Page 40 of Creed

“So, everyone has a job in the community?” I asked Stephanie.

“No, not everyone. A lot of wives have jobs outside the community and some like me stay home. The men and women who go on missions will sign up for one if they want, but most don’t. Some members really are retired from the military, and they don’t go on missions. They might work at the bike shop, do maintenance, take care of the lake or work security. Not everyone that works here lives here either. Like the gardener and his crew. They live off site, but they are veterans and only employed by Creed.”

“Like the cleaning lady? Tina was it?”

Stephanie rolled her eyes. “No, Tina isn’t a veteran, but she does live here.” She didn’t seemed thrilled about that question.

I sat on the bed and looked at her. “I heard there are women here to entertain the men. Is that true?”

She drew in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh as she put a pair of my jeans on a hanger. “Women like Tina do have jobs, but they aren’t here for the jobs really. They have to earn their keep, but let’s just say they’re more like groupies. They like to party and have sex, but Creed has made it clear, they will work if they want to stay. Most of them have colorful backgrounds and he wants them to learn some independence. How to earn and save money, pay bills, and not depend on a man. Maybe even learn a skill or two. He doesn’t care if they want to have fun in the process. It keeps his men somewhat happy and behind thegates and finding less trouble. By trouble, I mean blowing off steam in Clarity or Louisville after a mission.”

I stood and pulled a shirt from the box and grabbed a hanger. “Were any of them prostitutes before they came here?”

Stephanie nodded. “Yes. Prostitutes and strippers. Believe me, you don’t want to go to the X club after dark if you’re not in to that sort of thing.”

“The X club?” I hung the shirt up in the closet.

“Yeah, there’s a bar at the community center. It’s nice as long as you leave by eleven. It can get pretty crazy from what I hear.”

I hesitated to ask the next question, but curiosity won. “Does Creed participate?”

She paused as she was reaching into the box. “Umm…you’ll have to ask Creed about his personal life. What I can say is once a week, if there’s not a mission, a lot of us come here and hang out downstairs. Mostly the people he served with and me. I’m the only wife of who they call the Originals. I’m sure you’ll meet all of them. They consist of Creed, Drakos, Bolton, Axton, Irons, Baros, Magnus, and my husband, Ryan Granger. Creed served with my husband, and we’ve been here since the beginning. Ryan and I have been married since before he joined Delta Force. We were high school sweethearts.”

“Where are you from?” I pretended interest, although I felt like my soul was slowly dying. Callie was killed in front of me, and somehow I had to act like a normal functioning adult. It took all my strength not to fall to the floor and let my grief swallow me whole.

She smiled as she reached for another hanger. “A small town just outside Bangor.”

“So, nobody else but Magnus is from Indiana?” My curiosity was endless.

“I think Creed has family from somewhere around here, but I’ve never heard the details. He only really talks about his dad and grandfather. I think I once heard his mom left them when he was young, so he was raised by a single dad. When I met him, he was just like all the other guys. He lived in a small apartment with Axton and none of us knew he came from money. Believe me when I say it came as a shock.” She put another pair of jeans on a hanger, while I worked on blouses.

Did that mean he hid his wealth?

“Do people like Tina and Victor know what this place is really about?”

She tilted her head. “Didn’t Creed go over the biggest rule with you?”

“He just told me about the house rules and there weren’t many.” I answered.

“The biggest rule is not to ask questions and tell nobody what you know. Victor is not aware, and the same goes for just about everyone that works in the bike shop, excluding the veterans. I can say the girls like Tina do not know, but there is one woman named Felicity that is more than aware. She was the first woman Creed ever hired here, and she keeps an eye on the girls. If they start asking questions they are asked to leave.”

“What makes her so special?” I started to hang the jeans she put on hangers in the closet.

She shrugged. “She was someone that needed help and the guys helped her out. She was brought back here for protection and she never left. That was about four years ago, and it was the last time a woman was brought here for protection. I don’t actually know all the specifics.”

I could tell by the way she acted there was a lot more to the story and I wondered if it had to do with Creed. “Was Creed involved with her?”

She didn’t look up at me. “You’ll have to ask Creed about his personal life.”

I guessed that meant yes.

“Lets talk about this little girl. You’re hoping to get custody?” She changed the subject.

“Yes, she’s six but will soon be seven. She’s a bit of a tomboy, but has some interests in the girly stuff too. She has some struggles in school because of some speech issues, but she’s absolutely adorable. I don’t know if the foster parents or social workers told her about Callie or if she understood what happened last night. That’s what is so hard, she should be with people that love her and she’s familiar with, but her grandparents aren’t the best people. I presume from the things I’ve been told by others and by Callie, that there were only a few good people around her. I know her babysitter and she’s great and her teacher is as well, but I think that’s about it. Our contact was limited to a weekly FaceTime call, so she doesn’t even know me all that well.”

“Well, she would do great here. We have an online home schooling program if you’re interested. If not, we take turns and carpool to the schools in Clarity. For the parents that work, we have an after school program. It’s ran by those of us who arestay at home moms. It’s from three in the afternoon until six in the evening. We switch off, so I do Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other moms cover the rest. We do homework and they get plenty of playtime. We also have mom night, which is where the men keep their kids so all of us moms can enjoy a night out or we might go to the bar at the community center. There’s also an activities committee, but we can get into all that later.”

I thought about Callie and how she could have been that kind of mom. The kind that was involved in the PTO and went on field trips. That’s how my mom was and when we were little Callie clung on to my mom and ran to her when she fell and got hurt. Callie had role models, so why did she take the road she took? I reached down into the box and pulled out my little black dress and just stared at it. I was going to need that dress soon and suddenly I hated it.

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