Page 33 of Tav

“Shit. Hold up.” I raise a finger to ask Chewy to wait a moment, then I dial my brother. It rings twice before he picks up.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t our horrible sister. How’s it going, squirt?” Vic’s voice booms out on speaker.

“Hey Vic, you’re on speaker with the Devil’s Rose MC,” I try to keep the smile out of my voice because I know he’ll be all pissy I didn’t warn him. Given that we didn’t grow up with a lot of technology, Vic finds phones uncomfortable and his biggest pet peeve is being on speaker. Which means I have him on speaker every time I call him.

“Oh heyyyyy everybody. I hate you, Patience,” he hisses after the pleasant greeting, causing the MC to laugh.

“OK, I’ll stop messing with you. Where did you drop Lovely and Bee?”

“Why?”

“We think a Rose Grove police officer may have followed you. I’ve seen him meeting with Royal when I was running surveillance and Tav’s sister tracked his cruiser. He was in Louisiana heading north not long after the rescue.” and then I decide to tell them the rest, really quickly, like ripping off a bandaid. “Oh, and Royal tried to take Niko tonight, BUT he’s fine and we are all safe at the DRMC clubhouse,” I say quickly and loudly to stop Vic from having a complete meltdown.

“What the fuck did she just say?” I hear Dom and Chris in the background and Vic telling them exactly what I just said.

“Fuck, sis, are you all safe? Do you need us to come down there?” Vic says evenly while Dom and Chris talk over him to let me know they’re coming. God I love them.

“No, I’m fine. I just need you to tell me where you took Lovely. I need to know that she’s safe.”

“We took the waterways, passed them off around an hour from home. Diligence then took them and handed them offagain. As far as we know, her and Bee are safe and well. They check in once a day.”

“Oh, thank God. That baby girl is too little and too precious to have all the evil in the world after her.”

“We’ve got this. You take care of our nieces and nephews. You need anything you call us. We can be there in 3 hours.”

“Will do. Love you all,” I hang up and look around the room, the men and women all smiling softly at me. “Well, there you have it. Whoever Martin was meeting, it thankfully wasn’t my sister or her baby.”

“So, I’m guessing, judging by that conversation, you and your family run a sort of underground railroad type thing for people leaving Eden’s Keep?” Chewy says, not even taking her eyes off the keyboard she’s typing on.

“Oh, um, yeah. To begin with, we’d settle women and their children in the same small town as my brothers, but time and time again Royal would come looking for them and then using his bullshit mind control techniques, he’d use their fear of God to guilt them into going back. After that, we set up a series of contacts. Past members and their families now step in and help them get as far away as possible. We offer new clothing, names and ID if needed, that sort of thing.” Looking up I notice Tav’s eyes shining, he’s puffed out with pride and the thought that someone like him can be proud of what we’ve achieved makes my chest feel warm.

“Using the waterways is genius,” Rider mentions.

“Well, it’s easy and accessible. My brothers run a swamp tour and gator business,”

“A WHAT!?” Chewy screeches, her eyes wild with excitement. I can honestly say this is the first time the woman has looked me in the eye.

“A swamp tour and gator business,”

“So they have gators?” she waves her hands as if to tell me to hurry the hell up with the information.

“Well, yeah. They rehabilitate injured gators, orphaned babies, that sort of thing. My gater Smiley lives with them,”

“YOU. HAVE. A GATOR??!! Tav, you better fucking marry this woman!”

I try hard to cover my chuckle, but I don’t think I did a very good job. Not that it matters, because she’s now turned her attention to Marx.

“Marx, we need-”

“Don’t say a fucking word! Not one Chewy!” Marx barks. He then rummages in his cut pocket. Are those antacids?

She huffs as she sits down on Rhodie’s conveniently placed knee.

“Let’s get to work. Everyone know’s what they’re looking for.”

“I think we should get Officer Martin out of the way first. Who wants to come pick him up with me?” Pops offers.

“No murdering!” Marx roars.

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