Penance

by Kristin Harte

  “What about you, Eli? You been shooting recently?”

  My brother put his hand out for a pistol. “It’s Elijah, and no, but I’m a good shot.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’ve outshot Alder every year since we learned to hunt.”

  “You’re sure. Got it.” Deacon handed Elijah a gun similar to mine. “I’ve got explosives in the bag and a few other party tricks up my sleeves. Things go wrong, get Jinx and yourselves out of there and leave me be.”

  I shot a look at Elijah. “You want us to leave you behind?”

  “Yeah. I do. I can take care of myself.” He grabbed an assault rifle from his bag of tricks. One that looked bigger and much more dangerous than the guns Elijah and I carried. “Though, once you get out, call your fucking brother and tell him to come save my ass, okay?”

  That made more sense. “Done.”

  “You ready, kid?” Deacon said, looking at Elijah. My brother had his phone out and appeared to be texting, which seemed like the worst idea ever considering what we were about to do.

  “Elijah,” I said, glancing purposefully at him and then his phone when he looked up. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing, I’m ready.” Elijah tucked his phone back into his pocket. “You realize Alder’s going to kick your ass for taking us on this mission, right?”

  Deacon shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time. Now, how are we going to find Jinx in this mayhem?”

  I didn’t have an answer for that one. We headed into the camp with our guns drawn and our eyes open, slipping around the sides of campers and past parked bikes quietly. It seemed as though very few people were around. The camp sat quiet and still, the night broken by nothing more than the sound of insects calling to one another.

  At least until a scream pierced the air.

  “That’s Jinx,” I said, my stomach dropping like a lead balloon. “That’s my Jinx.”

  I was running before I could finish getting the sentence out, focused solely on following that scream. It didn’t take me long to track her down—a huge RV sat toward the back of the camp with no lights on but the door open. And Jinx’s voice coming from inside. Words I couldn’t understand found their way into the night, and then nothing. A long silence before a heartbreaking scream. One that sent me hurtling toward the camper door.

  “Let me,” Deacon said, jumping in front of me and hopping up the steps. He stopped right at the top, leaving Elijah and me just enough room to follow him onto the steps but not inside. Blocking my way when I would have rushed forward.

  At least until I’d had enough. I shoved him forward, forcing him farther into the trailer and hopping up the last two steps. Scanning the interior until I found her.

  Jinx.

  She lay on the floor by the kitchenette, looking pale. Looking dead. I wanted to fall to my knees and crawl to her, but Deacon had me stuck behind the bench seat. Elijah scooted in behind me and pressed his shoulder to mine. Supporting me. Looking from Jinx to the men standing over her. The ones who definitely weren’t happy to see us.

  “I believe I heard the lady say stop,” Deacon said in a calm voice. Far calmer than I felt.

  “Who the fuck—” The bigger man turned and smiled, looking positively deadly. The same one from the truck stop the night I’d taken Jinx for ice cream. And from the grocery store. The one who knew Jinx. “Barkeep. And Finn, the Soul Suckers’ friend. I can tell by looking, this other fellow must be a Kennard as well. You grow them close to the same cut, don’t you?” He huffed a laugh, setting his hand on the counter where a syringe sat. Had he drugged my girl? “I don’t remember inviting you into our house.”

  Deacon brought his rifle up to his hip, still looking far too casual but armed and deadly as fuck. “We were out for a stroll and heard the commotion. Figured we should step in.”

  “There’s no commotion. Just a little difference of opinion, isn’t that right, Edge?”

  The other man turned, and I caught sight of his vest. President. The patch sat right above his road name. This was the guy who’d made all the choices for Jinx. The one who’d been pissed about her sale to the Soul Suckers. The one who deserved to die for what he’d done to her. I had to have patience, though. I needed to make sure Jinx was okay first, then dole out whatever punishment her situation called for.

  Death. Certainly death. Quick or painful was the only question at that point.

  “Get the fuck out,” Edge said, breathing heavy and leaning over to pick up Jinx. “This ain’t none of your concern.”

  “Well, now…that’s where you’re wrong.” Elijah stepped in front of me, practically holding me back as if I might rush the fucker for touching my girl. Which I might have, except that would have solved nothing and left us open to attack. My brother sometimes forgot that I’d made it through seven years in prison. I knew a lot more about surviving in a sea of sharks than most people. “See, that girl there is ours. And we’re taking her home with us.”

  Edge scowled and hissed a hard, “Fuck you.”

  “No thanks. You’re pretty and all, but not my type.” Elijah inched his way across the floor, setting us up into a perfect V. Readying our positions for optimal firing accuracy with little chance of being hit with friendly fire.

  The other guy—Ravel—cracked his neck. “The prez said to get out. I think it’s time for you boys to leave.”

  As if we’d just walk out and forget what we’d come for. “Not without Jinx.”

  Ravel looked my way, sizing me up. “You’re the one she’s been staying with the past few days. You been fucking her?”

  “That’s none of your concern.”

  “Yeah, I bet. Look, Prez. This guy thinks he can steal your toys, use them like they’re his own, and then keep them after you’ve reclaimed them. What do we say to that?”

  “We say fuck off and die,” Edge said, a definite threat in his words.

  “Right.” Ravel pulled a gun from the back of his waistband. “We say fuck off and die.”

  I didn’t give them the opportunity to fire first. My finger squeezed the trigger without delay, popping off a shot into Ravel before he even had a chance to take a breath. Elijah shot as well, both of us hitting our mark. Two shots leading to one dead biker with no way to know which of us fired the kill shot. My twin backing me up in every way as he always had.

  That just left the president.

  “I got him.” I nodded toward Elijah. “Alone.”

  My brother grunted his acceptance but didn’t drop his weapon.

  Deacon looked my way. “You sure about that?”

  Keeping my gun on Edge, who had already taken a few steps back, I slipped closer to Jinx. “What did you give her?”

  “A cocktail,” Edge said, as if drugging women was a totally normal thing to do. “Keeps her calm so she doesn’t get feisty on us.”

  “You mean so she can’t beat your ass?” I bent over Jinx and brushed the hair from her forehead. “You okay there, Lucky?”

  She moaned and blinked her eyes open, unable to truly focus them. “Fish?”

  That word, that single syllable, filled the hole in my chest like nothing else could have. “Yeah, baby. It’s me.”

  She scrunched her face, looking sick. “They drugged me.”

  And they would die for that. Or Edge would—Ravel was already taken care of. “I know.”

  “I’m so high.” Her giggle turned to a moan. “And sick. So sick.”

  “I know that too.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “Good, because this is the last time. Okay?” Because I couldn’t go back down that road. Because two recovering addicts in a relationship would be a mistake of epic proportions. Because I didn’t want her to have to deal with the stuff I did on a daily basis. Because there was no way I could be with someone who used, and I wanted to be with her. Forever.

  “Okay,” she said, sounding much more confident than I’d expected.

  “Good. Give me a minute, and I’ll get you out of
here. We’ll go back home, okay?”

  She closed her eyes and curled into a ball, looking far too pale for my liking. “Cool. But hey, Finn?”

  “Yeah?”

  Those gray eyes I loved so much opened, clear and bright and completely focused on me. Clear for just one moment as she said, “Kill that bastard for me.”

  I raised my gun and pointed it at Edge, meeting his surprised eyes. “Anything for you, baby.”

  Edge threw his hands up and took another step back, running into the wall as he did. “Now, hang on.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He looked all around as if seeking escape, of which there was none. “She came to me, man. She offered herself to me.”

  She had. I knew that. I had a good idea of why too. “In exchange for what?”

  “The Black Angels breaking our agreement with the Soul Suckers and leaving Colorado.”

  Sacrificing herself to save my town. My family and friends. Probably me as well. Damn her. “Hey, Deacon?”

  My boss didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, kid.”

  “What do you think will happen to this club when their top two guys disappear?”

  “They’ll leave the area—head back home to regroup.”

  “My guys are smart,” Edge said, his voice loud but weak. Fake bravado against our attack. “They’ll stick around to figure out what happened to us.”

  I raised my gun a little higher. A little more in line with his head. “You sure about that?”

  “There’s a solution for that possibility,” Elijah said. “We don’t make them disappear. We leave them right here in their campground. Set the bodies up outside and use them as an example of what happens when you cross the Justice town line.”

  Elijah was such a badass. “I like that plan. Very Vlad the Impaler.”

  He shrugged. “I’m a fan of the classics.”

  “Take the whore,” Edge said, keeping his hands close to his sides. His fingers twitching. Calling my attention to his yellowed fingernails. “I don’t need her. You take her, and we call it even.”

  But I couldn’t stop looking at his hands. “You smoke?”

  Everyone stilled, silence falling fast. When the guy didn’t answer, I rose to my feet. “I asked you a question. Do you smoke?”

  “Yeah.”

  Circle marks up and down her arms. Perfect scars from cigarettes pressed against her soft skin. “You’re the one who burned her.”

  Deacon practically growled, jumping forward a step as he said, “You sick son of a bitch.”

  “Look.” Edge licked his lips, unable to focus on any one of us for long. “You take her and go. I’ll pull my club. We’ll leave your fucking town.”

  A day late and a dollar short. “Oh, I plan to take her. And your club will be leaving Justice, too. For good.”

  “Finn?” Jinx’s soft voice was about the only thing that could have stopped me at that point.

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “I got it,” Elijah said, rushing past me to grab a towel off the counter and kneel beside Jinx. Taking care of her as if she were family…as if she were mine.

  Which she would be the second she agreed to be.

  “What exactly did you give her?” Elijah asked as Jinx began to shake.

  “Special K mixed with Amytal. Should have just made her sleepy.” He frowned when Jinx began vomiting into the bowl Elijah had found for her. “Look, just take her. I’ll handle the mess and get my guys to clear out. We’ll call it even.”

  Even wasn’t Jinx walking away with scars all over her body.

  Even wasn’t him leaving to do to another girl what he’d done to her.

  Even wasn’t a possibility at this point.

  “Up to you, kid,” Deacon said to me, still pointing his rifle at Edge.

  “Finn,” Jinx said, her eyes finding mine once more. Looking so damn weak and sick and tired as she whispered the three most perfect words ever. “I love you.”

  Joy unlike any other erupted in my chest, and I nearly grinned. In the middle of the hell we’d found ourselves in, she still cared. Still found it in herself to let me know I wasn’t no one.

  It was time to get her home. “I love you too, baby. Which is why he can’t walk away from this.”

  “Wait,” Edge said, but it was far too late for more waiting.

  I raised the gun and aimed at his chest. I fired one shot.

  And much like my twin, I never missed.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  FINN

  I’d killed a man. With intention. Not by accident or even in the heat of the moment. I’d gone into that camp knowing what the end result would be. Planning on it.

  Premeditated.

  That thought ran through my head the entire way back to Justice. The guilt of having ended a life, the niggling doubt that we’d left too much evidence to escape from the consequences of the act, rolled through me with no end in sight. And yet, with Deacon and Elijah safe and whole in the front seat of the truck and Jinx lying across my lap, I couldn’t regret my actions. Lord help me, but I’d go to my grave knowing those deaths had been totally justified. Especially because of what the men had done to Jinx. I’d killed them, and I’d pay my penance for the rest of my life so long as I got to keep her away from people like that. And if I got caught—if I went back to prison for what I’d done—the only thing I’d be losing was any future with the girl I’d only just found. I’d survived my time inside once. I could do it again.

  Elijah, though…

  “Hey,” I whispered as I set my hand on his shoulder, knowing there were no words strong enough to impart how much this day had meant to me. “Thank you. For everything.”

  “No thanks needed. I’m your brother, and I’ll always be there for you.” He patted my hand and looked back at me. “Next visit, how about we try to keep the murders to a minimum, though?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Good enough.” He sighed and stretched, practically taking up the entire front half of the cab with how he spread his arms. “I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a little something to take the edge off.”

  Deacon frowned his way for a second before turning his eyes back to the road. “What exactly are you talking about?”

  I could practically feel Elijah’s grin as he said, “Ice cream, man. I could really go for some ice cream. A sundae with hot fudge and whipped cream. That’s what I need after killing a man and watching my brother kill a second one.”

  Deacon sat silent for a minute before busting out a laugh. “Well, kid—I think I can handle that request. You two and your fucking ice cream.”

  “It’s our thing,” I said, fist-bumping my brother. “Always has been.”

  “Always will be.”

  It was also Jinx’s and my thing. That had been our first pseudo-date—ice cream at the truck stop. The evening hadn’t ended well, but the memories were still something I liked to replay. I had a feeling that night would be one of my very favorites for the rest of my life.

  “What about Jinx?” Deacon asked, checking his rearview as if he could see her. “You think she’ll be sober enough to want some ice cream?”

  “Her high won’t last long, but coming down is going to be a bit of a bitch for her. I think I’d rather take her home to rest. We need to deal with some stuff tonight.” Because we had things to talk about. Stuff to handle. Confrontations to have. I hated the thought of it, felt physically sick from the very possibility, but it had to be done. I wasn’t losing my girl to my inability to confront my past. Or hers.

  But first, I needed to make sure she was sober.

  “Whatever you want,” Deacon said, glancing back once more. “Just be careful with her.”

  Elijah turned to look over the seat, taking a long inspection of Jinx. I knew what he was seeing—her little body curled up on the seat, her head in my lap. Her hand in mine. The two of us linked together physically, our comfort in that tou
ch obvious. There was nothing about the position that didn’t scream she was mine and I was hers.

  He definitely saw that. “I’ll stay at Bishop’s tonight. Give you two a little space.”

  My brother—the genius. “Sounds good. I’m sorry to kick you—”

  “Don’t. She needs you, and you need to pull your head out of your ass and tell her you need her, too.”

  I did. I really did. “I plan on it.”

  Deacon pulled up to The Jury Room, his headlights bathing the parking lot in light. Showcasing a single motorcycle.

  “Parris is here.” Deacon turned off the ignition and opened his door, staring at the door to the bar as the man in question appeared as if made from shadow himself. “I think we need to have a few words.”

  I woke Jinx with a soft hand to her back, shushing her when she startled. “It’s okay. We’re safe.”

  She tightened her grip on my thigh before murmuring, “There’s no such thing.”

  No, there wasn’t. Especially not with me around. But I’d do my best. “Come on. You can officially meet my brother.”

  “Another one?” She pushed up to a sitting position, looking far more rumpled than she’d probably want to be. “I still don’t feel so hot.”

  No doubt. That post-high comedown would last for a few more hours. “Let me help you.”

  I hopped out of the truck and hurried around to the other side, opening the door and reaching for Jinx’s hand.

  She wobbled when her feet hit the ground, looking almost surprised by her lack of balance. “Walking seems really hard right now.”

  “Want me to carry you?”

  “Can you?”

  Challenge accepted. I scooped her into my arms and carried her across the parking lot. She didn’t even try to fight me on it—simply curled up against my chest and held on, making me feel like a king. When Parris spotted us from his spot by the door to the bar, he gave me a glare that could have peeled paint off a building. Not that I cared.

  I hoisted Jinx a little higher, held on a little tighter, and glared right back. “You got something to say?”