Page 14 of Venom's Sting
Rigs speaks up, pointing out what the rest of us are missing once again. “She’s still going to be out in the community, tracking down leads on her mother’s whereabouts. That means she’ll still going to be in danger.”
Siege says what I’m already thinking. “She needs a protector.”
“She’s mine to protect,” I announce without asking her how she feels about it.
“Put her in a property cut. She’ll be safer that way,” Siege says quietly.
“What’s a property cut? I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Amy says, her eyes wide with confusion.
Siege pecks out a text on his phone before explaining. “The Savage Legion MC has worked hard to communicate to everyone in Salinas County that we have a zero-tolerance policy when itcomes to anyone messing with our old ladies or kids. Our old ladies wear black leather vests that say ‘Property Of’ whoever their old man is. Someone would have to be a complete idiot to harass any woman who has the club’s protection because every brother in our club would drop down on them in a heartbeat.”
I see Amy looking nervous and I quickly add, “It’s more like a protection thing. It doesn’t mean that the women literally are the property of the club.”
Siege follows up with, “Although I’m sure you don’t yet understand it, property cuts are very much coveted by the women associated with our club, but brothers only give them to a woman when he’s dedicating himself to her exclusively.” As if catching his mistake, he quickly adds, “Or in your case it’s being offered because you desperately need the protection. If those men that have been beating on you see you with Ven, wearing a Savage Legion MC property cut, I guarantee they’ll steer clear of you because if they don’t, our club will rain hellfire down on them.”
Amy perks up a little, “I think you’re right about that. When Ven got on them for messing me the first day we met, they seemed really worried about triggering a response from your club. I would even go so far as to say they were scared.”
Siege grins. “They should fear us because we won’t be playing around if they disrespect our club or mess with our old ladies.”
She starts to nod, as understanding sets in. “Alright, I’ll stay here, work at your bar, and wear the property cut for as long we continue looking for my mother.”
Chapter 6
Amy
Ven sits close to me as we begin to go over the information from my mom’s case. They must have really been studying the material I collected, because they were familiar with all the details and were even putting forth a theory about what might have happened to her.
Rigs talks about his theory first. “I believe that her meds were redirected to the farm before she was abducted. You said that she’s been estranged from her father for many years. I’m thinking that grabbing her off the streets or dragging her kicking and screaming out of her apartment would have been risky.”
“That’s true,” I tell him. “My old apartment was right in the center of town and my mom almost never left it.”
Rigs flicks through her notes and looks at me, “Is she agoraphobic?”
I shake my head, “No, she just didn’t like leaving her home. I think she saw it as her sanctuary, but she could go out if she needed to, for medical appointments or the rare few times I could coax her out.”
Rigs responds, “I think the perfect way to lure her out was to redirect her meds, act like it was an accident and tell her that she has to come and get them personally.”
My heart jumps into my throat because I feel this gruff biker preacher is onto something.
“I could see that happening, she might not want anything to do with her father, but getting her meds is possibly the one and only reason she might be persuaded to go to his house.”
Ven pulls a chair over and sits beside me. “You said she was estranged from her father. Can you think of any reason he would want her to stay at his house?”
“He used to slave her out,” I respond bitterly. “Her mother died during childbirth. I think he resented her, she had an awful childhood, no physical abuse. More that he ignored her, that is until she got older and more useful. He used her to cook, clean, do laundry for him and all his farmhands. That went on until she was sixteen, around that time he met my step-grandmother. Elsie, my step-grandmother put a stop to it, she was a nice woman, but by then the damage had been done. My mom left the day after the wedding and barely spoke to him again.”
“Did you have contact with him?” Rigs asks.
“Yeah, even though she hated him, she didn’t want to keep me from him. But it wasn’t like happy families or anything, usually if I visited it would just be me and my step-grandmother and I’d help her with the chores. It’s clear that’s all he thought women were good for,” I pause, as another memory flashes through my mind. “My earliest memory of my mom was watching her ironing a mountain of clothing several times a week. Because she had no schooling, she had to take whatever work was available. My father hadn’t stuck around so it was always just me and my mom. She was always so sick, but she worked all the hours God gave to keep a roof over our heads.”
“Fucking hell,” Ven asks. “How did you get out of that situation?”
“She literally worked until she dropped. It happened while I was in school. She was taken to the hospital. I was around nine or ten at the time. A social worker came into the room and my mom didn’t want to talk to her because she was scared they might take me away from her.”
“My Cleo says that’s common. A lot of people get the wrong ideas about social workers. Did this one help?” Siege asks.
“Yes, she told my mom what was available in terms of claiming disability benefits, low-income housing, that kind of stuff. She even helped my mom sign up for adult education lessons, that was the one thing my mom had been most ashamed about—she’d never learned to read.”
“Your mom sounds like a survivor,” Ven says with admiration in his voice.