Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
JINX
“The fuck we gonna do with them?” Loki shouts, loud enough for the women huddled in the corner of the room to hear.
I glance across to where Kyra kneels beside the group, a look of intense concentration on her face as one of them speaks. It felt right bringing her back here after she said she chose me. Even more when she walked in the door, squeezed my hand, and then set to work helping the former captives.
Chaos steels his jaw, lounging in one of the armchairs with his head resting on his hand. He shifts his attention from where Circus stitches my shoulder to our enraged Enforcer. “What do you suggest we’d done? Leave them there?”
“Or perhaps had a better plan than just steal them,” Loki counters. “Fuck man. What do you think the Devil’s Breed will do when they find out where they are?”
Even more reason why bringing Kyra here was the right choice.
“There’s no doubt they know who took them,” I say, gritting my teeth as Circus prods a little too deeply with the needle. “The keeper would have seen our patches.”
Chaos narrows his two-tone eyes on me. “Good thing I wasn’t trying to hide who we are, then.”
“No need to be an asshole,” I snap. “You could just admit we fucked up by not thinking this through properly.”
He raises his eyebrows.
“Hate to interrupt…” Flinch steps into the fray, hands pressed together before him. “But can we deal with the immediate issues before we descend into a brawl over the plans going forward?”
“Such as?” Chaos asks.
“Such as five women and a child in varying states of shock and trauma-induced catatonia. They need a room. Somewhere away from the tension you three make when you fucking argue.”
“I thought you couldn’t swear like that,” Loki says, a tease in the crinkle of his eyes.
Flinch lays a dead-eyed stare on the idiot. “Occasion calls for it. Besides,” he gripes, frowning when he sets his gaze on Circus’s handiwork, “I wouldn’t be here if I were your regular religious man, would I?”
“Give them the guest room beside the upstairs bath,” Chaos instructs. “But get Darko to nail the fucking window shut first.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I growl, both at his order and the way Circus tenderizes my goddamn shoulder. “They just escaped captivity, and you want to trap them again?”
Chaos leans forward in his seat. “I want to make sure none of them get grand ideas about jumping out a second-floor window late at night and breaking their fucking ankles.”
Fair point.
“They don’t trust us yet. And I get that. But they can’t be left to fucking run riot through the countryside because we don’t want to hurt their fucking feelings.”
“What does happen to us?”
Chaos’s gaze snaps to the woman I brought back, Loki startling when he realizes she’d moved to stand behind his shoulder without his knowing.
“We figure that out as we go,” Chaos answers. He nods toward the kid. “Who’s she? Is she related to any of you?”
The runner turns to look behind her, where Kyra offers the child a drink. “Not that I know of. But she hasn’t spoken a word, so who knows? There were others down there we didn’t get to know well before they were moved on.”
“Or died,” one of the others mutters, knees drawn to her chest.
“Where’s Floss?” Chaos asks, referring to the oldest and most matronly old lady we have in the club.
“Bandit said they were on their way ten minutes ago, so they shouldn’t be far.” Loki sighs, hands on his waist as he stares down at the runner who barely reaches his shoulder. “You lot hungry?”
She raises an eyebrow as she stares up at him. “Does a brown bear shit in the woods?”
Amusement curls his mouth, and he slaps a hand to her back. “Come with me. We’ll get something sorted for the others, yeah?”
The room falls quiet, save for a gentle whisper while Kyra talks to the others, and the metallic tink when Circus drops his needle into a tray.
“Finally.” I roll the aching limb in small circles to test my range of movement. “Swear to God you get far too much satisfaction out of doing this shit.”
Circus shrugs, collects his tools, and leaves the room the same way Loki went.
Flinch returns to help Kyra, who appears to be trying to get the youngest one to talk. Chaos sits in his goddamn throne by the fireplace, watching it all with steepled hands covering his grimace.
“Loki had a point,” I say, pulling on a clean shirt. “We need to get ready for retaliation.”
“I know,” Chaos mumbles. He tugs his phone out and checks the screen. “I need to go get Vanessa and bring her back here. I’ll send a group message and call everyone in tonight.”
“You think they’d strike that fast?”
“I would.” He leans back with a sigh. “If we’d left them there, we’d be no better than they are, Jinx.”
“I know.” I pick up the bloody tissue that Circus left behind and throw it into the flames behind him. “But they weren’t the first, and they won’t be the last. We’ve barely scratched the surface by bringing them back.”
“We’re gonna need more than Iowa’s help.”
“True. But we need to know how deep this runs, first.”
“Deep enough that Tyrant is having a sit-down with the Fallen Aces to see how we can work together on a common goal.”
I lift my brows at the mention of the Nebraska president. “He’s not the type to play nice.”
“Which is why I thought it would be a good test to see if we can pull this off. If King can walk out of there with a handshake agreement, we’re doing the right thing.”
I fold my arms and smile at the guy. “So you decided to set your pride aside for the sake of the club, huh?”
“Fuck up.” He smirks. “Like you’re any better.”
I look at Kyra, at the woman so damn ready to be a part of my life, and at what I could have lost if I hadn’t done the same—set my pride aside. “No, I ain’t,” I say. “But I know it’s worth the payoff.”
As though sensing the change in conversation, Kyra rises from the floor and crosses to where I stand near the fire. “All taken care of?”
“Pretty new stitches to give me a pretty new scar,” I say.
“Managing to make any progress?” Chaos asks, nodding to the women.
Kyra’s face falls. “I think the girl might be related to the one who died, but I can’t be sure.”
Explains why the poor thing refuses to speak, then.
“Do you think we could arrange to have them checked over physically?”
Chaos glances at me and then back to Kyra. “They tell you something that makes you think they need it?”
“I think they wouldn’t say even if they wanted to. They’re pretty shaken up, and I get the impression at least one of them is denying the truth of it all.”
“I’ll talk to Flinch about jacking it up.”
“They need to talk to someone,” Kyra presses, unintimidated by our president. “If they’re willing to make a statement about their ordeal, it’s important they do it soon while their memory is fresh.”
“Careful,” I tease. “You’re starting to sound like the daughter of a Sheriff.”
“Sometimes it pays to,” she counters.
“She brings up a valid point,” Chaos says. “Regardless of what we do moving forward to dismantle this racket the Breed has going, these women need to move on. They need medical care, legal representation, and to go home.”
“Some of them don’t have a home,” I say, thoughts on my conversation with the firecracker.
“Then we deal with that as it comes, but we ain’t the law. Denying them their rights makes us just another captor to them.” He shifts his attention to Kyra. “Think you can do me a favor?”
She pulls her head back and folds her arms. “Depends on what it is.”
“Need you to call your old man and get him to come here.”
Her eyes narrow, jaw hard. “Why can’t you do it yourself?”
I set a hand to her lower back, both as comfort and to urge her to ease up on how she talks to Chaos.
He smirks. “Because he doesn’t much like me telling him what to do.”
“Well,” she sasses, “He doesn’t much like me. Period.”
“I’ll do it,” I say, diffusing the situation.
“Are you sure?” Kyra looks up at me with concern.
“It’s about time he and I talked anyway.”