Page 49 of Healing Souls

Sugar stands up and walks to stand next to Rage’s desk, so he is glaring at the three of us. “Y’all may think you’re high and mighty right now, but you ain’t. You’ve got the right to say no. I understand that. But don’t go commentin’ on Prez’s mind. That ain’t your place, boy.” He points at all of us. “Y’all are juniors, goin’ on to be seniors in what, five or six months? After that, you graduate.

“You becomin’ a prospect makes you the lowest on the totem pole. That shit you said may be let off now, but in a year or so? You’d be scrubbin’ toilets and doin’ every nasty job I could think of.”

Without missing a beat, he turns towards Rage.

“And you didn’t tell me you were goin’ to ask them that, or I woulda told you no as well. Rage, you can’t ask them to tell ya things. You will form a bond with her. Give it time. She has a lot of shit to work through, and one of those things is you. In her eyes, you are not only a stranger, but you hurt her mama. She’s got to work through that one on her own.”

Rage nods and leans forward, resting his elbows on his desk. “That wasn’t fair of me to ask. I just want what is best for her, and I don’t like not knowing what has happened.”

“What can we do to help in the meantime? I know since Harley got here things have been a little off, but has there been anything new on the sex trafficking information?” Grayson asks, glancing over at Nerds.

“Hang on,” Noah retorts, drawing everyone’s attention. “I know that you guys have already found your way into knowing about everything that’s going on with that, but if you want to continue to know what is happening, then what is said in this room stays in this room.”

“You can’t be serious,” I sputter.

“Yes. He is,” Rage says, sitting up straight again. “This is club business. We don’t tell anyone what’s going on. You guys ended up in the middle of this, and I know Gray has been helping Nerds a lot, so I am okay with you guys knowing what is happening, but if we have to go out to deal with anything, you will not be going. And the information doesn’t leave the room. Harley doesn’t need to know.”

“You don’t think that’s going to blow up in your face?” Grayson warns, bitterness in his tone. “She obviously went through shit with Tammy and Richard and who knows who else. She doesn’t trust people, and you want to keep things from her? What about when shedoesfind out?

“Do you know what goes through a person’s mind when they thought someone was being honest with them only to find out later that everyone around them knew something they didn’t? Something that is huge!” He jumps to his feet, scowling. “I understand you want to protect her. But this isn’t protecting her. This is—” He stops mid-sentence and throws his hands up with a growl of annoyance.

“This is wrong, and you know it,” I finish for my brother, leveling our prez with a glare. “You can’t—”

“Yes, I can!” Rage slams a hand on his desk as he stands up and leans over it, glaring at us. “I can, and I will, and you will not tell me anything otherwise. You either promise to keep your fucking mouths shut, or you walk out and don’t know anything. You aren’t a member. You do not have to be kept in the loop.

“But when it comes tomydaughter, I will make the choice I feel is right. If this comes back to bite me in the ass, so be it. I know I am doing the best I can to keep her safe and protected. Understood?”

My eyes bounce between Cade, who is sitting forward, his arms resting on his legs as his fingers are laced together, and Gray, who is standing with his fists clenched. If we all walk out of here right now, then we don’t get information. We will have no idea what’s going on. Not only to keep each other safe, but to keep her safe. We aren’t older and wiser, like Rage and Sugar and the rest of them, but we can handle ourselves.

Keeping this from Harley is going to hit us really hard. I can see the hesitation of that thought alone on my brothers’ faces.

But the alternative of having no information is worse. I just hope that Harley will see that when she finds out that everyone around her knew this information while she was kept in the dark.

After one more glance at my brothers, reading them like a book, I am stiffly nodding at Rage. “Understood.”

Gray and Cade both give their agreements, and Rage tilts his head at us. “Good.”

Please understand, little flame. Please.

“I found some information on Daniel,” Nerds says as he walks over to the desk and sets his laptop down so it is facing the three of us. When the screen turns on, images of Tabby and Daniel in a car pop up. The screen slides to the next image—them kissing.

“They’re together?” Gray exclaims, his eyes widening as more images come up. “She’s like fourteen or maybe fifteen, and he’s nineteen.”

My fists clench as things connect in my mind. “How fucking long?”

“I don’t know for sure yet. But so far, at least a year,” Nerds answers.

Rage adds, “What wedoknow is someone helped him get out of here, and it wasn’t someone from the outside. The footage from the cameras that face the gate were checked second by second, and there’s nothing.”

“I am going to be upping our security. I should’ve done it years ago, but I didn’t think we would ever be in this position. There will be cameras all over the property starting next week. Not just at the front gate.” There is obvious disappointment in Nerds’s voice as he speaks. Like he thinks he failed.

“We’ve never had reason to have more, Nerds. This has been plenty enough for us over the years, especially after we cleaned things up from Killer; there haven’t been any issues until now,” Rage reassures him.

“Are we staying on lockdown?” Gray asks without looking up from where he is scanning the photos on Nerds’s computer.

He nods. “Yes, but not just to the main house. It will just be the entire property. We’ll be going out to check all the fencing and make sure everything is good and there are no spots someone could sneak in. Also, we do not believe Parker or Connor were involved with helping Daniel, so they can be on gate duty and helping us secure things. They will just be a need to know along with everyone else in the club.”

“Okay. What can we do to help? Were any decisions made in church earlier?” I ask. Looking at my brothers, I see that Cade is listening intently, taking everything in, but Gray is still zoned in on those fucking pictures. I reach down and slap his shoulder. “Gray! Stop staring at those and focus.”

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