The Moth and the Flame

by Reid, B. B.

  She went on to tell me about some job in Texas and their offer to adopt her into their family. I’d already checked out of the conversation. I knew without a doubt that Lou had no intentions of going back and that scared the hell out of me because, for the first time, I wondered if I’d even be able to find her. I’d drag her back even if it meant I’d never see her again. Did Lou know? Did this mean she was running from me, too?

  I swallowed down the string of curses rising in my throat, knowing the woman babbling frantically on the other end wouldn’t approve.

  Lou was too blinded by the pain her parents had inflicted to see what could be. That was where I came in. My insistence on doing what was best for her, however, meant never completely having her trust, and that fucked me up more than any of the bad shit I’d done. It was also the reason I indulged her recklessness more often than I should. I couldn’t handle it if she ever turned away from me.

  “I’ll find her,” I promised, but it felt empty. When I finally reached my car, my will was torn between what it needed to do and what it had to do. However, when I settled behind the wheel, all doubt was erased.

  AS THE MORNING STRETCHED, THE sun rose higher and brighter in the sky, making the day a beautiful one. For me, it only ignited my frustration. I now had a new appreciation for Wren. Hunting him down wasn’t as easy as he made it seem. My feet hurt, I was hungry, sweaty, chafed, and tired. Of course, Wren had a car while I only had my legs and public transportation to carry me from place to place.

  The house on Long Island turned out to not only be a dead end but a brothel. An older woman sporting an elegant dark bun and red cat-eye frames had answered the door, and when I asked for Wren, she couldn’t contain her surprise. To her credit, she didn’t bother denying she knew him, and after assuring me that he wasn’t there, invited me inside anyway. In hindsight, I wished I’d turned her down, but Irma’s offer of fresh coffee after a long night and my persistent curiosity made the invitation too tempting to resist. Irma was curious too, but she didn’t pry—much—and when she offered some of the roasted chicken she’d made, I’d been ready to accept. Until a beautiful dark-skinned girl, who I’d only seen once but never forgot, sauntered into the kitchen with a sensual grace I knew I would never possess.

  “You’re Lou, aren’t you?” she asked knowingly the moment our eyes locked. Her gentle smile was hesitant, and I didn’t bother returning it. She was the first to fold and looked around the kitchen with a frown. “Where’s Wren?” she asked no one in particular. “I didn’t see his car out front.”

  “Lou came alone,” Irma explained when I remained noticeably silent.

  My conscience was begging me to get over my jealousy and be kind, but I couldn’t. My gut told me Wren had been with this girl. To me, that was more than enough cause to hate her forever. She’d taken something from me. Something I knew I could never have back.

  Wren said he’d been celibate since I stopped him from screwing Samantha, and I believed him though I didn’t know why. Kendra was beautiful, and if I had her at my disposal, I’d definitely be hitting that and often. As always, pleasure and relief flowed through me knowing that Wren had been mine all this time even if neither of us realized it.

  I didn’t stick around long after that. Kendra had tried unsuccessfully to thaw the wall of ice I’d built around me, but I remained impenetrable. Not wanting to spit on Irma’s hospitality further, I made a quick escape.

  Now I stood in front of the same barbershop I’d huddled under for shelter the night I’d met Wren. I hadn’t been back since that night, and recalling my near brush with death, my legs shook a little when I stepped inside. The parlor had an over-the-top masculine touch with tiled stone floors, brick walls, brown leather barber chairs, and black and silver accents decorating the walls and surfaces of the shop. It also smelled heavily of cigar smoke.

  And standing alone inside was the tallest man I’d ever seen with a wild mane of golden hair brushing massive shoulders and a full, unkempt beard covering the lower half of his scowling face.

  “A-are you Bear?”

  “What was your first clue, kid?” He set down the clippers he was cleaning and picked up another, barely sparing me a glance.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” I answered returning his sarcasm and forgetting to be afraid. “The fact that you’re huge and hairy?”

  He grunted, and I wondered if that was his idea of a laugh. “When you’re old enough, you’ll appreciate the sight of a real man.”

  My nose wrinkled as I studied the man before me. Wren had been a scrawny teen with muscles just beginning to bloom when I met him, and as promised, he filled out so deliciously well over the past couple of years. He had enough to appreciate for a lifetime without going overboard. Some women were into men who looked like lumberjacks, but I didn’t think I would ever be. “Don’t count on it.”

  Tossing down the clippers, Bear turned and lowered his hulking frame into the brown leather barber chair before slouching low. “What can I do for you”—he squinted menacingly—“besides throwing your scrawny ass out of my shop?”

  “I’m looking for Wren.”

  He froze and then stared long and hard enough to make me squirm. “You Lou?”

  “Yeah…” I frowned as I shifted on my feet. “How did you know?”

  “I’ve known you for two minutes, and I already want to put my fist through that wall.” He pointed to the one behind me and then looked me up and down. “It makes sense.”

  Crossing my arms, I lifted my chin. “Do you know where he is?”

  It turned out Bear did know how to laugh. Loud enough, in fact, I could have sworn I felt the ground shake beneath me. “I now understand why my godson has been so crabby lately. You’re the little monster turning his balls blue.”

  I didn’t react at first as I replayed the little bomb he casually dropped over and over. “Godson? You’re his godfather?”

  Bear shrugged and stuck a toothpick in his mouth, lazily twirling it around while staring as if he were bored with me already. “Unofficially. I knew his father.”

  “You’re Exiled?” I unconsciously took a step back. His gaze narrowed, telling me it hadn’t gone unnoticed.

  “Do I look like the type who needs another grown man telling me what to do?”

  “Wren is Exiled,” I pointed out.

  “And I wish to God I’d been there to stop it. His father would probably kill me if he were still alive.”

  I scoffed at the notion of Wren ever having a positive male role model in his life. From where I was standing, they’d all failed him. “If his father didn’t want him to be part of his world, why did he bring him into it?”

  “After Pam died, he didn’t trust anyone but himself to keep his boy safe. Anything else?” he asked me a sneer.

  Yes. “No.” I had a million questions swirling in my brain, but I doubted Bear would be willing to answer them all. Besides, the only person I cared to hear the truth from was Wren.

  “Good. Now get out of my shop,” Bear rudely ordered as he regained his feet with a grace I didn’t expect.

  My bladder chose that moment to protest, so I said, “Can I use your bathroom first?”

  His only response was to toss his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the bathroom before disappearing behind another door. When I emerged from the bathroom, Bear was nowhere to be found. I was heading straight for the door when something shiny caught my eye. There was only a second of indecision. But my sore legs and feet and the fact that I still had more places to search won out over worry of Bear’s wrath.

  After all, how hard could it be to drive a car?

  Bear’s ‘car’ turned out to be a monstrous black pickup with a tint so dark I couldn’t see inside and a huge grill on the front. It was intimidating as hell, but it was too late to turn back now. I was proven right when I witnessed Bear storm from his shop seconds after I began carefully pulling away from the curb. Shrieking in fear at the savage look on his face, I slammed my foot on
the gas, and the truck shot into traffic, narrowly missing the car parked in front of me. I screamed the entire time it took me to get the hang of the peddles. The truck would shoot forward only to jerk to a stop a second later when I hit the brakes. All the while, Bear chased me down the street shouting obscenities and threats.

  Once I’d put enough distance between Bear and me, I pulled into a gas station and studied the list of locations I’d written down. All that was left was Sunset Bay, Blackwood Keep, and the mountains. And while the logical choices were obvious, my gut and curiosity chose for me.

  A few hours later, and after getting lost a couple of times, I pulled alongside a small lake that shimmered under the sun, and for the first time since I started my search, I didn’t regret waiting to talk to Wren in person. I only insisted on doing so because he usually found it easier to tell me no when we were apart. He thought me naïve, and maybe I was, but I was also beginning to recognize the power I had over him and didn’t feel the least bit guilty wielding it.

  If I had called Wren and told him what the Hendersons had planned, he would have let me go and made sure that I never saw him again. In his mind, it would have been all for me, but a little bit would have been for him, too.

  But if he had to face me, he would never be able to say goodbye.

  Hopping out of Bear’s truck with my camera in tow, I looked around in awe. The trees with their gold and red limbs were so tall that they seemed to touch the sky, and the grass was still a vibrant green even though it was the middle of October. As if suddenly reminded, I shivered against the cold seeping into my bones, but for once I didn’t mind. The air seemed cleaner up here, and the quiet was calming when it’d never been before.

  Across the lake, I spotted a sizable cabin peeking through the trees and lifted my camera to get a better look. People were my chosen subject and Wren my favorite muse, but this was all too gorgeous not to capture.

  I’d never known such peacefulness.

  Unfortunately, it was shattered a moment later by a piercing scream.

  I’D JUST HUNG UP FROM my fifteenth attempt at reaching Lou in the last hour when I heard, “You need to get your shit together.”

  Looking up, I spotted Fox’s true pride and joy leaning against the doorjamb of the guest room. “Now isn’t the time for your shit, Royal. I’m liable to fuck up that pretty face.”

  Rather than heed my words, he chuckled and stepped inside the room but not before checking the hallway and locking the door behind him. My antenna rose, but I said nothing as he moved across the room.

  “Do me the favor, I beg you,” he griped. “At least Scarlett was lucky enough to look like our mother.”

  I sighed and rubbed my throbbing temple with my thumb. I wasn’t in the mood to listen to him bitch about his father. At sixteen, it was normal to hate your parents, but in Royal’s case, he had every reason, so I took a deep breath and prayed for patience.

  “Relax,” he said, reading my mind. “I’m not here for another therapy session. I have information…and questions.”

  Hearing that didn’t ease my tension. Exiled and all the shit that came with it was the last thing on my mind. Lou had been missing for two days now, and it was getting harder every second not to think the worst.

  “Go, bother Shane.” I was already stabbing Lou’s name and placing the phone to my ear.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing you want.” His suddenly grave expression had my blood running cold as I listened to Lou’s voicemail pick up for the sixteenth time. My stomach clenched at the sound of her mockingly sweet voice telling me to leave a message.

  I’d left several. All of them threatening.

  I was tempted to hurl the phone across the room and watch it shatter and crumble against the wall much like my heart was doing right now.

  Something was wrong. I fucking knew it.

  The minute I surrendered to instinct, I felt a calm wash over me as I plotted the murders of the faceless culprits. And if I found Lou alive, God…

  She was never leaving my sight again.

  “Wren, man, I need you to listen to me.” Royal’s voice brought me out of the dark tunnel I was sinking further and further into.

  “I’m listening.” And I was, but I couldn’t guarantee I’d hear a word he had to say.

  “I overheard some of the men talking. My father’s on a rampage. Apparently, he’s pissed at you, too. Why didn’t you show up to the cabin the other day?”

  “Something came up,” I bit out as I stabbed Lou’s name again. At this point, I knew she wouldn’t answer, but I kept calling anyway so that I could hear her voice. My eyes drifted closed as I listened to her recorded message for what might have been the hundredth time before hanging up and focusing on Roy.

  Fox had been pissed all right. So much so that he stuck me on babysitting duty when he had an army of guards protecting the twins around the clock.

  For most of the year, they were stowed away in this penthouse apartment and homeschooled. It became the Royal and Scarlett’s gilded prison since Fox barely allowed them to see the light of day. Until we eradicated Father, he wasn’t taking any chances on his heir becoming meat for Thirteen. That didn’t stop Fox from preparing his son for his future reign especially since Royal was such a devoted student. Although he hated his father, Royal was hungry for power, and that gleam in his eyes grew brighter every day.

  As for Scarlett, I shuddered to think of the plans Fox had for the daughter he made clear he had no use for.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t know how you’re going to get out of this one, man. He’s got everyone combing the city looking for some girl who saw him off a cop.”

  “Girl? What girl?”

  “I don’t know. They think she was a camper, but they didn’t find a campsite when they looked. Only tracks from the truck she was driving.”

  My phone rang, and my heart leapt, thinking it might finally be Lou, but my relief was short-lived when I saw t was only my godfather. He’d been calling me nonstop for two days, but I didn’t have time for his shit either, so I hadn’t bothered picking up.

  Sighing, I accepted the call and braced for another lecture. I didn’t know who was worse, Lou or Bear. “Yeah?”

  “Where the fuck have you been, boy?”

  “I’m in the middle of some shit. Can this wait?” Usually, I had more respect for the man who tried his best to fill my father’s shoes, but these weren’t normal times. Lou was missing, and she’d taken my sanity with her.

  I didn’t understand most of his response because he shouted it so loud that even Royal was startled. I’d caught a few curse words and what sounded like Lou’s name, but I told myself I was hearing things. According to Bear, Lou had stolen his truck after she’d gone to his shop looking for me. I didn’t hear anything else he’d said after he told me some men claiming to be cops showed up the next day looking for her. They probably were real cops. Who else could have run the plates and traced the truck back to Bear…

  By the time the last puzzle piece snapped into place, I’d stopped breathing.

  The men who showed up on Bear’s doorstep had indeed been cops—dirty ones under Fox’s payroll. I hung up on Bear, calmer than I should have been, and turned to face Royal, who was watching me warily.

  “What kind of truck was it?”

  He didn’t hesitate, and before he finished rattling off the exact make, model, and color as Bear’s truck, I was running for the door.

  Not wanting to turn shit to tsunami shit, I stupidly allowed Fox to send me here as punishment. He didn’t appreciate loose ends, and the moment I befriended Louchana two years ago, she became a gaping hole. It was only a matter of time before Fox figured out exactly who Louchana was—and she discovered what I’d done.

  MY LUNGS WORKED HARDER THAN I thought possible while the sweat pouring into my eyes blinded me from seeing that the alley where I sought refuge was a dead end. The two men following me did, and they cackled with glee as they closed in fast, eager to
do their worst.

  After three days of being on the run, they had finally cornered me. With nowhere else to run, I did the only thing I could. Lifting my camera, I snapped a few photos, garnering the reaction I’d hoped for. They stopped short and glanced at each other in confusion. Taking advantage of their momentary distraction, I ejected the memory card and with nimble fingers, slipped it inside the wide leather band around my wrist. Eventually, they would find my body, and the police would have the evidence they needed to put Fox away for life.

  And Wren would finally be free from his influence.

  I’d never been very religious, but I thanked God for that much.

  Fox’s bullies, who looked like older versions of Butch and Woim from The Little Rascals, now stood directly in front of me, blocking my view of the street and any chance for escape. After I fled the mountains, I’d stupidly ran back home or at least as close to home as I dared. I didn’t want to put the Hendersons in danger, and for once, I’d made the right call. After what I saw up there, I knew Fox was more than capable of murdering an innocent family.

  “Give us the camera,” Butch demanded, “and we won’t hurt you.”

  My back was literally against the wall, but I still refused to cower. “It’s enough that you’re going to kill me. Don’t insult my intelligence too.” If Wren were here, he’d probably growl at me to keep my mouth shut even while his eyes shone with pride. Then again, if he were here, he’d kick their asses.

  “Have it your way,” Woim conceded right before he lunged for the camera.

  I made a show of trying to fight him off, even though it wasn’t much of a struggle. Once he’d taken the camera, I found myself staring down the barrel of his partner’s gun.

  “Fox sends his regards.”

  “I bet he does.”

  To my surprise, Butch and Woim chuckled. “Maybe I won’t kill you just yet,” Butch teased while eyeing me lustfully. “I like my bitches feisty.”

  “So does your future cellmate.”