Page 50 of Wrath

“Raze, if it’s possible, I really wanna talk to you. I know that for some time you’ve all seen me as a ki–”

“What the fuck?” Saul’s voice drags my attention away from him, and when I turn my head and see Wrath standing by the door with a middle-aged woman beside him, I pray to God she ain’t who I think she is.

“Anita, this is Raze, he’s the Long Beach president.” My VP looks nervous as he moves the petrified woman closer to me, and the huge, friendly smile she gives me takes me by surprise. It appears that this woman is here of her own free will.

“Hello, it’s lovely to meet you.” Her white-gloved hand reaches out for mine.

“Corey, why don’t ya see this nice lady into my office?” I instruct, keeping my eyes on Wrath and letting him know I ain’t happy.

“Follow me.” Corey takes Anita and leads her through while myself and the rest of the club wait for Wrath to give us some kinda explanation.

“Why are ya lookin’ at me like I just strangled a puppy?” he asks.

“Because ya just stole a crazy person and brought her to our clubhouse!” Ruckus beats me to the answer.

“She’s notthatkinda crazy.” Wrath tries making this sound like it ain’t a big deal. “I had to do somethin’, the woman was livin’ on her nerves in that place, she’s convinced that Cliff’s watchin’ her somehow. I figured if he was, knowin’ that we had her here would ruffle his feathers.” He smiles as if he’s pleased with himself.

“You're gonna get arrested for this.” I shake my head.

“She knows stuff, Raze, I can tell, and there was no way she was gonna talk to me while she was in there. She’s paranoid as hell.”

“Were ya seen?” I check, thinking of all the ways this could come back and bite us.

“I spent some time speaking to the woman on reception when I first arrived, I checked the place for CCTV on my way in, and out, and I couldn’t see anythin’,” he assures me.

“Hang on, you’re sayin’ there’s no CCTV at a mental hospital?” Saul steps over to intervene, looking unconvinced.

“That's the strangest part of all this, Forestbank ain’t like any hospital I’ve ever been to. It’s some huge luxury mansion split into apartments, whoever’s been keepin’ Anita Carter there has been keeping her damn fuckin’ well.” He raises one of his eyebrows.

“We need to speak to her, andyouare gonna take full responsibility for makin’ sure she feels safe here.” I point my finger at him.

“Where’s Eden?” he asks, looking around the barroom as if he was expecting to find her here.

“You can deal with her later, right now you're comin’ with me.” I lead Wrath toward my office, stopping to instruct Polly to make up one of the rooms at the motel for our new guest.

We both enter the room and find Anita leaning forward and staring at the Newton’s cradle on my desk. Her eyes follow the balls as they swing and she giggles with excitement like a child.

“Anita.” I approach her with caution, taking a seat in my chair on the opposite side of the desk.

“Yes, Mr President.” She sits up straight and instantly turns serious, and the look I throw at Wrath should tell him how ridiculous I think this is.

“I know it’s gonna be hard, but I really need you to tell me everythin’ ya know about Cliff Adams.” I’m hoping to make this as quick as possible, but as I watch her eyes drop to the balls again, I see there's no excitement or fascination inside them anymore.

“I loved him once.” She shows a faint trace of a smile.

“And he loved you?” I question, thinking back to what Vex told me. Way he told the story, Cliff was obsessed with this woman.

“No, Cliff doesn’t love anyone, people to him are just possessions.” She uses her finger to set the balls swinging again.

“How did you end up at Forest Bank?” I lean forward and cross my hands on my desk.

“Richie took me there, he didn’t want to, it was a very hard thing for him to do, but it was the right choice.” She whispers, as her pupils move back and forth with the balls. “He knows what I did, he pretends that he doesn’t, but he’s not stupid. I guess he needed to protect me.” The tiny laugh she makes sounds sad.

“Protect you from who, Cliff?” I glance up at Wrath and see he’s every bit as intrigued as I am.

“No! Richie doesn’t know about Cliff, he can never know about Cliff.” She shakes her head sternly. “What I meant was that he was protecting me from myself.” Her eyes slowly build with tears as they fix on one spot.

“Anita, Cliff’s really dangerous, we need to find him. Do you know how we can do that?” I know she must be tired and confused, but we have to get her talking.

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