Page 110 of Patching Over

Hisses and jeers reverberate around the room while my skin crawls just thinking of the vivacious, spirited young woman I know enduring anything of the sort.

“You’re fucking kidding, right?” Banshee asks, a snarl plastered on his face.

None of us condone shitty treatment of women, and from the way it sounds, they’re treated far worse than those who walk the streets to make a living. At least those women made that choice to live in that manner for themselves, they weren’t coerced into it… at least not all of them have been. From everything I’ve learned, the women under the hands of this cult are forced into it, and treated abysmally along the way.

“Banshee, I wish I was, man,” Hawg replies. He looks haggard, has lost a shit ton of weight, and even while talking, he’s constantly looking at his laptop while his fingers fly across the keyboard.

“How’s Sleeper holding up?” Brick asks.

“About as well as you’d expect him to be doing, I guess,” I slowly reply, thinking of my long-time friend. “He took a leave of absence from his nursing job, and the last I heard, he was tracking down every lead from here to Cleveland, no matter how small or insignificant it may be.”

“Has the Cedar Creek chapter got anything for us?” Kracken asks.

“Not recently, but Dragon has some of his guys beating the bushes in that neck of the woods to hopefully snag one of the men who escaped so they can question them. Because we are well-aware and know that there are smaller factions throughout the States, and when those who weren’t captured got away, they split up and made their way to one of those other locations.”

“Pres, could they circle back? Like, leave one of the locations if we’re close, then go back once we’re no longer staking out in the area?” I suddenly ask. “I mean, if you think about it, it would make sense, right?”

“It’s possible. Let me get with Ghoul and a few of the others, get their take on it and see if we can add another layer to our existing plan. We may need to leave some Bastards at each of the places that we’ve already found in the hopes that they think they’re safe then fuck up and come back.”

“Yeah, but what condition will Belle and Moira be in by then?” I whisper.

“Doesn’t matter, we’ll get them whatever help they’ve gotta have to heal,” Brick asserts.

“How did you help Ryleigh, Brother?” I ask him while sitting out at the bar having a beer. We were going to leave, but Hawg toldus to hold up, he was checking a few other leads he came across that he wanted to give us before we headed out, once again.

“What do you mean?” he questions, tossing back a double shot of whiskey. When he motions to me as if to ask if I want one, I shake my head because I don’t know if Hawg will have that shit ready to go today, tonight, or hell, even tomorrow, so I’ll nurse a beer then switch over to water.

“Well, I mean, she was kind of withdrawn when she first arrived,” I reply.

“Jingles, her situation is definitely not the same thing as whatever Belle and Moira are enduring. She did need therapy, and of course, a lot of time and patience, but I suspect the mindfuck those two are dealing with is nowhere near what my ol’ lady lived through.”

“Gotcha,” I mutter. I mean I don’t even know why I’m worried about Belle or Moira; it’s not like I’m in a relationship with either woman, although, as long as I’ve known Sleeper, I’ve been around Belle multiple times. She’s grown on me, and I’ve come to care about her from here, even if that care has been from a distance.

But maybe it’s because of my connection to Sleeper and the Cleveland chapter that I’m concerned about what’s going to happen when we find the women. Because I feel in my gut both are still alive; however, they’re both going to be forever changed by their experience. Their trust in mankind, whatever that trust was, will be null and void after all of this is said and done.

“Gonna get some rest, Pres,” I state. “Once Hawg gets us the new information, we will head back out and beat the streets.”

“You good on money, Jingles?” he asks.

I nod before I say, “Yeah, I appreciate that I’m still getting my cut even though I haven’t been able to work. In fact, I saw a bump in these past few deposits, did we get in some new accounts?”

“We’ve got some in the works, yes, but the officers met and decided you and Kracken deserved extra dough for what you’re doing to help our Cleveland brothers.”

“Appreciate it, Pres, really do,” I reply.

“Get some rest, Brother. No sense in y’all starting out before the morning anyhow, as far as I’m concerned. I’ll pass the news on to Kracken as well.”

“Thanks, Pres.”

With that, I head to my room, grateful to be sleeping in my own bed and with my own pillow. We’ve slept in some dives this past month, which has given me a bad back, and a permanent crick in my neck. After I repack my duffel bag, adding a few more things I want to bring with me, I strip down, grab a shower, then drop into my bed before I drift off to sleep.

With visions of icy blonde hair running through my mind.

CHAPTER

FOUR

Belle

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