Vidal! (Snakes Henchmen MC 6)

Running a mock can and will get you killed.

Don't get me wrong, nowhere on earth is completely safe, free from danger, but if I can stop it, I'll damn well try. I want a safe place for my kids to grow up in.

Sounds ridiculous coming from me, but isn't that what all father's want for their kids? I'm no different. I'll protect what's mine until my last breath. Just as my grandfather taught me.

Do I wish I could give Marnie and our kids a better life?

What the hell is better than this?

All I have ever known is this way of life. Fight to get to the top, fight twice as hard to stay there. Give respect, get twice as much back. I have strived to be someone to look up to, a man people can trust to keep his word. Believe me; I always keep my word. You respect me, my wife, my authority, then we have no problems. You try to outsmart me, cross me, then I end you. Simple.

You touch what's mine? God himself can't save you from what I'll do to your miserable carcass!

After knocking the large black front door for a second time, it slowly opens. I'm prepared to face the fifty-year-old woman who lives here. What I didn't expect was a tiny little girl, who looks more like a three-year-old than a five-year-old, with messy dark hair falling all around her shoulders.

The tatty, little ragamuffin girl, I see before me looks like she hasn't seen a bar of soap in a few days. She's not even wearing real clothes. I think the off-white, dirty t-shirt she's wearing belongs to the man of the house. The sleeves are rolled up to her little shoulders, the hem falls to her shins, she's not wearing anything on her little feet, and she looks cold and half starved.

I look to Hammer, who gives me the most shocked look. What the hell was I actually expecting? Not to almost pass out from the stench of this house and the state of the little girl looking at me with those big brown eyes of hers.

How did I not know about this little girl before now?

How could my runners not have come to me and told me about the little, obviously abused girl living here? It's their damn job to tell me these things. I do not tolerate child abuse! Words will be had with certain people.

By words, I mean people will be losing their lives!

“Hello. Who are you?” She asks in the sweetest little voice I have ever heard.

“My name is Draven. This is Sam, my brother. We're looking for Ada. Is she home?” I keep my voice soft, the same way I speak to Jessica. I do not want to scare this little girl.

“She's asleep. She been drinkin'.” She shrugs her little shoulders. “I'm not posed to open the door 'cause my sister tries to run away, but I been waiting for somebody. Thought it might be her this time.”

I crouch down on my haunches and smile at her. “Who are you waiting for, little one?”

“My mommy. She posed to visit me for my birthday, but she didn't come. My sister cried all day. Miss Ada said she forgot about us, but Mommy would never forget about us. We been waiting for her to come. She said she will come. She promised.” Cuts me to the fucking core to see the sadness in her little eyes.

I notice movement behind her. A little girl even shorter than the one in front of me comes shuffling closer. Amber, I can see who she is right away. God, she's so cute. She's dressed the same as her sister; only her hair is messier. Both little girls are dirty, and it cuts me up. Amber's little feet are blue with cold.

These little girls are very obviously neglected, and someone is going to pay with their lives for it.

“Is this your sister?”

“Yes, this is my Amber. She's not allowed to come to the door. She tried to run away to find Mommy the other day.” She sighs deeply. “Miss Ada beat her.”

“She did what?” Sam gasps. He's thinking the same thing I am. Who the fuck would beat such a small child?

“Yeah,” Lydia nods her head. “She hurt Amber very much. She cried all night for Mommy to make it better, but she didn't come. Miss Ada said Mommies don't love little girl's like Amber. But that's not true; Mommy loves Amber very much.”

I look at my brother. He’s watching Amber, she watching him. This has hurt him. He's a big, mean bastard, but he'd never hurt a kid.

“Did you come to get the special...” Lydia looks behind her slowly, checking to see if anyone is coming, before she leans into me and whispers, “Green stuff for your cigarettes?”

Drugs.

These little girls are living in a drug house?

Jesus Christ!

The bitch who runs this house is running drugs!

Not in my fucking town she doesn't! Not without my fucking permission. Just another reason to deal with scum.

Yeah, yeah, I own the drug trade in Tennessee. I traffic it. So fucking what, I'm the boss! However, I have rules about who sells, who buys. I don't tolerate the little people selling shit on the streets. I won't have this bitch selling on my streets!

“I know where Miss Ada keeps it. I can get it for you. She won't be mad at me. I did it before for the other man.”

Christ!

“No, sweetheart, that's not what I'm here for.”

“What's your name?” Hammer asks while crouching down.

For one so small she doesn't seem at all afraid of two huge men at her front door. My brother has that scary vibe about him. Jeans, boots, leather cut, long hair, tattoos, scar on his forehead near his eye. I'm less intimidating in my suit and slicked back hair, but still scary looking, I suppose. Then again, she's living in a drug den. I bet she's seen some scary fucking men in her short life.

She doesn't need to tell me her name, even though she looks very different from the one photograph Marnie has of her, I already know I'm looking at a mini version of my Marnie. She might have different colored hair and eyes, but that sweet, innocent look is all Marnie.

“Lydia.” She replies while rubbing the bridge of her nose with her knuckle. “Are you policemen? Did you come because my uncle told you that I been bad? I didn't be bad. I didn't mean to steal. Amber was hungry, and Miss Ada forgot to give us food. Amber's tummy hurt because she didn't get food for two days because Miss Ada said mongols should behave if they want to eat. She's not a mongol; she's special, Mommy said so. I didn't like my sister to be hungry, so I

stole food to make her better. Please, don't take me away, Amber will be all alone, and Miss Ada will hurt her. Please!”

Hungry? Jesus, Marnie will have a breakdown when she finds out about this. Her little girl is filthy, starving, and selling fucking drugs for the old bitch who's supposed to be taking care of her, while she beats the shit out of Amber!

Lydia's frightened eyes are locked on me, and little Amber is whimpering behind her.

“We're not policemen. Your uncle didn't send us, Lydia. You're not in trouble, sweetheart.”

Her eyes suddenly widen, and a smile spreads across her face. “Did my mommy send you? My mommy sent you to get us, didn't she?!” She all but squeals in excitement. “Amber, Mommy sent these men to get us!”

“Mommy,” Little Amber smiles and holds her hand out to Lydia who takes it gently. More gently than I've ever known a child to take another child's hand.

“Do you think you could let us in?” Lydia nods her little head erratically, opens the door wider and allows us to pass through.

Fuck.

This house is disgusting. The walls are so dirty the filth is streaking down them. What once was blue is now caked in filth. The curtains are torn, yet there's hardly any light. The place is filled with the smell of alcohol and smoke, both cigarette and weed The bitch even smokes pot around these little girls. There's so much filth around the place that I just cannot believe anybody would ever allow their child to live like this. No wonder they took Marnie elsewhere to visit her children.

This place isn't fit for kids to live in. Hell, it's not fit for pigs to live in. The bitch who lives here best hope I don't find out Amber has any medical problems, because if she has any, and they've been made worse by living like this, she'll die in the worst way imaginable.