Truth and Lies: Chapter 12

Damn woman, closed her mouth and now won’t respond at all. But when you think about it, I can’t blame her, grabbed off the street and drugged.

‘Buzz, Mav, get your asses in the office,’ I bellow.

Standing behind my desk, I’m about ready to explode with anger. When Buzz and Mav enter, I point at the chairs for them to sit.

Walking to the office door, I close it quietly, which is far more than I’m feeling inside. When I’m standing behind my desk once more, I look at them both and then explode.

‘What the fuck do you think you were doin’, grabbin’ her off the street like that, fuckin’ knocking her out with drugs. I told you to get her and bring her here, not fuckin’ kidnap her. Now we’ve no chance of her talkin’ to us.’ and I slam myself down into my chair.

‘Pres,’ Buzz starts to speak.

‘Shut the fuck up.’ I snarl at him, giving him my you’re fucked look.

Mav sits forward in his chair, ‘We’re sorry, Pres, but it was the quickest and cleanest way to get her at the time. She was just about to climb onto another bus, and we couldn’t take the chance. No one was around, so we just grabbed her.’

‘It’s fucked up, is what it is,’ I state, leaning back in my chair and pulling at the back of my hair in frustration.

‘Sorry, Axel, we did what we thought would be quickest and cleanest at the time,’ Buzz says, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

‘Well, we can’t change it now, but I’m not sure she’ll trust us now. I’ll go talk to her and see what I can find out if anything.’ standing and walking to the door.

Walking through the main room, you can tell the difference since we had Church, the place is much cleaner, and the club girls are staying out of the way, not laying around on the furniture all day long.

Heading upstairs, I see Brag sitting on the chair opposite the room we have Miriam in. He stands when he sees me coming towards him.

‘Anything to report?’ I ask.

‘No, it’s been all quiet,’ he responds.

‘Okay, go grab yourself a drink and bring it back here with you. We may need something brought for Miriam, so keep someone in the kitchen alert, and you can text them if I get any progress in here.’ I move to the door and turn the key, take a deep breath and enter.

Miriam is sitting on the window sill, looking out into the yard below. She makes no sign of hearing me enter.

The room has a queen-size bed, dresser, chair, and small walk-in closet, plus a bath—all in all, a nice room.

‘Is everything okay for you in here?’ I ask, but again no response.

Sitting on the edge of the bed facing her, I know I’ve got to get her talking, but she’s gonna be a stubborn one, I’m sure.

‘Miriam, I’m sorry that you were brought here in the way you were. It wasn’t my intention at all. The men just got carried away with it all.

‘As a club, when we hear of women being mistreated, we do whatever we can to get them out of that situation. It’s not an official job of the club. We just do what we can, when we can.

‘When this thing happened to you, I saw it in the newspapers and heard things whispered, but nothing ever came to me as concrete evidence.

‘Five years you spent inside, and I believe you’re innocent, and if that’s true, I want to help you clear your name, find the one who should have had the sentence.’

All the time I’m speaking, she says nothing, doesn’t even turn to speak to me, look at me or show any kind of response at all.

‘Are you hungry or thirsty? I’ll send up whatever you fancy if we have it.’ I offer, but again no response.

‘Okay, I’ll talk to you again later,’ I turn to the door, and as I’m going to open it, I turn back to her, ‘You won’t be leaving here until you talk to me, so the quicker you do, the quicker you can get out of here.’ and with that, I walk out and lock the door once more.

‘How did it go?’ Brag asks from his chair opposite.

‘Nothin’, I’ll try again later. Just keep your ears peeled.’ and I walk away, back to the office. Now I’m wondering if I should call Sharp and let him know I have her or wait to see how this plays out.

Zara

I think my legs are going to fall off, we’ve walked and walked, and I’ve no idea how far. I just know I’m going to fall over if we walk much further.

‘Target? We nearly there?’ I ask hopefully.

‘About ten minutes, I think. Are you alright, or do you need to rest a minute?’ he asks, looking down at me with a slight smirk.

‘I’m okay. We can keep walking.’ I say because I don’t want him thinking I’m a baby and can’t walk this far.

Nodding, Target carries on walking but has a little kick up on the side of his mouth. Shit, I’ll show him I can make it, and I dig in and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The diner is right on the edge of town, amongst a few other shops, not many but a small food store, laundromat, and looks like a gun shop.

Entering the diner, we walk over to the counter, and a nice-looking lady smiles at us.

‘Can we have two drinks, please?’ I ask, then plop down in the nearest booth.

Target chuckles and tells her we want a soda and a coffee, then sits in the opposite seat to mine. ‘You okay?’ he asks, grinning.

‘I’m okay. My legs are just tired.’ I admit at last, ‘I’m hungry too. Shall we have something to eat while we’re here?’

‘Yea, okay, we can eat. Do you have enough money left? I can get some cash if we need it. My pay still goes into my account, although I don’t use it.’ Target tells me.

‘I’ve got quite a bit left. It’s my savings from birthdays and Christmas, so I have a good bit,’ I tell him smiling.

The lady brings our drinks, and I ask, ‘Do you have a deep-dish pizza with lots of cheese on top and fries?’

‘We sure do. We have one large enough for you to share and a good heap of fries on the side,’ she states, smiling at me.

Looking over at Target, ‘Do you fancy sharing that?’ I ask, and he nods with a smile.

That’s when we just sit back and rest a little while as we wait for our lunch. I know I’ve got to speak to the lady, but I’m going to eat first in case she chucks us out.

The pizza was amazing. It had pepperoni, mushrooms, sweet peppers, and three different kinds of cheese, all stringy when you bite into it.

Once we’ve finished our meal, I walk over to the register and pay the lady, Target steps up behind me, and I take a deep breath and quickly say, ‘Do you know if Miriam worked here for you? She is my friend, and I’m trying to find her? We don’t want to cause trouble or hurt her. I just want to find her to say I’m sorry.’

The lady looks at us both closely, ‘Please, sit down again for a minute.’ and she calls to the man in the kitchen, ‘Graham, come out here a minute.’

With no one else in the diner, the lady walks over to the door and locks it turning the sign to say the diner is closed.

She and the man sit down with us, and the man turns to Target, ‘My name is Graham, this is my wife, Suzie. We do know Miriam, but she is called Mia now. She is no longer here. Two biker clubs have been here in the last few months, and one asked for Miriam; that is when she left. We don’t know where she is. We just know she caught the first bus of the day.’

Suzie looks at us both hard, ‘If you’re here to have her hurt, I’ll find a way to hurt you both. I don’t care you’re a child, you could have saved her, and I won’t let you hurt her again.’

Target leans forward, ‘We have no intention of hurting her. Zara just wants to say she’s sorry for her part in all that happened, which was allowing herself to be ignored when she tried to speak up. Do you know the name of the two biker clubs that were in here?’

Graham nods, ‘Yes, one was Raging Barons MC, and the other was Rogue Legion MC.’

‘Rogue’s are my dad’s club. If dad finds her first, he’ll hurt her.’ I say and start to cry.

‘They didn’t ask for her. The other one did. If the Rogue’s come back, I won’t tell them anything if they are trying to find her to hurt her.’ Graham states and Suzie is nodding in agreement.

We thank them and leave the diner, walking back towards the town. Looking up at Target, I can see he is deep in thought, so I keep quiet.

‘Come on, little sister, let’s go talk to some people and find out where we can find these Raging Barons.’ Target states, and he wraps his arm around my shoulders, and we increase our pace a little more.