Page 124 of Patching Over

“Soon, it’s gonna puke turkeys and reindeer,” Brick retorts.

“Glad to see my girl is coming into her own,” Rael says, joining us at the bar. “So, what are we doing with the fuckers downstairs?”

“Well, we’re going to discuss it in church, first of all,” Brick advises, shooting the Reaper a glare, “so the women don’t overhear anything. But my thoughts were to keep them alive, barely of course, for the length of time the women were in their clutches, then take them out.”

“Oooo, I like it!” Rael replies, cackling. “So, close to Christmas? We can come back and celebrate with you guys. Oh, and thanks for giving us our own suite of rooms.”

“Thank my ol’ lady,” Brick says. “She figured since y’all visited so frequently, it was probably easier for you to have things you could leave here or some shit.”

“Makes sense to me,” Rael states. “Hopefully, the others won’t be jealous.”

I can’t help the chuckle that escapes because Rael is definitely a pot stirrer, and he manages to push Brick’s buttons all the time.

“Now, you want to tell me why my sister was curled in your arms?” Sleeper questions, throwing me under the bus.

“She was having a panic attack when I walked into her room,” I tell him. “Then, when she told me what happened that day, she started crying and clung to me, Brother.”

He smirks at me while bumping his shoulder into mine. “Figured it was something like that, Jingles.”

I watch Kracken walk in from the back, his shoulders down, and a contemplative expression on his face. “Kracken, you alright?” Brick asks when he sits at the bar and motions for a beer without saying a word.

“Been better, Pres. I know Angel said he did all he could, but Moira still hasn’t said a word to anyone. Hell, I was in there when Belle walked in and expected to see something, but she didn’t so much as crack a smile.” Looking at me, he says, “Your ol’ lady started crying, Brother, so not gonna lie, I beat feet.”

“She’s not my ol’ lady,” I reply, although my protest is somewhat lacking.

“She’s gonna be his ol’ lady,” Sleeper adds. “They just gotta figure out some logistics is all.”

“What kind of logistics?” Brick asks.

“Well, she lives in Cleveland, while your boy here lives in Roanoke. Not sure if she’d be willing to relocate or not,” Sleeper says. “I know she needs to come home and wrap up school, but not sure if she’ll want to leave Moira who doesn’t seem to be in any kind of condition to travel. The last thing we need is her deciding to take a header off one of our bikes while we’re flying down the highway.”

“What if Belle stays until Dragon and Wrecker get here? Then both girls can return to Cleveland to finish shit up?” Bricksuggests. “I’m sure Belle would benefit from what those two can do.”

“What do you mean, what those two can do?” Sleeper asks, his voice now hard.

“Surely, you know by now, some of our brothers have special talents,” Brick mockingly advises. “It’s why you didn’t see your sister looking like she’d been beaten to Hell and back, Brother. Angel healed her, leaving just a small bruise on her face as an indication anything had even happened. Took out all the infection her body had from the untreated wounds, closed those up as well, fixed her shattered jaw. That’s why he’s still asleep, because when he got back, he said he felt well enough to work on Moira, only he wasn’t. Completely wiped him out and scared the fuck out of me. Called Venom, who told me to let him sleep it off.”

“So, what can Dragon and Wrecker do?” Sleeper questions.

“Manipulate time when needed, and go into a person’s memories and either remove them, dull them so they no longer cause a person pain, or help them understand they weren’t remembering them correctly,” Brick replies.

“Fuck, do you really think Belle needs something like that?” Sleeper asks.

“Even if she wasn’t treated like Moira, I’m sure she suffered some emotional trauma,” Brick says. “It couldn’t hurt.”

Sleep resignedly sighs before stating, “Fine, fine, as long as they know I’ll kill them if they hurt a hair on her head.”

Brick huffs out a laugh, then looks at Kracken and says, “Send out a mass text for church in an hour. I want to bring my plan to the brothers.”

“Shut the fuck up, we got shit to discuss!” Brick bellows, slamming the gavel down on the table, while glaring at everyone who hasn’t shut up since they walked into our meeting room.

Soon, it’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop. “Alright, so Banshee and Phantom were able to catch the two fuckers who fled the compound we invaded yesterday. Three more women were found, and they were dropped off at the local hospital with the promise that our name wouldn’t be mentioned. We brought Belle and Moira here after Angel worked on Belle at the site, and he’s also done some physical healing on Moira. Sleeper is Belle’s brother, and Wiley and Ghoul are from the Cleveland chapter. Y’all know Rael, who brought his ol’ lady down to help since she’s a nurse.”

“Do we have a plan yet for those fuckers?” Banshee asks.

“As a matter of fact, we do,” Brick replies. “I think they need to suffer a day for every day the girls were in captivity. A quick death might make us feel good momentarily, but I know Sleeper and Jingles want their pound of flesh.”

“And I’m gonna want to reap their filthy souls and send them straight to Hell,” Rael adds.

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