Page 103 of Love is Strange
“You a mind reader all of a sudden, Prez?”
“Nah.” He laughs. “I just know my boys well.”
“Thanks.” I neck most of the bottle in one long chug. “Damn, I needed that.”
“She awake?” Prez nods toward the door.
“No. Doc says it could be a few days. She’s been through a lot.”
“Yeah”–the alpha of our group of bikers runs his fingers through his long beard– “Ebony was upset at the state of her. Said she’s pretty bruised and scarred.”
"They had to cut her hair to shoulder length because it was straggly and matted. I don't think it's been brushed in ten years let alone washed. She was covered in stuff no woman should have on them." I drink the rest of the beer, hoping it’ll wash away the sight of her thin body covered with grime and blood.
“I can’t even begin to imagine what she’s been through”–Prez takes my empty beer and whistles toward Penny, a club girl hovering nearby– “take this and get Caim another one." She scurries off with the beer bottle in hand and a massive smile on her face because she's being helpful in a time of crisis, which she hopes will be noticed by Prez.
"Where's Snake? The Dungeon?" My mood darkens, my tone terse with a need to inflict agonizing pain on the man responsible for this. I start to head downstairs, but Prez places his arm out in front of me.
“No.”
“What? Where is he, then?” I ask in confusion.
"He's in the dungeon, but you aren't going in there at the moment."
“What the fuck?”
An eyebrow is raised at me warning me to rein it in. “Caim, you nearly knocked Iron out today. You need to start thinking straight. You aren’t going in the dungeon for the same reason as I'm not going in there either. We’re both too worked up over the condition we found the girl in. The others didn't see it. Heat purposely stayed out of the room and avoided looking at the girl. He knows we need information out of Snake first, and if we go in with our heads full of the visions of her suffering, he'll be dead before we even get to the end of the first question.
“I want a piece of him,” I hiss and slam my fist into the wall.
"You'll get it. It might not be the last say, but you will get your turn at him."
"You going to be the one to send the message? Take his life?" I ask, and Prez shuts his eyes. He looks older than his thirty-six years, today. A father at seventeen, club president at twenty-five, and a widower at thirty. He's seen a lot, but there’s something about the woman in the bedroom behind me that scares him.
“No. I won’t be the one to end him.” He shakes his head.
“Who?”
Penny runs back up to us with another beer.
“Here you are, Caim. Is there anything else I can get for you? If you wanna go back to your room, I'm sure I can relieve some of the tension you’re experiencing." She bats her fake eyelashes at me and then turns them on Prez. "Unless you need me, of course." The words are spoken with such desperate hope it's almost comical. She bites her lip. "Or I could take you both, if that's what you want?"
“It’s ok, Penny. We need to talk a bit more. Why don’t you run downstairs? I'm sure some of the other brothers could use a bit of a release after the nasty shit we all saw today." The desperate woman smiles brightly and teeters off on heels I've no idea how she even stays upright on.
“Who’s ending him?” I repeat.
The president looks up and down the corridor to ensure nobody else is around. It’s silent as most of the brothers and club girls are in the bar area.
“There are things you don’t know. What did she say to you when you were alone?”
I shrug my shoulders. “Nothing much. She was terrified. I just worked on removing the chains from her. She hinted at things her father may have done to her.”
Prez leans against the wall.
“Did she call him her father?” he questions me with a tone, which indicates he’s fearful of the answer.
“She didn’t call him father, but she did call him Daddy. It's sick."
“It’s not as sick as you think.”
