Cole
“Before we get started, Cole has requested to say something.”
Lane ceded the floor at our church meeting to me. All of the officers, as well as some of the more veteran club members, filled the church hall of the Black Reapers’ clubhouse. There was no distinguishing Gray from Black anymore; questions of roles and official names would take over at some point, but for now, we were all just Reapers.
“Some of you might have been wondering why the Saints chose to attack me, as opposed to any of you,” I said. “Many of you have conjectured that I was an easier Carter to target than Lane. And perhaps that is true. But you all need to know the truth. Phoenix knows this, and Patriot knows this, because they were with me when this happened. I found Lilly, Lucius’ daughter. And I took her home.”
We were all old enough and mature enough to not cheer or engage in silly, adolescent cheering or snickering. Plus, the situation was far too serious for us to just fall into that. And yet—and yet—I still feared some condescending remarks.
None came.
“I sheltered her at first to try and get some information out of her, hoping that she could give us some dirt on the Sartor house. But I would be lying if I said I felt no attraction to her. Eventually, this culminated not in intimacy, but absolutely in a sense of affection and romance. But she is in Albuquerque now. She is far away. I am here to take the fight to the Fallen Saints and to Lucius. So you all deserve to know why I may have seemed distant. And now you do.”
Lane cleared his throat. A few seconds of awkward silence came, perhaps as he waited to see if anyone had any questions.
“Cole, there is one thing you need to know,” he said. “You need to know this before we discuss our plan for tonight. Lilly’s not in Albuquerque.”
What?
“She’s back at her father’s house. Our intel saw her there.”
“Impossible…”
Had she lied to me? Had the whole thing really been one big trick to learn where I lived?
No, that could not have been the case. Just as we knew where the Saints were, they knew where we all lived. We simply understood attacking each other at our homes was grounds for mutually assured destruction. They had just…
They’d found her.
Somehow, someway, they must have found her at Union Station and kidnapped her. How, I had no idea. Maybe Lucius had spies all over. Maybe he had a network that ran deeper than I would have guessed. Maybe there were groups Lucius partnered with we weren’t aware of.
The how didn’t matter as much as the cold truth, though. We had to act accordingly to minimize the risk of her injury or worse.
“I need you, Cole, to reassure us that this will not affect your decision-making tonight. If you see a chance to kill Lucius, you need—”
“You do not need to worry about that,” I said with as much conviction as I had ever said anything in my life. “If anything, him taking Lilly home has only further cemented my desire to kill him. I want to be part of the group that strikes at Lucius’ house. Otherwise, I request no further changes to the plan.”
Lane nodded.
“Does anyone object or have any concerns?”
I bowed my head. I didn’t want to influence the outcome one way or another. No one said a word.
“Good,” Lane said. “Now then, to plans for the evening. This is an all-hands-on-deck, all-systems-go type of operation. The Saints have crossed a line in attacking Cole’s apartment that must be dealt with through overwhelming force. The time for dancing around each other, the time for pushing up on but avoiding crossing boundaries has ended. If you see a Saint, you kill. I cannot state that strongly enough. We must become inhumane monsters tonight if we see a Saint.”
We must unlock our darkest parts of ourselves to do this.
“We will strike in two units. One will attack the Fallen Saints’ clubhouse. That unit is to eradicate any existence of that place. Kill anyone who has a Saints cut on them, take all their weapons, and blow up their buildings. Butch, Patriot, Phoenix, and Axle, I am looking to you four to lead the charge on that. Can I count on you all?”
“Yes,” they said together in their respective baritone voices.
“Good,” he said. “Gather half the men we have. I will leave the logistics up to you. I trust, Axle and Patriot, that your military backgrounds will guide the best action for you, and that Butch and Phoenix, you will lead the men with the two of them. You are free to leave if you like.”
The four of them stood up and walked outside. Seconds later, we could hear them barking at half the men to line up and prepare. Lane continued to speak over the commotion outside.
“For the rest of us,” he said. “We will be launching an insurgency against Lucius at his home. We know where he lives; it is not a secret that he has a gated home on the far east side of town. We must, however, be prepared to suffer casualties along the way, and we must be prepared for tricks up his sleeve. We are going in there to end the Fallen Saints once and for all; we cannot expect them to roll over.”
And we must expect him to use Lilly for defense somehow.
