Fifteen bikers left the clubhouse.They all wanted to back Bager up in his quest.They reached Troy before the workday started and they drove through town looking it over carefully.They weren’t wearing their cuts as they didn’t want to let anyone there to know they were in the area.If they managed to talk to this woman, they didn’t want anyone knowing who they were.The plan was to get into Troy, get to her, ask her some questions and leave before anyone knew they were there.
Chewy had found an abandoned warehouse at the far edge of town to stay in.Everyone settled in for a long afternoon.One of the brothers had driven a truck in case they needed it.Banger explained to the men that he might snatch this woman, if she refused to tell him anything.
They all looked spooked.
“Didn’t you hear what they did to Robbie, Virgil?”Finn asked him.
Banger nodded.“We will not be hurting her.And I’m hoping she will just talk to me and we won’t have to nap her.
Chewy and Finn did not look happy.
Redemption House
Rodney and Banger took the truck and went to this Redemption House.It would be better to have just two of them go.So their story would look legit.They found it on the poor side of the town.They parked down the street and stared at the building itself for a long time.
It had the eyes of a tiger painted as a mural on the outside wall.It was high quality and the artist had to be a pro.Somehow, it made him feel something.He just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.Like warning of portending doom?
How odd.It was just a logo or something.
Then again, he hadn’t been right for years.Being behind iron walls for a decade would do that to a person.Like he did often now, Banger waited in silence.
Rodney was getting nervous about that silence.Finally, he asked quietly, “What are you thinking, man?”
Banger slowly turned his head and stared at him.“I’m thinking you’re getting a bit jumpy.”
Rodney nodded.“You’d be right about that.”
“Kid...”Banger sighed hard.“I know you want to do the club proud and all that.But if we go into that building and things don’t go well with this woman, we might be crossing a line in the sand.”
Rodney looked over at him.“Why are you trying to talk me out of this?I volunteered for it.”
Banger simply shook his head.“Because I just walked out of prison for a crime I didn’t commit.No one person can prepare you for life inside those walls.That’s a journey only you can take, only you can decide what happens to you.But once you go through that fucking gate, your life is no longer yours.Prison isn’t no fancy vacation, son.It’s hard to wake up in fear every fucking day and wonder if today will be the day you’ll piss off another inmate bigger and meaner than you are.Then you get stabbed.Just because they got a bug up their ass and they want to take it out on you.It ain’t like jail where you spend a few days and they let you out.I don’t want to hurt this woman.I just need some information she might not be willing to give me.A decade ago, Robbie took something from me I’m hoping to get back.I can’t ask a corpse anything so I have no choice but to ask her.My plan was to go after Robbie and beat the shit out of him but Robbie isn’t here anymore.It was the only thing that kept me going all those years I spent behind bars.That when I got out I was going to be free to find the little puke that sent me up and what I would do to him when I found him.I never expected to find him dead.This...”He motioned at the building down the street.“...is the only way I can find the answers.So, I need to know if you can do this or not, because if you can’t then I will.But right now, my mind isn’t in a very good place.”
Rodney straightened his shoulders and said, “I can do it.”
Banger nodded.“Ok, then now is the time to put up or shut up.”
“I will case the back area.You might need a way to escape if this goes south.”Rodney opened the truck door and got out.He shut the door quietly and headed toward the building known as Redemption House.
Banger got out as well.He walked toward the double doors of the old school with purpose in his stride.He tried not to think about what his part in this mission was, to his mind he was here to gather facts, not possibly hurt an uncooperative woman.He just spent ten years behind bars for a crime of someone who’d hurt a woman really bad.Then while he was stuck in an 8 by 10 cell, the real criminal had been free to do God only knows what.They had heard some of what Robbie had done to those poor women.All while Banger never hurt a woman in his whole life.
When he pulled the door open and stepped inside, Banger had to pause to look around carefully.The lobby was done in soft subdued colors.Everyone here was laughing and moving along with their lives.No one looked like a bum or like they were in trouble.Children played nearby but there were also adults who watched over them.
A young boy about five ran down the hall, opened a door and hollered out, “Mama!”as he rushed into the room.
Banger slowly walked down that same hall to stop at the half open door and peeked inside.
A woman with long red hair sat in a chair listening with interest to the boy’s story of what his morning had been like at school.
Banger swung his gaze over to the name plaque on the doorCassie Tory.He took a step back then stared at the woman sitting behind the desk again.He looked long enough at her to burn her features into his brain.So it was Cassie, not Kacey.
Then he looked down at the top half of her body and noticed for the first time that she was wearing a cut.It carried the name Sin’s Bastards.He never heard of them.Then again if it was a younger MC, he wouldn’t have.Ten years is a long stretch.He’d better talk to Boxer first to see if he ever heard of them.
He took a step back then turned and silently walked to the main doors again.He needed to wait to talk to her...alone.Too many people and kids around this place right now anyway.They would all probably start screaming just because he got near her.An ex-con like him would get thrown back into stir and they would just toss the key away