by Trent Jordan
She said the name as if we were a drug cartel who had come to behead her. I reminded myself that to the person who wasn’t a part of this world, there was probably a reason for that assumption; all the tattoos, beards, sunglasses, and hardass attitudes didn’t exactly win us any favors with the rich crowd of this neighborhood.
“Yes, I am,” I said. “But I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
She looked over her shoulder, then back at me.
“I thought you would kill me.”
I scoffed.
“No, I’m only looking to kill one man,” I said.
“Who?”
I opened my mouth to answer and paused. Why are you discussing strategy with this woman?
“Who are you?” I said. “I saw you at the church this morning for our chaplain’s funeral. Funerals aren’t usually the kind of thing that people walk into by mistake.”
The woman gulped. She again looked over her shoulder.
“Lilly,” she said.
“Lilly who?”
But I didn’t need to hear her say the rest. I already knew who she was.
Lilly Sartor. The daughter of Lucius. The daughter of the man most responsible for all of the ills, evils, and downfall of society.
Was she responsible for any of those things? No. In fact, judging by her reaction to us and to how she kept looking over her shoulder, I had good reason to believe she was just as afraid of her father as we were.
But still…
She was a Sartor.
“What the hell are you doing out here right now?” I said. “And why the hell are you running away from your father?”
Her eyes went wide. She was foolish if she thought she could have kept that part of herself from us.
“I’m running away from my father because he’s a tyrant,” she said. “And the longer you keep me here, the more at risk I’m going to be. So let me go.”
“Hold up.”
Patriot came back into the picture, standing by my side. Lilly, too, rose to her feet. Patriot didn’t have his gun cocked at her, but unlike me, he had his by his hip, cradled in both of his hands, ready to be aimed and pulled at a moment’s notice.
“You’re telling me, man, that we got the daughter of Lucius Sartor right in front of us, wanting to escape that motherfucker’s clutches, and we’re just going to let her go?”
He shook his head.
“I’m sorry, but you’re too valuable for us to let you walk away. You could provide us with some valuable information.”
“On what, what his favorite dinner dish is?” Lilly said.
I had to admit, if the situation wasn’t so damn serious and the night so thick with tension and finality, it would have been kind of funny. It was probably for the best, though; funny and beautiful was a dangerous combination, especially when it came from someone that felt so forbidden and so... taboo.
“The reason I’m running away is because I have no agency and I don’t know a damn thing,” she said. “I don’t even know how to do my own laundry. You think I can tell you what he’s going to do to you guys?”
“You can tell us about the house,” Patriot said.
“Oh, sure, I’ll tell you what type of marble he uses.”
“Hey, watch your mouth, we’re—”
“Patriot,” I said, cutting him off.
Lilly and I looked at each other. If she was sheltered, it had somehow not eliminated a natural fire and feisty demeanor that permeated the Sartor family. In Lucius, it manifested in violence, but with Lilly, it seemed to appear as friskiness.
“You seriously don’t know anything more?” I said. “I’m not judging, I seriously just cannot believe you don’t know anything about your father.”
Lilly bit her lip. She looked like she wanted to punch Patriot, but to me, she looked... almost frustrated, but not full of hatred. If I was cautiously honest, there seemed to be some sort of a connection manifesting, though I immediately shot that idea down as ludicrous, not anything worth considering.
“Whatever you think of my father, he’s much worse,” she said. “He’s controlling. He’s manipulative. He’s cruel. He’s a liar. And yet…”
He’s her father. That’s not a bond that’s easily broken.
“However bad you think of him as a man, he’s worse as a father,” Lilly said, but there was wavering in her voice. “He wouldn’t let me know anything. I’m sorry, but right now, I just need to get out of here before he sends more men.”
“We can protect you.”
“What?”
Patriot, Lilly, and even Phoenix, wiping his hands on his cut, spoke in shock at the same time.
“We’ll make a deal with you,” I said. “You come with me. I’ll keep you hidden from Lucius for a couple of days. And in return, I want you to tell me everything you know about him. I don’t care how irrelevant you think it is.”
A tense silence followed.
“This is a bad idea, Cole,” Patriot said. “She could be a spy. You know Lucius—”
“Fuck off,” Lilly said. “I don’t know you at all other than what my father said. If what he said was true, you would have gang-raped and killed me by now. But just because you haven’t doesn’t mean I owe you shit.”
But those angry words were directed only at Patriot. Her gaze softened when she turned to me.
“I appreciate it, but I do not need protection, and you don’t want to protect me anyway,” she said. “If my father finds out I was with you, even just hiding in your basement, then you will see a level of evil that you did not even think possible. He’s mad, but he’s calculated. You want to see what my father looks like when he throws precision out the window? Because I don’t. Not for the sake of Springsville.”
I was beginning to feel pissed at myself. I was making decisions to be protective, but protective had a way of turning to paternalistic awfully fast. And if I came back and told Lane that we had never made it to Lucius’ house because we picked up his daughter…
“Fine, just tell me this,” I said. “How guarded is your father’s house? Could the three of us sneak in?”
“No.”
Well, that was a fucking certain response.
“My father hides a lot from me, but I know that place is an impenetrable fortress. When I left, there were many members of his club in there. You just killed two, but there’s more.”
“And you know he’s going to pull more in when he can,” Phoenix said. “We’d get hit from the rear, even if Lane and the rest of the Reapers came.”
“If you go in there, you’re all going to die.”
As I listened to Lilly speak, I knew one thing was definitely true, and I suspected that one other thing was as well. She was not lying about how well-guarded the place was. Perhaps I’d let my ego blind me to what three Reapers could actually do; even if we moved with perfect stealth, we’d get discovered sooner or later.
But less certainly, even though she kept talking about how evil her father was, how controlling he was, how cruel he could be... I didn’t yet believe that there was no part of her that was trying to protect him. I literally could not imagine any child in the world that would want their father dead so willingly; even those who hated their father had to have some level of hope that things could change.
“You want my advice? Bring a larger group.”
“Where are you running to?” I said.
“Anywhere but here,” she snorted.
I looked to Phoenix and Patriot.
“Think she’s telling the truth?” I said.
“There’s no doubt that house is packed to the brim with protection, man,” Patriot said. “But we’re wasting time talking to her. We leave her behind and finish our mission, or we take her with us and leave.”
“Excuse me?”
“There’s no way that the daughter of Lucius is going to walk away from this without us interrogating you some more,” Phoenix said. “We’re not having you turn on us.”
“Fuck off. I just told you I’m running away from him, why the fuck would I go and tell him anything about you assholes? I don’t even know your names.”
“You—”
“Enough!” I snapped.
We were wasting time. I had to make a decision.
But my decision was not going to sit well with the other two bikers.
“I think she’s not lying about our chances in there,” I said. “Even if Lucius is the only one in there, he’s not an idiot. He’s not some fatass waiting to be offed.”
I turned to her.
“Come and stay with me. Two days. Tell me everything you know. Do that, and I’ll get you a plane ticket to anywhere in the country you want. You’ll never have to come back here ever again. Your father will have no idea where you’ve gone. You’ll have the freedom you ask for.”
“And why should I trust you?” she said.
She didn’t have any reason to. But that didn’t mean she had a choice.
“What are you going to do instead? Try and make it wherever on your own? You couldn’t even get out of your own neighborhood without us helping you.”
Lilly bit her lip, though some of her anger was dulled by my sympathetic expression. She understood I wasn’t mocking her but speaking the truth.
“Cole,” Patriot said. “You do this, man, and Lucius finds out…”
“He won’t,” I said. “No one else will find out. Only the three of us will know. Not even Lane.”
Patriot looked at me like I was a goddamn idiot. And frankly, I was. Pulling one over my brother at a time when we needed to come closer together was stupid. And so was this notion that this was a good idea.
But…
Well, I had a multitude of reasons for believing this could have some potential. Some more defensible than others.
“You’re the boss,” Phoenix said. “But you had better be making a smart choice and taking every precaution.”
“Find them and find her!”
Lucius’ voice was distant, far enough away that we had time to make our getaway. But the clock had started, and I doubted we had more than thirty seconds.
“I need a decision now,” I said. “Come with me, and you’ll be safe. Do you trust me?”
She looked at me and gulped.
“No,” she said. “But let’s go.”
Good enough for now.
“Turn off your cell phone,” I said. “And any other electronic you have.”
“What about my luggage—”
“Leave it,” I said. “I’ll give you cash to buy more clothes wherever you go.”
Lilly grimaced. I didn’t have time for this. I grabbed her by the wrist, ignored the warm sensation spreading through my arm, and led her back to my back. Patriot and Phoenix had already gotten to their bikes and turned them on. I hopped on mine, patted the back, and waited for Lilly to get on. Her arms wrapped around my stomach.
I had never had such a taboo feeling in my life. The daughter of my greatest enemy, on the back of my bike? And it felt… good?
Was I seriously asking for death to come to me any faster?
“Head back to the clubhouse,” I said. “Tomorrow, we tell Lane that we did recon and realized it was a suicide mission. Not a fucking word about her, understood?”
Phoenix and Patriot gave a thumbs up.
This was one of the dumbest things I’d ever done in my life. Not only was this a risk between the Reapers and Saints, I was trusting Patriot to back me up instead of Lane. At a time when the two clubs needed to unite and stay together, I had just told him to lie to Lane, his best friend and his boss. This not only had the potential to backfire on us with the Saints, it could make us rip each other apart before Lucius so much as pointed his gun at us.
But I also had to admit, if everything worked out right…
Well, some things I wasn’t willing to admit, not yet at least.
We peeled out of the neighborhood, Lilly’s arms tightening around me as we sped up. She screamed when we made a couple of turns, leading me to believe that she did not have a ton, or perhaps even any, experience riding on the back of a chopper. If that was the case, perhaps it gave some credence to the idea that she was more sheltered and controlled than I had assumed.
When we got on the other side of downtown, I pulled into an abandoned parking lot and turned off the bike. I had one thing I needed to take care of that I should have done earlier, but at least if I did it before I got home, it would provide some measure of safety.
“What are you doing?” Lilly asked.
“Your cell phone,” I said. “I need it.”
“Are you going to destroy it?”
I shook my head.
“Disable it temporarily.”
“No—”
“You get off here and fend for yourself with your cell phone, or you give me your phone, have food and shelter, and you get a plane ticket to anywhere in the States. Your choice.”
I didn’t like playing the bad guy. But I’d grown to learn its necessity over the last year and a half.
Lilly reached into her backpack, fiddled around, and handed me her phone. I wedged it open, found the chip, pried it out, then handed it back to her.
“That better be fixable,” she said.
“It is,” I said.
I didn’t give her a chance to argue further. I reignited my bike and sped out of the lot, speeding toward my place.
Every moment since I had rescued Lilly from the other two Fallen Saints had felt surreal, but there was a new level of absurdity when I pulled up to my apartment. The daughter of my greatest enemy, about to enter my home? I felt like I wasn’t just tempting fate; I felt like I was giving it the middle finger and asking it to suck me off.
But, again, if it worked…
I led her upstairs, keeping my head on a swivel to make sure no one had followed us or was watching us. I led her inside and pointed her to the couch.
“You can sleep here,” I said. “I’ll give you some blankets and pillows. If you hear anything or anyone trying to get in, just scream. I’ll be in my bedroom.”
“Got it,” she said.
For just the briefest of moments, the two of us exchanged a look that left me wondering if this is where we would leave things. She was so damn attractive, and the temptation…
I walked to my room. I couldn’t let myself get distracted. Yes, she was beautiful.
But beauty, as it was well known, could be fatal sometimes.
Lilly
I heard Cole rummaging in his room and bathroom, preparing for bed.
And the whole damn time, it felt like fate was daring me to do something about it.
He was handsome. That was undeniable. So, too, was the realization that the Reapers were not a bunch of thugs and rapists; maybe some of them were, but Cole struck me as perfectly balanced between empathetic and understanding and being direct and forceful when he needed to.
Maybe some of it was not having any freedom, but I…
I had to admit, I felt attracted to Cole.
No.
No, I couldn’t act on it. I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to survive two days with him, and I would have a plane ticket to New York City. I would never see him, my father, or any of this motorcycle club nonsense ever again. I had made it my entire life without... well, without ever being intimate. What was two more days, most especially with someone I had never spoken to before?
Did I really want to have my first time be with the sworn enemy of my father? This most definitely was not “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” let alone my lover. My first time needed to be with someone who cared about me, not someone using me as an information source for a war with my only surviving family.
That didn’t mean, though, as the lights went out, the darkness took over, and my eyelids became heavy, that I didn’t go to sleep fantasizing just a bit about what it would be like to be as close to Cole in his bedroom as I had been on his bike.
I woke up to
the sound of rustling.
At first, I had no idea what was going on. I was still coming to grips with the fact that I had woken up in a stranger’s apartment, on a strange man’s couch, and had done so entirely sober—and had not regretted what had happened. And in any case, I was never a morning person; I preferred to ease into the day.
But then questions started to pop up. Why was there the sound of rustling? Who was doing the rustling? And what were they going through?
I sat up as quietly as I could, a little fearful that a Fallen Saint had broken in and just not realized I was here yet. I slowly stood up, tiptoed over, and saw…
Cole, shirtless, his back to me, leaning over my bag.
He was so muscular and ripped. I had never seen a man like this before. It sounded crazy, but my father had sheltered me so much I was forced to imagine what it was like. I could see the individual muscles of his back popping up, the discs in his spine, the veins running across…
He looked like a superhero or villain from one of the movies, he had so much muscle on him.
And he was going through my bag.
“What are you doing?” I said.
Cole jumped in surprise, immediately whirling around as if to fight me. My words were questioning, but my tone was flat. I still had not yet fully woken up.
But the sight of Cole’s muscular chest, chiseled abs, and the V-shape leading down to his groin were starting to awaken me.
“You can’t be too cautious with Sartors,” he said. “I had to make sure that there wasn’t anything in here that could be used for spying on me.”
He was still hot and handsome.
But with my senses coming back to me, my awe and arousal were being replaced by annoyance and anger that he had gone through my stuff without asking me.
“Just because my father… look, that doesn’t mean that you get to go through my stuff,” I said. “I didn’t go rummaging through your apartment. I trusted you. Not that I had a choice.”
Cole sighed, looking disappointed with himself.
“And truth be told, I’d like to trust you too, especially after you let me remove your cell phone chip,” he said. “But I’ve lost too many friends and too many allies over issues of trust. I can’t... I can’t take any risks. I’m sorry. It’s Lucius. You’re a Sartor.”