I stop and wait until everyone else has left the room. “What’s up, Prez?”
“Can we trust Piper? Do you really believe she’s been with Mallory?”
“Prez, how else does she know about Mallory? I believe her. She’s able to tell us exactly what happened to her, and she talks about Mallory all the time. I think they were really close.”
“I hope it’s true and we’re not being taken for a ride. I miss Mallory, Shadow.” Prez hangs his head.
“I know you do, and I know your mom does too. We’ll get her and bring her home, don’t worry about that. We always find them.” Prez knows we always find them, we found Meg when she was taken by her psycho ex all those years ago. “We’re experts at it at this stage.”
“I know, but it hits different when it’s your own flesh and blood.”
“Don’t get despondent. We’ll find Mallory, we’ll bring her home and everything will be okay. I promise.” I don’t know how we are going to do it, but we will find her.
“Thanks, Shadow. Now you’d better get back to Piper and find out any more information on where she was staying so we can try and get the guys to locate it in White Water.” Prez nods his head at me and heads into the kitchen.
Walking back to Piper’s room, I wonder what the hell I’m doing. This woman barged into our private space and now all I can do is think about her. She was held captive, beaten and raped, and I want her so bad. I know she is damaged. I know there is more to her than we can see. But I also know that she will go back to her family soon and I don’t want that to happen. I want to get to know her. I want her to stay.
Opening the door, I see she’s asleep. Rosie is beside her and I relieve her. “Rosie, I’ll sit with her for a while. Prez needs you. He’s hurting about Mallory. He just wants to have her here and it’s killing him that someone could still be out there hurting his sister.”
“Thanks Shadow, she’s been asleep a while.” She walks over to me and puts her hand on my shoulder. “She’s an amazing woman. What she’s been through, I think it would have killed me.” She sniffles. “I like her, she’d fit in with the other women here.” She squeezes my shoulder and leaves the room.
I sit next to Piper and take her hand in mine. She has small hands, but I can see that they have been used to manual work. She was in the military, and she fought on the frontlines. Imagine coming home to see your family and then being taken by sex traffickers, she must feel like she let herself down.
I kiss her hand and look at her. She’s beautiful. There’s something about her that calls to me and I’m not used to that. I’m used to using women for sex and nothing else. But I want to know her story. I want to know about her family, and I want to know what she likes and dislikes. I want to give her the world. But I also know that she’s an independent woman who doesn’t need a man to do everything for her and it won’t work out if I treat her like a delicate little flower, either.
Her eyes open and for a split second I see the fear in them. When she looks around the room and realizes where she is, the fear drops. She smiles when she sees me and my heart races.
“Hey,” she whispers. “Drink.”
“You’re thirsty. No problem.” I reach out for her bottle of water that’s on the side table and hand it to her. She takes it and drinks a lot before handing it back.
“Thanks. Did you come up with a plan?”
I look confused.
“You were going to a meeting the last time I saw you.” She sits up in the bed.
“Yes, three of the guys are driving out to White Water today to see the lay of the land and to speak to the other MC’s in the area to see if they can help us.”
“I bet Blake is frustrated that it’s me here and not Mallory.”
“He is, but only because he misses his sister. He’s so happy that you made it here and he has a chance to find her and save her. What about you? What’s your next steps after you get better?”
“I’ll never get better, Braxton. I’ll never be myself again.” She looks down at her hand in mine.
“No, you won't be yourself again, you will be a newer improved version of you. You haven’t called home yet; do you want to do that today?” It’s strange that she didn’t ask for the phone. I would have thought she would have wanted to let them know she was okay straight away.
“I was surprising my family, they didn’t know I was coming home. So, they probably think I’m in the field and can’t contact them. I don’t want to get in touch with them until I know that these people are dead, and I don’t have to worry about them again.”
“You don’t have to worry about them, we are going to make sure of that.”
“I know, but I need to know they’re dead before I do anything. Does that make sense?”
“It does, babe. Move over, let me sit next to you on the bed.”
She looks at me and then I see her move over. I sit next to her and put my arm around her shoulder. “What happened in the two weeks before you made it here?”
She leans her head on my shoulder, and I’m so surprised. “When I got away, I didn’t know which way to turn. I had on a stupid white nightgown so the first thing I had to do was get some clothes. I kept to the woods and then when I got to the town, I found a clothes bank and raided it. There was food in bins outside restaurants so I had food, but I also know how to survive without food or water and that’s why I kept to the outskirts of towns so that I could forage in the woods.”