“Do you know why Petrov was so interested in you?” Bones still held my gaze.
“No.”
Bones gave Duke another nod. “Are you running from someone?”
My eyes narrowed on Sheila’s aesthetician. He was lucky she liked him so much because he was approaching dangerous territory. I valued the friendship we seemed to be building, but I didn’t fool myself into thinking he’d ever choose me over Los Cuervos. I wanted to think he wouldn’t turn me in to Uncle Roark, but trust was hard to establish and easy to destroy, especially when the stakes were literally life or worse than death. I wasn’t afraid to die, but I was afraid of being subjected to Uncle Roark again. Very afraid.
I struggled not to let that fear taint every aspect of my life, weaving its way into the fabric of my being and influencing every decision I made and act I committed. He knew that I’d be living my life unable to separatehimfrom anything I said or did because the fear he instilled in every fiber of my being controlled me. That would give him—the world’s most psychotic narcissist—more satisfaction and confirmation of his superiority and importance than anything else could.
If I hadn’t learned to trust, make friends, be in relationships, and develop myself, I would have given Uncle Roark exactly what he wanted from me. Well, other than my pain. That seemed to be his all-time favorite thing. Controlling me was a silver medal, though. My problem now lay in this: if I told Los Cuervos about Uncle Roark, I would be putting them in danger. Concerns about them turning me in aside, if I put Los Cuervos on the docket for a Callahan family vendetta, I’d never forgive myself. Uncle Roark would do his best to eviscerate them just to watch me suffer while he did it. On the other hand, they were grown-assbikers. Maybe they deserved to know some of my story and be allowed to make their own choice about whether to shelter me or not.
I rubbed my sweat-soaked palms on my sweatpants and made a choice. “Yes.”
Duke’s eyes bounced from my face to Bones’s. Tendons in Bones’s neck began to stand out, his jaw clenching in anger. “Are the people you’re running from the same ones who hurt you?” His voice sounded rough, like he was holding himself back by a thread.
A fine tremor worked its way through me now as I struggled to keep my body under control. “Yes,” I whispered.
A savage gleam entered his dark eyes, making them look almost black as Bones demanded, “Who?”
I held my eyes open as wide as I could to keep a tear from falling as my tremors turned into full-on shaking. One traitorous drop ran down my cheek. My voice, strained in a way I’d never quite heard before, sobbed out. “I can’t…” I choked back a sob. “He’d kill you all and make me wish for death long before he ever let me have it.”
I vaguely understood that people around me were talking now. Voices hummed at the periphery of my consciousness, but they sounded like the teacher from oldPeanutscartoons. Someone’s cold but gentle hands guided me to a chair, where they started checking my pulse. A blanket was placed around my shoulders. Ah, they thought I was going into shock. They were probably right, but I couldn’t seem to care. I couldn’t take my focus away from Bones’s obsidian glare. If I had, I’d have seen that Duke was studying the entire connection with intense scrutiny.
I inhaled sharply when Bones ripped his eyes from mine, turning them upon Duke. They muttered quietly, and Duke seemed to come to a conclusion about five seconds later when he banged his fist on the table, startling everyone in the room.
“Everyone except Indigo, Bones, and Ratched get the fuck out. NOW!” Duke didn’t have to ask twice. Ratched started checking my pupils, using the flashlight on his phone to blind me. He fussed around me a little more, clucking like a mother hen until he was satisfied I wasn’t going to pass out.
Duke silently passed a flask to Ratched, who gave it to me. A few healthy swigs of whiskey later, my belly felt warm, and my shaking hadpassed. Having fulfilled his purpose, Ratched left the room and the door closed softly behind him. I felt exhausted and wrung out, but I knew our conversation was far from over. No, I think it was just getting started.
Chapter 15
Bones
Pinched between my thumb and forefinger, I rubbed circles over the off-white metacarpal bone in my hand like a worry stone. This particular bone was special, a favorite I used when I needed to remain calm and rein in the rage that had lived deep inside me since I was ten years old. They called me Bones because when I sent a man toEl Diablo,I made a trade: for the sliver of my soul that was lost with every death, I kept a piece of the dead. They weren’t trophies. They were my talismans. One day, I’d be judged. If I went to heaven, I’d be able to show God proof of the evil I wiped from the Earth, and if I went to hell…well, I’d be able to showEl Diabloexactly who he was fucking with when I got there. I was a child the first time I watched the light in someone’s eyes fade to nothingness. Since that fateful night, my purpose had been to protect those who needed it from the men who wished to drown the world in evil. It was all I was good for and could offer the people around me. Iwould always do what needed to be done to spare others from staining their souls.
The soul in front of me was perhaps as fractured and stained as my own, but an inner light shone from her that spoke to a resilience of spirit that I knew I’d never be able to recreate with my own soul. Maybe that was why I felt a connection to her, a camaraderie that allowed me to understand her better than my brothers. In Indigo, I saw a person who lived encompassed by sin but had not allowed that sin to taint the heart of who she was. Priest watched her obsessively while keeping her at arm's length; if he would just get to know her, he’d see she wasn’t a threat to the Crows. Threats surrounded her, yes, but she herself posed no danger to our family.
Duke settled back into his chair, steepling his inked fingers under his chin as he regarded the girl across the table. Her shaking had stopped, her small hands clutching the blanket that Cricket had placed around her shoulders after Ratched realized that she was going into shock. We’d all seen the recording of Priest interrogating her in the confessional, and her easy-breezy attitude in the face of pain earned her more than a bit of respect from the brothers who hadn’t gotten to know her yet. Watching her reaction to my words about the people who hurt her proved to us all exactly how grave the threat against her must be to garner such a reaction from such a strong person.
“Indigo, darlin’,” Duke said in a soothing tone I’d heard him use with Ellis when she was upset but hadn’t heard in years, “I think it’s time for us to talk. I understand that you’ve been through your own personal hell, but I want you to know that you’re safe here with us.” Indigo looked up from her hands where they were clenched in her blanket. “We want to help you, but we can’t do that if we don’t know where the threat is comin’ from.”
“I…” Indigo’s voice shook as she tried to calm the panic trying to take control of her again. “I can’t tell you, Duke. I’m trying to protect you. You have no idea the reach they have, the power. Los Cuervos is…” She bit her lip while she searched for words. “I don’t want to be rude to you, President Duke. Los Cuervos is amazing, but you have to know that you’re big fish in a small pond.” She winced as she said that she didn’t believe we had the power to protect her.
“These people, the family that raised me…they operate on a muchmuchlarger scale. I escaped them two years ago, and I’ve been running ever since. Priest was right; if they found me here, they’d think you were harboring me or using me in some way, and they’d decimate you. It wouldn’t even be hard. Do you get what I’m trying to tell you? I really like you guys…well, most of you. I’d never get over it if something happened to you because of me. That’s why I wanted to leave with Sheila right away. The best thing you could do is let Sheila and me go. We’ll leave, and we won’t bother you again. I promise I won’t ever tell Unc…themabout you. I’ll pinky swear.” Her slightly tremulous hand emerged from the blanket, pinky finger extended to make an oath.
Duke took her small hand with his big, calloused one and held it like it was fragile. “Darlin’, you really know how to cut a man to the quick. I’ll give you that.” He smiled kindly at her—one of his rare, sweet smiles reserved only for Lorna now that Ellis was gone. He looked at me, his sergeant at arms, with a question in his eyes. Duke was our leader, and his word was law for Los Cuervos quite literally, but in important matters he took the thoughts of his trusted men under serious consideration. It was part of what made him such an effective leader. I knew what he was silently communicating, and I solemnly considered the gravity of our situation for several heartbeats before I swallowed and gave him a grave nod in agreement. Goose bumps rose on my arms, and I felt a shift in the air. What was about to happen would change things irrevocably, and I had faith that Indigo could help us on a mission that had spanned generations.
“Indigo, darlin’, have you heard anything about how the Crows came to be?” Duke’s cerulean eyes were trained on her face, looking for minute shifts that act as tells. She shook her head slowly. “Well, I think it’s time you learned about how we came to be and what we really do here. Settle in with that flask, darlin’; it’s story time. Before we start, though. Bones, go get Cricket. I have an idea.”
Priest
Waking up tied to a chair in your own workspace, punished by your own club, wasn’t an experience I’d recommend. I groaned as I rolled my neck. I crossed the Rubicon the moment I took her, and I knew it. I wasn’t sorry, and I’d do it again. The look on Bones’s face when he pistol-whipped me spoke volumes, not to mention the fury and disappointment on Duke’s…but I was right, IknewI was. I had to try to find out what she’d been hiding, and this was the only way. They’d forgive me eventually when they realized that I did what I had to do for the Crows. Right?
I sat for what seemed like hours, though. I had no way to know how much time passed. There were no windows in the confessional to let in daylight, but I didn’t feel too uncomfortably thirsty, so I knew I couldn’t have been down here for longer than a day. As the club’s interrogator, I knew all the tricks they could play on me, so I settled back as comfortably as I could and waited to hear what punishment I’d earned for my disobedience.
More time had passed, hours or minutes I wasn’t sure, before I heard people approaching the cellar doors leading to the confessional. The doors creaked open, spilling in the caramel-colored evening light. So, it was probably the evening after they’d found me with Indigo, less than a day after I’d taken her. I knew they wouldn’t leave me down here much longer. Duke was a hard-ass and a good prez, but I was his son and only living child. Did banking on that make me an entitled prick? Yes, yes, it did. Oh well. I’d do anything to protect my family and take whatever punishment Duke doled out. It was worth it.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Duke or Bones who sauntered down the stairs into our club’s torture room. It was Cricket, and he wasn’t alone.
