Chapter Three

Valor

SHY AND SLIM have had the girls at their house for the last few days so Savannah can relax and not put her focus on them. We all know they've been her entire world their entire lives. She would damage her own body and not properly heal in order to be there for them. None of us want her to suffer more than she already has, so Shy came to get the girls from the house and I made sure to let them know that I'd take care of her the best I can and not let anyone get close to her for any reason. Honestly, the house is too fucking quiet now that they're not here. I love spending time with the girls and have missed them more than I let myself realize. Ava, Miracle, and Chloe have a way of worming their way into your heart and sinking their claws into you. I never stood a chance against the three of them. Just like I never had a chance of getting sucked in by their big sister. Savannah is mine and I'm gonna make sure she knows that shit the second she's healed enough for us to talk.

Every single time I enter the bedroom, Savannah yells at me to get out of the house and leave her alone. I'm not about to do that, so I ignore her and continue on with what I'm doing. Usually it's bringing her a meal or medicine. Shy has been the one to clean her up because I won't push Savannah like that. Not after everything she's been through. She deserves to have a woman clean her up and help her change. The only thing I do when I'm in the room is check her wounds to make sure the ones I can see aren't getting any kind of infection. Doc has her on an antibiotic, but those don't always work. Shy checks the wounds under the bandages and her clothing when she cleans her up.

Grabbing the tray with the lunch I prepared for Savannah, I take it in the room with her medicine. She's awake and staring at the ceiling as I move in the room and set the tray down next to her.

"Do you want me to help you sit up?" I ask her, watching as she rolls her eyes before turning her attention on me.

I've missed seeing her eyes looking at me. Savannah has the most unique colored eyes I've ever seen. They're hazel with a deep green mixed in. If the light hits her just right, they seem to glow and look into a person's soul to discover all of their deeply hidden secrets. Her long blonde hair is currently up in one of those messy knots and I know from seeing her with it down that it's even longer than the last time I saw her. It was pretty damn long when I left Benton Falls and now I'm sure it reaches her ass. A generous ass that always had my attention in the past. Her usually flawless, tanned skin is paler than I've ever seen it before. The darkest parts of her body is where the bruises are. Today they're a deep purple that's almost black with yellows and greens mixed in. Savannah has gotten a tattoo or two since I left and I can't wait to see what they are in detail.

"No. I want you to leave me the fuck alone, Valor. You've never had a problem doing that over the last five years. It shouldn't change because I got my ass beat now. You can go back to Pine View and forget all about us again," she states, pain filling her voice as I look deep into her eyes and see the turmoil filling them.

"I never once fuckin' forget you or the girls, Savannah. The four of you have been on my damn mind every fuckin' day over the last almost six years since I moved. You're the one who said you wouldn't come with me without givin' me a reason why. Yeah, I got one now, but it's not the time to get into that shit. I'm not gonna argue with you when you're fuckin' hurt," I tell her, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself down from the anger rising in me. "You were never just a notch on my fuckin' bed post. For you to even think that shit means you really don't know me at all. So, were you just fuckin' playin' me? Fuck! This is why I didn't wanna do this shit now. Chrome will be inside with you. I gotta go to church," I tell her, leaving the tray next to her as I leave the room and close the door behind me.

Savannah can rile me the fuck up with nothing more than a few words. She's always been really good at getting a response from me. Even when I was fighting so hard against what I was feeling for her. I didn't want to add to the pain she was going through because of her mother being a selfish cunt. That's a word I loathe, but it's exactly what her mother is. Any woman who sells their children to human traffickers for money or a drug fix is the lowest form of scum on this Earth. I want to get rid of all of them so the innocent children can remain that way for as long as possible.

"You good?" Chrome asks, walking in the house so I can head over to the clubhouse with Court.

"Not at all. I just took Savannah's lunch into her with the pain medicine and antibiotic. Please make sure she takes them. I'll be back as soon as I can. Maybe we'll order pizza for dinner tonight. I'm not in the fuckin' mood to cook and I have a feelin' it's only gonna get worse once I get through this church," I tell him honestly as he nods his head and makes his way to the hallway where the bedroom is that we've put Savannah in.

Leaving the house, I meet Court on the small porch and we head over to the clubhouse without saying a word. I'm hoping the walk can help calm me down, but if anything every step only adds to the anger already coursing through me. Court knows me good enough by now to realize I don't wanna talk or hear anything he has to say. I have to work through this shit on my own before I talk about what's going on. Right now, all I'd do is bitch about the woman who's driven me insane for so many years now.

Walking into the clubhouse, I'm slammed with a sense of nostalgia that always seems to wash over me the second I step through this door. I grew up here and always felt it was home. As I look around the common room, I expect to see my dad sitting with the guys as they have a cold beer. You could always hear him talking over everyone else when he was telling stories of the club and what they got up to over the years. Pain fills me because I'll never walk through this door and see him at one of the tables with the guys and ol' ladies again. His voice will never fill this room and make everyone around him pay attention because he knew how to embellish a story like no one else. And every time he repeated a story, it became more outrageous than the last time you heard the same tale. That was just one of the many sides of him that not many people got to see.

"I'm right here, Valor. You got this," Court says, pulling me back from memories of my dad as I blink my eyes rapidly and force the pain down deep inside me.

"Thank you," I whisper as several of the boys rush up to greet me.

I take a few minutes to talk with them as they ask what Pine View is like and how the club is doing. They're all so damn excited to patch in and move down with Vault and me. I can't help but let their excitement wrap around me and hold off the anger and pain. These boys are definitely the future of the club and I can't wait to hear about them Prospecting and getting their full patch. Not everyone from Pine View will be here that night, but Vault and I will definitely show up to watch them go from Prospects to full patch members.

When Slim enters the common room, I tell the boys I have to go for now as they all run outside to do whatever it is they do these days. Court and I make our way to church and hand over our stuff to the Prospect collecting the phones and weapons. Heading inside the room I spent time in, I take a seat at the opposite end of the table from Slim. I'm no longer a member of this chapter of the club and Slim doesn't have to let us sit in on this meeting. Thankfully, he is because he knows Savannah is my girl and I will find out what I want to know one way or another. If someone here doesn't tell me, then I'll just have Buzz figure out what Fox and Kingston are looking into so he can start his own search back home. Plus, Slim would never exclude us from church when we're here to help protect Savannah and the girls.

"How you guys likin' Pine View?" Playboy asks as he walks in and takes his seat before leaning back as if we're not about to discuss one of the girls under the club's protection getting hurt in her own home.

"I love it, honestly. It's bigger than Benton Falls and has more to do. The residents of the city are startin' to come around even more to us since they know we're the ones responsible for gettin' the drugs outta there. Business is good and I really can't complain. Got some houses goin' up behind the clubhouse for us to live in so we're not all in the clubhouse unless we're on lockdown or somethin' like that. Vault and Annabell want their own space now and I don't blame them. In a few weeks I'll be wantin' my own space too," I answer Playboy as the guys around the table start laughing their asses off knowing what I'm talking about.

"You think she's gonna go with you now when she didn't almost six years ago?" Killer questions me, a smile on his usually blank face.

"Yeah, I do. Especially if we can't get our hands on whoever did this to her. Yeah, you guys are right here, but if she doesn't let you know what's goin' on, you can't protect her and the girls. I'm hours away in a town this fucker doesn't know anythin' about. She'll go with me just to get the girls in a safer location. Then, I can fix what happened between us because she finally filled me in," I answer him as my smile returns when I think about what I'm gonna do when I finally get my hands on Savannah again. I've missed her more than I ever thought I would and wasn't lying when I told her that.

"You're in for one hell of a fuckin' ride," Slim says, entering church and closing the door behind him.

"Wouldn't trade it for anythin' in the world either. Those girls are mine and I don't give a fuck what anyone has to say about me claimin' that. They've been mine since you put me in that house with them. Don't even act like you didn't know what the fuck you were doin' either, Slim," I say, laughing because of the smile he's giving me. Yeah, our President likes to think we don't know what he's up to when he tries to play matchmaker. We all know exactly what he's doing and he still manages to make it happen.

"Well, it's fuckin' taken you long enough, Valor. Good to see you've finally pulled your head outta your ass," he says as we all laugh for a minute before he calls church to order. "As you all know by now, one of our own was hurt. A guy beat the fuck outta Savannah in her home. Thankfully the girls weren't home when it happened. But, she's worried he'll come back. And, no one is gonna get away with touchin' a woman on our watch. Most of you haven't seen her since the attack, but it's brutal. She's got open lacerations, bruising over most of her body, fucked-up ribs because the asshole dumped one of her bookshelves over on her, and she's in pain. Here's what we know so far."

Slim informs us what Savannah told him and with every word out of his mouth, I see fucking red. This asshole pressured her into accepting a date with him, got pissed when she wouldn't sext with him, and then treated her like shit when they went out on a date. What really pissed me the fuck off is that he waited and let her think everything was over and she'd never see him again before showing up at her house unannounced, calling her a slut, and then beating the fuck out of her because she left the date early and didn't choose him. Some guys are real pieces of shit and don't deserve to breathe the same air the rest of us do.

"Killer and Stryker, did you see anythin' that stuck out when you beat the fuck outta him?" Slim asks, making us all turn our attention to the two men in question.

"Not a single fuckin' thing. He was a pussy who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. Wore fuckin' khakis and shit on the date and made a scene when he caught Savannah leavin' after puttin' money on the table for the soda she had him order for her. The bartender also said he was pretty sure he saw him slip somethin' into her drink before headin' over to the table. None of the cameras caught it though. So, we can add the possibility of him usin' date rape drugs as well as bein' a piece of shit. Stryker and I beat the fuck outta him and left him in the alley," Killer answers, leaning back in his chair as he thinks about anything else that happened between them.

"Yeah. He wasn't aggressive with us like he was with Savannah. Tried to pin the fuckin' scene he was causin' on her by sayin' she was a difficult woman and was upset he wasn't spoilin' her the way she wanted. We all know that's not how Savannah is at all. She's the most selfless woman I've ever met and that's sayin' somethin' with all of our ol' ladies. To know he beat the fuck outta her makes me want to go back to that night and fuckin' gut him instead of leavin' him in a pool of his own blood," Stryker adds to the conversation as we all listen. Well, I try to listen as the blood rushes through my body and that's almost all I can focus on at the moment.

"Fox, his name is Conrad and the last name starts with an R. Savannah said he refused to give her a last name whenever she asked him. See if you can pull up anythin' from the security footage from that day or even when she was beaten. If you can get a plate number, we'll have his last name. I want you workin' on this until you figure it the fuck out. Killer and Stryker will be the ones to get with if you come up with a picture of the asshole since they've seen him before," Slim states as he looks around the table at each one of us. "Valor and Court, I want you two and Chrome to stay with Savannah every day. You need a break, get with me and I'll send someone over for a while. The rest of you, I want you all out fuckin' lookin' every day until we find this fucker. Ask everyone you come across until we have more information on the stupid bitch. Valor, you better start workin' now if you plan on gettin' Savannah and the girls to leave Benton Falls with you this time."

"I'm on it. How long are the girls stayin' at your house?" I ask Slim as we all start to prepare to leave church.

"We're keepin' them for as long as needed. Shy's gonna bring them over tomorrow to hang out with Savannah for a while," Slim states as he looks around the table before slamming the gavel down on the table in front of him and adjourns church.

After grabbing our things, Court and I make our way back through the clubhouse and out the front door. I call the local pizza shop and place an order for delivery with everyone's favorite pizza. Savannah never ate it a lot because of money, but she's a simple girl and will only eat cheese pizza or pizza with chicken on it. Not that Buffalo chicken either. It has to be regular chicken and nothing else. She loves cheesy garlic bread and fried mushrooms though so I make sure to get a few orders of those. I won't eat the mushrooms, but maybe Court and Chrome will. I also make sure to get her a soda because that's the only time she typically has one. Said one time she couldn't eat pizza without a soda. I have no clue why that is, but I'm not about to argue with the logic of that thought. It's a fight I won't win and one I'm not interested in trying to fight.