Dex
You don’t need to watch the weather report to see snow is on the way. The sky is soft white as I look out the small, dirty window and a chill runs down my spine. It’s fucking cold in these parts and it almost makes me miss Willows Peak.
Walking across the room, I pick up my cell and dial Cas’s number. I light a cigarette while I wait for him to answer, and the nicotine burns my throat as I inhale deeply.
“I was expecting your call last night,” he mumbles down the line.
“Yeah, well, I don’t think you want to hear what I’m going to say, Cas.”
And I don’t want to hear him tell me to do as they want.
“I just want to know who it was, and what the fuck happened.”
“From what Gabe’s said, he was beaten and stabbed in the neck for the grand finale…by his daughter, who looks no older than your Leo.”
It goes quiet and I let it sink in for him.
“A toddler?” he snorts.
“No, but she doesn’t look any older than sixteen, seventeen at most.”
“The fuck?”
Opening the door, I make sure no one is close by.
“No one has said why, but they’ve got her locked in an old shed and they’re thinking I’m here to kill her. Please tell me you didn’t tell Gabe I would take her out for them.”
“Of course I didn’t. Find out everything there is to know and call me back. Don’t go killing the girl, you couldn’t handle the last one.”
Before I can throw back a dig at him, he chuckles and hangs up on me. At least he didn’t tell me to kill the girl, not that I thought he would, but I don’t trust anything anymore.
Shoving my things into my bag, I dump it on the bed and head downstairs. The place is deserted and when I stumble into their kitchen, the cupboards are bare. They have shitloads of coffee but nothing to eat. I decide to ride into town for breakfast. I don’t see anyone on my way out and starting my bike doesn’t get anyone’s attention.
It isn’t far into town and the ride down the mountain is quite beautiful. There aren’t many trees in Willows Peak, and the ones here have grown tall and hang over the road, forming a tunnel to ride through.
I cruise down main street and pull over by the diner. Store owners are preparing for coming storm, thankfully the diners are always the last to close up.
The bell dings over my head as I walk in and gets the attention of everyone in the place. They don’t look away once they see the cut bundled on over my jacket and hoodie. The disgust in their eyes is clear to see and I turn my back on them when I make it to the counter.
I order two rounds of pancakes and bacon to go, and the waitress stands there, staring blankly at me.
“Did I stutter?” I grunt.
“No,” she jumps, and I wait by the window after paying the bill.
I catch them all watching me in the reflection of the glass, this is fucking weird. Surely they’ve seen a biker ride through town considering they have a motorcycle club up the mountain. They’re acting like I’m the first one they’ve ever seen.
Something isn’t right with this place. The sooner I can leave the happier I’ll be, the happier the town will be by the looks of it.
As soon as she calls my order, I grab it and I’m gone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not intimidated by these people, they’re flat out freaking me out.
Gabe is waiting on the wrap around porch when I return to their clubhouse. I shouldn’t, but I have an uneasy feeling around here. These men are my brothers, it doesn’t matter a shit if I only met them yesterday, we share the same patch, and that’s all that counts.
“We’ve got a snow storm rolling in, if we could finish this up today, we can bury her before the snow settles.”
I force myself to carry on breathing steadily, he genuinely believes I’m here to kill the girl, I can’t let him see I am not the guy for that particular job.
“Have you spoken to Cas yet?” he asks, walking over to me.
“Yes.”
I don’t share anymore, and he doesn’t ask, although he does watch my every move as I climb off my bike and unload the food.
“What’s with all the glares I got in town?” I ask him. It makes him laugh and I narrow my eyes at him.
“You’re not in Willows Peak anymore, brother. The townies and the club steer clear of each other, bad blood a few years ago.”
This time, he doesn’t elaborate, and I don’t ask more questions. The people of Willow’s Peak have a silent agreement with the Lost Souls and as long as the two don’t mix violently, no one bats an eyelid.
“Have you got a key to the shed, I need to talk to the girl, or do I have to go find Zander?”
He digs around in his jeans pocket and throws me a single key.
“Be sure to lock her back in when you’re done.”
Clutching the bag of food, I grip onto the metal in my hand and turn for the shed. Bitter winds thrash around me as I head behind their clubhouse. Ice is beginning to cover the lock on the shed and I put the food down to scrape it off. Inside, the girl is still shivering, and I have a clearer view of her now that daylight pours in through the cracks in between the wood panels.
Her jeans are ripped, and I think it’s in the fashion sense, not the old and tatty sense. Her boots are well worn and have fur around the tops. There is nothing about her that stands out.
Closing the door behind me does nothing to keep the cold out and a slight guilt swims through my blood that I slept in the warm last night while she was out here. I’ve got to cut that shit out, she deserves everything coming her way if she did kill a brother.
“How long have you been in here?” I ask her, not really expecting an answer.
“Three days.”
Her voice is deeper than I expected.
After a quick glance over, she hasn’t got a mark on her, apart from the odd scruff of dirt from being cooped in here.
“How old are you?” I ask next.
She looks away and down to the ground. Sitting opposite her, the ground freezes my ass in no time.
I toss the bag of food over her way and it takes her a moment to make a move for it. Her fingers nimbly make quick work unwrapping the food and she watches me, weary incase I rip it away from her.
“My name is Dex, I’m here because the club believe I’m here to kill you on their behalf,” I say, and she stops nibbling on the pancake and frowns.
“They won’t kill me, no matter what I’ve done,” she says, adamantly.
“Didn’t you hear me, they won’t kill you, but I will.”
Even as I lie, I feel sick at the thought of ending her. She doesn’t have the first idea who I am or what I’ve done.
“Tell me what happened.”
“There’s nothing to say, they say I killed my dad, and now I’m facing the wrath of the club. End of story.”
So matter of fact and cold.
“Why did you kill him?”
She doesn’t answer me, she finishes her food and ignores me.
“Does it matter? He’s dead, and he’s not coming back.”
“I’m not asking for the fun of it, tell me why?”
“He wasn’t a nice person.” Is all she has to say.
“You killed him because he wasn’t a nice person,” I muse, “I’m not a nice person, are you going to try and kill me too?”
A shadow of a smirk replaces the frown she’s been wearing since I came in and it disappears as quickly as it showed up. At least she knows when I’m taking the piss out of her.
“You’ll be safe from me as long as you don’t try to hurt me,” she warns me, and I burst out with laughter.
“You’re funny, daddy killer, but I’ll take my chances around you.”
“Daddy killer?”
“That’s what you are, aren’t you?”
She looks away, but I push on.
“How did you kill him?”
“I’m sure Gabe has filled you in already.”
“He only said you killed him, he didn’t tell me how or why. Since we’ve established the why, tell me how.”
Lying is becoming second nature to me these days. Gabe did tell me, but I want to hear it from her.
“What is the club going to do with me?” she asks instead.
“Answer my questions and you’ll find out.”
She puts down the food wrappers and tugs her knees up to her chest.
“He was beating on my mom. It wasn’t the first time and I’d had enough. I grabbed the skillet from the stove and kept hitting him over the head until he went down, then I stabbed him in the neck with his own hunting knife.”
Fuck, I wasn’t expecting to hear that from her.
“How did you stab him?”
“With the knife?”
“I mean, how were you positioned?”
“I was…when he fell to the floor, I…”
She’s full of shit, she doesn’t even have a decent cover story to stick with.
Climbing to my feet, I cross the short distance between us and pull her up, she barely comes up to my chin and weighs next to nothing.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she snaps.
“Checking something,” I grunt, opening the coat that’s too big for her, “Who gave you this coat, and when?”
“Baze gave it to me when I got here. Why?”
She’s wearing a dusty blue jumper and there isn’t a spec of blood on it. There’s one smear of blood on her forehead, and one on her wrist. That’s all. Where is all the blood if she really did stab him?
“Come with me,” I order, releasing her and dropping the key on the ground.
I won’t be locking her up again, and while I’m here, nor will anyone else.
I don’t hear any footsteps following me and I turn to find her still standing in the shed.
“Come, now.”
Flinching, her eyes adjust to the daylight as she steps out and her smallness hits me in the gut.
I may share the patch with these men, but they’re thick as fuck. I can’t believe Cas sent me all this way for this dumb shit.
Apart from the smear of blood on her forehead, she is clean.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks, coming to another stop.
“Are you complaining about being freed?” I snort and head for the cabin.
“Wait,” she calls out and I do, “They’re not going to be happy you’ve let me out.”
I lean into her and for one second, I allow the superiority of my patch to consume me.
“It doesn’t matter what they think, it’s up to me what happens next.”
She moves slowly beside me, and I hear her groan in pain when she takes the steps up to the door.
The bar instantly quietens, and the tension thickens with every second that passes. The only sound that can be heard is a chair scraping against the wooden floor.
“What the fuck, Dex?”
Zander is the first one to get up in my face.
“She’s freezing, she needs to warm up, or she’s going to die out there.”
“It’s what she deserves,” someone calls out.
I’ve got brothers coming towards us, and I feel the girl creeping up closer behind me. Her icy cold fingers seep through my jumper as she holds onto my wrist.
“I’m going to run her a bath, then I’ll be back down to talk to Gabe. I suggest you all leave her the fuck alone, or you’ll have me to deal with.”
This holds them back and without taking my eyes off anyone, I swing my arm back and scoot the girl forward beside me.
“Come on, I haven’t got all day.”
No one follows us up the stairs and I release a sigh of relief once we’re alone in the room I stayed in last night.
An uneasy feeling sweeps over me again, I shrug it off and leave the girl standing by the bed.
“How old are you?” I ask, before stepping into the bathroom.
“Nineteen, I’ll be twenty in two weeks.”
“How much do you weigh?”
If I asked Alannah or Bonnie this, they would rip my balls from me, for sure.
“A hundred and ten pounds.”
How the hell did my supposed brothers believe this whip of a girl could take down a man fuck knows how much bigger than her.
I run the hot tap and add the contents from at least three different bottles of crap on the shelf.
When I turn around, she is still standing by the bed, staring at me like I’m an alien.
“Get undressed, and get in the tub. We’ve still got shit to talk about and I’d rather you weren’t slowly freezing to death while I was wasting my breath.”
She doesn’t move, and it begins to infuriate me. I step forward and while a part of me expects her to be weary of me, I’m glad when she tips her chin and stands her ground.
“What’s your name?”
“Libby.”
Pushing the oversized coat off her shoulders, it falls to the floor and I step around her, nudging her towards the bathroom.
“Get in the fucking tub, Libby.”
She infuriates me further when she stops in the doorway and doesn’t move.
“Unless you want me to undress you and physically put you in the fucking bath, I suggest you start moving.”
I wait around long enough to see her start to slip out of her boots and close the door to give her some privacy. It’s time to face Gabe before they all come looking for us.