Page 104 of Hell Hath No Fury
“No. I won’t be the one to end him.” He shakes his head.
“Who?”
Penny runs back up to us with another beer.
“Here you are, Caim. Is there anything else I can get for you? If you wanna go back to your room, I'm sure I can relieve some of the tension you’re experiencing." She bats her fake eyelashesat me and then turns them on Prez. "Unless you need me, of course." The words are spoken with such desperate hope it's almost comical. She bites her lip. "Or I could take you both, if that's what you want?"
“It’s okay, Penny. We need to talk a bit more. Why don’t you go back to the bar? I'm sure some of the other brothers could use a bit of a release. It’s been a long day." The desperate woman smiles brightly and teeters off on heels I've no idea how she stays upright on.
“Who’s ending him?” I ask again.
The president looks up and down the corridor to ensure no one else is around. It’s empty as most of the brothers and club girls are in the bar area.
“There are things you don’t know. What did she say to you when you were alone?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Nothing much. She was terrified. I just worked on removing the chains from her. She hinted at things her father may have done to her.”
Prez leans against the wall.
“Did she call him her father?” he questions me with a tone that indicates he’s fearful of the answer.
“She didn’t call him father, but she did call him Daddy. It's sick."
“It’s not as sick as you think.”
"Not sure how that's possible. He's her father, and it's pretty obvious he's been sexually abusing her for years."
“He’s not her father.”
“W-what?” I stammer out. “But he said?…She thinks?”
"I'm not hundred percent certain, but I'll be surprised if she isn't who I think she is."
“Who?”
This conversation is losing me. One minute ago I had Snake pegged for a sick, incestuous pedophile, now I’m not sure what the fuck is going on.
“About ten years ago my father wanted me to learn about different clubs. I spent some time traveling around with Ebony and Siren. My wife wasn't overly impressed at being uprooted every few months. You didn't know Siren for long, but she liked her home here. We spent a bit of time in the Chicago chapter, which is run by a man called Gunner. He's a good man, and his wife, Ginger, became great friends with Siren." He pauses and swallows deeply.
I can tell he's reliving a lot of shit with this story. It’s bringing up far too many bad memories, some he's not ready to face, yet. But, I really need to understand what’s going on.
“Prez, I can ask one of the others to tell me,” I offer.
"No. Iron's aware of what happened, but no one else was there. I'll be okay. Might take Penny up on her offer a bit later, though. That'll get me through."
I nod in approval.
“Gunner and Ginger had a little girl. A sweet little thing with big brown eyes.” He looks toward the room where Layla is sleeping, and it immediately dawns on me who he thinks she is. "She and Ebony became really good friends. Then one day, she disappeared. The entire club went into lockdown. Ebony had been with her just before she disappeared. I think Ebony’s forgotten a lot of the bad memories, but she was pretty messed up for a while. We all were. All clues led to a rival club. We went in hard, and a lot of men died. Women and children were left with nothing. We didn't take any prisoners. They told us it wasn’t them, but we’d had issues with them before so didn’t believe them. The club was wiped out, but Gunner's daughter was never found. That was just over ten years ago. My family and I returned back here. Snake was Gunner's best friend and VP. Hesaid he felt it was his fault and asked for a transfer out here. It was granted, and the rest is history."
"You think Layla is Gunner's daughter? That Snake had her all along?" I'm struggling to keep up with where this tale is going. If it's true, then innocent members of a club died. Well, no member of a biker club is guiltless, but there’ll be consequences over what happened. Retribution will be demanded by the people who lost loved ones.
“I don’t think. I know. She’s the spitting image of Ginger. Fuck!” He buries his head in his hands. “The night we went into the rival club still haunts me. I’ve been strict with Ebony all her life as a result. She’s not had a lot of freedom, because I’ve been scared of losing her, and all along the man responsible has been here in my club and doing things to that poor girl no child should ever experience.”
The door behind me creaks, and we both spin around to see Layla standing there. She’s paler than when we first saw her.
"Uncle Tank?" The words fall from her lips, and then she stumbles backward. I rush forward to hold her up as she whispers. "I remember everything."
Her legs are giving way as Prez and I both help her back to her room and put her on the bed. She leans over the side and dry heaves. I rub her back while Prez leaves the room, and I hear him calling for a bottle of whiskey.
