Chapter 17

Tav

W e traveled the three hours to the outskirts of Eden's Keep and the whole team have spent the last two hours setting up surveillance. I have to admit, I've worked security, people recovery, even search and rescue before, but never have I seen anything quite like Eden's Keep.

"The place is absolutely massive," Savage says, dropping into a seat in the motel room that we're all gathered in.

Adonner is a shitty little town close to Eden's Keep. Blanche's intel pegged Adonner as the best place to hole up because the Keep members never come here. They prefer to go further afield for their supplies. Well, that and Adonner locals dislike Eden's Keep with a vengeance, so the likelihood of someone from this small town ratting us out seems fairly low.

"It's massive and fucking creepy. Did you see how the women dress there?" Nitro asks the room. "Did you wear that shit, Blanche?"

Pixie's lips curl up in the corners, "Hells yes I did! I loved my floor length brown dresses and big white sneakers," she snorts then giggles, unable to keep up the lie. "Want to know what they wear on their wedding days?"

Rider leans forward, clearly interested in hearing more. Hell, he's not the only one. Most of my brothers are listening in eagerly.

"We get to wear pink versions of the brown dress. And big white sneakers."

Rider shudders, looking horrified, and rightly so.

"After the ceremony, everyone gathers in the hall, seated for dinner, while the bride and groom get taken to the bridal suite. They're not allowed to come out until they consummate the marriage. After that, they enter the hall and the members celebrate the fact that they just fucked. Then they get to eat dinner."

"That's fucked up," Tank grumbles, everyone else nodding along.

"There's a lot that's fucked up about the place. I was lucky. It wasn't so bad when I was growing up but, it got more and more fucked up after I left. At least I knew things weren't normal. Others, people that are born there, they don't know. Someone like Lovely will take a long time to get used to the outside world." Blanche says, her sister very obviously on her mind.

Marx frowns for a moment, then goes back to watching the small screens our video feeds are playing on. I have to admit, being able to bring a shit ton of security equipment is making our jobs a cakewalk. We spent two hours setting up a perimeter, and now we're chilling out, watching the coming and going of Keep people.

It's Saturday, so the younger kids are playing with balls and hula hoops in the middle of the compound. The older teenage kids are in groups, the boys playing something akin to football while girls huddle in packs on the sidelines watching. The women look tired as they push large baby buggys with two or even three babies sitting in them. There are no men in sight, at least not on our feeds.

"Pixie, where are all the men?"

She leans closer to the screens, then frowns at the smart watch on her wrist. "The men usually meet at 5pm on a Saturday. They're two hours early."

Marx runs a hand down his beard. "What does it mean if they're meeting early?"

Pixie's eyes look up to the ceiling, "I've only ever remembered it happening two or three times when I was there. The first one was when one of the council members died. One of my contacts would have messaged me if Mercy had passed away so it won't be that. Another time was when they thought they were going to be raided by the FBI and needed a plan."

"Fuck," Marx curses under his breath, "You don't think they got a whiff of us, do you?"

Pixie tips her head to the side, watching the feed for a moment, as if remembering. "No. The time that happened we weren't allowed out. Women and children were locked into the big hall with two councilmen. We were to keep quiet. The men even went around handing out candy to the little kids, which made them fall asleep. Us older kids were told that if the government came there was a special drink we would all take and it would take us somewhere safe." Looking around, she knows she doesn't have to explain what this special drink was.

"And your dad decided that?" Tank asks, incredulously.

"That's how the Keep works. The outside is evil, full of devils in disguise. Your soul will go to hell where you'll be punished for eternity. The outside people are dirty. They're all murderers and rapists. Ironically, so is the Keep," Vic answers for his sister.

"How come you turned out so normal?" Rider asks Pixie, his brow raised.

"I'm not an idiot? I don't blindly believe people just because they have a dick? I'm stubborn? Let's put it this way, I don't listen to salvation advice from someone who marries underage girls," Blanche says, her voice even, belying the fire in her eyes.

"Makes sense," Dex replies before something catches his eye. "There you are fucker."

Hammer can be seen on the screen, jovially joking with a few of the men as they leave the hall, looking so fucking out of place within their compound. The rest of the men are in collared shirts buttoned to the very top, neatly tucked into slacks. They too are wearing white sneakers and at this point I'm questioning if they own shares in New Balance or something. I can't tell what color the men's shirts and trousers are, but in contrast to Hammer's t-shirt, jeans and vest, it makes him stand out like a dog's balls.

Savage turns to Marx, keeping his eyes on the monitor for a moment before looking at Pres. "When do you want us to grab him?"

"Seeing the compound and the number of people milling around, I say we go in tonight. Blanche, any idea where his room is located?"

Pixie nods, before tapping away at her phone screen. "Just sent you the layout. It's been almost two decades since I was last there, but I can't imagine it's changed much. All ‘outside' guests stay in the same place. The main office building has a hall that leads to the council members' rooms. There's one pokey little room at the end of the hall on the left-hand side. Hammer will be in there. There's a single door and one window, but the windows only open an inch before they lock. "

Savage and Dex check their phones, their fingers working on zooming in on their screens.

"You'll all have your watches and the earpieces to communicate and I've got the Tombs Security stash of night vision goggles and a drone I can fit in my pocket." To illustrate my claims, I unzip the side pocket of my cargo pants, pull out a khaki case and open it, showing it to my brothers who ooohhh and ahhh over it.

"Hold the fuck up," Sniper rasps in his measured way. "Is that the Black Hornet?" His eyes look like they're about to pop out of his head.

"Yup," I reply, popping the "p."

"No fucking way do you have one of those!" Rider adds, trying to get past Tank's big body for a closer look. "My buddy was telling me about these. These things cost a fucking bomb,"

"It's one of Chewy's perks. She helped an unnamed organization, and they paid her in three of these."

Dex's eyes get comically large before he whispers, "Holy shit how much does she charge?"

"Probably not enough for some of the information she finds," I wink at him.

"OK, so we have a fancy ass drone on the team. Savage and Dex, how many more men do you need?" Marx looks toward the men, who communicate purely with a look at each other.

"I think it's best to send in a small team," Savage answers. Marx agrees with the ex Death Riders Pres who continues, "With Tav having eyes on us, that decreases the number we'd need, so I'd say one more. That gives us one man sweeping and two of us dragging Hammer outta there." Savage looks around at the men in the room.

Sniper steps forward and knowing his background I'd say he is probably the best choice. Quiet, patient, hard to rattle. Marx nods at his MC brother. Savage and Dex look happy too, Sniper is who I'd want watching my back.

"Blanche, what time is lights out?" Pixie gives Marx a funny little smile, "We all know there's a lights out. No one runs a compound like this and lets people have an ounce of freedom," Marx reasons.

"You'd be right. Lights out is 10pm, on the dot. The electricity gets turned off at the mains, only the main perimeter alarms are left on. If anyone needs to get up for anything after that, they're instructed to use a torch."

"Fucking weirdos," Fox grumbles, Pixie turning to give the big man a huge smile.

"We go in at 11pm. Rider and I will take first watch on the screens. Tank and Tav you're next. Everyone else, rest up or get some grub. It's gonna be a long night."

Blanche

"How are you feeling, baby?" Tav asks, his warm breath skating over my skin as I lazily wake from the nap I swore I wasn't going to take.

It's weird, when I'm on a stakeout I never nap. Put me on the most important stakeout of my life and I sleep like a baby in the middle of the afternoon. I blame having the security of all these men around me. Never in my life did I ever think I would submit to a man, or even ask one for help, and yet here I am, relying on these men to help me take down the evil from my past life. It's a real trip.

Rolling over, I lift my arms over my head and stretch while Tav hovers over me with a soft smile on his face. Finishing my stretch, I reach up and cup his cheek.

"Thank you for coming with me." I rub his dark stubble with my thumb.

"You couldn't keep me away, Pixie. I'm your backup." He leans forward and his lips gently meet mine. He pulls back far too soon. "Speaking of backup, wanna come watch some feeds with me and Tank?"

I think about it for a moment, before deciding I'd rather eat something. "Nah, I'll leave that exciting stuff up to you. I might go grab something to eat."

Tav drops a quick kiss on my lips before bouncing off the bed. "OK babe, I'll walk you to Dom and Vic's room. You can eat with them, yeah?"

Nodding, I roll up and get off the bed a lot slower than Tav did, then gather the stuff I'll need. Once ready, Tav walks me to Chris and Dom's motel room. Knocking on the door gently, I wait until Dom opens it a crack. Instead of looking directly at my face, I have my middle finger up in the doorway's crack.

"You're a child, you know that?" he says, swinging the door open wider to let me in.

"Yeah, yeah, you love it. Whatcha got to eat?"

Both of my brothers roll their eyes at me.

"Aren't you too nervous to eat something?" Vic grumbles before shoving the pizza delivery menu at me.

"Weirdly enough, no. I thought I would be but the nerves haven't hit yet. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure if they're going to." I shrug and then mouth at Dom who's on the phone to the pizza place that I want a cheese pizza with olives.

"Well, I feel better knowing that the MC has a plan. I'd be shitting myself if you were doing this alone," Vic says, looking a lot less wound up than last night.

Vic has always been the one who liked to have a plan for things. He hates chaos and I guess it makes sense. Growing up as we did, it was a weird mix of regimented and chaos. We knew exactly what we were doing at what time of the day. That was easy. Eden's Keep has a program, so the same stuff every day for everyone. The chaos comes in the form of the adults we had in our lives growing up. Our mother worshiped the ground our father walked on. She loved us, but she loved him more. I remember when he first talked about having a second wife; she cried and fretted about what she did wrong. She became paranoid that he didn't love her anymore. She checked out from us emotionally, being too caught up in her own fear and grief. When she passed away, we were shunted around the Keep adults, but they all had their own issues. The nurture that children need to feel safe just wasn't there and because of that my brothers are almost codependent on each other. When they were kicked out, they were all each other had. So I get it.

"Are you coming in with me tomorrow?" I ask just as Dom hangs up the phone.

"Fuck yes. There is no way we'd let you go in there alone. I want to watch as you take down the Council and Father dearest," Dom growls.

"I made a deal with Marx that I got to take out all eight council members."

"Wanna split that three ways?" Dom asks darkly.

I look at my brothers. Vic looks keen to help as well, which is a surprise. We were raised as good God-fearing people, meaning we don't really go around killing people on the regular. When I shot my cousin Valor Landry in the back of that van in Rose Grove, that was pure rage burning through me. Like an angel of death, I let my weapon cleanse the world of one evil man. I cannot wait to stand shoulder to shoulder with my brothers, ridding the world of a few more.

A knock at the door signals pizza, so while Vic sorts that out I clear the coffee table of the boys' guns and knives and grab plates. Vic drops everything on the table and plops down on the couch next to me, Dom sitting on the floor closer to the food.

We eat in comfortable silence for a while before Dom breaks it. "What do you think the plan is with Hammer?"

Swallowing my mouthful, I think for a moment. "Well, she's one of two enforcers the MC has. Rhodie holds that title and VP, but from what everyone has said Chewy does all the enforcing these days. I've heard some stories. Savage and Dex say she's really scary and a little gross, so I'm looking forward to it,"

"It's so weird, because she's such a cute little thing," Dom replies.

"She didn't seem that sweet when she was busy poking Chris in the chest with that big black dildo," Vic chuckles, causing me to choke a little on my pizza when I recall the scene.

"She has 90 of them too," I laugh, covering my mouth with a napkin.

"Do you think all MC's are like DRMC?" Dom ponders.

"Judging by Savage, Dex and Flack and how bewildered they seem half the time, I'm going to say no," I answer him, with my mouth full of pizza.

Vic does a double take at me before throwing his greasy napkin at my face. "I don't know what Tav sees in you."

"Me neither. But I licked him, so I'm keeping him."

Both of my brothers give me grossed out faces before Vic's softens a little. "I'm proud of you little sis. You have a family and a man that loves you. You did good, kid,"

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without you guys," I say with a thick voice, my eyes stinging with tears.

"I guess we could probably thank Mercy for teaching us to thrive through hardship," he shrugs.

"I say we thank him by bringing down his paradise," Dom says with a grin.

"To bringing down the Keep!" I say, holding my soda up in the air.

"Bringing down the Keep!"