by Paula Cox
And at the moment, for the first time, she thought that it was definitely for the better. Right on cue, Sally appeared with Brendan at her side. Lily shot up and started as soon as she saw her, and Sophia seemed to brush off any buzz from her bottle.
Straightening her shoulders, Sophia regarded Sally with a sympathetic smile and a light hand against her hair before turning all her attention to Brendan. “Problem?” she asked in a steady voice.
“We need your touch to patch him up,” Brendan said.
“What would you boys do without me?” Sophia asked with a weary smile. Reaching into her pack again, she retrieved a small metal box and ordered Brendan to lead the way.
“No worries,” she said to Sally. “I’ll make him right as rain.”
Sophia appeared to expect Sally to follow quickly, but the girl managed to hold her ground as she fixed her gaze on Lily’s eyes.
“She wants to talk to Michael’s girl,” Brendan said. “Ken wanted me to walk her here. You know. Just in case.”
Michael’s girl. Lily felt like that in the space of his arms, lingering around his cock. But now she was alone. Part of her kicked herself for believing in him; a greater part of her just wanted him back.
“Smart man,” Sophia said. “Man can never be too careful.”
As she tracked off into the night, Lily expected Brendan to follow her lead. But he stayed where he stood.
“I’m here to keep watch.” He explained.
It was cold comfort if that.
“Michael ask you to do that?” Lily asked as she pressed her hands to her hips and arched her eyebrow.
“Not you,” Brendan said. “I’m looking after this one.”
Brendan’s words shredded her soul, but as she focused on Sally trembling before her, Lily shrugged off her frustration and drew the girl close to her side.
“A little privacy would be nice,” Lily said.
Brendan’s lips curled into a sharp sneer. “Got some other dirt to spill?” he asked. “What else don’t he know about you?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” Lily said. “So why don’t you just keep an eye out a few feet away? Or play with yourself for all I care. Can you do that, or do we need to watch to get you off?”
He shuffled his feet and blushed under the weight of her insult. Stepping back into the night, Brendan hissed at Lily, and he was nearly gone when his eyes fell of Sally.
“You call when you want to go back,” he said. “I’ll be right—”
“And I won’t be long,”
Nodding his head, Brendan took off, and as soon as they were alone, she clutched Lily’s hand and dragged her deep into a dark corner.
“Sally, what is—?”
“Shhh.”
Pressing her finger to Lily’s lips, Sally shuddered as she fell to her knees, and Lily was quick to follow her move and grab her shaking shoulders.
“Promise me that he won’t do it,” she muttered.
“What do you—?”
“Ken swears that he won’t,” she continued, her voice a ragged whisper as she clutched Lily’s hand, her trembles intensifying as she struggled to speak.
“Ken says we’ll be okay,” Sally managed. “All of them do. But… but I want to hear it from you.”
“I… I don’t—”
“Tell me that it’s a lie,” Sally pleaded. “That they’re not looking for you.”
Lily started to speak, but stopped herself on the length of the lie. Sally’s eyes brimmed as she gazed up at her, pleading, and Lily hung her head as her shoulders heaved. “You know I can’t say that,” she said. “My family… I mean… if they want me back… they—”
“They would have gone to the cops,” Sally said, her voice cracking around the words. “That’s what I thought.”
Holding her face in her hands, Lily looked up and saw her eyes past all hope as Sally fell into Lily’s arms.
“Then my father’s going to find me,” she said. “Take me back. Make me… make me…”
The horror in her voice mingled with shame, and as her body was racked with loud sobs, Brendan remerged from the shadows with tight fists.
“You doing this to her?” he asked. “‘Cause she don’t need—”
“Shut up!” Lily barked as she held Sally and let her cry. This was all wrong. Maybe not Sally being here. Given what her father was, she was bound to end up in one kind of servitude or another. But she had chanced on Ken, and when the man was at full strength, he was good to her. No. No, the glaring error was Lily’s. She had only stumbled upon this scene, and without Michael to assure her that he was right where he wanted her: close. She was nothing more than an afterthought. She was a loose end. One pull, and the whole fabric came undone.
“Sally, don’t cry.”
Easing the sobbing girl to her feet, Lily forced her eyes to hers and stroked her cheek as she patted her hair.
“It’s going to be okay,” Lily leaned closer and pressed her lips to Sally’s ear, whispering quickly. “I’ll cut them off at the pass,” she promised. “Point them in a million wrong directions. And you guys keep moving come dawn.”
Sally stiffened under her hold and pulled back. “I… no,” she said. “I didn’t mean that—”
“But I do.”
“Lily, I—”
“Stay safe,” Lily said. “Try to be happy with Ken. And promise me that you’ll tell Michael that… that what we had was real.”
“I don’t… I don’t want you to go.”
Brendan started to lurch closer. She only had one shot at this; one chance to make her desperate plan work.
“And forgive me for this,” she begged.
Slamming her fist into Sally’s gut, Lily watched for all of a second as the girl clutched her middle and doubled over in pain.
“What the fuck?” Brendan bellowed. “You totally crazy or—”
Or something.
Hitting Sally again, wanting to tear her hand from her arm as she brought down the blow, she pushed Sally into Brendan’s arms. He could make one of two moves. Let Sally fall to the ground and rail against her for her rebellion.
Or…
“You okay, Sally?” Brendan asked as he tried to ease her to the sand and prevent any further pain.
Good boy. Right call.
Seizing her opening, Lily ran back into the night. Brendan’s voice was at her back, ordering her to hold up and explain what she was about. Let the force of her fist be the explanation that got her away. Let Michael live on her echoed words when and if Sally was able to give them voice. He probably would scoff and label it just another in her long line of lies. Lily hung onto the fact that she had just known him.
There! She spied her abandoned bike, the key still in the ignition. Taking one last look back, she saw nothing, heard no one.
“It was real, Michael,” she whispered into the air. “And I would have stayed if you wanted me to.”
No sign of him now, and she hopped onto the chopper and sped off for parts unknown. Especially to herself.
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE As she rode over the desert sands, Lily spied the sun starting to rise out of the corner of her eye. The night was longer than she had known, but still it was ending before she had a chance to do so much as blink. It was tomorrow, and she was without Michael, she had no idea what that meant. Should she have hung back and given him a chance to play the role that Sophia believed he could slip into once he cooled off? Wishful thinking on both of their parts. He wasn’t coming back to her, was never going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Lover or not, she had wounded his pride, and the entire club saw him shamed when Noel dropped the bomb. This was all she could do. Find her family and spin the story in a direction that would protect Sally. At least someone back at camp would remember her fondly when she realized that the blows from Lily’s own hands were only meant to cut the worst off at the pass and keep her secret safe.
Riding hard and fast, Lily felt the wind whipping through her hair and tears streaming down her
cheeks. How the hell do I spin this? What are the words?
Turning a corner, her heart lifted some at the realization that she was at least making it back the same way that they came. Noel and his Mad Angels might still be lying in wait, but Lily gritted her teeth and told herself that she could outrun them if push came to shove. Gripping the handle bars tighter, she followed the path of the road and told herself that Sophia had it wrong. The police were on their tail. All she had to do was meet them first.
And then she would put her plan into action.
Lily envisioned herself bringing the bike to a stop and lifting her hands in the air at the first sight of flashing red and blue lights. Cops would swirl around her, guns aimed but low as they tried to believe what they were seeing and look for anyone that might have followed her.
No one will. Not the one I want most.
And then they would ease her body from the bike. Probably wrap her body in a blanket or one of their jackets before pressing her into the back of a patrol car. Lily would smile and say that she was sorry to cause so much trouble. There would be questions. Where had she been? Who had she been with? In their minds, they would think that she was a victim of some unspeakable fate. Maybe at the start. But not after. Not when she remembered the feel of Michael’s arms around her.
And if she could hang onto that feeling before he turned away from her in disgust, she could sell the story.
Don’t understand all the fuss. Can’t a girl have a little fun off the grid without everyone losing it?
That was her line. Dan and her parents knew that she had run off in search of the unknown, and she would tell them that she had done just that and gotten a taste of some of the darker things during the course of her adventure.
Sorry if everyone was all concerned or whatever.
The cops would click their tongues and frustration and whisper about her when she was just a few steps away. They would call her a spoiled princess who had no conception of the manpower needed to track a girl down or what could have happened to her. Maybe the former was true, but Lily knew all too well what had happened. And she wasn’t about to take any of it back. Not even when she found her father again and saw the disgust in her eyes.
Thought I told you to get right and grow up. And you go and do this?
She would keep up the act for Sally’s sake and just shrug her shoulders. What her father didn’t know would never hurt him, would only give him ammunition for the life sentence that she would willingly stepping back into. At least her mother would be happy. And as for Dan….
Trying to remember what it was to be with him, Michael’s face flashed before Lily’s eyes, and she shuddered at the sight.
Make him believe it, Sally. I’ll live on that. If I can’t have him…
Her thoughts congealed and hit the front of her mind as the sound of a distant motor roared and gained power. A quick glance over her shoulder filled her heart with horror, and Lily feared that Noel and his boys were about to run her off the road. Falling into their hands was the last thing she wanted. She pictured the Mad Angels taking her two or three at a time as Ken got his club and further and further away from the threat. Lily told herself that she could handle it. But she knew that her body would ache and her soul would cry out for Michael to rescue her, to claim her again.
But he wasn’t coming after her.
Intensifying her speed, Lily had to smile at the distance passing between her and the bike at her back.
They’re not going to catch me. I can still get away. I…
Lost in her hopeful thoughts, Lily failed to navigate the next curve in the road. Looking over her right shoulder, she saw an abyss waiting to swallow her whole if she failed to ride away from it. She couldn’t fall, not when she was this close to getting away. She had to swerve and hope that the other side of the road would keep her riding into the wind.
Turning the bike under her hands, her tire skidded and lost its grip on the earth, and Lily wailed into the air as she started to lose the bike. Feeling it falling from under her, she lamented the fact that her chances were nothing on foot. But she had to at least live to fight another day. Collapsing in a heap, her head hit a smooth stone, and she was stunned. But even through her haze, she saw the bike moving in slow motion as it teetered at the edge of the cliff. She prayed that it would somehow right itself and give her a chance to climb back on and keep flying away.
Please. Please…
The chopper seemed to answer her silent call for all of a second before it left her line of sight.
“No!” she screamed.
Her ears with the sound of metal hitting stone as the engine groaned in defeat and smoke wafted up into the air. Summoning what little strength she still had, Lily crawled towards the sight of the fall and peered over the edge. Narrowing her eyes, she saw what was left of the bike in nothing but pieces among the jagged rocks. Should she try to make her way down and imagine some kind of magical repair? Lily nearly did just that when she suddenly stopped herself. Going after the bike was a lost cause, and as she struggled to her feet, Lily was relived to find that she still had the use of her legs. Wobbly to be sure, but she could still run. Or at least try to. Her steps were labored as the sound of the strange bike gaining on her filled her heart with terror. But she had to try to keep moving. She couldn’t… she just couldn’t…
Looking towards the sun rising in the sky, Lily didn’t know which way to turn. The world suddenly seemed to spin all around her, and she didn’t know which way to move. Taking a few halting steps, her head pounding with each move, she told herself that it was the right path, that her plan was still perfectly intact as one foot stayed on solid ground.
And the other hit the open air.
Looking down, she saw the wreckage that had been her bike. Even as she tried to draw back, Lily’s body was nearing the place when she had no hope of doing anything but joining the crashed chopper and going out the same way.
Maybe this can still work. It’ll look like an accident. No one will come after a mistake.
Resigning herself to her sudden fate, Lily felt her body moving closer to the open air when a firm arm surrounded her waist.
CHAPTER THIRTY “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
The hold brought her away from the edge, and she managed to sigh in relief at the realization that this was not the day when she was going to die. Her heels dragged against the asphalt, and she felt her body being lowered to the sand. The relief lasted for all of a second when she remembered who or what might be after her, and her vision was still hazy as a hand touched her face.
“Don’t touch me,” she muttered. “I won’t go with you.”
The fingers fell away, and Lily’s body relaxed against the slate. It had to be Noel, and he had to just be toying with her. Probably wanted to see how far she could crawl before he pounced again. She pictured her hands bound, her body stripped. He would make like Trevor and drag her enslaved body across the sands and lead her into some circle of hell from which she might never…
“Let me go!”
Trying to stand, her legs started to give out from under her, and Lily could either fall or settle into the arms holding her fast. Even as she wanted to live, to run, she still thrashed and kicked until the stranger’s hold was too much for her to fight.
“Stop!” she screamed. “Get your fucking hands—”
“It’s me, Lily!”
Catching her breath in her chest, Lily’s eyes struggled and finally focused on the eyes over the arms keeping her in their grasp.
“Why would you run away from me?”
Seeing Michael clearly for the first time since he’d left her, Lily’s first instinct was to wrap her arms around his neck and hold him tight. He had come for her! In the end, he still wanted…
“Why would you do something that stupid?”
Her head cleared around his words, and Lily pulled away from him. Michael kept her at arm’s length, his fingers till touching her hands even as he seet
hed before her and kept spewing.
“Smack Sally around and run?” he challenged. “That made you no new friends.”
She could already picture Brendan leading the rallying cry to her to stew in her own juices until she was met some worst fate. Maybe Sophia spoke up for her; maybe she just focused her mind on Ken’s wounds. But something had brought Michael back to her side.
“What?” she asked. “Are you going to sling me over your shoulder and go back all King Kong? Show them that you can put me in my place?”