After the talk
Twenty
Grace
“ A re you sure you want me and not Pea or one of the lads?” Bull asks as he starts the engine. His mask is already down over his face.
“I’m sure.” I smirk. “The two men would want to hover and Pea is watching Nico.” He chuckles, lifts the handbrake and I give instructions on how to get to the farmhouse for the second time tonight - or this morning.
What time is it anyway? I look at the dashboard - almost two in the morning.
Oh yeah Ma should be back by now. “What’s with the mask? ” I ask, poking at the clowns nose.
“One of the rules of being a bandit.” He chuckles. “Mask stays on from the time we leave here until we return.”
“Oh,” I furrow my brows. “I’ll keep mine off. I wouldn’t want to scare the kids.”
“That…is a good point.” He sighs. “If you need me to remove it I will.”
I shake my head. “No, if it means keeping your identity from being found out, I’d rather you keep it on.
I don’t care if I get caught. She deserves what’s coming to her.
” I laugh darkly. Maybe being around Julian has made me more deranged than I realise.
“Honestly, I’m fucking ecstatic to be the one sending her to hell. ”
“You and Pea by the looks of it.” He looks into the rearview mirror. “I guess Dante went back home and told her where to come.”
Thank you Dante.
“Yeah.” I sigh with relief. I may have Bull with me, but I need Peacock too. She can ground me if I go too far into my head while Bull takes care of the twins.
The sound of a loud engine roars from beside me. I look out the window to see Pea on her bike. She gives me a quick thumbs up which I reciprocate.
“So what’s the plan, boss?” Bull asks as we start driving down the driveway after being silent for most of the drive. Not an awkward silence, but one filled with rage and anxiety.
Boss? Ha I like that.
The chain and collar are still there where we rescued Anya, and my whole body vibrates with fury. How dare they do that to my child. To my baby. Leaving her outside like she’s a fucking dog!
I can’t wait to take her last fucking breath.
Now the anger has overflowed, I’m on the warpath to destroy every one of the fuckers who hurt my baby girl.
And from what Gustin told Bull while I was dealing with pa, it’s the same bastards who tortured me.
Well, motherfuckers. I found out every one of your names. Best sleep with one eye open.
The light for the lounge shines bright through the window and Ma is there with a can of something in one hand, the other holding a spoon over a candle. Typical. If my memory serves me right, she normally goes for the drink after her third injection of heroin.
“You get the boys out and make sure they’re okay, I will deal with the wicked bitch of the West, Pea can come with me.”
“Just call me if you need me.” He nods and cuts the engine. “And be careful. I would hate to be the one to tell those two knuckle heads that you got hurt.”
“They ain’t that bad.” I chuckle. Bull huffs and shakes his head. “Fine, I promise I will call you if we need any help.”
He gets out of his driver's seat and before I’ve even removed my seatbelt, he’s at my door with a waiting hand. I slide my hand in his and jump down.
“Arghhhh.” Screams come from the open window. “Stop mama.” A young child can be heard crying. That must be the twins.
“Looks like we’re all sticking together.” I say and we start running. Not bothering to shut the door of the truck.
Bull gets to the front door first, of course, and barely touches the door with his foot to knock it off its hinges just as Pea runs up on the other side of me, keeping her motorcycle helmet on.
“What the fuck?” Ma’s words are slurred, meaning she has had more than that one can she holds in her hand.
We turn the corner to the lounge and the sight makes bile rise in my throat.
Luckily I emptied my stomach earlier so no vomit comes out.
“Ohhhh lookie here boys. This slut is your big sister.” she swings the boy she holds behind her.
His frail naked body hits the wall, before collapsing on the trash filled floor.
“What are you doing here? Are you the reason Pa is gone. He was always obsessed with you.” She sneers.
“ His little angel . More like his little whore .” She spits.
“Boss.” Bull breaths. Anger palpitating from him.
“I know.” I grit my teeth, my body vibrating with anger. Pea reaches across and takes my quivering hand in her stable one.
“Boss?” Ma laughs. “What are you? A mafia boss or some shit. Give me a break.” She sucks her teeth, whatever she has left of them anyway, drops back into her chair, and goes back to preparing her drugs.
The boy she threw gets up slowly and shuffles over to his brother who is slumped over the dirty rotten chair next to where Ma sits, still covered in my blood from where she used her knuckle dusters on me.
His chest rises and falls slowly. Good, he’s still alive .
But from what I can see from here, he is severely injured.
His tiny frame is covered in cuts, bruises and burns - more than likely from the spoon Ma holds.
I have the same marks. Most of us girls do.
The boys are covered in dry blood, the unconscious one seems to have an arm pulled from its socket by the way it dangles loosely over the chair cushion.
They’re identical twins, the only difference from what I can see is the conscious one has a scar on his cheek.
He watches me with wide eyes as I study them.
His shivering body tries to stay up, but his weakened muscles can’t hold him and he falls on top of his brother.
“Nat…” Bull nudges me a little. He’s impatient, I understand why. But I can’t do anything while the kids are still in the room, and if I move she will grab them. I know all too well she will sacrifice one of her kids to protect herself.
“Not yet.” I whisper back.
“Let her do what she needs to do.” Pea tells him in a fiery tone. I thank her internally.
“So, why are you here?” Ma snaps.
“For the boys.” I say, mentally patting myself on the back that I kept my voice level.
I was scared of Pa, but I’m downright terrified of Ma.
Pa held back, Ma didn't. He used to use cattle prods and bats on us.
Ma used her fists, knives, and spiked knuckle dusters.
After Pa killed Justine, we all feared him but he never went as far as to almost kill any of us again, unlike her.
“These little fuckers?” She slaps the conscious one across the back of the head, he doesn’t even whimper, just lays his head against his brothers.
“You can have them for a price. $1000 for an hour with one of them. If you want both, it's $3000. There’s plenty of toys in the cupboard, you know where it is.” She waves her hand dismissively.
Yeah, I do know where it is. I used to have to clean all the disgusting things whenever they came back from the uncles.
“To be honest, I always thought you would turn out like us. You were always looking out for the little ones, always around them. I wonder what kind of fantasies you had about them. Maybe like the kind Gustin has for your daughter.” She laughs a sickening laugh.
“Oh, we brought her back here by the way. Just after you left my husband was lonely. Wanted another ‘angel’.” She air quotes.
“So he got his darling daughter back from Ernesto. ” She spits out the name.
“His son left him while you were pregnant, so he decided to buy your child. Got a pretty penny for her too. And of course Gustin turned out just like pa. He raped your daughter, you know. You tried to save him, Natalie. But he turned into the predator we raised him to be.” She laughs, she fucking laughs at the pain she caused them both. The pain she caused them all.
Forget what I said about my stomach being empty. It suddenly got full and starts to churn. My hands start to twitch and I see RED . My hand moves to the knife in my pocket, the knife Bull slid over to me before I got in the truck.
“Of course we had to return most of the money when Pa wanted her back.” Ma continues, unaware of the unhinged thoughts I have.
I want her blood to spill. “But by then Ernesto had his fill with baby Anya. He preferred boys anyway, so we used Gustin to pay off the rest of the debt. That’s when we realised that we could get more money for the boys.
” She points with the spoon to the twins.
“These, well they’re our best sellers. The women love them more than the men do.
” And there’s more people to add my list, my own personal list of monsters to burn.
“You disgust me.” I sneer.
“ I disgust you ?” She stands and starts walking towards me, perfect, all I have to do is keep her attention long enough for Bull to get the boys to safety .
“If you never got pregnant I would still have my husband's attention.” She stumbles a little as she passes the chair where the boys are sitting.
“You filthy fucking whore. You stole my husband away from me. All you girls did.”
“I was five!” I exclaim. “Your husband should have fought his urges. You could have put us back in the system. But instead you used and abused us.” Come on, just a little further.
“ Back into the system. Oh Natalie.” She chuckles.
“We never officially fostered you all. Just you, Justine and Brandon.” She twists the syringe between her fingers.
“After that we were given the kids or found them in the street. Made promises to their birth parents that they’ll have a better life with us on the farm than with them on the streets.
” She laughs manically. “I mean, who will ever come looking for the missing kid of a dead druggie.”
“We’ll find out soon.” I grit my teeth.
“What do you mean?”