we’ll release them to the cops and the media. They might be old, but that shit is sick and I’m sure the cops would find some way to press charges for it. Especially, if some of those girls are still being used by the club.”

Mac stepped forward. “What about getting the women out? Those photos clearly showed they were forced. If they’re still there, that’s over fifteen years of rapes they’ve lived through. And it doesn’t take a genius to work out they did this more than fucking once. They could have a fresh batch of teens being abused in there now.”

I grabbed Mac’s shoulder as Scout folded his arms over his chest watching us.

“I hear you, Mac. Trust me, this fucking shit doesn’t sit well with any of us, but the Iron Hammers are a big club. We don’t have the manpower, or the resources, to just go down there and break their fucking doors down. That’ll end in a bloodbath none of us want. We will get them out, but it’ll take time and careful planning. Right now, we need to be prepared to get them off our fucking backs about our trip this morning once they find out we visited. And if we can stop them from pushing into our territory while we’re at it, all the better.”

Bulldog was pacing the room and didn’t seem to be paying much attention.

“Brother? You with us?”

He jerked to look at Scout. “Why the fuck did he not come to me with any of this? If he wanted to get his woman out of the club and leave, why didn’t he fucking come to his brother, instead of running off to become some kind of fucked-up information broker. Motherfucker!”

I winced when he spun and put his fist through the wall. I was pretty tempted to do the same thing, but busting my knuckles up wasn’t going to help Silk. I stepped back to stand with Mac and Taz, while Scout went to deal with Bulldog.

Mac nodded toward the door and I returned the gesture. The meeting was over and Bulldog needed a few minutes to process. I could understand that. In his position, I’d need more than a few minutes to adjust to the fact the world just started spinning in the opposite direction.

We grabbed our phones and headed to the bar. Taz slipped behind it as Mac and I sat on stools.

“This is some seriously fucked-up shit.”

Taz slid a drink in front of me, then another to Mac. I didn’t care what it was–didn’t even look before I picked up the glass and threw back the liquid. The trail of fire down my throat made me think it was maybe whiskey, the expensive shit the club kept for special occasions. Or for when someone really wanted to forget shit they’d seen, and needed a hand with the task.

“Again.”

Taz refilled my glass and it went the same way as the first. I went to ask for another one when the bastard shook his head.

“Not if you want to go back to that cabin with Silk tonight. We all need to stay sober enough to ride. I figure we’ve got time for what you just had to wear off before we’ll be heading out, but I won’t let you risk things by getting plastered. You can finish getting sloppy drunk later, once we’re back to her cabin and Mac and I have you covered.”

I cursed under my breath. I knew he was right, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

“You think she’ll want to know?”

I glanced to Mac. “About whether her dad is her biological father? I have no idea. With her folks dead, I don’t see the point. Clearly her mother was being passed around that fucking club, probably unwillingly. By digging around, she could find herself with a new daddy trying to bring her in to their fucked-up club. A man who won’t give a fuck about her, other than she’s fresh meat for his club.” I shook my head. “No fucking way will I allow that to happen.”

Mac scrubbed his palm over his face, then over his cleanly shaven head. “I can’t sit back and do nothing about them raping women. For all we know, they’re kidnapping teens and getting them hooked on drugs so they can use them however the fuck they want.”

I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened in Mac’s past, but whatever it was, it made the man extremely protective of women. Especially those that had been mistreated. For all the times we’d gotten drunk in the past and started talking secrets, Mac had always remained tight lipped about his childhood. The fact he was with Taz and me, and not with his family was enough for me to know he either didn’t have any family left, or if he did, they weren’t on speaking terms anymore.

“The Charons’ reputation is that they don’t let shit like this slide. They’ll come through, but like Scout said, we can’t simply storm the place.” I lowered my voice so only Mac and Taz could hear me. “And if we go the other way? What’s the bet they have someone on the inside and they’ll just kill any girls they currently have and dispose of them before anything can be done.”

I had a hunch Mac was wanting to get the FBI involved, but there were too many leaks in government departments. We needed to give the club a little time to sort something out. And they would. The Charons were known for seeking justice when it was needed. Eventually, that would rain down on the Iron Hammers.

“And if they take a little time? We’ll have our patches and be able to join in.”

Mac tilted his glass toward me in agreement before he took a final gulp. I turned to glance up the stairs. Not being with Silk when I knew she had to be hurting like a motherfucker was ripping my insides up.

“Ain’t the only thing a patch will change, huh, mate?”

I grunted at Taz’s quiet remark. They both knew how I felt. Hell, they’d both been listening to Silk and me going at it for past what–Forty-eight hours–as though we were damn rabbits.