Page 166 of Patching Over

“No, it’s not,” Dragon decrees, a smirk now settled on his face.

“What’s going on?”I ask Hannah as we watch it all unfold.

“Uncle Dragon’s messing with their heads,”she replies, sounding nonchalant as if this is a normal day's event.

As Kracken comes toward me, Wrecker moves me closer to him and I find myself in Kracken’s arms as he leans in and whispers in my ear, “Babe, heart’s still in my fucking throat. I was dealing with getting the trailer and truck after I swapped the laundry because I got a text they were here. Never meant to leave you alone for that long. This is on me.”

Cupping his face, I shake my head. He isn’t psychic, and he can’t blame himself for others' actions. It’s unfeasible. “No, this is onthem, Kracken. Thankfully, it didn’t end the way they wanted. Their plans were thwarted thanks to yourbrothers.” They may be from another chapter, but they’re family, nonetheless.

“Yes, sir, show us where we need to go,” my father says to Dragon in a robotic tone. His demeanor is far different than I’ve ever seen it be before and I watch with great interest as he and my mother follow Dragon over to an enclosed trailer. The two of them calmly and without complaint allow themselves to be gagged and bound before Kracken’s bike is put in there with them.

“We’re going to let them stay in there while we head to Georgia?” I ask.

“Yeah, babe. We’ll give them some food and water shortly, but right now, we need to hear what’s going on,” he replies, politely shushing me.

I look around and notice that the parking lot is full of other Cedar Creek members. It’s confusing because I thought they’d headed back to their clubhouse because of some sort of emergency. “What’s going on?” I ask.

“They’re going to head out and find another hotel because this one is kinda rich for our blood, but me and Wrecker need to talk to y’all,” Dragon decrees.

As a unit, we head back inside; Kracken holding my hand while Wrecker and Dragon follow closely behind. When we reach our room, I figure my laundry is finally finished so I say, “I need to grab my clothes.”

“Running to get them now, Moira, so you can take a shower since your first attempt was interrupted,” Kracken says, scanning my body only to see me still wearing the clothes I was when he went down to switch my laundry around. “Probably goes without saying, but whatever you hear today is club business. You can’t repeat anything you hear to anyone, and normally it wouldn’t be an issue, but it appears we have a serious situation going on.”

While he runs to get my laundry, Wrecker gets close and tells me, “I’m glad to see you’re talking, Moira.”

My smile is shy as I nod. “Seems it was up to me, and Hannah told me that I’d talk when it was important.”

“We can still go in and do what we tried to do in Roanoke if you want, make it easier on you to deal with those memories,” Dragon adds. “Totally up to you.”

I have a question. Well, a million of them at this point, if I’m being totally honest. “I think right now, I’m good. Hannah helped a lot.”

I watch the two men talk without voicing words out loud, and figure that there’s more going on than I thought with respect to what’s going on. These fundamentalist jerks have done something. When Kracken returns, my duffel bag full of myfoldedclothes, I find myself blushing as it dawns on me he folded mypanties, but I take it from him and head into the bathroom. I had already put my personal hygiene items in there, so once I’ve closed the door, I start the shower and as the water heats, I pull out some clothes to put on afterward.

I glance at Kracken’s sweats and smile. I would’ve liked to have had them on when my parents got here, even though I would’ve swam in them since he’s so much bigger in them. Of course, with the way my father was jerking around, I probably would’ve stumbled far more than I did since the pants legs are so long. But I’d have felt like he was surrounding me, and I’d have had another layer of armor on when facing my parents.

When I finally get done with my shower, and I’m clean, dressed, and have brushed my teeth, I put everything into the bottom of my duffel bag, and head back out to see what’s going on.

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

Kracken

Once Moira is safely ensconced in the bathroom, I turn to Wrecker and Dragon and ask, “What the fuck is going on right now? Why are all of y’all here? When we left, y’all were headed back to your clubhouse due to an emergency of some sort.”

“When we got back, it was to find our clubhouse seized by the ATF and FBI. They were there to take down the Cedar Creek Royal Bastards MC,” Dragon replies, anger and rage clear on his face.

Wrecker picks up the story then, after taking a long pull from the beer he grabbed from our mini fridge. “We knew when we started this fight against the Fundamentalists of the Communion that we might face some blowback to the club, but we thought it would be againstourchapter. One of those fucking agents told us they were going to take downallof the chapters that are connected to us, and that was something we couldn’t allow to happen. This was our fight, and while we knew we’d have all of our brothers at our back, the club itself has built a huge empire throughout the world, and many of our chaptersare fighting against the Black Railroad to stop all the fucking trafficking. We weren’t going to let that happen, so we dropped our cuts and gave them the Cedar Creek Royal Bastards, then we hit the road to get to Roanoke so we could regroup and see what we were going to do next.”

“But how did you know we were going to need help here?” I ask.

“Selah’s girls have… special abilities. We don’t talk about them, in fact, we’ll burn down the fucking world to protect them, but the girls told Selah that y’all needed help. She told Butcher, who came to us.”

I may not understand all the supernatural shit and abilities that several members have within the club, but my ol’ lady benefited from what several of them can do, so at the end of the day, it doesn’t make a difference to me. “We will as well,” I promise. “Not one hair on their heads will be touched with anything but love from those who cherish them. What’s the plan now?” I question.

“Let’s get Brick on the phone,” Dragon suggests. “And, if Moira comes out, worst case scenario, I’ll set up an illusion for her so she doesn’t hear anything she shouldn’t.”

“Definitely not crazy about her being messed with,” I admit. “She’s gone through enough and since her own fucking parents tried to nab her this time, I think she needs to know. Don’t you?”

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