TWENTY-SEVEN
Isla Fionola
Seven
After a week of working at Neptune’s as head cook, I was quickly learning more about myself and my culinary skills. For one, I wasn’t nearly as good as I thought I was. And secondly, as many times as I’d prepared dishes for my friends at home, nothing was like cooking for customers. It was way more fast-paced and yet, I learned that Lucky had been right about me—this was where I belonged.
Even though G was safely out of Ward Two and in hiding, Lucky was still overprotective of me, especially since he couldn’t hover over me like the protective boyfriend he was since he was still healing. Nevertheless, the difference was clear—while Daniel and Trey both had deep-rooted feelings for me, their admiration bordered on obsession. Lucky, on the other hand, placed a great deal of emphasis on my protection, but he wasn’t controlling and he never acted out of line. He was quickly turning out to be my best boyfriend yet.
I was in the street market now, looking for the cheapest and freshest meat and vegetables for the next week’s menu at Neptune’s. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going as well as I hoped. “Six!” I shouted at the street vendor before me.
“Are you crazy?” The man waved his hands in a frustrated manner. “These potatoes are premium!” he argued. “Fifteen credits.” If anyone here had his screws loose, it was him. His “premium” potatoes were nothing but an overpriced, starchy crop.
“Eight credits,” I said with finality. “And no more.”
“Fifteen!”
“Ten.”
“Fifteen.”
“Twelve!”
“Fifteen!” Gah, did this man know anything about bartering? I threw the potato I still held at him. “Hey!” he shouted at me.
“You can take your potatoes and shove them up your—” My words were cut off when shouts echoed through the streets. We both turned in the direction of the noise, spotting colors that made me blanch. White and red. The Phantoms were here? To my horror, I realized that they were headed my way!
Shit! How had they found me?
Forgetting all about the potatoes, I jumped on my bike, pumping my legs as hard as I could. In the busy market, it was hard to navigate through the swarms of people.
In some way, I was a little glad for the crowd. They acted as a barrier between me and the Phantoms. But unless I could slip into the crowd and vanish out of sight, I was trapped.
At the sound of more shouting, I zipped out of there, trying not to jostle my bike too much or lose the food I’d just spent my credits on. I came across a smaller road that was sandwiched between two residential buildings. With luck, I would be able to lose them in there and perhaps hide between a couple of houses until I could get help.
Those who lived around here hung their laundry out to dry in the sun. As I ducked and swerved to avoid hitting it, I came to a stumbling stop when a woman walked straight into my path. “Hey! Watch it! I could’ve hit you.” It was a damn good thing I stopped when I did, otherwise she would’ve been a pancake. “Are you okay?” I asked when she didn’t say anything.
She didn’t even blink at my question. “Come with me,” she said instead.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. But I really have to go.” The Phantoms were still on my trail.
“I will help you. Follow me.”
Help me? How was this old woman going to help me get away from the Phantoms? “Look, I really can’t stay here.”
“In here,” she said as she showed me an entrance I hadn’t seen before now.
I looked behind me, seeing no sign of the Phantoms so far. Maybe I’d lost them? “Lady, I really appreciate the offer but—”
Just then, the red and white appeared again, much closer than I anticipated. Shit! They were pushing their way through people, eyes trained on me. I had about half a second to make a decision then. Grabbing my bike, I darted for the threshold and the woman sealed the door behind me. “What is this place?” I asked.
The room was dimly lit and decorated with minimal furniture. A kitchen was in the next room over. At the window, there was a sheer red veil that kept people from looking in. When I saw the Phantoms pass, I let out a sigh of relief and pulled out my phone to call Lucky. “Give me that!” the woman said, rudely snatching it from my grip.
“Hey!” I tried grabbing it back, but she reached out and dunked it in a pitcher filled with water on her table. I gasped in outrage as my phone sunk to the bottom. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“You could’ve been killed!” she exclaimed. “Do you know what those men would do to you if they caught you?”
I had a guess, but I wasn’t going to tell her. What did she know about the Phantoms anyway? “Who the hell are you?”
“We need to keep you safe.”
“Look,” I said, taking a step towards her. “I appreciate you helping me back there, but you don’t want to piss me off.”
“Your temper doesn’t scare me.” Her cobalt eyes shone with a familiar intensity. But I couldn’t exactly place where I’d seen her before.
“Then you won’t like it when Glory MC discovers you’re preventing me from contacting them. They’re going to wonder where I am and then they’re going to come looking for me.”
“Let them try,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
This woman was crazier than I thought. “Who are you?” I repeated.
When she didn’t answer, I rushed back towards the door. But her arm shot out to grab me. “You can’t go back out there! They’ll find you!”
“What are you doing?” I batted her hands off me. This woman was crazy!
Moving before me, she slid the locks in place. “No. You’re staying right here. Don’t even think about running again.”
Lucky
I frowned as the sky darkened to an inky black. Seven hadn’t returned yet. Why hadn’t she returned yet? “Do you think something happened to her?” I asked Hastie. By his expression, my nagging was starting to annoy him. I’d been asking about Seven for the last hour or so.
“I think she is fine. Now will you let me nap for a bit?” Hastie closed his eyes again, settling deeper into the couch that he was lying on.
After a week of being under Hanna’s care, I was finally allowed to go home, but she stressed to Seven that I couldn’t overexert myself. It basically meant I had to stay bedridden for most of the day.
Whenever Seven went out, Hastie would come over to keep me company. While the gesture was considerate, I knew it was to make sure I didn’t try anything stupid. Like try to go after her if she went somewhere alone. “She should’ve been back by now.”
“Maybe she’s tired of you already and wants a break,” he muttered.
I threw my pillow at him, hitting him dead center in the face. Hastie let out a growl but simply tucked the pillow beneath his head, resuming his slumber.
Where the hell was Seven? And why wasn’t she picking up her phone? Was the reception poor where she was? Did her phone run out of battery?
I looked over to the window again, noticing the way the sky turned a burnt amber color as it dimmed. Sundown was a dangerous time. It was when the baddies loved to take advantage of women outside on the streets alone. Again, a pang of dread hit me. “I’m fucking telling you, man. Something’s up.”
Hastie snarled, annoyed to be disturbed yet again. “Fucking A, why don’t you call her?”
“I did. She’s not answering!”
“Maybe she’s on her way back. She needs two hands to ride that bike.”
“No. Seven has been riding that piece of crap for years. She can ride it without hands, upside down or even backwards if she wanted to.”
Something was wrong. I knew it. It wasn’t like her not to call. From there, the decision was simple.
I tossed the covers off me, edging off the bed. It was when I began dressing that one of Hastie’s eyes popped open and he jumped to his feet. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I told you, something is wrong.” I was having trouble with my jeans, but once I got them over my knees, everything was easier from there.
Suddenly, Hastie was blocking my way. “Lucky, you can’t go.”
“Something’s off. And I’m not waiting until it’s too late to find out what’s happened.”
“You’re still limping. How the hell do you think you can help her?” I moved towards the door, but Hastie used his massive size to block me.
My best friend was just amazingly stubborn. If I couldn’t convince him to let me go, I’d be here all evening. “If you had the slightest doubt that something had happened to Indy, you’d brave a motherfucking tornado just to know she was safe, wouldn’t you?” The look of anger on my best friend’s face didn’t ease. “As long as I can still stand, I’m going after her.”
For a long moment, we simply faced off, neither one willing to back down. While I was thinking of Seven’s well-being, Hastie was no doubt thinking of mine. I couldn’t exactly hate him for that. But if he didn’t move out of my way in the next second, I’d knock him out.
Hastie’s expression softened as a string of curses flew out of his mouth. “Fine. Then I’m coming with.”
I shot him a smile to which he rolled his eyes at. “Let’s roll,” he said as we mounted our bikes and took off into the sunset.
Seven
“You do not want to mess with me.”
“You keep saying that but you’re not really going to do anything.”
“How do you know that?” I could kick ass if I wanted to.
“Because you would have done it already.” Damn. For an old woman, this lady had some serious attitude to her. And every time I looked at her, I got the sense that I knew her from somewhere.
Anger boiled through my veins. “Glory MC will scour this entire Ward searching until they find me, dead or alive.”
The woman laughed. “Oh, I don’t plan to kill you.”
“You’ve taken my phone and won’t let me leave. If you don’t want to kill me, then what do you want?”
“I just want you.”
“Come again?”
Her features softened slightly as she sighed. “I want you back in my life, Isla.”
I gasped loudly. I felt like she had just punched me in the gut. Or like a bomb had detonated in my chest, rupturing my heart and everything else inside of me. I shook my head. “You must have the wrong girl. My name is Seven.”
“Sweetheart, we both know that’s not true. You were born as Isla Fionola Douglass.”
I stepped back from her as if she had slapped me. This had to be some trick. Had Lucky put her up to this? “Who the fuck are you?” And how did she know my real name?
“You must know who I am, darling. Just think back. Think hard.” My mind was reeling, head spinning like a carousal on crack. She couldn’t be implying what I thought she was. Was that why she seemed so familiar? Was it because I knew her, loved her, for the first years of my life, but erased her from my mind as a child? “No,” I breathed. “No, it can’t be.”
I was backing away from her as if she were a wild animal set free from her cage. The back of my head knocked against a picture frame hanging on the wall behind me. Turning, I looked into my reflection.
Only it wasn’t me exactly.
It was a younger version of me. I was probably five years old in the picture. Maybe six or seven. The early years were often blurry.
Beside me, my baby sister, Ainsley, sat in a woman’s lap. Her eyes immediately seemed familiar. “No. This can’t be.” My hand unconsciously moved towards my mouth, trying to mask the sound of horror in my voice.
“It’s true, Isla,” the woman said from behind me. “I’m your mother.”