by J. A. Huss
Case shrugs. “I don’t know. But if the girl I loved just learned the truth about her life, I’d call her and tell her every sweet thing I could think of to make her smile.” He turns away from me and goes back to his game.
“Keep an eye on her, Sheila. This whole day feels wrong. Everything is off.”
“You need to call her. She’s just sitting in her car. At the very least you should get her home and away from that creepy building. I’ll call Thomas and fill him in.”
The line goes dead and I let out a long sigh. Everything since I left Molly has gone wrong today.
The sound effects from the arcade game come back to life just as the jukebox starts up again. I pick up my phone, get up, and walk outside. I can’t take that noise anymore.
I lean against the building, my head bowed, just thinking about Molly. It is highly probable Atticus started talking in there. I should at least call her to see how much she knows. Maybe he told her something useful?
I tab her contact on my phone and listen to it ring. I’m just about to hang up after the fourth ring when she answers.
“Hello?” It comes off sad and lonely.
“Hey, gun girl,” I say, smiling as the words come out.
“Hey, Lincoln.”
“You OK?”
“Um,” she says, hesitating.
“I was just thinking about you. Wanted to check and see how your day is going.”
“Well…” She stops again.
Yeah, Atticus definitely told her something. “You want to know what I was thinking?”
I get nothing but some little breaths. My phone buzzes once, signaling an incoming video from Sheila, and when I tab it open, I can see Molly in her work car from the camera mounted on the rear-view. She’s crying. Tears are streaming down her face. “Molly?” I ask.
“Sorry,” she says, holding the phone away from her, so she can take a deep gasping breath and not let me hear it. She wipes her face with the back of her hand and I’m suddenly transported back in time. Back when she was so small, she barely came up to my waist.
She was five and I was twelve and we had just met for the first time. I knew what an Omega was. Thomas had gone through a few of them by that time. And Case had his too. But I was the last of us boys to get one.
I walked to the conditioning room angry as fuck. I was ready to pound my Omega to death, just like Thomas had. I vowed I’d never let anyone have that kind of control over me. Ever.
I was seething with rage when I entered that room. One second I was ready to explode with anger and then…
“The first time I saw you, you were standing over by a window. You had on an orange dress. It was solid orange at the top, but the skirt part was little orange flowers. And it hung all the way down to the ground.”
“What?” Molly asks on the other end of the phone.
“And your hair was more blonde back then. It was long, the tips almost reached your waist. And you were so fucking small, Molly.”
She sniffles into the phone. “I remember you too. I was scared.”
“I was angry.”
“I thought you’d kill me. They said you’d try.”
Jesus. They told her that? “Thomas told me I’d only have one chance to stop the Omega bond and it was at the first meeting. So I was going to kill you. But you know what?”
“What?” she asks back in a whisper.
“You turned away from the window and the light, Molly, the light from the sunset you were looking at, it followed you. That’s what I thought anyway. One moment your back was to me and your body was outlined by the orange glow over the mountains, and then you turned. And you were the light. It came from you, Molly.”
“He never even gave me a name, Lincoln.”
Fuck. Atticus did tell her. And those few words say everything. Those few words are a list of all the truths she never wanted to know. They say, He never loved me. They say, I was nothing but a lab rat. They say, What did I ever do to him?
“I gave you a name, Molls. I gave you a name. Do you remember what you said to me when you turned around and became my light?”
She nods on the screen, but she is crying again.
“I walked towards you, and you said—”
“‘I’m yours,’” she blurts through a sob.
“And then I said—”
“‘You’re mine.’” She starts crying hard. The tears are streaming down her face and she’s covering her mouth, trying her best to stifle her sadness.
“I meant it,” I say.
“Me too,” she says back.
“You don’t need him.”
“I know. But it would’ve been nice to have the one thing most kids are guaranteed at birth.”
“Yeah,” I say. “I know. But we’re even luckier than those kids. Because we’ve got each other.”
She cries again and I let her. I just say, “Shhhh, Molly. Shhh, we’re fine. We’re fine,” over and over again.
After a few minutes she calms down and then she closes her eyes and rests her head back. “Do you still want to have dinner with me tonight?”
“It’s the only part of my day that matters.”
She opens her eyes and starts her car. “I’m going home.”
“I’m going to pick you up in an hour. Don’t dress fancy. No costumes tonight.”
“I don’t want to be a detective anymore, Lincoln. I don’t want to solve puzzles anymore.”
“You don’t have to be anything but mine, gun girl.”
“Will you stay on the phone with me as I drive?”
“I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me forever, remember? Equal and opposite in every way.”
“That’s the way we like it, right?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Molly. I’d rather die than take away the power you have over me. We only exist as a pair.”
We’re mostly silent as she drives home. Sheila splits my screen in half and shows me her progress on the tracking app and when Molly pulls into her driveway, I feel total relief wash over me. “Go inside and look around. I need to know you’re home safe before I can hang up.”
“OK.” She sniffs, shutting her car off. I lose the video feed after that, but I can hear her walking up to her house and the jingling of keys as she unlocks her door.
“What the—” she gasps.
I just smile.
“What did you do, bike boy?”
Her laugh makes my heart swell. “Not enough, Molly. Not nearly enough.”
“How many bags?” she asks.
Paper rustles. I picture her living room the way I left it a few hours ago. Thirty pink bags with glittery tissue paper sticking out of them, lined up on any empty spot I could find. “Only thirty. I owe you three hundred and thirty-five more. One for each night we go to bed for a year.”
She starts laughing. “Oh, my God! What the—”
“I told you, gun girl, if you were mine, I’d dress you up in pretty lingerie every night. You’re mine, Molly. And every night, when you lay your head on the pillow next to me, you will remember that.”
“I could never forget, Lincoln.”
“No,” I say. “Because I won’t let you.”
“I love you.”
“I started loving you the moment you lit up my life, Molly. Now open up all the presents and I’ll see you in an hour.”
We hang up after that and I’m just about to go back inside when Thomas pulls up in a limo. He doesn’t even wait for the driver to open his door, just gets out himself, glances over at me, points to M-Street Bar, and then disappears inside.
One hour. I meant it. And if Thomas has other plans, he can fuck off.
I’m thinking about getting out of the supervillain business.
You Were the Light
You Were the Light
Chapter Forty-Three - Molly
I open each package and take out the presents Lincoln left me, draping them over anything I can find. My living room looks like a boudoir expl
oded. There is every kind of lingerie in every kind of color. There’s sexy, there’s sweet, there’s long socks and t-shirts, and shorts, and thongs. He’s got every sort of silky fabric represented here, and it seems like a dream come true when I picture myself putting on these beautiful pieces.
I know I need to tear myself away and freshen up for our date, but before I do that, I just want to choose one ensemble to wear for him tonight. I look them all over, picking up the little details of each outfit. Which one would Lincoln like the most?
I finally settle on a black leather bustier, black leather hot pants, fishnet stockings, and black garters.
It’s ridiculous, I know. But he’s Bike Boy and I’m Gun Girl, and together we say badass motherfuckers. Silver-studded black leather skimpies are what badass motherfucking guys buy their badass motherfucking chicks to wear to bed.
I lay it all out on the bed and my heart beats faster at the idea of dressing in this for him. Maybe he’ll watch me? Maybe he’ll watch me take it off too?
OK. I laugh. Gotta get dressed. I wash my face and brush my hair, tying it back into a ponytail. Then I put on his t-shirt that I came home in the other day—God, it still smells like him—and slip into an old faded pair of jeans. My biker boots and an old leather jacket that jingles with silver zippers complete the outfit.
It’s a tease. When I put the leather lingerie on tonight he will see I was teasing him. This makes me smile. Like I’ve got a secret and he won’t know it until later. I look at myself in the hallway mirror, checking my lipstick real fast, and then peek out the window. It’s been a little over an hour, so he’s late.
What if he doesn’t come?
Calm down, Molly. He’ll be here. After all that sweet stuff he said to me earlier, God, I just know he’s my soulmate. Lincoln Wade is the only man for me.
A text comes through on my phone, and I run into the kitchen to dig it out of my purse.
Running late. Meet me at the maze.
Maze. Hmm. The one behind the cathedral. What could he have planned? I blush thinking of the wild sex we had last night, and my gaze involuntarily wanders to the stairs. He licked my pussy on those stairs.
God, I hope he fucks me in that maze again. Only this time, we need to take our time and do it right.
I text back, On my way.
I head to the front door, car keys in hand. But when I look down at them, I spot the key to Will’s bike. Yeah, I think, jingling the keys. The bike. It totally goes with the outfit. I shrug my purse across my chest, step into the garage, and pull the house door closed behind me. Just last weekend the mere thought of these bikes made me so sad I was making lists and now, well, I can’t wait to get on one.
I open the garage door, shove the key into the ignition, and grab the orange helmet.
It feels like old times. Back when I was part of the show. I never did fancy tricks like Will, or daredevil tricks like my dad. But I was part of the show. I rode my bike in the cage with them. Even my mom was part of the cage. All four of us riding round and round in that metal sphere, criss-crossing each other. It was choreographed to the music, so we knew exactly where we had to be for each beat. It was scary for me as a young girl, but it was my life.
The bikes will always be part of my life and I love that Lincoln has them in his life too.
I swing my leg over the seat and jump down on the kick-start. It roars to life, filling the garage with the sound of the past and filling me up with hope for the future as I take off down the street.
Chapter Forty-Four - Lincoln
“Fuck that, Thomas. This plan is over. Atticus fucked it all up and now Molly knows that Blue Boar asshole is her real father.”
“Who cares?” Brooks actually looks bewildered. “She has nothing to do with any of this. She’s a happy accident, Lincoln.”
“Wow,” I say. “I’m not sure if I’m surprised. You never did give a fuck about her.”
“She’s still alive, isn’t she?” Thomas snarls at me. “Obviously I cared enough.”
I feel the rage. The heat pours through my hands as I take in the full meaning of that comment. I picture pushing Molly out of that window and telling her to run away all by herself. The fear in her eyes. That flimsy fucking nightgown because I was so sure Thomas would come upstairs and find us, there was no time to let her change. “I said I’m out,” I snarl back at him.
“You’re not in charge here, Lincoln. You do as you’re told.”
“OK, you guys,” Case says. “We need to calm down. Lincoln, Molly doesn’t have anything to do with this job. It sucks that she’s involved, but—”
“You,” I say to Case, “you of all people are gonna stand here and talk sense after what he did that night? Are you fucking kidding me, Case? He took everything with him when he left. Or has that little detail slipped your mind?”
It was the right button to push for Case. We’re not talking about the same night. That night when I pushed Molly out the window, that was the night of fucking over Lincoln. But the night Thomas stole that girl from Case was the same shit, different date.
Case is silent, staring me in the eyes. I know how his mind works and I can see it spinning. “He doesn’t care, Case. He just can’t have his little news conference if we leave.”
“Fuck you, Lincoln,” Thomas says.
I drag my eyes back to Thomas. “It’s true. You’re a freak, Thomas. You’ve never attached to anyone. Not even us, though you try to talk the talk. Loyalty, brotherhood, revenge. All these words are just triggers for Case and me. To keep us in line. But they don’t have any meaning to you, do they?”
“I’m doing this for all of us.”
“You’re doing this for you. You don’t give one fuck about me, or Case, or hell, even Molly. If you had your way, she’d be dead. I bet your girl is dead, Case. Did he ever tell you where he sent them?”
Case looks at Thomas like he’d kill him right now, no questions asked, if only he was able. I feel a little bad about the last remark. We all know the girl isn’t dead, because we all know Thomas doesn’t do his own dirty work. That’s why he needs me. But who’s to say he doesn’t have another me stashed away somewhere?
Case takes the bait. “Fuck that,” he says. “I’m out too. All this is for you, Thomas.”
“How the fuck do you figure?” Thomas asks, realizing he’s losing. “Have you forgotten who was there that night?”
“You left,” I say. “You left and made your fortune off us.”
“I funded you two assholes,” Thomas says. “You have your toy company, Case. And you have your”—Thomas stops to consider me—“whatever the fuck it is you do down there in that cave.”
“Whatever the fuck I do?” I ask. “Are you kidding me?”
“Well, you’re the one backing out, Lincoln. I figure you’re realizing you’re not quite ready for prime time and it’s got you running scared.”
“Huh.” I grunt out a laugh. “I’m ready, motherfucker. I could take this whole town down with the shit I have down there.”
“So do it,” Thomas challenges. “What was the point of all that killing if you’re not going to finish the job?”
“That’s the only thing you care about,” Case says. “It’s always been about taking him down. Nothing else has ever mattered to you, has it, Thomas? Not me, not Lincoln.”
“Not Molly,” I add. “Or that girl of yours, Case. He didn’t threaten her father to keep her safe.”
“The hell I didn’t!” Thomas yells. I look over at Mac and he’s already ducking into the back room. An angry Thomas is terrifying if you’re not under the protection of the inhibitor. “You were gonna get that girl killed, Case. The Blue fucking Boar had his claws in her father good and tight. He was just about to bring him in, and then what do you think would’ve happened to her? All you gotta do is look at Molly for that answer.”
“Don’t bring Molly into this,” I say.
“She’s my fucking sister, Lincoln. I’ll bring her—”
&nb
sp; “Lincoln,” Sheila says, through my phone. “An unauthorized text has been sent to Molly from your number.”
“What?” All three of us go silent.
“She was told to head to Thomas’ cathedral maze. She left on her bike and I’ve been trying to contact her, but the phone powered down just seconds after the message was sent.”
I look at Thomas and growl, “You better not walk away from her this time, you cold piece of shit. You better not walk away. If this is him, I’ll take him out. But you had better be invested, asshole. Or I will hunt you for the rest of your life. I will sit down in my little cave and create a drug that will undo this protection you have. And then I will torture you in ways you can’t even imagine.” I look over at Case and say, “Coming or not?”
He nods. “You know I’m there.”
“I’m taking the bike.” I look back at Thomas, who is still silently glaring at me. “And you better have my back.”
I know better than to wait for an acknowledgement from Thomas.
But I also know he’ll be there.
We are, after all, in this together. You don’t kill all those people for a guy like Thomas and not get what’s due. He might not be completely loyal, he might be selfish, and pretentious, and evil as fuck. But he pays his debts.
“We’ll do it just like we planned.”
I catch his words just before the door slams closed behind me and I’m already on the bike, racing towards the cathedral, when I ask myself if I ever really knew the plan.
Chapter Forty- Five - Molly
The SkyEye Cathedral is dark when I pull up to the front. It’s silent and imposing as my eyes wander up to the top of the spire where the light that’s been shining from the tip every night since I got to town is off.
Lincoln is probably out back. So I give the bike some throttle and ease into the alley, looking for the delivery truck gates.
They’re open, and I breathe a sigh of relief. For a minute I thought he wasn’t here yet. I pull the bike through and park it in front of the back stairs leading up to the cathedral as I look around.
