Being Butch Green || ✓

Chapter 23 - A Caravan of Truths

"Maggie's a retired spy," Hailey stated casually as I looked between them all. "For ASIS. She doesn't know any active members, but she can definitely help you get out of this mess."

I looked between them. "You've got to be kidding me!?"

"Nope," Magpie replied, grabbing a bottle of pills from a shelf and strolling over to me. "Here. Ya look like ya could use these."

She rattled some aspirin out onto her palm and held them out for me. Hesitantly, I glanced across at Jack. He nodded. I grabbed them, shoving them dryly down my throat as she giggled and put the bottle back where she'd found it.

"Jack, scrub up that carpet will ya? There's a bucket and sponge out back. Hailey, tend to the boys' wound," Maggie instructed.

Jack ran off to fetch a bucket. What was this magic? A Jack who did what he was told?

"A spy!" I spat out. "A fucking spy!? What the fuck were you doing harassing me about fucking cheese!?"

"There's a lot more ya don't know about," Maggie told me, settling down the fake cheese between us and scurrying off again.

"So, tell me!"

"First, we need to take a look at that wound," Hailey said as she glided onto the couch next to me.

I pulled away from her. "How did I get here?"

"Gosh! You do ask a lot of questions. Jack brought you. Well, chucked you in the boot of the car..." she reasoned with a shrug as she gently touched my shoulder. I flinched, making her pull her hand away. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

"I gathered that," I mumbled as she reached forward again, this time successfully unwrapping the bandage from my banged up right shoulder.

My wound was glossy and red around the edges. The little hole that dipped off the edge of my shoulder burned with a searing intensity that was worse than my broken ribs. Every time I moved anything remotely near the edge of it, I wanted to die. I soon gave up trying to get a better look at it as Jack wondered back in, a sloshy bucket of soapy water in his hand.

"Who are you?" I asked him as he strolled over to the vomit and placed the bucket next to it. "And why are you cleaning up my vomit?"

"I'm a changed man, Butch. This is my family now," he said simply.

I scoffed. "Yeah right."

"Well, whether you like it or not it's true," he reaffirmed, grunting as he followed the bucket to the ground. "They found me."

"Lying in a ditch somewhere?"

"Pretty much."

I scowled. My own flesh and blood appeared to have abandoned me for these lunatics.

"Ouch!" I yelped, glaring at Hailey as she gently prodded my wound.

"Relax. I'm just putting on a new dressing."

I sighed. "What is this place anyway?"

"Maggie's caravan," Jack revealed.

"You mean like a gypsy trailer park?"

"I suppose you could call it that," Hailey pronounced. She smiled. "It's more like a home to me though."

I raised an eyebrow. "You were found in a ditch too?"

She laughed. "No. My parents left me in Maggie's care when I was little. To us, family is what you choose to make it. Hence why your buffoon of a brother is currently scrubbing up your vomit."