Chapter 12 #2
Heavy footsteps stop next to us, and I lift my head to meet Dex’s gaze.
“Loyal, do you mind joining us please?” I nod my head, taking a deep breath.
My gaze finds Joe’s over Vex’s shoulder where she sits on the couch.
She wraps her arms gingerly around the girls, giving me a nod that they’ll be OK with her.
Jason moves slightly closer, as does Nell and her little girl.
Vex stands to his full height and cups my face in his hands. “Thank you, pretty girl. I needed your strength. You can have mine when you need it.” He presses a gentle kiss to my lips, then entwines his fingers with mine as he leads me to Church.
Dex looks around the room, waiting for everyone to take their seats before banging the gavel. I’m a little proud of myself when I don’t jump at the sharp sound as it echoes through the room.
“For those of you who aren’t up to speed, Vex and Damian went to return the dog he brought here. Instead of an easy trip to Bellefont and back, they instead found the dog’s owner brutally tortured and murdered with the Eden’s Keep symbol painted on the wall.”
I suck in a breath. Sniper had told me and Justice that the owner had been murdered, not tortured and murdered.
“Justice has some information on the house,” Sniper says in a low voice, tipping his head toward Justice.
Justice clears his throat and tries not to squirm under the weight of the men’s gazes. “When we were still Eden’s Keep, the worthy men-” he spits, “-would take trips to Bellefont. I’m not sure what they did there, but I do know there was a house.”
Prez looks at the Landry brothers who all share the same blank look that I’m sure is on my face. “No clue, Prez,” Saint says with a shrug.
Dex nods once, then leans to the side, taking his phone out of his pocket. He taps at the screen then places it on speaker, face up on the large wooden table. It rings once, twice, then a third time.
“Yellow?”
“Chewy? It’s Dex.”
“Dex who?” the voice over the phone asks in a monotone voice.
“Dex from The Keep,” Dex replies, brows pinched.
“Oh, you mean Prez, right? What can I do ya for?”
Dex takes a deep breath, shaking his head. “We came across a little problem when returning a dog to a town called Bellefont. Looks like Eden’s Keep might have something to do with it. Do you think you could get us some information on an address?” The line is silent, dead silent. “Chewy?”
“Yeah, I heard you. You asked if I could. Of course I can. Finding out things is my business. But it’s also simple boring stuff. Is Justice up to speed on that stuff yet?”
Justice shakes his head no, looking apologetic. “No need to be sorry, Prospect. That type of shit takes years to learn,” Dex says.
“I take that as a no,” Chewy’s voice says over the speaker. “I’m going to patch you through to my apprentices.” With that the phone line goes dead as she hangs up.
I’m not too sure if she meant to hang up or what, but we all sit there staring at the phone. Within moments it starts to light up, vibrating gently on the table.
Dex swipes the screen then barks “Yes?”
“You have an address for us?” the deep voice over the line asks.
“Depends. Who the fuck are you?”
“Theo and Jay. We work for Chewy.”
Dex frowns. “For Tombs Security?”
“No, Chewy personally.”
The brothers share looks around the table. I’m not too sure what Tombs Security is, but I’ve met Chewy and she is a little unusual.
“You know what? Fuck it,” Dex says to the phone, “Damian, gimme the address.”
“It’s 1378 Rookery Bend, Bellefont,” Damian says, leaning his big bulk over the table and almost yelling at the phone.
We were deprived of a lot of technology in Eden’s Keep, but even I know that phones are sensitive enough to sounds that you don’t have to yell at it.
Especially not with a giant man voice. As if to push that point home, what I’m guessing is fingers tapping on a keyboard comes through the speaker, along with another man’s voice whispering, “Interesting.”
“You got something?” Saint asks eagerly.
Some grunting and I’m pretty sure Chewy’s voice fills the room before a loud “Aha!”
“Yeah, we got the motherlode. Had to route through a different server because shit went black, but the house is owned by three fake shell companies before coming back to some guy named Victory Landry.”
“What the fuck?!” Vex roars, standing so quickly his chair goes flying back.
“I’m guessing that’s not good news?” the voice on the phone asks.
“No it’s fucking not!” Vex growls. “I’m Victory Landry and I’ve never laid eyes on that house until today.”
“Huh. So am I right in thinking that the other two names on the shell company, Christian and Wisdom Landry, they don’t know shit either?”
“No, we fucking don’t!” Saint answers for both of them.
It’s silent for a moment, and then one of the voices over the phone says, “Whoa.”
“What? What’s wrong now?” Dex asks, leaning forward, elbows on the table.
“Um, there’s a property with Patience Landry’s name on it. Do you happen to know who that is?”
“Fuck,” Vex says, running a hand down his beard. “Yeah, it’s our sister, Blanche.”
A quick intake of breath comes over the speaker. “Shit,” one of the voices says.
“What’s shit?” the other voice asks.
“It’s Blanche. That stabby one.”
“No, the stabby one is Chewy,” the other voice answers.
“Well, yeah, but the other stabby one. The one with the scary look in her eye.”
“That’s all of the women!” the other voice argues, stopping abruptly when Dex slaps his hand on the table.
“Enough!” The phone goes silent. “Good, so we know the house is owned by some fake as shit Eden’s Keep shell company.”
“Yeah, along with a shit ton of other stuff under all the aforementioned names and a Lovely Landry.”
“That’s Marx’s Ol Lady,” Chef points out with a grin, waiting for the penny to drop.
“Ah shit! We’re fucked when we give them this information,” the voice groans.
“Dex?” Chewy’s voice comes over the phone, almost a little too loud.
“Sounds like shit is gonna hit the fan. Because I’m a nice lady I’m sending Theo and Jay your way to help with IT support.
Mainly because I don’t want your shit interrupting my shit.
You’ll clog up all my time and I need the Computas on high level, not cult stuff. ” With that the phone goes dead.
“Would it kill her to say goodbye?” TumTum asks, looking around the table.
“I imagine it probably would,” Flack says with a smirk.
“Great. So now we’ve got two little girls pretending to be Loyal and Vex’s daughters, their ‘aunt’ beat to hell in Justice’s bed, their father in the wind but somewhere in our state looking for all of them, and now some mysterious cult shit.
That about sum it up?” Chef asks, his deep voice filling the room.
Sniper runs his hand down his face, tugging on his short beard a little. “Who do you think the murderer was leaving a message for?”
Dex tilts his head. “Come again, brother?”
Sniper’s eyes narrow as he takes in all the ex-Eden’s Keep members.
“He spray painted their symbol on the wall, right?” The brothers who know all nod their heads.
“So, were they leaving that as a statement? If so, who for? They couldn’t have known that Vex was going to walk into the house and recognize the symbol. ”
“Or what they’d done to him,” Damian adds seriously.
“What do you mean?” Flack asks, confused.
“I saw Vex’s reaction to the body. It wasn’t the same shock and disgust most people would display. In fact,” he looks at Saint and then Omen, “none of you did. You asked questions but you didn’t look grossed out.”
I have no idea what he’s talking about, but whatever it is, it makes Vex squirm a little. Justice looks between the brothers, then Dex.
“What’s he talking about?”
The Landry brothers share a look, before Vex takes my hand, squeezing tight. “I wasn’t shocked because it was familiar. Not the dead part, but the injuries are the punishments we grew up with.”
“What the fuck!?” Dex roars, Chef looks horrified, and Justice drops his head.
I can see the tremor he’s trying to hide and I know that he’s close to losing it. I give Vex a tight smile before standing and moving to Justice’s side, wrapping him in my arms. “Shhh, you’re safe.” He nods, and sniffs wetly, before raising his head.
“Sorry Prez. I, shit, I, maybe I’m not cut out for prospecting, I’m weak. I, it’s ah, God why is this so hard?” he whispers the end of his sentence, then looks at me, eyes pleading. “Tell them,” he murmurs, before hiding his face in my shoulder.
“You’re sure?”
The nod of his head has me taking a deep breath, and looking around the room.
Swallowing, I try to work out how I’m going to say this to a room full of men I trust, but still don’t know terribly well.
Funny how that works. Taking a deep breath, I look at Dex.
“I’m guessing the body was covered in small cuts, all over?
” Dex dips his chin, and I nod back, letting out a breath.
“And there were long, almost rectangle shaped burns on him? Mainly on his chest and back?”
“What the fuck?” Flack murmurs as Dex nods again.
“Then I’m also guessing the tongue was cut too.
” I take another deep breath then let it out.
“In Eden’s Keep you were disciplined for every slight.
Mainly paddled or made to kneel on cold coals and pray to God.
But some of us, well, some of us were treated a lot worse.
” My eyes dart down to Justice, who sniffs then raises his head.
Without a word he straightens up in his chair, head raised high as if somehow my words have made him feel stronger, more confident.
“From the age of two years old until I was 17, my father raped me,” he whispers. “His reasoning was to ‘fuck the devil out of me’.” Growls sound out around the table. “If I cried I was punished.” Justice stands, his hands going to the buttons of his shirt.
He makes quick work of them, then opens his shirt, peeling it off his body to reveal a road map of torture and pain.
“Prospect,” Dex, our Prez says in a voice I’ve never heard before.
Clear, commanding and with such gravity that there is nothing you can do but listen to him.
“There is nothing weak about what you have survived. I mean it. You are not a victim, you are a fucking survivor and we would be honored to have a man like you in our ranks.” Justice sniffs loudly next to me.
“Thank you, for sharing your story. We will protect your privacy, as we will protect you.”
A breath rushes out of Justice as he lands heavily in his chair, the weight of revealing his secret leaving his body unburdened. “Thank you, Prez. Thank you brothers-” his voice catches on a gasp when his gaze lands on Vex and his brothers. Shirtless.
Their bodies bear the same marks, skin puckered and marred in places, others covered in silvery lines of healed trauma.
“This is why I wasn’t grossed out, Damian. We’ve seen the injuries before, just not on a dead body,” Vex says, with a tight smile.
Damian looks from Vex and his brothers to Justice before settling his gaze on Sniper and Prez. “So, who are we killing and when?”