“You didn’t warn me they would fucking attack!” my father yelled. “Spike!”
Spike, eyes wide, bolted downstairs.
I had my opportunity. It was now or never.
With my face flush with a mixture of anger, embarrassment, fear, and grief, I grabbed my suitcase and my backpack, and I bolted out the balcony doors, not even bothering to shut them behind me. I didn’t have time to say goodbye to any more parts of my past. As far as this moment was concerned, that was dead and gone.
I got to the balcony, sprinted down the stairs, and nearly stumbled down onto the grass. I looked back; I could still hear my father arguing voraciously with some of his club members.
I almost felt sympathy for him. The harder he tried to protect me and get his way with the club, the less he was able to do so. And if the Reapers were as savage as my father said they were—which I had my doubts about, but I had my doubts about everything my father said—then he couldn’t protect me from them either.
I got to the trees in the backyard when I heard my father scream my name.
“Lilly! No!”
It was... emotional. It sounded genuine. It sounded pained.
All this time, I’d assumed my father was a controlling monster... and he was... but he had that side…
I heard more gunfire in the distance. The far distance, actually; it didn’t sound like it was at the house or even in the neighborhood.
It didn’t matter, though. I couldn’t stay any longer. This was a risk to my life. If my father had wanted to be a better parent, he’d had plenty of chances before.I just hope this doesn’t cost Spike his life.
It probably will…
“Find her!” my father shouted so loudly that I wondered if he would split his vocal cords. “Do whatever the fuck you have to do to find my daughter and bring her to me! I cannot lose her! Fuck!”
I couldn’t hear his men’s responses, but I had to imagine they felt the same way I did whenever he demanded something of me. Panicked, rushed fear to follow his every command to avoid violent punishment. The Saints weren’t bad people; they just had to do bad things to avoid a worse punishment from the worst man possible.
I kept my head low and hauled my suitcase and backpack through the woods. The hills and rocky terrain were making it very difficult, and I immediately knew that this wasn’t sustainable. I had to get into a public area, maybe hitchhike with someone, and just get somewhere with a bus or a train. Once I got out of the Los Angeles area, I could take time to figure out the rest, but this current method wasn’t going to cut it. I was not a wilderness girl.
I just had to hope that my father would eventually get over my escape. Because right now, I couldn’t be anywhere near him. My life, my sanity, my happiness depended on me having actual freedom.
I pushed through the woods until I got to a street in the neighborhood I knew was far from my father’s place. I started walking toward downtown Springsville.
I walked. And walked. And walked. And—
“There she is!”
Spike.
And then I ran.
