by Laura Mae
“How do we know? How do we know that once he gets her, he will stop everything else? What if he fails and continues on?” Knox’s voice reverberated against the walls and through her skin.
“He won’t fail,” Harold said.
Knox turned his head to Harold who he seemed to have just noticed. “Who are you?”
Harold didn’t answer. “John don’t fail. Not in anythin’.”
Knox narrowed his eyes and cocked his head inquisitively at Harold. He winced slightly as Avani was hard at work patching his wound. His green eyes, slowly turning back to violet, studied Harold’s brown eyes.
“You’re a Vulture, aren’t you?” he asked, with a confident tone.
Harold dropped his head.
“Get out,” Knox scrambled to his feet. “Get out before I fucking kill you too!”
“Nu-uh. You sit your stupido ass down right now,” Avani said. She pushed him back down on the ground as she wrapped up his arm.
Sydona turned her attention to Devon. Of course she was upset that Knox tried to kill her, but she decided to focus on the fact that this little boy just saved her life. [SD237]Jet and Lacey appeared from the doorway. She released a smile, and the two of them returned it. Lacey made Devon rinse his mouth out, and although she was upset, she still patted him on the head. Her thoughts changed about Devon’s new attitude. He was willing to risk his own life for her. But why?
“Thank you,” she said softly.
Devon said nothing but nodded.
Knox’s grunting forced her to deal with him. She crawled back up on onto her feet with Giovonna’s help. Her patience was wearing thin. His anger was a force to be reckoned with and needed controlled. Avani wouldn’t always be around to control him, and Sydona knew that. She needed to speak with him privately.
“Can I talk to you?” she asked with a stern tone, glaring down at him on the floor.
His eyes narrowed. He leaned to one side, pressed his massive hand to the ground and stood up to tower over her. Sydona’s eyes stayed glued to his, not looking away for even a second. She knew his tactic; it was pure intimidation with just his stature. It wasn’t going to work. Blinking only twice, Knox eventually curled his lips slightly. He was amused, and Sydona loved the feeling of winning the staring contest.
“Let’s go outside,” he said and broke eye contact to exit the building.
She looked at everyone who seemed curious about what may happen and winked. Raoul stayed behind with them as her boots echoed across the metal walls and out the door.
Several feet in front of her, Knox continued to wander far past the warehouse and cars. He took large strides with his beefy legs and wide arm swings. He seemed to go everywhere with a purpose.
“What’d you wanna talk about, Miss Wilder?” he asked while still walking. His voice was so loud and low it sounded as if he spoke right next to her.
Her jaw tightened at what he kept calling her. It reminded her of the doctor.
“Call me Syd,” she stated just as loudly.
Knox turned around to face her and acknowledged her request. He sat down on a tree stump. Sydona mirrored him and made herself comfortable with another stump to the left of him.
“How’d you become leader of the Sparrows?”
Her question made Knox perk up, and he cleared his throat. “You don’t think I’m fit, do you?”
“I think you have issues.”
Her heart pounded like a jackhammer in her chest. She could tell he liked strong figures and wouldn’t tolerate indecisiveness. Bluntness and quick thinking were the only ways to talk to this man.[SD238][LM239][LM240]
Knox let out a sigh at her comment. “I can’t help it sometimes. Ava has helped me tremendously though, believe it or not. Don’t know what I’d do without that woman…”
“You should learn to deal with it yourself. She won’t always be around.”
He dropped his head. “I know.”
Sydona made him feel guilty enough, and so she tried changing the subject. The massive scar on his face triggered a new conversation. [SD241][LM242]“How’d you get the scar?”
Knox absentmindedly touched it above his right eye, causing his jaw to tighten. “I was captured, like you, a long time ago. I was there for roughly six months or so. I’m not sure actually. Time doesn’t exist in places like that. But when I met Avani there, I made a decision to escape. The leader of it at the time, a man named Alejandro, was brutal. Practically starved us. Only gave us enough food to not die. Anyways, once I finally got the chance to overthrow the camp, I targeted Alejandro. I didn’t want to kill him right away. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to feel what he put us through. Some of us for months, some years. [SD243][LM244]We fought. Glass from the window we fell out of shattered everywhere. He grabbed a piece and sliced my head open. It was the last time he hurt me before I shot him.” He paused and quickly smiled. “Wish I had more time with him.”
“Jesus... “
“Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked.
“No…” Sydona said. “But that’s how you met Avani?”
His smile grew wider and his eyes gentler. “Yes. She saved me as much as I saved her.”
At first, he didn’t seem like much of a romantic, but deep down, he really was. Silas and his kindness rattled around in her head. He saved her countless times, but it puzzled her on what she actually did for him. He left his life behind only to be captured, then lived with her in a cabin with a teenage girl. She didn’t know why he stuck around. Maybe it was about time she did something for Silas. The silence broke from Knox’s clearing his throat.
“What about you? You know me. It’s only fair I know you, too. While we’re still breathing that is.”
Her stomach ached. He wasn’t fully over it yet. She took a deep breath. “My parents were taken from me at a young age. I grew up fast; I had to. Luckily, I had Raoul by my side the whole way. Survival is all I know.” Her thoughts became dark as she quickly lived through the day her life changed to the day her mother died[SD245] to now. She closed up.
“I’m sorry. No one should have to go through that,” Knox replied.
Sydona shrugged and evaded his eyes. Tears were fighting to come up, but she held them down.
The two sat quietly as the conversation reached an end. Knox could tell Sydona had said as much as she wanted. Wind blew her darkened short hair in her face. It was a mild annoyance. She was no longer able to pin her hair into a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She pushed strands of it behind her ears, and Knox noticed.
“You changed your hair.”
Sydona smirked and tried not to laugh because it was like he read her mind. “Yep.”
“Smart.”
Her heart fluttered. For some reason, the word offered more than the surface. Knox was starting to respect her, and it felt good.
He continued. “What do you plan on doing?”
Her legs and position shifted on the wooden seat as she was ready to finally talk business.
“I plan to kill him.”
Knox let out a chuckle[SD246]. She could tell he was choosing his words carefully to avoid saying something harsh. “No offence, Syd, but haven’t you tried that already?”
Sydona’s cheeks turned pink, and she smirked. “Yes, well, I have a new approach. That guy we brought with us, Harold, he was Malik’s best man. I bet he knows where he lives.”
She bit her lip with excitement, almost surprising herself on the flawlessness of her new plan. Plus, she had impressed the leader of the Sparrows. So she thought.
“You expect us to trust a man who worked for someone as vindictive as Malik?”
“Do you trust Willow?”
“Yes, but not as much as I used to...”
He was referring to Eagle Lake, and her heart sank.
“Well… I do. Do you trust me?” As soon as she asked the question, she immediately wanted to take it back. Knox just tried strangling her to death; he wouldn’t change his opinion of her
that quickly, would he?
“I don’t. But I respect you. And what you’re doing. You just need to get your emotions under control.”
They looked at each other seriously. Sydona was a tad speechless from his last words. In unison, Knox and Sydona burst out laughing. She found herself a little like Knox as well. He was emotional too but sprinkled with much more rage. Laughing heartily relaxed her and seemed to do the same for Knox. Something had changed in their relationship, and she felt her blood pressure lower.
Knox let out a quick sigh; he seemed more relaxed as well. “So, what now?”
She shrugged but remembered she needed to be decisive. “I’m going there. I need to kill him.”
“Need, huh?”
Sydona nodded slightly with tight lips.
“I’m finding us more alike than I thought. No longer a want. Wanting things is selfish, childish. Needing is much more. It consumes you, leaving it as the only thing you can think about, pushing everything you ever wanted in the darkness. Needing is power. Needing is everything.”
His fists rounded and whitened. She [SD247]noticed how much he sunk into his words, feeding off them like they were food to a starving man. Then, he came back to her eyes. “I’ll go with you.”
She wanted to smile, glad that he was finally on her side and knew what he wanted, but she couldn’t[SD248][LM249][SD250][LM251]. “No. I can’t let you do that.”
“Excuse me?”
Sydona gulped, afraid of the words she said out loud, but she meant them. “He only wants me. He would probably just kill you.”
Knox roared a ferocious laugh. “Let him try.”
Chapter Thirteen
Avani’s voice rang through the barren lot and into the trees of the forest. “What the hell you two doing? We’re all over here thinking you’re both dead!” She [SD252]walked toward them, wobbly in her six-inch heels.
“We’ll be right there, darling. Please, don’t wear out your pretty little feet!” Knox said.
Sydona raised an eyebrow. She didn’t think she could ever get used to how his words and tone changed when he spoke to her. It was almost comical at times. Avani heeded his advice and swiveled back around to the warehouse where everyone else waited.
“‘Bout time! Thought Avani was gonna bring you guys back thrown over her shoulders,” Jet said.
Raoul zoomed right up to her hairless shoulder with a concerned expression.
“What happened?” Willow asked.
Knox glanced at Sydona. “Nothing. It’s all good.”
“We should go back to the cabin. Harold, you know where Malik is?”[SD253] Sydona asked.
He flashed his black and yellow teeth. “Hell yeah I do.”[SD254][LM255]
“Alright then. Let’s go.”
Sydona and her group split up from Knox and Avani. The car ride was short as Sydona went over in her head what she would do when she came face to face with the doctor again. He wouldn’t have a way to escape this time. He would already be at home. Picturing the look he gave her when she had him pinned down in the grass made her grin. She imagined a look of pure shock that he could be overpowered. Malik was weak. Without his army, he was nothing. Sydona was confident she could take them out, especially with Knox and the others beside her. Even Devon would prove helpful if he bit someone for her.
Sydona dropped everyone off at their homes. At first, she wanted to go alone, but these people were her family now. They wouldn’t stand idly by while she did all the dirty work. Giovonna, Silas, Sydona and Raoul opened the door to the cabin and immediately began to gather up their things. They dropped everything by the door once they packed and left a walkie buried in the mess. The sun was going down, and she decided they should get a good night’s rest before setting out on the long journey.
In no rush to get to sleep, she cuddled next to Silas in bed. Her arm stretched over his torso while he had his under her head. She admired how close Knox and Avani were and wanted to be that way with Silas. With everything he had done for her, she kept wondering what is was she had done for him. With nothing physical to offer him, she thought simply talking would help.
“Crazy day, huh?” she began with a deep sigh.
He laughed, moving her head up and down. “Yeah, you could say that.”
His fingers moved through her dark hair like a wave. A tremor of nervousness spread through her body, and she wasn’t sure why. She had been in bed with Silas a hundred times, but this was the first time they had been really close. With so much on her mind, she realized being intimate was never at the forefront. Until now. But not unless it came up naturally.
“Oh my god. Your feet are freezing, girl,” Silas said and jerked his legs away.
Sydona blushed and grinned. “No they’re not!” Her feet chased after his, and he failed at getting away.
“No! Stop! They’re like ice cubes!” His defense was to tickle her, making her laugh so hard her abdomen ached.
“Okay, okay! I’ll stop!” she surrendered. “They’re still cold though… you don’t want to warm them up for me?”
That smile she loved grew on his pinkened cheeks. His eyes never seemed to leave hers. Silas’s toes made their way toward her frozen bare feet and warmed them as best they could.
“Thank you.” She smiled and went in for a soft kiss. He kissed back, and it sent a tingle down her spine. She soon found herself engulfed inside his arms and body. Heat quickly spread to her feet, allowing them to thaw. Fingers from both bodies gripped each other’s backs and shoulders. As much as she wanted to let go of everything, let herself into him, she stopped. This wasn’t what she meant by giving him something. And in a house full of people, it felt wrong.
She pulled away reluctantly and pushed her chin down to tell him she was done. He understood, probably for the same reasons. They once again held each other close but this time fused together like a freshly molded dagger.
“How come things ended with your last girlfriend?” It wasn’t the question she originally wanted to ask, but she was genuinely curious.
He took a deep sigh. “Oh. Um… we just drifted apart. Ya know?”
“That’s why you didn’t want to marry her?”
“Yeah. That and… I kinda had a feeling she was cheating on me. I never said anything though…”
“Why did you think that?”
“She was starting to come home late after she started a new job. I gave it a few months, but it was always the same. When I asked her what she was doing, she would always say she was out with her friends. Just the way she answered, so vague… I knew. It was a guy. I waited for so long for her to tell me. But she never did.”
“And she was still expecting you to propose?” Sydona asked with narrow eyes.
“Yep.” He moved his free hand to the back of his head. “She had no idea I knew. People think I’m ignorant because I’m simple. They don’t realize I’m just observing.”
“I’m sorry, Silas.” Her hand rubbed his chest back and forth through his blue t-shirt.
“What about you? You and that Theodore guy? Were you a thing?”
His name shot through her heart, and she swallowed forcefully. But it was only fair; she asked about his ex.
“Not… really, no.”
“What does that mean?” He laughed. “You gotta give me more than that.”
“We ran in a gang together. He was the only other flier besides me. We were able to cover more ground.”
“A gang? What kind of gang?”
“We were drug dealers, marijuana mostly. Until Omar took over and wanted harder stuff. That’s when I got out. But Theo stayed. He’s a really good guy but weak willed. No matter what I said, he wouldn’t leave. Then I go and rub my inheritance in his face like an asshole…”
“Wow, Syd. I had no idea…”
“Yeah… We never dated or anything. He just meant a whole lot to me at that time in my life. Sucks that meth took him over. Omar would’ve killed me if I came back though. I was one of his best dealers.”
“Damn. Why didn’t I ever know about this?”
Sydona shrugged. “I don’t really like to remember things like that. I’m not proud of what I did. But it was the easiest way to make money and feed myself.”
Silas rubbed her back without a word.
“What about your parents?” It was the question she really wanted to ask.
“Psh... I wish mine had been taken away. Nah, nah, just my dad...” His muscles and jaw tightened.
“Not your mom?”
“My mom… was an angel who fell in love with the devil. When my dad would come home drunk off his ass, she would immediately go into the kitchen and start making me hot cocoa with those rainbow-colored marshmallows and real milk. It was amazing. Helped me forget about the hazard in the other room. She made it for my brother and me. If my dad passed out soon enough, we would watch a movie in my room, usually a funny one…” He smiled briefly but then stopped. “I wonder how she’s doing now.”
Sydona squeezed him tighter. “I’m sure she’s doing fine, Silas. She sounds like a wonderful person.”
“She was. Just like your mother.”
A tear slipped out as she lay sideways on his chest, but she quickly wiped it away. The crickets and cicadas soon serenaded them [SD256][LM257][SD258]outside their window, and it was like a lullaby for her. They both yawned.
“Ready for bed?” he asked at a whisper.
She kissed him in response and turned the lamp off. She loved that she was able to connect with Silas more but could only think of her mother now. And her father. She felt blessed that she had two wonderful parents who loved her but saddened that not everyone did. She wondered what her mother and father would be doing on the island if they were together. She let out another deep sigh as she knew she would dream about her mother again.
Early the next morning, she awoke with Silas’s arms wrapped around her. To her surprise, she didn’t dream at all, and she felt extremely refreshed which was great because it was the day she was going to end everything about the NFA.
Before she could get her feet on the ground, however, a loud knocking on the cabin door startled her. She glanced back at Silas who was just as clueless as her. Willow had a key and wouldn’t have to knock. Then, fear set in. Was it the police? Or was it someone searching for her? [SD259]She could turn herself in and end the war. [LM260][SD261]As she battled in her head as to who they were and what to do, they knocked again.
