“I’m sorry, did you think we were going to greet you with cupcakes and ice cream for crashing our joint?” Lucius said with a smirk. “I have tried to eradicate you fuckers from existence for dozens of years now. You think that we would do that by fattening you up and giving you heart attacks?”
The Saints behind him broke out in a chorus of laughter. I felt my chest tighten with rage. I had many reasons for wanting to kill Lucius, and he had only added to that long list with his murder of Patriot.
“How the hell did you know we were coming?” I growled. “There’s no way you could have prepped for us coming without you knowing.”
“Ahh, you are right that we knew you were coming,” Lucius said. “See, that’s the thing, Lane. You lead like a coward, refusing to get involved... you treat your men with contempt and try and remain above the dirty work, and guess what happens? Your men abandon you.”
I looked left to Father Marcellus, but the wide-eyed expression on his face seemed like true, genuine shock. I highly doubted that they would have killed Patriot if he was the spy, either.
Axle... Red Raven... Butch... which one...
“And when your men abandon you, do you know how easy it comes to picking you off? Instead of it being a task or a chore, it becomes a delight. Instead of wondering if I’m going to kill you, I can just delight in wondering how I might kill you. Now, I’ll give you this much, boy, your sudden little run over here had our spy concerned. We didn’t know exactly what you would do. But given your arrogance and emotional volatility, we had a pretty good guess it would be something like this. We just didn’t think it would be so easy! Right?”
He played to the crowd, drawing more laughs. I went to punch him, and to my surprise, no one shot me in my arrogance. Instead, Lucius just took the punch, spat on the ground, and smiled.
“That was your one good chance,” he said.
With that, he uncorked a wicked right cross that knocked me to the ground. It was a really bad sign that my knuckles hurt almost as much as my chin did.
“See, here’s where it gets fun, Lane,” Lucius said. “You’re surrounded by some of the most dangerous men in California. You have one other man by your side, a chaplain who we’re going to kill when this is all said and done. But you? You don’t get to die so easily. You get to stew in your death.”
It’s my worst fear come true. I’m going to die. There’s no getting out of this. I didn’t tell anyone else where we were. I’m going to die because of my own arrogance and my own paranoia.
And...
You know what...
Fuck it.
I’m not going quietly.
I slowly rose to my feet, wiping blood from my gums as I shook my head of the punch.
“Oh, so you got up, did you, Lane?” Lucius said, rolling up his sleeves. “I don’t know why you even bother. You know that this will be a death that you cannot escape.”
I lunged to him, trying to strike him with a right fist, but he blocked my attack with a forearm that felt like it broke my wrist in half. He then socked me with an uppercut to the ribs, knocking the wind out of me, before sweeping my feet out from underneath me and knocking me to the ground. Then, for good measure, he delivered a swift kick to my ear, temporarily making me lose my hearing.
“I’ll give you this, Lane, you got more spirit than I would have thought,” he said. “But if you think I’m going to show any mercy to you because of that, you’re out of your damn mind. My greatest regret was never getting the chance to kill your father. If I couldn’t kill him, then I’ll settle for his boy.”
I crawled away as I tried to regain my senses, but as soon as I rose, I felt a knee come ramming into my chin, sending me back several feet. I rose, coughing up blood, and tried to get up. I saw Lucius coming for me, though I knew I had no chance. I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst.
And then I heard a thud.
I looked up to see Father Marcellus tackling Lucius, knocking him to the ground. He landed a couple of punches while mounted on him, but then Lucius bucked him, rolled over, and delivered such a wicked punch that it knocked out the chaplain. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the punch had killed him.
“I’ll be damned,” Lucius said with a smile. “You actually got a Black Reaper to help you. I never would have guessed.”
He walked over to me, delivered two more hard punches that staggered me back, and then chambered his leg up and kicked me straight in the gut. The force knocked me down, and this time, I didn’t have the strength to get up. As much as I wanted to... as much as I wanted to see Lucius die...
My body just wasn’t willing. I didn’t have anything in the tank to fight Lucius with.
It was over.
In the distance, I could hear motorcycles racing. I could hear what sounded like my father’s motorcycle, roaring in, as if coming to carry me up to the heavens to meet him. I could hear the sound of salvation. I just had to endure a few more seconds... and it’d be done...
Angela... I’m sorry. I can’t... I can’t go on... but...
I’ll say hi to Shannon for you... I’ll say...
