Chapter 13 #2
Vail nodded, his stern demeanor unchanging.
“If he’s taking girls, there’s no question in my mind that the fucker is trafficking them.
Drugging them up and using them for his fucking benefit.
And Ashland is doing nothing to stop him because the girls are from Harley.
If he took someone from The Hill, it wouldn’t go down as quietly.
There’d be an uproar if the daughter of some hotshot lawyer or doctor, who went to a private school and lived a safe, perfect life, were taken.
But here? No one gives a shit. But I do.
We do.” He nodded to the others, and Lee’s hand cupped my knee.
I couldn’t believe that this sort of thing was happening here and that the police were really doing nothing about it.
But at the same time, what Vail was telling me made perfect sense.
Once a Harley Rat, always a Harley Rat… People from here weren’t seen as worthy, as important as the rest of the city. It was absolute bullshit.
“Did-” I stopped, taking a breath before I tentatively asked, “Did you guys know any of the girls?”
Lee nodded. “We did. Friends or girlfriends of our friends. All sweet and kind people. All easy prey for assholes like The Faceless and the Beasts.” I could hear the venom in his voice.
“That’s when we formed Vendetta, about a year ago, when disappearances were thought to be runaways.
It started out as the boyfriends and friends of those girls uniting as a front of protection to others.
Whether they needed to be escorted home if they were at school late or were nervous about a guy that wouldn’t leave them alone.
Just a unit to protect our own, since the cops weren’t doing shit. ”
My heart swelled thinking of my three boys turning into protectors of their classmates. At that moment, all I wanted was to just pull them all into me and hold them all close.
“And then Hunter started parading around Harley like he fucking owned the place,” Vail practically growled.
“Him and Bryce and the rest of them, calling themselves The Jackals, acting like they were untouchable. They began to talk themselves up, gloating that they hung out with the Celtic Beasts like we would admire them for it. Fucking idiots…” He shook his head, his fists balling up and clenching hard. Jesus… what else have they seen?
“That’s when more shit started happening at school,” Shaw said, speaking up for Vail while he calmed down.
“Monica and Rachelle started hanging out with them, groupies, and then they were just fucking gone . And no one said shit. That’s when we started suspecting that maybe Hunter wasn’t just talk-”
“Wait, wait, hold up.” I leaned around Lee to see Shaw better, and I was sure I resembled a deer in headlights with how big my eyes probably were, but this was just too much to take in.
“You guys are saying that Hunter … Hunter, who we used to duke it out with as kids, is giving girls to Elias and the Faceless so that they can be trafficked?”
When no one said anything, that dreadful silence only confirmed it. I felt sick. If this was true, then what in the fuck happened to Hunter that made him stoop to such a level?
“Some people will do anything for a little taste of power, Casey,” Lee said, seeing the confusion, the doubt on my face, “And Hunter is one of them. If you can’t beat those in charge, then suck up and hope that you can prove yourself worthy enough to be included in their bullshit.
Then you aren’t a victim. And here, being a victim is a death sentence to most.”
A sudden thought horrified me as I slowly digested this information. “Wait a minute… with all that shit with Hunter and me… you don’t think…” I struggled to say the words, feeling like I really might be sick if I didn’t get a grip soon. “Was he going to take me to The Faceless?”
“We don’t know,” Vail said quickly, and I turned to face him. Lee wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his warmth, and I realized I had been shaking. “We weren’t going to take that chance, Casey. There was no fucking way!”
Even though Hunter had been an enemy back when we were kids, there was still a sense of camaraderie with him and his group of friends.
If an outsider had come into Harley and tried to mess with us, a kid from Public, or a cop, we all stuck together.
Him betraying me that way, well, it struck a chord.
I sucked in a long, slow breath, doing my best to keep calm as Vail continued.
“We wanted to find out where they were taking girls, but we’re just a bunch of high school kids.
What the fuck can we do against someone like Elias?
” he said, running his hands through his hair.
“It wasn’t until Haldon joined up and used his connection with the Black Spades that we got the help we needed.
His cousin, Taz, is a member, and he introduced us to Maverick. ”
“Who is Maverick?”
“He’s the President of their MC, and he’s been our biggest supporter in all of this. The Spades have been backing Vendetta and helping us find out information on the Beasts and The Faceless.”
“But why would they help you guys?” I’m so confused right now.
“He’s got his own issues. Lost his wife to drugs years ago.
Her supplier?” Vail arched his brows at me.
“I guess she was having a hard time adjusting to life in a trailer park with a biker husband. He’d hoped once they had a kid together, she’d adjust, but…
well…” He sighed heavily as though exhausted.
He’d always been sensitive towards addicts and alcoholics because of his dad.
“He admitted that he went about it wrong, and after she died, he tried to force his own son into the club, afraid that he’d lose him, too.
But he’s gone now. Moved away or something.
He doesn’t talk about it...” My heart broke a little at that.
“The Black Spades are the ones who have been hacking and looking into hotspots where the girls could be hidden. Problem is… The Celtic Beasts recognize most of them. That’s where we’ve stepped in to help. ”
“Maverick was just cool with sending in a bunch of high school kids to find out if a major crime organization is trafficking girls?” I raised my eyebrows a little at that.
“The guys in his club had done a lot more riskier shit at our age when they were pledging. I don’t know if he knows any different. Their way of life is not like ours.”
I was trying to wrap my head around all of it, but it was almost too much for me to handle.
I rubbed my eyes, thinking about it over and over when it hit me.
“Is all of this why you wanted me to leave?” I suddenly remembered what an asshole Vail had been when he saw I was back.
“Because you thought if I stayed, I’d be taken?
” The boys were quiet now, and though I looked at the other two, they avoided my eyes.
Only Vail stared at me dead-on, so I leaned towards him, not letting him sidestep this one. “Tell me.”
“We made a pact when you left, Casey…” he whispered, his eyes tightening in the corners. “That we would give you a chance to live your life away from us, away from Harley. We didn’t want to drag you down when you had an opportunity to escape this place…”
“But I asked for you guys to-”
“We know. But we agreed that we would shut you out, let you be mad at us so that you would move on and accept your new, better life.”
I wanted to slap him. But I also wanted to kiss him.
I wanted to kiss all of them. When I peered between them all, I saw the way Lee’s head was bowed, his jaw tight as though he had been holding in years of pain and loss.
Shaw, well, he’d retreated into his hoodie, rocking slightly on the edge of the couch as he glared at the floor.
I shifted my gaze back to Vail, whose eyes were shimmering with unshed tears.
He wouldn’t cry. He was too controlled for that now, but I could still see the pain on his face from what that decision had cost him.
“And now?” I asked softly.
He reached out slowly and opened a hand to me, giving me a choice to take it.
Hesitating, I studied the open palm that he had extended to me, but after a few seconds, I took it.
The moment I slid my hand into his, his fingers curled around mine, and he muttered, “Now, it’ll be like it was supposed to. ”
It turned out, the only food in the house had been a loaf of bread, some noodle cups, and crackers.
In terms of everything else, like cleaning supplies and basic kitchenware (save for a few paper plates that were used again and again judging by the stains and how crinkled they were), there was none.
I still had access to my bank account, which had a considerable amount placed into it before Mom and Matthew passed.
So tomorrow, I would stop by the dollar store and buy a bunch of stuff to make this place a little more…
comfortable… and some food. I knew there was a local grocery nearby where I could grab some fresh fruit and veggies and other foods.
I couldn’t imagine how long the guys were living this way.
When I asked about money, Vail said something about that not being an issue but didn’t expand further than that.