Page 62 of Fox and Nitro
I put all my effort into fighting the little bastard successfully popping it through when yelling and feet rushing around sounds out down the hall. I make sure Jazz is good to go before following Nitro out the door.
“Everything all good?” I ask Mama Debs as she ushers the kids toward the back room.
“All good, just someone the twins know.” We share a look and I move even faster to get to the common room.
Instead of laying eyes on Travis Dickbag Hitchens, I’m met with the sight of a small black woman beat all to hell.
“What the fuck?”
“She’s Loyal’s friend. Turns out, she’s also a friend to the twins’ mom,” Omen says, stepping up next to me, watching as Switch checks her over.
“Wait, so you’re saying that motherfucker came all this way looking for information on those kids? How the fuck did he think they made it here?” Nitro snarls.
“Who the fuck knows? He’s probably grasping at straws, trying to find his fucking payday,” Omen replies, moving his ass when Dex calls Church.
We file in after the other brothers, and it’s a weird fucking feeling sitting down in places that aren’t usually ours, facing a Pres that up until a little while ago, was our brother. I guess he still is, but now he’s the top dog of his own Chapter.
“I know you’ve been dealing with this fucker, so bring us up to speed. What are we looking at?” Dex asks Marx as soon as his gavel hits the table.
Marx’s lips tip up slightly before he tips his head toward me and Nitro.
“As you know we’ve been working with Moss to clean out his department. From what we can tell Hitchens was your typical badge-wearing bully when he worked for El Serpiente. Now it looks likely he’s cut out the middle man, so to speak, and is working directly with the people who employed El Serpiente.” I start off, looking at my brothers around the table.
“This guy, Matthew Thompson, seems to have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. One of which is black market military grade shit,” Wire adds.
“Girls?” Dex asks.
“Anything you can think of. Girls, boys, grandmas, grandpas, body parts, drugs, you name it.”
“And this Hitchen’s guy you’re looking for, the twins’ father, works for him?”
“Yeah, he’s a total fucking scumbag,” Switch growls. “One of his wives and daughters is staying with me,” he says, staring everyone down, as if we’d challenge him.
He’s been gone for the woman since that night in the ER, and I’m not going to tell him no.
“One of his wives?” Vex asks, brow raised.
“The other is the mother of the twins. Fucking tortured her to death, and has a buyer for the girls. That’s why he wants them so bad.” Nitro answers.
Dex’s jaw clenches. “OK. And that’s the murder the kids saw?”
I take a deep breath then blow it out. “It wasn’t quick. Coroner said it would have taken days for her to suffer the amount of damage she did.”
Curses sound out around the room and Chef looks fit to burst.
“Wait,” Vex interrupts, “at what point did the girls see what they saw?”
I share a look with Nitro and then Marx. “They were there the whole time. School records show they never made it to school the two days before they were found in the home with their deceased mother.”
“And you’re only just telling me this now? Dude, Loyal and I have been tasked with looking after them while they’re here! You should have told us the trauma we’re dealing with!” He slams his fist on the table.
I get it, I fucking do. It’s a shitty situation and those girls, while seemingly OK last night with the other kids and Mama Debs, they’re gonna be fucked up for a long time. Taking Vexin and meeting Lovely I know why Dex chose them to take in the kids. They’re steady, calm, and I know they’ve been through some shit. Fuck, everyone who had the displeasure of growing up in Eden’s Keep has.
“Vex, take a step back, brother. Think about what those kids need. They need normalcy. They need to have fun and be kids again, they can’t do that if the people taking care of them are looking for any sign of trauma or breakdown,” Dex offers.
“I hear your point brother, but your Pres is right. We just gotta leave the twins be for a while. Their lives are going to go to shit fast. The least we can do is give them some good days while we look for their father and shut down their operation and whatever the fuck else they have going on at the PD,” Marx adds in his gravelly voice.
He may well be sitting around another Pres’s church table, but he’s still the Pres of the mother chapter and what he says goes.
