A Gambling Man // Ryan x OC

21

Donnie's eyes flickered to Beth standing there and realisation struck him: "They have Mae too?!"

"Yes they grabbed her an hour ago, ran her and one of my dayworkers off of the road and shot him," John explained. 

"Look I can't clean this up. How do we hide this?," John couldn't believe that he cared more about his own reputation than the lives of the two most innocent people in Bozeman but he sure as hell will use the sheriff's fear to his own advantage. 

"Trust me every step of the way," John replied. 

"They're never going to tell you where-" John cut off Donnie's sentence: "Yes, they will." 

"There's no hiding this!," Donnie hissed. 

"This isn't about what you have to hide. How long can you keep it quiet?"

"A day tops," Donnie shrugged. 

"What kind of security do the Becks have?," John asked. 

"These off duty officers from the department," Donnie replied. 

"Are those officers your friends?," John asked. 

"They're my cousins." 

"Have them stand down," John replied. 

"John I gotta-"

"Donnie, I- I don't have time to play this game with you. Donnie, have them stand down!"

"Alright, alright, okay. If you're going to do this, John, you've got to do this right. You've got to make it about cattle and you've got to get a warrant. It's the only way you can control the narrative here."

John nodded his head in agreement: "I know." 

xxx

Mae woke up as she was roughly pulled out of the car and the bag was ripped off of her head. 

"Welcome to hell pretty girl. We're going to take good care of you," she felt the guy behind her sneer as she's lead into the house.

She couldn't keep the disgust and fear off of her face as she took in the Nazi and white supremacy signage covering the walls. All the men had visible swastika tattoos but what scared her the absolute most was her nephew, her sweet little innocent nephew Tate being changed around the neck like a dog and forced to crawl on his hands and feet while the men kicked and spat on him. They called him racial slurs and a half breed waste of space. 

"Tate!," Mae tried to rush forward, towards her nephew but the guy grabbed her by her hair and pulled her down to the ground. 

"Aunty Mae!," Tate called but Mae could hear how hoarse his voice is, how painful it must have been. He tried to fight them but one of the guys delivered a swift kick to his ribs. "Shut the fuck up bitch boy," he growled. 

"Let him go! Do whatever you want with me, just please let him go!," Mae screamed as she tried to fight her way towards Tate. He was screaming and crying, trying to fight his way to his aunt. 

"Do it! Maybe then it'll get them to shut up," the guy that had a hold of Mae's hair shouted. 

"You're going to sit and watch," he whispered menacingly in her ear as he pulled her down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her to force her to sit still. 

One man held Tate down, while another took a hair clipper to his hair. Mae watched in horror as they cut off his hair. That was one of the ultimate signs of disrespect towards an Indian. Tate's hair meant so much to him and to his culture. She watched as they shaved his head, not caring if they nicked his ear or his scalp.