Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Mercury
“I can’t answer that, Wildcat, but I suspect we’ll never know. Let’s go back out to the guys so we can come up with a plan. We may not be able to save everyone, but we can do our best to break this particular camel’s back.”
“I hope you pull out a can of whoop ass on them, Mercury,” she says, her words coming out like a hiss.
“I’ll do my best to make you proud, baby girl,” I say as I lead her to the sink and watch as she rinses out her mouth. “I can promise you one thing, Fin, I will put a hurting on them like they’ve never felt before.”
“I think turnabout is fair play, Mercury. I think you need to turn the tables on them and make them feel what I did when I wasn’t sure if I’d live or die out there in the wilderness without any supplies.”
“That’s a little bloodthirsty of you,” I tease as I use the hem of my shirt to wipe the water off her chin. “It’s a side of you that I didn’t know existed, and I’m impressed that it’s there.”
“It never used to be,” she mumbles. “Not through the neglect and verbal abuse I withstood in the system, not when my heart was broken by my ex, not when I was forced to move when I wasn’t financially in a place to do so.
It wasn’t until I was held in that shack, denied my basic needs, and shoved outside like cattle to be hunted that the feelings started flowing through me. ”
Anger rises inside of me again as she rants.
I can hear the emotion in her voice and it is heartbreaking.
Knowing that I can’t go back in the past and change things means I need to make her future fan-fucking-tastic.
“I wish I could change your past, baby. All I can do is listen and try and help you find that light within yourself that they tried to extinguish.”
“I just… I just want them to pay for what they’ve done to every life they’ve ruined,” she harrumphs. “I want them to die, Mercury. I know that makes me a bad person, but I can’t help the way I feel.”
“That doesn’t make you a bad person, Fin, it makes you human,” I counter. “Part of me feels like a quick death won’t let them experience the shit their victims did, but on the other hand, the picture of you I still have in my head demands satisfaction.”
“Do you think if we let the law handle it they won’t figure out a way to get out of it?
” she asks. “Because they’ve got friends all over the place, Mercury.
I’ve heard y’all talk about the lack of concern the local police department shows, so somehow, those bastards would weasel their way out of any charges, leave town and set up somewhere else. We have to cut the head off the snake.”
I’m seeing a side of Finley I like a helluva lot right now.
She’s not wrong; we know there are rotten apples within the force, but as Gemini has repeatedly said, we take care of one problem at a time.
We’re still a small chapter and likely always will be, since the four of us agreed that we wanted the same family vibe we had growing up.
A huge chapter would lose some of those connections, whether we want to or not.
“Let’s see how it all plays out. We’re not big on inviting law enforcement into our world, Finley, so it’s highly improbable that we’ll do all the work then hand it over with a fat, shiny bow.”
“Come on,” she says, grinning at me. “Besides, y’all aren’t bow making kind of men.”
I smirk; my woman is gonna be a force to be reckoned with and the kind of man I am is here for it.
After a brief conversation, we decide to close up shop and head back to the house so we can get Orbit to hand over contact information for the tribe.
My fear is that we’ll have to handle this in person instead of over the phone.
I’m not sure how modern their technology is because as I did a little sleuthing while the guys were chatting, it seems they’re all about the elemental and simple life.
As I figured before, Orbit says that they have a general type of store on the reservation that is listed but he sends us those digits and Gemini places the phone on speaker and dials. It only rings three times before the receiver is picked up and a male voice answers. “BF General.”
“Hi, my name is Gemini and I’m the president of the Montana Kings. We have a situation that we need to bring to the attention of your chief. Is there a way we could speak with him?”
“I can pass on a message and a number,” the guy replies, sounding skeptical. I doubt many outsiders call and request a meeting with their chieftain.
“I can do that. Would you be willing to tell him it’s urgent and could be beneficial for him to get back with me today?” Gemini queries.
“I’ll pass that along to him,” the guy murmurs. “I have a notepad and pen in front of me so go ahead and tell me what you want passed along and I’ll get it over to him as soon as I can.”
Gemini quickly rattles off his phone number, but the message he relays is somewhat vague. We don’t know who we’re actually speaking to, after all, and showing all of our cards isn’t our style. “Thanks again for doing this,” Gemini says, “I’ll look forward to hearing from him.”
After he hangs up, we sit there for a few seconds just looking at each other. “We’re going to need their permission to go onto their land,” I remind everyone. “So, without that, we’re not exactly hamstrung, but it’ll make it more difficult to move forward.”
“All we can do is wait and in the meantime, start checking into some of the places that Orbit has ferreted out,” Gemini replies. “We know from Finley that she was in a shack which we found, so there are bound to be others yet to be located. Let’s get on the ATVs and go exploring.”
“Together?” I ask.
“Why the fuck not?” he retorts. “At least we can mark off areas that we’ve checked which will help you in the long run.”
I sigh because sometimes, Pisces and Orion fuck around when they’re out on the ATVs.
I’m not really up to dealing with their shit today, especially after Fin’s breakdown at the shop.
“Fine. But if those two,” I state, pointing at Pisces and Orion specifically, “start fucking around like they typically do? They’re walking back and I don’t give a fuck if we’re twenty miles away. ”
“We only do that when it’s not a big deal, you asshole,” Pisces rumbles. “This is serious shit and we’re gonna handle it like it is, so cool your fucking jets.”
“Is that saying even used anymore?” Orion muses. At my glare, he throws his hands up and says, “Just kidding, cuz. Jeez, lighten up. We wanna find these pricks as much as you do. Two of our women have been hurt, after all, and Sutton was almost one of their victims herself.”
Despite the crick in my neck that dealing with them often gives me, I realize he’s right.
We’ve got a vested interest in dismantling this disgusting group, and it dawns on me that we’re going to dispense a little bit of Kings’ justice.
After all, we have brothers in the south who have a crematorium after we’re done playing.
We aren’t worried about leaving Sutton and Finley behind since Hercules and his crew are demolishing the old clubhouse today and will be close by in case there are any issues.
We do stop along the way and inform them of what we’ll be doing and where we’ll be doing it at.
When they swear they’ve got things under control and a couple of the men will head toward the house and watch over them, we head to the barn where the ATVs are stored and fire them up.
As the engines warm up, I walk over to the cabinet and grab the walkies we use when we’re out on the prowl.
Bootes comes strolling through the sliding doors, out of breath and bending over.
He holds his hand up letting us know he needs a minute.
When he stands back up, he says, “Hercules sent me to catch you before you leave to find out if you were taking those.”
“We are, we were about to bring you guys a couple so we could keep in touch in case we run into trouble or it comes pounding on the door,” I explain.
“Did you run here?” Gemini asks.
“I did. I was worried you’d leave before I got here,” he states.
“We need to get better at communicating,” I add. “We’re so used to doing everything just the four of us that we don’t think about our team.”
“It’s new for all of us,” Bootes replies. “We’re not offended if that’s a concern.”
“It is and we’ll figure out a way to improve how we relay information at the next church,” I tell him, eager to get out there and see if we find anything.