Cole

 

I heard her whimpering, like she was going to cry again. I knew she was afraid—for the first time in my life, I knew how it felt. “It’ll be all right,” I said, pulling her behind me as I walked toward the room. Then I spun, pulling her against me.

 

“Just act like you’re trying to get away,” I muttered in Sara’s ear. “I’ll keep you safe, I swear.”

 

She started to squirm under my arm. Good girl. I called Skull’s name as loudly as I could.

 

We were standing in the parking lot, directly in front of room twenty-seven. I had one arm around Sara’s chest, holding her to me. The other held my gun, pointed at her head.

 

The curtain moved. Someone was looking out. Alena? No, he would have tied her up somehow. Otherwise, knowing her, she would have been all over the room and probably out the door by now.

 

“I’ll blow her head off!” I shouted. Sara whimpered again. “I won’t. Just play along.” She nodded. “I’ll kill her!” I shouted again.

 

Then I heard a roar. The door flew open, and there was Skull. His eyes went wide as saucers when he saw who I was holding against my chest.

 

“Sara?” he whispered, his hands reaching for her. He took two steps toward us.

 

“No way! Back off!” I screamed, taking two steps away from him. “You don’t come anywhere near us!”

 

He ignored me. He only had eyes for her. “Sara! How are you alive? Where have you been?”

 

“Looks like you didn’t do the job all the way, man. She was alive all this time, and hiding from you because you hurt her!”

 

“No…” he moaned, staring at her. “No. You didn’t have to hide from me! I love you! This whole time, my heart was breaking because I thought I’d killed you! Because I love you!”

 

“You don’t love her,” I said. I was tired of playing these games with him. “If you did, you wouldn’t have done anything to her. You wouldn’t have made her so afraid of you, she had to hide in a place like this for six weeks. She would have gone to the hospital, or to her sister. She came here instead. Because it was better than being with you.”

 

“That’s not true!” He looked at her, his arms still reaching out. “I do love you. It’s been tearing me apart inside, thinking I killed you. I swear, I haven’t been able to sleep this entire time. I’m falling apart without you. I hated myself. You have to believe me.”

 

“Keep fighting,” I whispered. She struggled against me. I looked at Skull. “It doesn’t fucking matter now! I’ll blow her head off, I shit you not.”

 

“No!”

 

“Fine. You wanna keep her safe? Then give me Alena. I’ll give you Sara if you give me Alena.”

 

He hesitated, still staring at Sara. I pressed the gun to her head. She cried out, though I didn’t know if it was pretend or if she were really afraid I would kill her if I didn’t get her sister back.

 

“Don’t you hurt her!” he screamed. I wondered how long it would be before somebody called the cops. I hoped someone already had, actually. I was counting on it.

 

“Then you give me proof that Alena’s still alive and unhurt. I swear, if she’s already dead…!”

 

“No, no, she’s fine!” He held up his hands, motioning for me to stop. He stuck his head in the room. “Say something!”

 

“Cole?” I could have collapsed with relief. It was her voice. She sounded strong.

 

“See?” Skull asked. “She’s fine. Now give me Sara!”

 

“No! Not until I see Alena!” I knew him. He was stubborn, just the way he had always been when we were kids. Even when I had him cornered like this, he was still trying to fight back like he had a leg to stand on. We could be here all night if he had his way. Both of us threatening the other and getting nowhere.

 

Skull slumped against the door to the room. I didn’t know if he could take much more of this. I had never seen a person so close to falling apart. If I pushed much harder, he might kill her just because he felt like it. Or he might kill himself.

 

“Why did you do this?” I asked. I had to know. Sara didn’t matter at the moment, and neither did Alena. All I saw was my best friend. “Why? What happened?”

 

He was crying. He’d cried more today than I’d ever seen him cry in the years we knew each other. He didn’t even cry in front of me when his parents died—I thought for a long time that he might never have cried for them at all. I never knew exactly what they had done to him, since he would never tell me. I knew it was enough to kill any chance of him mourning their passing, though.

 

“It was all too much,” he sobbed. “I thought I could handle it, but it was too much. I was never meant to be a leader, like you are.” He looked at me, and I saw all the pain in his eyes. My heart went out to him for a minute, but then I remembered the girl inside the room and what she meant to me. I hardened myself. I had made my choice.

 

“What was too much? Tell me.”

 

“I thought…if I could score us a deal…it would make you look good, strong. I don’t know what I was thinking…”

 

I was so surprised, I almost let go of Sara. This was totally unexpected. I thought this was all about his guilt over thinking he killed her, and maybe drug paranoia. I knew Teresa couldn’t be the only person in the house getting high. It would explain the way he was crumbling, too. But now he was talking about a deal. “What did you do?”

 

He shook his head. “It’s too much. You’ll hate me.”

 

I did what I could to hide how frustrated he was making me. “I won’t. I would never hate you. You’re my brother.” I had to be careful. He was ready to crack. He had already cracked, actually.

 

“I was working with Pablo and the rest of them. I thought I could make us strong…”

 

“Jesus Christ.” It all made sense, at least a little bit. “You were selling to them?”

 

He nodded. “I thought if we could work with them, instead of against them, we could be a stronger club. The more allies, the better, right?”

 

“Fuck, Skull! They killed Nails and everybody else! Why would you do it?” He might have gotten us all killed. There was no trusting Pablo, not after what he did to our club. Skull had been way out of line to even consider doing something so risky. He wasn’t exactly skilled when it came to negotiation, either. I could have blown his head off right there, I was so enraged. I didn’t notice how tightly I was squeezing Sara until she cried out a little. I loosened my grip.

 

“I don’t know how I did it. I don’t remember anymore, it’s all so confusing. It seemed like a good idea at the time…”

 

“Where’s the money?” I asked. He wouldn’t look at me. “Where is it, man?”

 

“Do you really think I would steal from you?”

 

“Honestly, brother? I don’t put anything past you anymore. And forget me! What about the rest of the club? They don’t know you the way I do.”

 

He nodded. “It’s all safe. You’ll find every penny. I didn’t spend it. But I was afraid if you found out before everything was settled, you’d think I was stealing from the club. I wasn’t, I swear. The club’s the only thing that ever mattered to me. But I knew they would have me killed if they thought I was going behind their backs.” He was right. They would have. There were two things you never fucked with, when it came to an MC: their bikes and their money. Even their women didn’t mean as much to them.

 

“Okay, fine. It happened. We’ll find a way out of it.” I didn’t know how. Now, I’d look weaker than ever. I hadn’t known what my own goddamned VP was doing under my nose. Not just my VP, but my best friend. This would all fall back on me.

 

But Skull had thought about that, too. “They’ll all think you made the deal. That you were making us strong by trying to make the peace between our clubs. I want you to be the hero. Don’t worry about me.”

 

My heart went out to him again before I could stop it. Was this really my best friend? This pathetic person? He had fallen so far, and I hadn’t been able to stop him.

 

I shook myself, remembering the goal in this. He was getting too far off track, and Alena was still sitting in the room. I held tightly to Sara. “Fine. We’ll work it out. I won’t let you go down for this, man. But you have to let Alena go. Let her go. She’s innocent in all of this. And look! You didn’t kill Sara, so she has nothing on you. Let her go.”

 

He stood straight, shaking his head. “No, man. She can’t know what I did. She knows I hurt Sara, and I could get in trouble for that. I won’t take the chance.”

 

He was fucking insane. No doubt about it. His logic made no sense. “Then I’ll kill this one!” I held the gun to Sara’s head. “It would all be for nothing!”

 

“You’d never do it!”

 

“Try me! I swear to God, don’t push me! You have no idea how far I would go.”

 

He watched me. I could tell he didn’t know if I was bluffing or not. He knew I would never shoot a woman, but then again, he couldn’t be sure. Had I been pushed too far? I pressed the gun tighter against Sara’s head.

 

“I love her, man.” He sounded pathetic.

 

“I know you do. That’s why I know you’re gonna give me Alena if you wanna keep Sara safe. Right?”

 

Just then, I saw another guy behind Skull. Casey. Damn it. He looked scared. Stupid kid. He thought he was a hero too, I guessed.

 

He could be a hero now if he wanted to. “Casey! Get her for me!” I saw him move like he was going to do it.

 

“Stop! No!” Skull turned to hold Casey back. I knew what I had to do.

 

I let go of Sara, shoving her behind me, and took aim at Skull. Then I pulled the trigger and watched as he went down.

 

Clutching his leg.

 

Casey froze, then turned to me. “I said, get her!” I still had the gun pointed at him. I heard Sara burst into tears behind me. I put an arm around her, trying to comfort her.

 

“You did great,” I said, patting her on the back. “You saved her life. You were really brave.”

 

“Get her, please.” She sat on the ground, and I approached the doorway. Where Skull was grimacing in pain, holding his leg.

 

“Why did you shoot me?” he asked, looking surprised. I took off my belt, wrapping it around his leg to hold back the bleeding.

 

“Why the hell do you think?” I asked. He was lucky I’d changed my mind at the last second and aimed lower. I couldn’t kill my friend, no matter what he had done. “I told you. I wasn’t going to let you hurt her.”

 

Then I looked up into the room. It was filthy, dark, and it stank. But there was one good thing about it, and she was getting up from a chair. My chest felt like it might burst.