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CHAPTER

FIVE

Jingles

“Son of a bitch, we just missed them, again,” I snarl.

From the look of things, we are probably only an hour or less behind them, which is obvious from the fact that there are plates of food, some only being half eaten, some full, as if they’d just been served in their dining hall, plus, the pots on the stove, which still have unserved food in them, and which are thankfully turned off, are still hot as fuck to the touch.

“Spread out, let’s check the entire property thoroughly, they may have left people behind as tribute,” Kracken commands, popping his knuckles as if he’s readying himself to serve up a beatdown. “Because so far, we’ve seen the evidence of that at the other locations, they’re not kind to the people they’ve taken.”

I shudder as I nod; we’ve seen the evidence of abuse; bloody smears across the floors, discarded clothing that was torn to the point of being shredded. So far, we haven’t found any bodies, but there have been a few fresh graves dug on the backstretch of the property when it was explored further. All I know is that the men overseeing these fundamentalists are sick, masochistic fuckers who deserve nothing more than to be put so deep underground that their bones will never be unearthed.

But that’s a dilemma for another day. Today, we’ll search the latest location, and hope we find something, anything, to direct us toward where they might’ve gone this time. “Got it, Krack,” I finally reply.

We head back to the front of the building before splitting up, with Kracken going to the office and infirmary area based on the blueprints Hawg sent us while I examine the cells that are used as rooms for the unlucky individuals who’ve been kidnapped by these assholes. One of the reasons I’m still encouraged that Belle, at least, is still alive is because at every location so far, we’ve found hidden messages, usually concealed in the kitchen.

The first one said, “Sleeper, hurry up, please.”

We’ve also found some that merely state, “Belle was here. Hurry up, big brother.”

So, my eyes are peeled, because Belle may be hurt, which I suspect after seeing evidence in the rooms I’ve seen that I’m confident are hers, but she’s still doing what she can to let us know we’re heading in the right direction.

My phone rings as I’m in the last cell, which I determine to be Belle’s. She’s carved a message into the wall that says, “Mo is hurt. Find us, please!” and in the bathroom, when I turned on the hot water, the mirror fogged up and she wrote, “Not sure we can hold on much longer, Mo is giving up, and I’m hurt too.”

Looking at the caller ID, I’m surprised to see it’s Kracken calling. “Brother, everything okay?” I ask, taking pictures of the mirror since I put him on speaker.

“No, it’s not, need you to haul ass down to the infirmary, while I call Brick. I found one of the girls.”

My heart accelerates when I consider it could be Belle whose injuries are so serious it has Kracken’s voice sounding almost scared. In all the years I’ve been around the club, he’s never shown an ounce of fear. Despite some of the shit we’ve come up against, he’s always been strong, almost invincible. So, the fact that he’s shaken, has me gearing toward a petrified state of mind.

As I run down the abundant maze of halls toward the infirmary, I keep chanting, “Please let it be Belle, please let it be Belle.”

Finally, reaching the hallway where I know they have their sick bay, I slow down and focus on getting my breathing under control. By the time I breach the doorway, I’m able to take a breath without gasping. “What did you find, Brother?” I ask as I walk toward where he’s crouched next to a hospital-style bed.

He turns horror-stricken eyes in my direction, his hand clutching the still one on the top of the covers. “Moira. I found Moira.”

Looking over his shoulder my breath stutters in my chest. She looks rough on the outside, but it’s the blankness in her eyes that worries me the most.

What did they do to her? And what the fuck are they doing to Belle? Fuck. Sleeper’s going to go nuclear when I call him, something I dread with everything in me.