Raging Barons MC – Book Three – Silver

-:- EDEN -:-

Sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast, Silver had to go to the club to check something, but told me he won’t be long. Meat is serving up trays of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and a breakfast casserole which I have a good serving of and it’s delicious, I have to say.

I feel like a sore thumb sitting here on my own, so I keep my head down and eat quietly, but I’m listening to the quiet talking going on around me.

Mia walks in yawning and shouts, “Morning Eden, I’ll come sit with you.” She grabs a plate from Meat, kisses his cheek, then walks over to me, sitting across from me at the table. “You okay Eden? Did you sleep alright?”

“Yes, Silver made sure I had everything before he went to his room, so I was settled and comfortable. I didn’t take long to go to sleep. It’s been rather bizarre of late, I have to say.”

“I can imagine. Being claimed without knowing it had to have surprised the shit out of you.” Mia laughs loudly at this statement, then looks at me seriously. “Are you okay with that? Because if not, I’ll help you move out of here and be safe.”

“We had a talk and decided we’d like to make a go of it, but I asked that we take it slowly. I don’t know him really, and I don’t know anyone else here.”

“You’ll soon get to know us,” someone says as they take the seat next to me, and I notice it’s Hammer.

“If you need anything, give me a shout, or anyone else, if it comes to that.” He smiles, then tucks into his breakfast. I look over at Mia and she’s grinning at the man, not showing a care so I’m just going to run with whatever is thrown at me next.

Axel comes into the kitchen, kisses Mia on the forehead, then looks directly at me, which makes me nervous. It’s a damn serious look. “Eden, can you follow me into my office? I need to have a word with you.”

“Yeah, sure.” I look at Mia as I stand and she shrugs her shoulders, letting me know she does not know what’s going on.

Walking behind Axel, my mind is racing, trying to think if I’ve done anything to upset anyone, but I’ve been in my room since leaving the hospital so I don’t think I could have.

Entering the office, Silver is standing near the window and he walks over to me, placing his hand on my back as he guides me to a chair. Sitting next to me, he takes my hand and holds it in his own.

The door opens and three men walk in, Stitch I know as he’s been checking my eye and bruising. The other two I’m not sure I’ve seen before?

Axel sits behind his desk and points out, “This is Buzz. He’s my enforcer. That one is Drag, and he’s my VP, you of course, already know Stitch.

“I’m not going to beat around. I’m going to tell you straight what’s happened. It’s not something anyone would like to have to tell you, but we can’t keep you in the dark.

“Yesterday we raided a warehouse that Tommo was setting up as a whore house, trouble was the women were not wanting to be there. We held a meeting which we call Church and decided we couldn’t just do nothing, we had to get these women out. Also, we heard your sister was there and being used to service Tommo’s men to pay off the debt she’d built using drugs.”

Everyone is staring at me, waiting for a response, but I’m pretty grossed out at the thought Shirley is whoring herself out. The thought makes me want to vomit. But as I contemplate what he’s told me, I can’t say I’m surprised either, as I knew something was not right with her. She seemed spaced out at times but as I was staying out of her way; I didn’t really see much of what was going on. My mind is racing, but at this stage, do I care what she was doing?

“Are you okay?” Silver asks and I turn to look at him, giving him a shrug and small smile, “Yeah, I’m okay, if she wants to whore herself then that’s up to her isn’t it, she had to be getting money from somewhere as I wasn’t giving her cash.”

Axel speaks again. “Eden, last night, when we got to the warehouse, we saw Shirley.” And he pauses, which makes my stomach tighten. Something bad is coming, I can feel it.

“I don’t think there is an easy way to tell you what we found, so I’m just going to spit it out.” Axel raises his eyebrow at me, asking in his way if I’m ready, and I nod I am. “Shirley was tied to a table in the middle of the warehouse, and a few men were using her as and when they wanted. When we got to the point we could get to her, we saw she was dead and had been for a while. By the looks of her, she had overdosed and probably did not know what happened to her.”

My mind is racing, but all I can see is the nasty girl who grew into an even nastier woman. Do I feel any sense of loss? Do I feel I should cry? Do I feel anything at all?

“Eden, are you okay?” Silver asks. Stitch is kneeling in front of me, staring into my face.

“Eden, say something.” Silver squeezes my hand to gain my attention. Turning my head, I look at him, give him a blink, then stand, which has Stitch dropping back onto his ass. Everyone else straightens where they were standing. I pace back and forth for a couple of minutes.

Turning to Axel, I say the first thing that comes into my mind: “Where is her body?”

“We burned the place to the ground, her body’s ready for cremation, it’s taken care of, you don’t have to worry about it. You can let us know what you want done with her ashes.” Axel doesn’t say more, he just stares directly into my eyes, and I’m trying to cotton onto what he’s trying to tell me.

Opening my mouth to ask more, I realize they’ve done what they had to, to make sure that I’m never implicated as I’m her next of kin, her beneficiary, it’s not like she has much, just the house which was really mine, anyway.

“Are you okay?” Axel asks and is looking from Stitch to Silver to me, trying to see if I’m really okay or not, I’m sure. As a President, he is a good man. It’s obvious he cares and will go to the wall if needed.

“Actually Axel, I’m okay and as far as Shirley is concerned,” I take a deep breath and look him directly in the eye, “I don’t have a fuck to give.” Then I sit back down and wait for what happens next.

“We’ll get the death certificate quickly. Specs will get on top of that. He’ll also get it organized that the house is in your name as the beneficiary. Once that is done, you’ll have to decide if you want to keep it, sell it, or what you want to do, so give that some thought while we get everything else organized.” Axel states, “What you don’t do is go to the house until we’ve everything sorted, because Tommo escaped and we don’t want him getting his hands on you.”

Nodding, but honestly, most of what he said has gone over my head. I’m still thinking about Shirley tied to a table but dead, was those fuckers using her dead body? Nope, not thinking about that. I’m just going to move forward, as I always do when life hits me between the eyes.

-:- SILVER -:-

Eden looks shell-shocked, but I can’t say I’m surprised because who wants to find out something like this? Her step-sister overdosed, used by anyone that felt like it and we don’t even know if they were doing it up to the point she died or after.

Leading Eden back to the bedroom. She seems okay, but how do any of us know what is happening inside someone else’s head? She didn’t actually seem too affected by Shirley’s death, which is good that she won’t be struggling with it mentally, but it shows that they had no form of relationship, which is sad in one sense.

Sitting on the end of the bed while Eden is freshening up, I know I’ve got to get to the club. It won’t run itself and we need it open and earning. We have the cost of the renovation to recover and we can’t do that with the doors closed.

Eden walks out of the bathroom and sits next to me on the bed. She takes my hand and holds it in her lap, “Do you think I’m a bad person for not being overly upset at Shirley’s death?”

“No, I think it’s sad that as step-sisters, you didn’t have a relationship. You should have been as close as sisters, but because of your mother and her father, it seems to have never developed. I don’t know why this happened, but something stopped you both from becoming true sisters emotionally.”

“It was always about Shirley not getting what she wanted. She used to have these tantrums where she threw things at everyone, and Stan would give her what she wanted to stop her. My mother seemed to just let things pass without trying to sort issues out. If I asked for things, which were essentials like new shoes, Shirley would throw a fit until she got new shoes too.”

“She was a brat by the sounds of it and they didn’t do her any favors, because look what happened to her? If she had a job, working for what she wanted she would have appreciated things and her life more.” I state, and in some ways, I feel sorry for the child Shirley was that should have been taught not to be selfish, jealous, and downright nasty.

Eden leans her head on my shoulder and sighs, “I will not keep the house, Silver. I don’t think I could live in it anymore. It has so many bad memories now. Selling it would give me the money to buy something else or just have savings. After living in my car, I can appreciate anywhere I live.”

I move her to my chest and put my arm around her, hugging her to me, laying back on the bed, making sure she is wrapped in tightly to my torso. “Things will be okay Eden, give them time. You have me and all the club brothers now. You have a huge family if you allow us to be that. Of course, you will have Mia and Shar as sisters, which could be a problem as they are bound to get you into things they shouldn’t.” I can’t help but chuckle at that thought, remembering the time they both ran off to sort Mia’s problem out.

“I like Mia and Shar. They have both been great. Shar helped me when I needed it badly. She maybe didn’t know it, but the bit of work she gave me and paid me for gave me gas and food money.” Eden mumbles into my neck.

“Hmm, good women, good sisters.” I respond, but then I hear a little snore and pulling my head back so I can look down I see she has fallen asleep, with a smile, I carefully sit up with her still in my arms, then lay her on the bed, covering her and quietly leaving the room.