Page 9 of Reaper's Revenge

“It was! What was the ball for? Was it a charity? I’m gonna check social media. I bet people recorded and took photos. Maybe shared them on the hotel’s page, the charity’s page? It’s worth a shot.”

Steel shows me all the details he has, and I start searching. “Steel, why don’t you get to bed? You look dead on your feet, and you're no good to us like this. I’ll keep looking. We’ll wake you if we find anything, okay?”

“No, I wanna stay.”

“Steel!” Ares grits. “Come on, man, let’s get you some rest. We’ll have somewhere to start when you wake, okay.” He leans down and pulls Steel up and into his arms. “It’s fucking good to have you back, Brother. Now fuck off and go to bed.”

Steel leaves looking as depressed and dejected as the rest of us feel. “You guys might as well go too. I’ll call you if I find anything.”

The siren sounds before we have a chance to do anything, and I dive up and chase my brothers out of the door. Steel’s just pushing out the main doors as we come barrelling through to the bar, and we all rush out together. There’s a black van with screeching tyres, making a quick exit out the gates in front of the garage, and there’s a big duffle bag in the middle of the parking lot.

“What the fuck’s that?” I point over while we all hang back.

Tank comes running around the corner, out of breath as Ares takes a step forward. “Stay back, guys. Fuck knows what it is, but let me have a look first, yeah?” Ares cautiously steps towards the bag. It’s not moving or ticking from what we can see and hear, so that’s a good sign, I suppose.

Ares makes it to the bag and nudges it with his foot, “Bleurgh! The smell, I think it’s a dead animal or something?” He bends down and grabs the zip, slowly tugging while he covers his nose and mouth with his other hand.

“Fuck!” he screams. “Call a fucking ambulance. It’s Ray!”

We all rush forward, and Tank yells, “Get her in my truck. She should go to the clinic… NOW!” He sets off running to fetch his truck.

We stop just before we get to her, and I hold my arms out when I see into the bag. She’s covered in dried blood and god knows what else. She looks naked; she’s nearly emaciated. Ares cradles her head as he brings it out of the bag. She’s alive, barely.

I look around, and Steel is on his knees in front of the clubhouse, his hands in his hair just rocking. Tank pulls up and drags a blanket out of the back of the truck and wraps it around her as he lifts her so gently out of the bag and lays her across his back seat. He doesn’t say a word to any of us. He just climbs in his truck and pulls off.

“Steel!” I bellow. “Pull your shit together, we need to go after Tank!”

We all start running for the bikes.

We pull up outside the clinic, and Tank opens the back doors as Ares is barking orders at the doctors while they bring a stretcher out, load her up and take her away.

I pull my phone out and call the one person I need to see right now! “Dane, fuck answerphone! Dane, it’s me. You need to get down to that clinic. We found Ray, she’s… she’s not good, Dane!” I hang up and call through the rest of them. Then I call Demi, and when she answers, I give her the info, and she promises that she’ll get in touch with the family. We all pile into the waiting room and pace and sit. “Fuck!”

We’ve been there about an hour or so when the doors fly open, and they walk in dressed in combat gear, like dark avenging angels. They all look older, somehow deadlier; they all have beards now, longer hair, darker skin, not in a fashion statement way, more in a I-haven’t-got-time-for-menial-tasks-like-shaving- and-hair-cutting kind of way.

They don’t even spare us a glance as they push straight into the clinic through the doors we’ve been told to stop at. We all rise from our seats, but they don’t even look back.

Steel pushes through the door after them and shouts down the corridor.

“Not the time, son!” Bernie barks back as the others keep walking.

He keeps walking behind them regardless, leaving us all waiting, wondering, and hoping.

Steel

As I push through the doors behind her family, I suddenly feel dread as I get closer to the door at the end of the corridor where there's a nurse's station, and they jump as soon as they see us walk through.

“Sirs.” One of the nurses steps from behind the desk. “This way, please. She’s still in surgery, but the doctor will be through as soon as possible.”

We’re taken into a smaller room and left to sit and wait more. As she closes the door, Bernie asks, “You look good, son. When did you get back?”

“Today.” I rasp out. I can't look at any of them; I’m filled with shame and regret, so I just sit staring at my hands.

“Where did you find her?” Cade sits forward. His voice sounds gruff, almost like from lack of use.

“We didn’t.” I look up at them. “A van drove through the compound and threw a duffel bag out of the back as it went.” I choke down the bile as I try to say the next words. “She… Ray, she was in the… bag.” I swallow the lump as my eyes burn.

Bernie stands and grips my shoulder. “She’ll be okay, son, it’s Ray.” It’s the only comfort he offers as he sits back down, and we just wait. No one talks. They look exhausted. It feels like hours pass until the doctors come in.

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