Chapter 20 #2
Linsey’s head whips around to stare at him. “No. Of course not. Where did you get that?”
He asks again, “What is a test strip? It sounds like a medical thing.”
Linsey is struggling to find the words, so I go ahead and explain it to him. “It’s a pregnancy test strip. It was positive. That means I’m about to be a dad for the second time and you’re about to be a big brother for the first time.”
Noah gazes up at me with a confused expression on his face. “The second time? You’ve got a kid? Why didn’t you tell me? Can I play with them?”
I roll my eyes. “It’s you, buddy. You’re my first kid.”
That’s when Noah launches himself at me. I wrap him up in my arms, knowing this wasn’t the best time or place to have this conversation.
I add gently, “That’s if you’ll have me for a dad.”
“Yeah, of course I will. I’ll be a good big brother. I’ll be their protector, I swear.”
Linsey reaches out to rub his back. “I know that you will. You handled this situation like a champ. But we probably need to have a conversation about you having real knives.”
“I won’t do that again,” he says. Adding in a quiet whisper, “Unless I have to.”
“We can talk about this later. Let’s head downstairs. I think the police are here.”
Linsey’s father is waiting in the front room when we come downstairs.
He’s the only one of them still standing.
The room is secure, and the rest of the men are restrained in rows beneath the supervision of my brothers.
Siege and Rigs are talking with two detectives, while several members of the sheriff’s department start handcuffing and taking out the men one by one.
When Gerald sees Linsey and Noah walking beside me, he draws himself up and speaks in the same voice he probably used from a pulpit.
“That woman is my daughter, and that boy is my grandson. They need to go with my wife. No law gives criminals authority over a man’s family.”
“I know you actually believe all the stupid shit you say, but none of that is true. You don’t get to traffic your daughter and call it family values.”
Detective Harper walks over from talking to Siege.
“That’s enough. You have the right to remain silent…
” We all stand there listening to Gerald get read his Miranda rights.
It’s much less satisfying than I thought it would be.
After seeing Noah trembling and my old lady bruised, nothing will make this right in my own mind.
The minute he gets out of jail, he’s gonna find me waiting on him.
Two deputies bring Linsey’s mother from the kitchen with her hands cuffed in front of her. Linsey steps into her path. I stay close enough to protect her while leaving room for whatever she needs to say.
“They made me do it,” her mother begins. “You know what your father is like. I didn’t have a choice. I was trying to save you.”
“No, you weren’t,” Linsey says firmly. “You sacrificed me and my child to save yourself.”
Her mother’s face crumples. “You don’t understand what it was like.”
“I understand that you could have removed yourself from this situation long ago. You chose to stay, just like you chose to help him abduct me and my son.”
When the deputies take her mother away, I place my hand against the small of her back, and she leans into me slightly. That small movement is as close as Linsey comes to accepting support in public.
Then we notice that Noah has slipped away. We find him standing on the front porch, demonstrating his tripod stance for a fascinated deputy.
Parsing through the evidence with the officers takes hours.
They process Gerald last, because they’ve got questions about every piece of evidence they find.
There are rows of chairs and flowers where someone has prepared the parlor for a marriage ceremony.
They ask him about the bowl on the side table containing nine folded pieces of paper, each with a man’s name written on it.
And most especially, they ask about the marriage covenant already drafted with Linsey’s name on it.
They ask why is the space for the groom blank, wanting to know if it’s because the groom’s name hasn’t been drawn yet.
Harper opens Gerald’s case and finds a handwritten document titled Restoration Plan for the Boy.
It contains schedules, spiritual tests and rules for Noah.
One section requires ninety days of separation from maternal influence.
Another outlines religious instruction, physical discipline and supervised contact with Linsey after she becomes compliant.
That’s when Linsey steps close and wraps both arms around me. “It’s over, Sabre. None of that is going to happen,” she assures me. “You and your club brothers saved us from that fate. We’re alive, we’re together, and they’re all going to jail.”
“Every person named in that bowl needs to answer for their part in this.”
“I know. They will. Detective Harper said this is the biggest trafficking bust this county has ever seen. He’s getting the FBI involved because they were trafficking across state lines.
This is the tip of the iceberg. There’s no telling what they’ll find once they start digging into this situation. ”
“Yeah, I know. Let’s go back outside. I could use some fresh air.”