Page 28 of Fractured Souls

I relax a little. Cade rarely, if ever, speaks after some shit happened to him when he was younger, so him speaking to help calm me means more than he could ever know. I know I have huge trust issues, but I shouldn't have assumed he was involved. I should've known better.I doknow better. But that didn't matter to me that night. All that mattered then was that I felt betrayed.

Rage clears his throat, and we all look at him. “Grayson, it's fine. That whole night was fucked up, and I didn't react well or reassure you. I was overwhelmed. My dad has been dead for five years, and I haven't thought of Tammy in years either. Everything threw me through a loop, and that night was just my final straw. You had every right to react that way. What I said and did wasn't okay, so let's just all move forward now. We are going to need to work as a team to get through this shit.”

I nod and feel some tension leave me, but I still feel guilty.

“So what can we do? How do we approach this?" Sugar asks.

“Right now, nothing. I need to keep looking into this. We deal with Harley because her life could possibly be at risk right now. I will keep digging. We know that the account belonged to Rage’s dad before it got changed to Rage,” Nerds says.

“Right, my best guess is that my dad had it set up somehow so that everything was transferred to me if he died. I'm betting he assumed I would take over all of his 'activities' in the future. I doubt he expected to be murdered, or even to die when he did. But he was also so damn cocky that he probably couldn't believe that anyone would ever dare to try. So he never finished training me,”—he air quotes training—“because we kept fighting and he wanted to mold me to be his shadow, so he never shared everything he was into with me since he couldn't trust me. I'm guessing he thought he'd change my mind about it long before he died. But that obviously didn't happen.”

Rage signs and runs a hand down his face. Now that I’m looking more closely, I can see how exhausted he appears from everything going on.

“This isn't the first thing that has come up that I’ve found out my dad was involved in. I will say, though, this is the worst. I want to prioritize getting it shut down and getting my name off this shit before we move on to deal with making other things legit like we had planned.” He pointedly looks at Noah, Nerds, and Sugar.

They all nod, and Sugar says, “We need to have church ASAP. Bring this to everyone and have everything else go on the back burner besides things that are bringing us money. We also need to tell them about Harley. They are already wondering what's going on and speculating about it, which we don't need in the club. That shit leads to fights.”

Rage nods. “Church Monday night. Make sure everyone is there.”

I clear my throat. “Um, speaking of Harley...” I glance at Ry, hoping he will take over.

I need a break from talking so much and having so much attention being on me. Luckily, my best friend picks up on that right away and jumps in. Going on to explain what happened at school when we asked about her voice.

“Well, that is an odd reaction to have. There are plenty of reasons that could be. So we will keep an eye out and feel out Tammy and Richard about it. My best guess is if she is being abused, they did something to stop her from talking and she got scared when asked, not sure what to say or maybe thought you'd react the same way her abusers would,” Rage ponders.

“We would never!” Ry protests loudly.

“Boy, we know that. But if this girl is bein’ abused, her mind would go to all sorts of fucked-up places. You know that first-hand,” Sugar retorts.

Ry sighs and drops his head in defeat.

We move on to talk out everything else, with Ryker and Noah getting their punishments for yesterday, and they tell us how it went at Harley's house. We are all mad, but all we can do now is keep looking into shit and wait until Monday. Hopefully Harley will be there, and we can pull her aside and make sure she knows she can come to us.

Rage warns us to keep the drama down. He has to be president first, and he doesn't want us to put him in the spot of having to kick us out or put us above the club. We get it. We want this life too, when we can have it, so we won't put him in that position. The guys and I decide to find Harley before school and pull her aside. Rage wants to see if she would trust us enough that we could bring her here and skip school to talk. Nerds can hack into the system and mark that we were all there if she’ll come back with us.

We all leave the office to go about our day, with Cade, Ry, and I heading upstairs to get some homework done before we go back to school.

As we are walking upstairs, Ry says, “Why do I have a feeling shit’s about to get way fucking worse?”

Cade grunts his agreement, and I can't help getting a cold shiver down my spine and thinking that he’s right and things are going to get a lot worse before they can ever get better.

ChapterTwelve

Harley

Today is Sunday. I've been left alone since Friday night. Although that's not saying much considering Friday was the worst day of the week.

I don't know what happened, but somehow, they decided Noah was the person I spilled whatever secrets I don't even know to. I don't even know a Noah. I've never met anyone with that name. I know I heard people upstairs at some point on Friday, but I couldn't hear any conversations. It all sounds muffled from down here. I just know they wanted to make sure I didn't make a sound, so Father came down before gagging me and cuffing my hands behind my back.

Shortly after I heard the voices stop talking upstairs, Mother came down with Father in tow. They proceeded to torture me in any way they could. I don’t think things could've gotten any worse than they did. It was like they were carving my insides from the outside. Even just thinking about it makes me want to burst into tears. They didn't stop until I was barely moving. I faintly remember them leaving as I let the darkness take over.

When I woke up, I had no idea what day it was or the time. It had to have at least been a day. I could barely move—hell, I still can barely move. The cuts all over my body make every little movement send pain through me, and I am covered in bruises.

My voice is weak. It sounds more like a whisper now if I try to talk. I really hope there isn't permanent damage.

I feel like I am fighting a battle that is impossible for me to win. It's not like I could ever get out of here on my own. I don't know why this is happening, and it's the most frustrating part. I keep telling myself I can fight and hold on and I will find a way to get out of here, but the reality is, if she doesn't let me go back to school or leave the house again, I will have no way to escape. I’ve tried to get the ankle cuff off before, and I can't.

My body is too weak to run from here, and they would catch me in a heartbeat. I’m done for. There isn't anything else I can do. Part of me wonders why I am even trying; I should just be hoping they beat me until I die at this point.

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