Page 7 of Calypso's Shield
“Yes, Prez. That’s it for today.”
“Very well. If you need to, take Calypso and French to investigate the strip club issue. Don’t do it alone.” Allura taps her gavel on the table, signaling Rebel’s time is finished. She turns to Iris and I spot Divine getting nervous in her seat. I cock an eyebrow and Divine stops fidgeting. “Iris, what’s the report for the Freedom Ride we’re doing in a couple of weeks?” Allura ignores Divine’s weirdness.
Iris is our Road Captain. She earned her road name by the Iris flower decorating her entire bike, and she even wears one in her dark hair. Iris became the road captain by always planning our routes, even before we left New York City.
“The Freedom Ride will start at the Santa Monica Pier at oh-eleven-hundred and end at Oceanside City Beach. There’ll be music, food, drinking, and sexy men.” Hoots and hollers echo through the room. Just because we’re women in an MC, doesn’t mean we don’t like to fuck. We have a few man-candies hanging around who want to satisfy our needs when we call on them. The way we see it, the men have their sweet butts or patch whores, we have our man-candy.
Once the cheers die down, Iris pulls out an old school map and shows us the route we’re taking. “Pretty simple and should take about two hours. They’ll close the roads down for us to have safe passage from the cages.”
The Freedom Ride we’re involved in is for Vets who are homeless, POW, and MIA. This ride means a lot to every single one of us.
“Sounds good. Iris, make sure you keep in touch with the Royal Bastards Road Captain and make sure no hiccups happen. Great work.” Allura praises Iris.
“Thank you, Prez.” Iris's face flushes red from embarrassment.
Allura taps her gavel, signaling the next order of business. “Divine, the floor is yours.”
Divine swallows hard and stands up, wrapping her fingers together nervously.
“Don’t be scared. Tell them what you told me.” Allura soothes Divine
Divine is our Sgt at Arms, and I’ve never seen her this nervous before. “OK. Well, I have a lead on something I need your help with. My cousin Mercedes has been missing for three months. I went to five-O, but they think she just ran away. She’s a streetwalker. I know she didn’t leave willingly. She’d never do that.” Tears form in Divine’s eyes, and she blinks them back.
Sloane, our VP, leans forward. “How do you know she didn't just take off? If we’re going to help, we need evidence that states we’re not wasting our time.” Sloane has always been a hard ass. Coming from a broken, abusive home as a kid, to joining the Navy and becoming a commander at such an early age and now the VP of Royal Harlots, she’s seen and dealt with so much shit in her thirty years, she has the God given right to be a hard-ass.
Divine turns to Allura, and our Prez nods her head. Divine ducks out of the room and comes back a few minutes laterwith her phone in her hand. My spine stiffens. The only person allowed to have a phone in here is Allura. Divine hands her phone to Allura, and Allura presses some buttons before a small, scared voice comes through.
“Alexis? Are you there? Fuck, voicemail. I need help. Please, help me.” Her voice comes across in a whisper. “I didn’t want to go, but they made me leave. Please help.” Male voices start shouting in the background, interrupting this frightened girl.
“What the fuck!” An angry voice comes through the phone.
“No, please. I didn’t get ahold of anyone. I swear.” Her pleading, frightened voice is muffled before a loud slap echoes through the phone, and then the line goes dead. Tears drip from Divine’s eyes as she looks at each of us, desperate for help.
“Is this connected with the drug ring Capone has us looking into?” I ask.
Allura nods her head. “It’s more than possible that Divine’s cousin is involved with the ring we’re looking for.”
I raise my hand. “I’m in.” No hesitation at all.
Allura bangs her gavel. “Let’s take this to a vote. All in favor, say Aye.”
Everyone responds with an aye, except Sloane. She leans forward, resting her palms on the table. “No woman should ever have a hand laid on her and I’ll slit any mother fucker who does. Aye.” Sloane sits back in her chair with fury in her eyes.
I swallow hard at her statement. None of my sisters, except Allura, knows what my ex did to me. How he beat me down until I couldn’t move. How he mentally abused me until I felt I deserved every blow, every kick, everything imaginable he did to me. I still have nightmares of what he put me through. Ghosts of injuries I suffered in silence at his hands. Scars hidden in plain sight.
Allura’s sea green eyes meet mine, and with a slight tilt of her head, she knows where my mind went. “Divine, I want you, Calypso, and Rebel to check into this.”
Allura brings the attention of the table back to her. “Alright, ladies. Now that we have our business out of the way, let's break and get to work.” She slams her gavel on the table and stands. “Church adjourned.”
Rising from my seat, my eyes lock onto Divine, and she moves from her seat. We meet at the door, ready to get this mess cleaned up. We need to figure out what happened to her cousin and end these fuckers.
4
CALYPSO
“We’ve been at this for weeks!” I mutter, dragging a hand down my tired face. “Something’s got to give here.” Divine and I are sitting in a rundown diner just west of Boyle Heights, maps and papers scattered between us. The air smells like grease and stale coffee, but it's the only place we've been able to think.
“C’mon, let's hit the streets one more time.” Divine slides out of the booth, her tone like steel, always pushing forward.
