Page 78 of Stoker's Serenity

“Go on, now. You take care of your girl while we take care of our own.” He scowled and I had a feeling somebody was going to get their ass beat and Doc would be doing a different type of needle work in the next couple of hours.

“Don’t hold back,” I called over my shoulder, adding, “and don’t feel like you need to wait on me.” I had better things to do than handle the justice side of things for this level of disrespect.

I’d told Cutter that I’d planned on taking Serenity for a ride, had told him we didn’t want any special accommodations, just to let me know when the shooting was supposed to begin and I’d get us out of there before it started. He’d reached out through Data to Dragon to make sure I was set, and when Dragon had learned the why of it, he’d taken it upon himself to be a good host and put a moratorium on shooting this go. It was supposed to only be between the hours of X and X, and somebody had defied him. At the very least, there was going to be a major ass whoopin’.

Faith helped me clean Serenity up; she was limp as a rag doll, but conscious. Sort of. Her dark eyes leaked tears, the occasional whimper escaping her lips as the drug worked its way through her system.

“She gonna be okay?” I asked, worried, and Faith smiled, petting her hair as I wet a washcloth in our little bathroom to start working on getting the potato salad off her feet and legs. Faith nodded and sat on the floor with Serenity’s head in her lap.

“She’ll be okay. She’ll sleep, and wake up feeling like shit, but she’ll be alright. Embarrassed more than anything, I’m sure.” She hung her head and hid behind her blonde hair before saying, “I always am.”

I opened my mouth to tell her she didn’t have anything to be embarrassed about, but that’s when Marlin stuck his head in the open door to our room and said, “There you are, everything good?”

Faith smiled at her man and nodded. “It will be, given some time,” she said softly.

“Need some help?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“Naw, I got it, man. What happened?”

“Drunk motherfuckers from the Alabama chapter,” he answered.

“Why’s it always gotta be ‘Bama?” I asked rhetorically.

“At least it’s not Florida this time,” Faith said with an impish smile and a roll of her eyes and I cracked a grin. In that moment she looked so much like her youngest, but most responsible sister out of the three of them, Charity.

“Be my eyes and ears, man?” I asked Marlin, and he threw me some chin.

“You got it, bro.”

That’s what I loved about our club. He may have been the VP, but I was the wronged party according to most club’s charters. So, in this moment, it wasn’t out of pocket for me to ask someone considered my superior in the hierarchy to hook me, and help me out with something a citizen would perceive as menial or bitch-work that I should be doing myself.

I had more important things to do right now, which is exactly what I thought, looking down at Serenity as we got all the potato salad off her skin and I got her out of her slaughtered clothes and into one of my tee shirts to cover her. We got her tucked into the bed, and Faith sat with her, my woman’s head settled onto a pillow in Faith’s lap, while she smoothed back my girl’s hair, almost petting her, comforting. Something a mother would do for her frightened child.

Faith was honestly the expert in this arena, having gone through it more than any of us.

“Go,” Faith murmured. “I know you want to stay, but…”

“Yeah. Respect,” I muttered.

It was all right for Marlin to hold my place and be my eyes and ears for a while, but Serenity was my woman, my property, and so I needed to go out there and see this through. Not just for her, but for my own club. Respect is earned, not given, among our kind, and the outlaw code must be upheld. I needed to get out there and deal with these assholes myself. Or at least be a part of the proceedings.

I went to her, caressed her cheek and kissed her brow. She was out. The drug had taken effect quickly, sucking her under and into the temporary peace of oblivion.

I hurt for her. I had some guesses as to what her words and actions had summed up to back in the kitchen and I didn’t like it. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but it gnawed at my insides just the same.

I went out to deal with what I could; the stupid asshairs that’d caused her distress. Once they were dealt with, I could have a beer, calm down myself, and wait for her to come out of it so we could talk. If she would talk. I hoped she would. She couldn’t carry this burden by herself anymore and she shouldn’t have to. Not after this long.

I went out down to the lakeshore where Dragon, Cutter, and, I think, the president of the chapter whose boys had fucked up, were arguing.

“Who damaged my property?” I demanded, and the presidents all three looked up and over.

“Well, there you have it,” Dragon said.

“Come off it, D! –” The man whose cut read ‘Toe Beans’ shut up when Dragon raised a hand indicating he didn’t want to hear it.

“His property, his call, Beans.”

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