Page 159 of Patching Over

“Equipment check!” Dragon roars as we prepare to straddle the bikes.

“The bikes are loud, why are we taking them? We’ll wake the dead when we pull up to their gates, it’ll echo, there’s no way we’ll be able to hide ourselves from them,” Selah states.

She’s not wrong. A group of Harleys like ours will definitely be detected and noticeable.

“Our plan is to walk the last mile to their compound,” Butcher answers. “We’ll have the van and SUV with us too for those who are being rescued.”

“Where’s Hannah going to ride?” Selah asks.

“Between us,” Butcher replies. “I don’t want her away from me either, Lah. She’s our girl and she’ll be riding home with us.”

“Do we have a helmet for her?” she queries.

“I have Nitro’s in the saddle bag. It’ll fit her, but even if the helmet is a little loose on her scalp, we’ll strap it down as far as it can go so that her noggin’s protected. I also have a harness that we’ll use to tie her to me. Between that and the fact that I know your arms will be around her, she’ll be as safe as if she were in a car seat in a cage. I’ll never willingly let anything happen to ourgirl, Lah. I’d fight the devil himself if necessary to keep her safe at all times,” Butcher advises.

I watch as he and Selah continue to talk while I take the time to check and double check my weapons and ammo, much like the other brothers are currently doing.

Wrecker comes storming toward us all and roars, “They have Mammoth. Beast just confirmed it when they updated some files with those they’ve captured. I’m gonna kill them all! First, they have the audacity to keep my niece in their facility, now, they’ve nabbed my brother! And it wasn’t even a fair fight, the pussies.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t a fair fight?” Selah asks, worry for her brother evident in her tone.

“He was following a lead on you and went into a bar to ask further questions. He was ambushed by twenty fucking men in the back alley as soon as he went to leave. They fucked him up, Selah. We both know they haven’t given him any medical attention. I swear to you, if he doesn’t make it out of there alive and intact, I’m going to scour the earth until every last one of these motherfuckers are dead.”

“And I’ll be riding with you,” Butcher declares, his fists clenched at his sides. “Nobody fucks with one of our brothers and lives to talk about it.”

“Damn right they don’t,” Dragon states, entering our conversation. “Y’all ready to paint their compound in blood?”

“Fucking right I am!” Wrecker roars.

“Then let’s ride!” Dragon screams as a bunch of bellows howl through the air. “Stay safe and with Butcher the entire time, Selah.”

Three… they now havethreeof ours, something that I can’t even comprehend. Two are females, no less, but I’ve seen pictures with Mammoth in them, and he’s a huge motherfucker. Obviously, if it took twenty men to take him down, but still, what a bunch of fucking pussies to ambush someone that way.They’re going to pay, and right now, in the mood I’m in, I’m beyond ready to fuck up some fundamentalist pricks to the point of death.

Butcher, not one to be left out, commands, “Eyes on the prize, brothers! Let’s go fuck some shit up, Royal Bastards’ style!”

Shouts and whistles fill the air as one by one, the rest of the brothers climb on their bikes, with Selah securely behind Butcher.

CHAPTER

NINE

Moira

After Hannah and I eat, I take her to the bathroom so she can take a bath. We’re in a downstairs area that’s been modified. I’d say it’s a basement, but I was under the impression that those weren’t very popular in Texas. However, that’s what it looks like to me. Knowing these sick freaks, they probably paid good money to have some sort of underground bunker built. There are several rooms that have bunk beds in them for the older children, along with others that contain toddler beds and cribs. The bathroom has multiple shower stalls, as well as three bathtubs.

I find it somewhat amusing that they go to all this effort for the children, but the women who they’re using are kept in squalor, their rooms little more than cells, with cots for beds, buckets for toilets, and little else. They don’t worry about whether or not the women are clean, so showers are pretty much nonexistent.

Although, it’s not funny in the whole scheme of things when I think about thewhybehind what they’re doing with the womenand children. It’s all to propagate their cause. All I know is this time around, even though I suspect my end result will still be the same, outside of the original beating I got when I was captured, as well as the branding, I’ve been treated far better than I was before.

The irony isn’t lost on me is that I was treated like a whore by them the first time, but because I spent time with a group of bikers,theyare now calling me one. Yet, those bikers were kinder to me than any man has ever been in my entire life. Of course, having a father like mine did set the bar somewhat low. However, I did meet some men in college who were nice. My problem was that I couldn’t lower my guard enough to trust that they wouldn’t hurt me, nor tell them any of my darkest secrets.

As Hannah plays in the bubble bath, my mind continues to wander, right back to where it’s been going—Kracken.

Somehow, he snuck underneath my high built defenses, which I thought were impenetrable. Yet, every little thing he did during the time we were together, chipped away until I had no other choice but leave.

Fear.

I left because I was afraid.

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