Chaos Chapter 3
I was up, pacing my house, wondering if it was too early to call Stitch and ask for the test results.
And then, after I had that answer, regardless of what it was, I would walk over to Mishap’s place.
Once there, I’d ask what his cousin was doing by herself in a bar.
Why the hell would she do that? Being a woman alone in a bar, regardless of where it was, was asking for trouble.
And while I didn’t know Bianca, my brief exposure to her made me think she wasn’t stupid.
She knew it was a bad idea, so why do it?
That line of thinking had kept me awake for a chunk of the night.
I kept moving through those questions, and they led me to more.
Had she been there to meet someone in particular?
If so, why had she been alone? Did he not show?
Or had she gone hoping to meet someone new, only for it not to have transpired?
What I kept pushing away was the anger that the thought of her there, meeting with another man, caused.
It felt foreign. I’d never once cared about what a woman did or didn’t do.
I considered them adults with the autonomy to do whatever they pleased, the same as I was.
If women wanted to go out hunting for a man to take home with them or to go to the men’s places, it was their business and nothing that I hadn’t done in reverse.
But the vision of Bianca and a faceless man walking out of that bar together made me furious.
I had been about to break when a text arrived. I eagerly scanned it. I frowned when it sank in. I read it again to be sure I had it right.
Mishap: Hate to interrupt, but is anyone available to come to my house? My cousin is hiding something about last night. She slipped up, but I know she’s not telling everything. I need to get to the bottom of it. You may be needed for a protection detail… for which one of us, I don’t know.
Reply after reply flooded in. I scanned the texts as I added mine.
Me: Be there in 2.
Without delay, I slipped out of my house and walked the equivalent of two and a half streets over to his house.
He lived behind and diagonally across from me.
Eagle was next to him. Forge and Stitch lived in front of and off to the sides of his house.
I ran into Forge as I walked past his house. Maybe Stitch was already there.
“Morning. What do you think she’s hiding?” Those were his first words to me.
“Good mornin’. I have no clue,” I answered.
At Mishap’s front door, I rapped my knuckles three times before turning the knob and entering.
We didn’t stand on ceremony around here.
Forge walked in behind me. Inside, it was a short trek to the living room.
I heard the murmur of voices coming from there.
We didn’t bother to remove our boots since Mishap had hard floors and anything tracked in would be easy to clean up.
He’d stressed that on past visits. In the living area were Mishap, Eagle, and Stitch.
I glanced around, but there was no Bianca.
“Are we it?” Forge asked.
“No, Pres is coming and so is Storm. Not sure if anyone else can. A few had left early this morning to go to town. Others were otherwise occupied,” Mishap remarked.
That last part was his way of saying they were balls deep in pussy and would have to extricate themselves.
“Where’s your cousin?” I asked.
“She was making herself presentable. I told her to make it quick, that we were about to have company. She wasn’t happy with me, but I want to know what she’s hiding. I expect it’ll require more than me to get it out of her.” His tone was grim.
“Why do you think she’s hiding something?” I asked.
Before he answered, there was a hard rap on the door, and then it opened.
The thud of boots told me more than one brother was entering.
In came Wrath, our president, and with him was his old lady, Jalisa.
Behind them were Storm and Ryder, and bringing up the rear were Wrath’s dad, Rage, and his old lady, Betty.
Brief greetings were exchanged. At the end of them, Bianca arrived in the room. She was freshly showered, as evidenced by her wet, braided hair. She wore oversized basketball shorts and a tank top that clearly belonged to her cousin. Her expression was calm, but deep down I felt it was fake.
“Hello, everyone. I’m sorry you were called here because of my cousin’s panic. And this is my first introduction to some of you,” she stated sweetly.
“Cut the crap, B. I’m not allowing you to talk your way out of this. For those who haven’t met her, this is my cousin, Bianca. Last night, Chaos, Forge, Eagle, and I went and rescued her from the Tipsy Taproom in Greensboro after she called and told me she thought she had been drugged.
“Bianca, this is Wrath, the club’s president, and his old lady, Jalisa. Next to them is Wrath’s dad, Rage, and Betty, who allows Rage to claim her some days. You met everyone else last night,” Mishap stated briskly.
Wrath and Rage murmured hello and nodded at her. Their women said a bigger hello and gave her sympathetic smiles.
“Let’s get started. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better,” our host said.
There wasn’t quite enough seating for everyone, even with Jalisa and Betty sitting on their old men’s laps. I remained standing, and so did Forge.
“Mishap, we heard the gist of the scene we missed last night when you left to go get her. And why she was brought back here. Storm filled me and Dad in this morning. Start with what was found in her blood. Then go from there,” Wrath urged.
“My friend called earlier this morning and told me that there were traces of both scopolamine and ketamine in her blood. Both have been used in date-rape situations. By doubling them up, the intention was clear: someone wanted her to be totally out of it. Given her level of lucidity and the fact she didn’t pass out, we assume she had minimal exposure.
And since she drank and ate nothing there, and no one administered a shot, the only possible way she was exposed was via her skin, making it a transdermal application,” Stitch told us.
The thought that drugs as dangerous as those were being passed to someone by touch was scary and infuriating. What was to stop whoever was behind it from touching countless women and then doing whatever they pleased with them?
“Wait, that doesn’t make sense. I know we spoke of transdermal last night, but to get it to affect me, especially with those two drugs, they’d need prolonged contact, and a mere glancing touch wouldn’t do that.
Scopolamine is most commonly administered in medical settings in patch form.
Ketamine can be in various forms. Plus, those drugs cause hallucinations.
I had none of those. Absolutely, both can make a person experience a hypnotized state, which leaves them susceptible to sexual assault and rape,” Bianca interrupted to add.
“You’re right. And while there are legitimate uses for those drugs in medicine, there are illegal ones.
Scopolamine is often used to treat motion sickness, nausea, vomiting, and even muscle spasms and excessive salivation.
Ketamine is used in surgical sedation, treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, bipolar disorder, phantom limb pain, fibromyalgia, and other long-term pain syndromes.
Have you ever heard of the term Devil’s Breath?
It’s the powdered form of scopolamine. It’s used recreationally and criminally,” Stitch explained, educating all of us.
His explanation caused a stir. It took several moments for the murmuring to die down.
“Okay, so clearly someone got it on you and somehow you didn’t get the dose you should’ve. Lucky you,” Jalisa said.
“It is a good thing, but I want to know why you were there. Alone? And what did you mean by your remark that skin contact explains how it has been happening?” Mishap demanded of his cousin.
All eyes landed on Bianca. She stared at Mishap. When he didn’t say anything, she surveyed the rest of us. Expectant and stern expressions stared back at her.
“Why are you all looking at me like I did something wrong? A woman should be able to go anywhere she pleases without having to defend why.”
“Stop deflecting. I know how that game works. I perfected it. Your cousin is worried about you. We want to help. Whoever did this isn’t just a risk to you,” Jalisa told her firmly.
Instantly, the slightly miffed look on Bianca’s face changed to a pissed-off one.
“You want to help? Well, you can start by not trying to guilt me for going there. I was there to help others who have been hurt by whoever is doing this terrible thing. The perpetrator has to be stopped. And since it seems no one else either cares or can do anything about it, I decided I would,” Bianca snapped.
The silence was eerie as it descended. I replayed her words in my mind, no doubt the same thing the others were doing. Wrath broke the silence.
“Bianca, I need you to explain what you just said. What others?”
Her expression grew pained, and she sighed as she rubbed her face with both hands before she answered.
“I doubt you’re aware, since the police have been keeping it under wraps, that there has been an increase in sexual assaults in the surrounding area.
I know of five different women who have been raped, and they can’t recall who did it.
They wake up in places they don’t remember going.
It’s clear that they’ve had sex, but when they can’t remember anything, it makes them realize they didn’t consent.
“By the time they go to the police and get tested, there is nothing left in their blood. They’re either not believed or told there is nothing the cops can do without knowing where they were, who they were with, and so on. It’s utter bullshit.” Bianca concluded her slight tirade.
“So, you thought, what, a bar was the place to start? And then you just happened to end up in one where you were drugged?” Storm asked.