Hostile Saint (Steel Stallions MC Book 1)

by India R. Adams

  My dad was talking as if not sure how old I would be when seeing this and feared to say too much. That’s when I understood that the journal kept the gruesome details.

  He said, “I know of this place because, as a child… I lived there.”

  My heart thundered. Did they hurt him? Like they did me?

  My dad almost whispered the next part, “It is where I met your mother.” He smiled as he spoke of her. “The most beautiful girl in the world; Melony.” Quickly getting lost in thought, and losing his joy of the thought of her, he added, “With help, we were the only ones who managed to escape one night. Scared, we ran away.” He rubbed nervous hands along his jeaned thighs. “The bad people who hurt kids got scared and shut down their facility.” He shrugged as if it pained him to remember. “I was so young. Only seventeen.”

  Just like me.

  “I thought they were gone… Well, they were for a while. It was after we had you,” he tried to smile, but it didn’t last, “they found your mom, and they took her back.”

  Staring at the ceiling, he patted his chest as if begging his heart to keep beating. “If you are watching this video, know we did everything—made terrible sacrifices—to find her again.”

  It was like watching a slightly older version of me, speaking of failing Lacey.

  Chills ran up my spine. Lacey…

  Then, my father looked through the camera and straight into my soul. “I love you, son.”

  The video ended, freezing on my father’s face.

  Time stood still. That was it. No more words would ever be shared from him.

  Slowly, I peered to the urn. I love you, too, Dad.

  I looked back at the TV. There was something my friends needed to know.

  As if my father was giving me strength from above, I managed to speak without breaking down. “That wall.” I pointed to the screen. “That wall behind him.” I swallowed. “That’s Lacey’s kitchen wall.”

  Dagger leaned toward the TV. “How the fuck you pick up on that, kid?”

  “The details.” I looked to Lynx and tried to smile. “It’s always in the details.”

  Dagger grumbled, “Fucking Mini Lynx.”

  Lynx’s mouth parted in disbelief before he finally said, “Of course. This makes so much more sense now.” Pulling the journal from his back pocket, he held it up. “That must be the third person who they ran away with. He never mentions her name.”

  I sighed, somehow relieved with the revelation, even if it only spurred more questions. “Lacey’s mom tried to help mine.”

  Why did she let her daughter suffer?

  I may never know that answer. The ‘bad men’ my dad spoke of had already murdered her before I was ever able to ask.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Building Alliances

  At first, the words Lynx shared from the journal sounded like a love story. One about a girl, a boy, and their best friend, the three of them up against the world. After running from a living hell, they tried to rebuild a life together in Texas. According to my father’s journal, I was actually born there.

  Mind-blowing.

  Here I was, with the Stallions, on a path to get back to that state.

  The why of my mother’s abduction, at this point, was still unknown to me. I could only assume it was a control tactic to keep my father from sharing their many secrets. Since that action only spurred my father to fight, it seems these people now only kept secrets hidden by burying them. So many dead—sacrificed—so that their true agenda remained a secret.

  That true agenda is where Lynx started holding back on me. That true agenda is where the ‘club’ was getting involved. Before I entered the picture, Oz had caught wind of disturbing allegations in his state and was digging for intel. He wanted to know facts before raising an alarm to Lynx.

  It seems fate felt we needed to fast-track and had the men smashing together, both with major dilemmas, both oddly connected.

  Three deeply involved chapters put all the other Stallions on standby.

  While Charlie slept at my side in the dark, Lynx in his own bed, I stared at the ceiling, acknowledging certainties about myself and Lacey. She and I did not know we could run from our situation, but we had the passion to stay together while we endured it.

  My father, for reasons unknown, had been placed in a reform school in South Carolina, a state where faith-based reform schools were exempt from state oversight. The other state that also had no license requirements for religious boarding schools was Missouri, where Lacey and I had been taken.

  It was unclear how long each of my parents was in the facility, and how they became so attached to Lacey’s mom, but it was evident that their connection led me to what I had become and what I was growing into, a Life Warrior.

  Glancing at Lynx’s knuckles, I saw fresh wounds atop of older scars. Was this the way of my future, or were those scars a metaphor for my future? Would I have one battle after another? Like Lynx, would I become that man who would always be swinging his fists, refusing to give up? These one-percenters may have had cruel ways of dealing with those who wrong them, but at least they weren’t seeking out the weak—terrorizing them simply for the pleasure of it or using innocence to gain unattainable power.

  If there is a devil, he will only lend you his power to use you at his will.

  That’s a fact.

  Still staring at Lynx’s scarred knuckles, I realized he wasn’t causing that man—the rat— pain just to gain power. He was now a snake that had struck. Don’t tread on me.

  Lynx didn’t go searching for trouble.

  It found him.

  Now, he was preparing to snuff it the fuck out.

  These men—these bikers—were able to handle me because they were just like the man who brought me into this volatile world. They were damaged, yet disciplined. They were fearful, yet brave. They were wise, yet willing to learn. They were bold, yet humble.

  In them, I saw fighters and lovers.

  Teachers and students.

  Fathers… and sons.

  Daughters and mothers.

  Humans, willing to make mistakes, and keep trying again.

  Lying there in the dark, I decided these bikers were full of the qualities I wanted to possess. Not only did I want to make my father and Lynx proud, and honor the Stallion who had died, but I wanted to be my best for Lacey. I would do anything for Lacey—Ah, shit!

  Charlie perked his head up as I sat up. “Lynx.”

  He was suddenly on his feet. A gun pointed at the door. “Yeah?”

  Staring at the huge Stallion ink tattooed on his back, I uttered, “Damn, you’re fast.”

  His shoulders eased and his arms came down.

  Turning, he plopped back down on the bed, sprawled out on his back, and returned his gun to the nightstand. “Please, tell me you have a good reason for waking me, Pup. I’m fucking beat. No joke.”

  I clicked on the lamp on the nightstand between us. “I would do anything for Lacey.”

  He rolled away. “This is something I already know, Pup.”

  “Wouldn’t a good mother?”

  Lynx’s body jerked.

  “Lynx, that’s how they controlled her—Lacey’s mother.”

  He rolled to face me again.

  “Think about it. I was never taken back to the facility, but Lace was. A good mother would have done anything to stop it. Her mother must’ve worked a trade—something to keep her daughter out of the facility. She claimed to be working all the time. But, now, I seriously doubt it.”

  He sat straight up. “Jesus. H. Christ. No, I believe she was working, alright, but that ‘trade’ scenario answers some questions. The female signature on your marriage license.” He swung his legs over the side of the mattress to face me. “She must’ve learned of your uncle.”

  Dejected, I shook my head in dismay. “I still don’t understand why he didn’t come to get me if he knew about me.”

  Lynx jumped to his feet. “That’s it! He didn’t know abou
t you!” He rushed to his jeans and pulled out my dad’s journal. Flipping through the pages, he mumbled, “No mention of the will or brother.” He looked up from the book. “Maybe he didn’t even realize he had one.”

  He started pacing as I disagreed. “He had to. The will was done when I was young, before my dad died.”

  Lynx seemed excited to be figuring out some of our unanswered questions. “Think about it! That will only has a certain date because someone put it there to make it legal—binding. If Lacey’s mom was the one who forged her daughter’s signature on the marriage license, what’s to say, after finding your dad’s brother, she didn’t forge your dad’s, too?”

  Blink. Blink. “You either have a wild imagination, or you’re brilliant.”

  Pleased with himself, he lightly rolled his eyes. “My vote is toward the brilliant spectrum.”

  “Wait.” I shook my head again. “My name. Tate. Same as my uncle’s.”

  Deflated, Lynx sat back down. “Well, shit…” He held up a finger. “Maybe your dad remembered the name like you remembered Lucey’s. A faded memory that he didn’t understand.”

  Petting Charlie’s head, I admitted, “This all would explain a lot.”

  He sighed. “It would also explain why they killed Lacey’s mom—”

  Grrrrrrrr…

  Lynx and I looked to the door, where Charlie was growling, then Lynx whispered, “Light.”

  I quickly turned off the lamp as Lynx, grabbing his gun, rolled over the bed. In no time, he was to his feet, rushing to hide next to the window. Peeking out the curtain, he suddenly yelled, “No!” but it was too late. The door came crashing in.

  Charlie was on his paws, madly barking as Vice came bursting inside the room.

  Vice froze when he saw me sitting on the bed, staring at him.

  Lynx slapped a palm to his forehead. “You, goon!”

  Eyeing the door now on the floor, I chuckled. “It didn’t dawn on you to knock, Vice?”

  The big guy slightly pouted. “Prez raised his voice.”

  Charlie huffed as he laid down, totally unimpressed with Vice’s tactics.

  The big man grumbled, “Dick. Head.”

  Searching for my mother, my dad followed clues all the way to Kansas. Again, Lynx could only tell me so much, due to club rules, but there was no denying my dad’s commitment and feeling of guilt.

  Still sitting on my bed next to Charlie, I shared, “I think my dad loved my mom like I love Lace.”

  Across from me, Lynx nodded, “Oh yeah, he loved hard, just like you and I do.”

  Staring at the door, now propped against the frame it once hung from, I couldn’t help but wonder… “If there is only one entrance into this room, and Vice is watching it, why did he think someone was in here?”

  Lynx tried to blow it off. “He’s running on too little sleep.” But I sensed a lie.

  My head tilted. “What are you not telling me?”

  “Huh?” Again, he tried to evade my questioning. “Sounds like you’re paranoid, too.”

  I’d been with this man every second of every day for over six weeks. I was starting to read him, anticipating his words as if I had written them myself.

  His lying scared me because lying wasn’t part of his nature. He’d tell you to fuck off, but he never lied. What had him uncharacteristically unable to tell me to mind my own business?

  He couldn’t because it was my business.

  Since his hands were tied by club rules, I had to find the missing clue that he had figured out. With him lying twice, I knew it had to be a doozy.

  Like a hound, my mind raced through all the details I had learned so far. There was my dad, my mom, the kidnapping—

  “Lynx, why do you think the facility wanted my mother back but not Lacey’s?”

  Lynx’s eyes widened with alarm before he tried to disguise it. “Huh? Not sure.”

  Huh was clearly Lynx’s word to buy him time to think of another lie.

  I was onto something. “Lynx, you appreciate me because I’m not stupid, right?”

  He smirked. “And other reasons, but yeah, you’re right. I happen to think you’re very intelligent.”

  “Thank you.” I dipped my chin. “Being somewhat intelligent, I can’t help but wonder why these people—who murder others without a second thought—bothered to kidnap my mom at all, and not just kill her.”

  “Huh?”

  Getting bored with his time buying bullshit, I flat out asked, “Why did my mom’s kidnappers bother to hide that she was still alive, able to hold my wife as a child and hum to her when she was supposed to be dead? They’re the ones who created my mom’s death certificate, right?”

  My Prez sucked on his teeth.

  My nostrils flared. “At least you stopped lying.”

  “Watch it, Pup.”

  Okay, so I now knew my mom had value, but why? She had been a kid at that school, but now was an adult—a mother. Why did they still want her? For that matter, hadn’t my dad and Lace’s mom been at that facility? Why did those two hold no value? What detail had I not given much thought to…Wait. “The men who owned the homes before Lace and I did.” As if someone had unlocked certain compartments in my mind, I was suddenly seeing things I had never considered. “Ed and Ted. The scientists.”

  Lynx’s eyes widened again, then squinted as if I was now pissing him off.

  I must be super close now.

  Suddenly wanting distance from the truth I was starting to unravel, I leaned back. “W-What the hell would scientists have to do with satanic fanatics?”

  As grey eyes bore into me, a muscle in his jaw ticks.

  “Jesus, Lynx, what are you saying?”

  “Not a damn thing.”

  This can’t be! “W-What, they experimented on the kids or something?”

  Now, his nostrils flared, reminding me where I got it from.

  I leaned back further, picturing a kid strapped to a table in a cold white surgical room, while mad scientists poked and prodded—

  Unexpectedly, I remembered Doctor Landon’s hypnosis on Lacey, how she had spoken of enduring something eerily similar when a child. Our brothers had Lacey on a table in the garage, forcibly restraining her, right before her father found them torturing her.

  “No.” I cringed, somehow finding ‘experiments’ worse than all the horror that had already happened to my Pretty Girl, because, if I was right, then there was a possibility that the brothers had been mimicking things they had witnessed. “You’re wrong, Lynx.” There had been rape, asphyxiation, cuts, burns, stabbings… “You have to be wrong.”

  Lynx’s eyes slid shut as if begging for mercy, for my sake, his, and poor Lacey’s.

  Wishing there wasn’t yet another fucking grim element to my wife’s life, my head lolled over my shoulders, losing its strength. “You lied to me earlier. Please, do it again, right now.”

  With the courage I needed him to exude, Lynx slowly shook his head.

  With a voice low and full of sorrow, Lynx promised me, “This changes nothing between you and me. You’re mine. That’s still a fact, something I will vow with blood if you need me to.”

  What? Vow with blood? My head quickly found its proper perch on my shoulders that were now stiff as a rock. “Why would you say that?”

  “Huh?”

  “Oh, fuck.” Fear raced through me. “What am I missing now?”

  “Pup, I need you to chill the fuck out.”

  “What kind of experiments did they do on her? And why would it change how you see me—”

  Ah, no, no, no…

  “Kid,” warned my Prez, “we don’t know if those scientists ever touched you.”

  “Well, then, why are you even mentioning—” Like a glass of ice water had been thrown in my face, I understood. “My mother.”

  Lynx didn’t answer, but his glare told me I was on point.

  My jaw dropped as more awareness hovered. “Before she got pregnant with me, they experimented on her.”

&
nbsp; He bit on the inside of his cheek.

  I looked back to the damaged door. “Vice wasn’t worried that someone had broken in.” I looked back to Lynx as I started to shake. “He was worried about me. With you.”

  Whatever they knew about my mom, they were worried how it had been passed down to her offspring.

  As Charlie whimpered at my growing dread, Lynx’s jaw locked. “Vice and I will have words for him ever doubting you.”

  “No. Don’t you dare punish him for protecting you.”

  He looked away.

  “Lynx, I need you to promise me, right fucking now! If he ever failed to watch over you, I’d hate his guts.”

  He looked back at me… then gave me a curt nod.

  “Okay.” I peered around nervously. “Okay.” I blew out a shaky breath. Then my voice wobbled, “Did they experiment on my dad?”

  Staring at me, Lynx shook his head.

  That’s why they didn’t kidnap him, too.

  On the verge of complete panic, I asked, “Lacey’s mom?”

  He hesitated, then slowly shook his head again.

  Patting my chest, I begged, “Please. Tell me something. This is my life. Not club rules.”

  After a pause, he said, “Lacey’s mom was part of the experiments, but not as a victim, son.” He exhaled… “She was a nurse. An assistant.”

  I could feel my shoulders cave to the point my upper body was almost in my lap. “W-What?” I had envisioned her as a part of my parents’ love story, not an evil villain. “But she ran with them.”

  “She did, but because… she had helped them escape.”

  My vision blurred as I thought of my dad on the video, “…two of us…”

  “Hang in there, kid. I believe she was trying to right a wrong, couldn’t handle kids being tortured anymore.”

  Blink. Blink. “So, she was older than them?”

  He nodded.

  “But… then, how did they end up in the scientists’ homes? Did she end up tricking my dad after all that?”

  Finally surrendering what I had a right to know, he sighed. “I don’t think so, kid. Your dad’s notes are random. They were to help remind him of things, not be a road map for others in case something happened to him, so… we’re struggling with the facts. But it seems the sacrifices your dad spoke of in the video were the nurse and him going undercover, so-to-speak—tricking the next employees, to live in the scientist’s houses. I think the scientists, for whatever reason, had gone to prison by then.” He exhaled again. “See, those homes were originally owned by someone who your dad refers to as Sail.”