Justice (30 page)

Hannah slipped her hand into mine and I watched as Alexis looked between the two of us, her face stoic, not judging, evaluating.
 

“Brandon Chambray, street name Junior, you’ve been accused of several crimes and have been brought in front of us to be tried for those crimes.”

 
They led him out, his wrists still tied in front of him, and sat him in a chair facing the far wall.
 

Zach, Blake, Poche and three others I didn’t know sat behind the table and stared at the man who had caused so much trouble.

“You’ve been accused of human trafficking, murder, rape, slavery and treason. Once we, the judges, come to a verdict, your sentence will be immediately carried out. Do you understand?” Zach finished.
 

“Fuck you,” Junior spit, he didn’t get a good arc on his cob so the remnants hung from his chin disgustingly. He jerked his head and wiped it on his tee while glaring at the audience. His eyes found mine and he smiled big.
 

Junior was a lunatic. There was no denying it now.

“If anyone in the audience would like to speak for Brandon Chambray, this is your time,” Zach prompted the crowd.
 

No one did a thing. Everyone held as still as possible and Junior’s smile grew wider. You could have heard a pin drop. They were still afraid of him.
 

Seconds ticked and the wait became unbearable. No one wanted to face this man.

I stood up.
 

“My name is Reid Gauthier,
street name
Rebel.
 
I was initiated in the MC when I was eighteen. I’m legacy, my father and my grandfather were all members of the club. I grew up in the club and I’m the same age as Brandon, my father the Sergeant at Arms to his father. We were raised as brothers.” I took a deep breath.
 

“When I was eight years old, Brandon took a hammer and killed a dog I found, because it was mine and he didn’t have one. When I was twelve, he held me under the water in the pool because he wanted to ‘see what it looked like when someone drowns.’ He only stopped because my father came home. When I was seventeen, he had four of my
brothers
beat the crap out of me, broke both of my arms and four ribs, because I had been accepted into college. I was in the hospital for weeks. And this was all before the world ended, and I’m sure these things are only minor compared to other things that were done to his later victims. People that weren’t protected by a father with clout. But, I thought I should give you an idea of what kind of man Junior is.” I sat down and Hannah slipped her hand back into mine.
 

Junior glared at me. He mouthed the word ‘pussy’ and made some bizarre motion with his tongue. I shook my head and looked over, distracted by someone else standing to speak for him.
 

“My name is Kristy Ellis. Me and my mother came to this camp when our neighborhood was evacuated.” I remembered Kristy’s mother, she had been an attractive older lady who the brothers had called the cougar cunt.
 

“Junior said he liked my mother because she was old enough to know how to ‘take it.’ He raped her repeatedly and thought it was fun to give her meth. He also thought it was fun if he made me watch. He told me he’d never,” her voice quavered, “fucked a mom and daughter at the same time before. So, I was a first.”
 

Tears streamed down her face. The woman sitting next to her stood and put an arm around her. I could see both of them shaking from here.
 

“He liked to use stuff. He called them toys. They weren’t like real sex toys, it was stuff. Just stuff he found. After a week of being used by Junior, my mother overdosed. I think she did it on purpose, but it was him, he killed her.” Her chin jutted out and she stared at Junior who smiled back at her with glee. She sat down. Another woman stood up. And then another.
 

My whole body was shaking with fury as each one recounted horror after horror.
 

“He bought me from my stepfather, he said he would take care of me…”

“He killed my father and took me when he found us in a house only a few blocks from here…”

“…He liked to make us snort meth and he would do this thing with his gun…”

I looked at the crowd, tears were streaming down faces, some of the men looked ready to jump up and shoot Junior right there. Alexis was outright sobbing.
 

Baby was the only one with dry cheeks. I looked down at her and she glanced up at me. She wiped something off my face. Her fingers came back wet. I hadn’t even known I was leaking.
 

“I’m so sorry,” she mouthed and squeezed my hand.
 

I shook my head and we both looked to the side of the room as the first one of my brothers stood to tell their story. If he was about to defend him, I would walk out.
 

It was Jazz.
 

“My name is Lane Galvez, street name Jazz. I’ve killed five people for Junior.” The room went silent, enraptured.
 

“The first one when I was only fourteen. He had me kill one of our friends who had disrespected us. Once I did that, I was his. I couldn’t do anything without him holding that over my head and threatening to turn me in. The second one was his girlfriend. She made it through the biters, but he didn’t think she should be in the ‘new world.’ We went to her house and set it on fire with her in it. The third and fourth were the officers in charge of this base, I can’t even remember their names.” He shook his head and shrugged. He was trying to stay hard, stay strong. I could see it in how he was holding himself, but his hand was fisted to control the shaking. He knew he was signing his own death certificate. I could see it in his face.
 

“Brandon and his father wanted control, so we snuck in while they slept and slit their throats. The fifth one was our brother, Tag.”
 

Midnight and Shakes surged to their feet. One of their chairs got knocked over and flew back, hitting a soldier that stood on guard behind them. The soldiers grabbed the two men and held them back. Junior had told us that Tag was bit on a run. A run with him and Jazz. Tag was known for voicing his opinion too loudly. I had suspected something like that had happened.
 

“You didn’t disobey Brandon, it didn’t happen. If you did, you ended up dead. I’m not making excuses, I did what I did. He told me, I did it. Not anymore, this is the first thing I’m doing that no one told me to do.” Jazz sat down.
 

Midnight and Shakes were known to be supporters of both the Brandons. I suspected they were here to talk him up. But, I had thought the same of Jazz. They were being restrained by the soldiers, but weren’t putting up much of a fight.
 

“Do you have anything to add, gentleman?” Poche asked them.
 

“Nothing,” Midnight growled, staring defiantly at Junior. Midnight had been good friends with Tag.
 

“Does anyone else want to speak for the accused?” Blake asked the crowd. No one said anything, enough was said.
 

“We’ll have a verdict soon.” Poche stood and the judges followed him from the room. Two minutes later, they filed back in with grim expressions.
 

“Junior, you are found guilty. We sentence you to death by firing squad. Your sentence is to be enacted immediately. Take him out,” Poche said and three soldiers led him out while he screamed his head off.

“I’ll see all of you in Hell!” It was the first time I wished there was a hell.
 

SIXTY-ONE | Another Guard

I made it through that horrible trial without shedding a tear. Alexis had sobbed next to me, and even Rebel couldn’t hold it back after we heard story after story of how much of a sociopath Brandon Junior was.
 

The tears didn’t start until I started walking up the stairs to bring Reid to his cell. It was nothing too obvious, but I felt one or two salty drops leak down my face and roll off my chin. I was walking behind everyone, so no one saw me, hopefully.
 

I didn’t care anymore, though. Reid was nothing like those men. Nothing. They would find that out tomorrow.
They had to.
 

I grabbed him and threw my arms around him as one of the soldiers waited nearby to escort him inside his cell. He tried to pull away, but I held on. I kissed him and he gave in. He wrapped his arms around me and held on tight.
 

“We’ll get through this,” I whispered. “I’ll make sure of it.”
 

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he whispered back.
 

“But, that’s the plan,” I smiled up at him.
 

“Please, promise me, don’t do anything that will compromise yourself. Promise.” He looked at me earnestly, his eyes pleading.
 

“Have a little faith in me.” I grabbed him by his cheeks and pulled him down to me and kissed him one more time as the soldier at the door cleared his throat.
 

I pulled away and watched with watery eyes as he walked into the room and the soldier closed the door behind him.
 

“Did a little more than get solar panels on your mission, Baby,” the soldier smirked.
 

It felt so good when my fist made contact with his face. Even better when he hit the floor.
 

“You’ll need another guard on this door,” I called as I walked into the main lobby. Alexis followed me out of the room and tried to restrain herself. It didn’t work, the moment we crossed the threshold she collapsed in a fit of laughter. I managed to hold back mine.

SIXTY-TWO | Escape

We walked out of the main building into the yard, on a mission to keep ourselves busy, some how. There was a commotion from the West side of the yard and we stopped in our tracks as Zach rushed over to us with a pissed look on his face.
 

“He escaped!” he hollered.
 

“What do you mean, he escaped?” Alexis asked.
 

“Junior. He was helped by a civilian, they took out the soldiers. They left them dead, in the back lot. He’s got at least an hour’s lead time on us.”

“Shit,” I cursed. “Of all the people to get out. Why the hell didn’t we find out earlier?”

“I have no idea,” he said.
 

“Are we going after him?” Alexis asked.

“We aren’t, he’s not worth it. He’ll go to ground. We would have to search every house in a five mile radius to find him. He’s a lunatic, but he’s smart. I sent out some of Poche’s men to try and track him, but I know it’s a lost cause.”