Page 61 of Tusk's Fury

Rigs asks the hard question, “So the Bishop never tried to touch you in any kind of inappropriate way? Nothing like that going on, right?”

They all begin shaking their heads before he even finishes the sentence. Ember states with quiet dignity, “I don’t think sex interests him. He never talks about it like some preachers do.”

Christy states helpfully, “I was raised in the church, and I’ve never seen or heard him flirting with a woman.”

Well I guess that was something. Though my thoughts go back to Brittany. If Harper wasn’t interested in sex, then what did he want with her?

The redhead gathers her courage and asks some questions of her own. “Why did you break into the church and trash it tonight? Why did you rescue us?”

Siege shoots Rigs a quick glance before answering their question. “Harper tried to abduct a woman associated with our club and her baby. She is Tusk’s old lady. We rescued you because it was the right thing to do.”

Ember looks momentarily confused. “I don’t believe he would try to take another man’s wife or an innocent child. The only woman he ever talks about is his Eve, but I don’t think she’s a real person.”

I tell her, “She’s real alright. She’s my Eve, not his.”

All three of them gape at me. “You’re the one who took his Eve?”

“She’s not his Eve and never was his, and I didn’t take her. She ran away from him. I met her five years later. We’re together now. She had my baby, a little girl. Brittany ain’t never coming back here, and he needs to get that through his hard head.”

“Bishop Harper says Eve was his gift from God, his promised one. He made it sound like she’d been taken against her will, and he was moving heaven and earth to get her back. He told everyone that she was in great danger, and we should all be on the lookout for her.”

“Well, I’m sure Brittany would be happy to meet with you and tell you all about her story.”

“Women don’t run away from our church. Sometimes they get thrown out for being unable to resist evil.”

“Jesus, girl, you’ve really been drinking the Kool-Aid. My old lady is not the only one who ran away from the church. Her grandmother ran away as well. I’ll bet a lot of other people did too, but it’s probably hushed up to keep up the pretense of you all being one big happy family. I guess they don’t teach you that kind of thing in Sunday school, do they?”

Her brother finally speaks up. “Of course they didn’t. I knew though, because I’m on the internet. My sister might be naive, but lots of us know what bullshit Harper is spewing. They just don’t talk openly about it. I had to learn the hard way what happened when you cross him. You end up locked in a room in the basement.”

Rigs, Siege, and Zen begin dumping our bags out onto the floor. Siege tosses one of the thick packets of money on the coffee table in front of the teens. “You kids have suffered enough. That’s your get-the-hell-outta-Dodge money, compliments of the Savage Legion MC. Now, come sit with us while we try to organize this information. Tell us everything you know about the church, Harper, and the kind of things he’s said about his Eve.”

The boy picks up the money and flips through it. “Alright, we’ll help you find Harper and then go our separate ways.”

We separate out all the paperwork into one stack, all the flash drives into another. Zen uploads all the information from the flash drives into his cloud. We pile the money to the side, and I get tasked with counting it all. Siege examines the gold bars and then the coins and jewelry.

Dutch and Tank eventually join us. They spent the better part of the night doing recon on Harper’s house. We carefully plan the break-in since he lives in the city.

Cecil offers, “I know my way around his house. We used to have Bible study there when I was younger. I could show you how to get in and where his study is.”

“What do you want in return?”

“You already paid in cash, but it would be safer if we caught a ride out of town with your club rather than risk being seen buying bus tickets.”

“Do you feel like it’s pretty safe? Does anyone live with him?”

“He lives alone, and once we get inside his house, we’ll pretty much have the run of the place. Harper has always been secretive and carries a large briefcase around, acting like it contains top-secret military nuclear codes or something.”

“I think he’s into all kinds of shady shit.” It takes me a second to realize that Cecil already knows this because Harper probably did shady shit to him.

I finally announce, “I counted sixty-three thousand, four hundred and eighty dollars.”

Dutch gathers all the money up and locks it in his and Rigs’ storage compartments on their bikes. Siege stows the gold and jewelry. Zen takes responsibility for the paperwork, flash drives, and the hard drives he pulled out of all the computers in the church.

Siege announces, “Why don’t you and Tex give the girls your key cards? They need a room with a door that locks. You two can crash on the pull-out bed in my room.”

I’m not happy with this option, but to tell the truth, it’s the right decision. Tex and I toss our cards to the girls, and I tell them, “The room number is on the card. There’ll be a brother standing guard outside at all times. Whatever you need, tell him. He’s responsible for coordinating with the rest of us to get you food, clothing, hygiene products, or whatever else you need.”

Siege picks up three of the burner phones and lays one of the club’s reloadable credit cards on top. “This card has five hundred dollars loaded on it. Use it to top up your phones so we can all stay in contact. When your phone is operational, get with Zen, and he’ll give you contact information for the rest of us. Use whatever is left over to get yourselves clothing. If you leave shopping up to the brothers, I don’t think you’re gonna be happy with their fashion choices.”

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