Page 107 of Straight to Me

I see his hesitation when I ask, the pause he takes whenever he remembers this part of his past. I didn’t know Sodom Saviours played a role until Jack mentioned it, but if he’s never spoken about what he saw until he met me… this has plagued him his entire life.

When he still doesn’t answer, I take his hand in mine. He looks down at the gesture. “I know this is hard for you to talk about,” I start, “but I am right here, VP.”

He keeps his gaze down, but his hand holds mine tighter. “You really want to know?”

I turn into him, the palm of my hand resting against his cheek. He eventually looks up and I see the glossy film that’s coated his eyes.

“I want to know what you live with, what’s causing you so much pain. Maybe I can’t fix it, but I’d like to understand.”

The corners of his eyes turn down, sadness looking back at me. A burning sensation rises to my throat. It takes all of my strength to hold back the tears that swell at the back of my eyes.

He takes another long inhale of his cigarette, blowing out the smoke looking up to the heavens.

“Rocco retaliated for the Saviours attacking us. The aftermath of his decision was…” he doesn’t finish his sentence. After a few moments he composes himself and continues, “Sodom Saviours decided to get to him through Ronnie’s wife, my Aunt Linda. She was taken from under our noses.”

In my heart, I already know the truth.

I haven’t seen his aunt here, and in his speech, Ronnie said the Saviours had taken his life away. The body VP and Jack found must have been his aunt's.

A ripple of sadness engulfs me.

“When we found out she’d gone, Ronnie turned schizophrenic. We rode like mad men trying to find her. We’d heard nothing, yet we knew she couldn’t have been too far out of state. By chance, Jack spotted tracks off the main road leading to a deserted piece of land, about ten kilometres away from where the rally they’d been at was held. He and I took it, not knowing what we’d find.”

It's hurting him to recall the events. He holds his body tight and his voice is wavering, but with every piece of information he gives me, I can see an invisible weight gradually being lifted.

“We pulled onto a tiny dirt road allowed for cars to park in a layby. The car’s tracks looped round heading back the way we’d come in. Whoever had been here hadn’t gone any further into the bush. We decided to dismount and look around on foot. I noticed specks of blood on the leaves.” His eyes dance between mine, his hand in mine starting to tremble. “We followed the trail for what seemed like forever. About one quarter of a mile in, propped up by a tree, sat a body. I pulled out my gun, Jack did too. The body was camouflaged, but something wasn’t right about it. It didn’t seem real. As we stepped closer, a twig or something snapped. A Sodom Saviour was behind us, gun pointed at my head. Jack shot him.”

I can’t help but step closer to him. I wrap my arms around him and hold him tight.

“He saved you,” I say, grateful that Jack had fired first.

VP looks down to me. “We didn’t saveher.”

He says it so flatly I can almost taste his disgust that he hadn’t died that day too.

The thought horrifies me.

“I’m sorry,” I say sombrely.

He takes a breath. “I’m sorry for what they did to her, for not stopping them before it was too late.”

He takes another draw from his cigarette, scratching his bottom lip with his thumb as he blows out the smoke.

Jack’s words,what they did to her was pure evil,run through my mind. My lungs grab for oxygen suddenly, the beat of my heart thumping in my face in anticipation of what VP’s about to say.

“We knew who it was before we got close enough. My aunt’s wedding ring was dazzling, shining back at us, her jewellery was recognisable anywhere. But…” VP rubs his face with his hand. “My aunt’s head had been removed. It sat, facing downwards on the ground. 'Welcome to hell' had been written in the red dirt.”

I can’t help but cover my mouth with my hand. The horror of what they did to his aunt, to Jack’s mum.

I close my eyes as my tears fall.

“I dropped to my knees next to Jack, and my brain will never allow me to forget the noise that left him. That ride home was the hardest one I’ve ever made, Mads. A part of Ronnie died that day. He was never the same again. None of us were.”

Nausea comes on strong. I get it. I get their need to hate the men who had shown such brutality. I don’t doubt VP’s ability to be ruthless, I’d seen it and he’d told me, but he would never be capable of doing what the Saviours had done to a woman.

Neither of us speaks until VP throws his cigarette on the ground. “Thank you for telling me.” He doesn’t reply, but his arm around me pulls me closer.

“Do you think it was Ronnie. Do you think he set us up on the way here?”

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