The Lost & Damned 1

by Keira Michelle Telford

“Yeah.” She fixes him with a glare. “Blow me.”

  He is about to laugh when a chair hits him across the side of the head and sends him staggering sideways, away from Silver.

  Alice.

  She tosses away the chair while Silver stares at her, astounded.

  Arcadian fixes on Alice. “Bitch!”

  Fearlessly—and much to Silver’s surprise—tiny Alice stands to face him.

  “Fuck you, Arcadian.” She draws an HK USP from the back of her jeans and aims it at him with an uncharacteristically steady hand. “I’m so ready for this.”

  Silver recognizes the gun and checks herself, finding her secondary weapon missing.

  Arcadian takes a step toward Alice. “Sasha?”

  Alice shakes her head. “Not anymore.”

  He steps even closer. “You’re not going to shoot me, Sasha.”

  “Sasha’s dead. She died the night you sold her to Phaeden Rist. Remember?”

  “Do you?”

  “Vividly.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Into the Fray

  Alice takes a step closer to Arcadian, forcing him to back up to keep a safe distance between them. Alice is furious, and a hundred percent committed to her pursuit of vengeance.

  “I remember being beaten and bound and gagged, and led to the city wall. I remember Phaeden Rist and his pathetic little friends. I remember them raping me, and then I remember being beaten some more.”

  She keeps stepping closer, backing him up further. “I remember breaking free from them and running naked in the rain, through your stupid tunnels and back into the Out District.”

  “Holy shit,” Silver mutters under her breath.

  Alice turns to her, with a regret that appears genuine. “I’m sorry.”

  While her attention is drawn away, Arcadian picks up a piece of the broken chair and smashes it against the side of her head. The impact knocks her out cold. Even before her limp body hits the floor, a bullet is fired from a gun, just missing Arcadian and coming perilously close to Silver.

  Silver follows the trajectory of the shot, shocked to find Dylan with a gun in his hand. He tries to fire again, but the gun’s jammed and he can’t figure out how to fix it. Shaking it doesn’t appear to be working. Not taking any chances, Oz tackles Dylan to the floor and sends the gun clattering away from them both.

  Despite the ongoing chaos, Silver can’t take her eyes off Alex. He’s unconscious and utterly vulnerable. Jax closes the door against a lurking Chimera, and jams a chair underneath the broken handle to hold it shut.

  Catching Trieste trying to make a break for it, she draws her gun on him.

  “Back to the table, chump.” She directs him to keep working on Alex, despite the distractions in the room.

  Dylan, freeing himself from Oz’s clutch, crawls along the floor to Alice and tries desperately to revive her, while Arcadian dusts himself off and prepares for round two. Unconcerned by Arcadian’s continuing rage, Silver concentrates on Alex, now appearing completely limp and lifeless on the table.

  At his side, she touches his forehead so tenderly. “I would suffer any pain on earth rather than see this man die.”

  Arcadian pulls a weapon on her. “I can arrange that.”

  Silver closes her eyes, feeling the cold barrel of the gun shoved hard against her skull, the muzzle caught up in her hair. “There’ve been times in the last six years when I would’ve begged you to go ahead and pull that trigger.”

  She swivels around to face him, letting the gun rest against her cheek. “But that ship has sailed.” She pushes the gun away with the back of her hand. “I may not be afraid to die—and god knows I love the taste of gun metal—but if you kill me now, you’ll never be free.”

  Arcadian holsters his weapon, willing to hear her out. “You said you could fix this. So tell me how?”

  “I’ll be honest, this day hasn’t quite gone as I’d expected. I had quite a lot riding on Phaeden’s death, but I can work around that.”

  “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

  “We still have the tactical advantage.”

  “How’s that?”

  Silver finds the decapitated decoy head on the floor and picks it up by the hair, dangling it in front of Arcadian. “This isn’t Phaeden Rist.”

  “Thanks for the reminder.”

  “But you thought it was.” Triumphant, she tosses the head out of the broken window. “The real Phaeden Rist has never laid eyes on you, and everyone who has is now dead.”

  That makes sense to Arcadian. “You want to play him at his own game?”

  “He wants you dead. We can still give him that, just like we originally planned.”

  “You return to the city with my head, and he’ll have nothing to retaliate against.”

  “Presactly.”

  “And with no evidence linking you to the assassination attempt, you’ll still be free to claim your fee for solving the mystery of the Sentinel District murders—your repatriation.”

  That’s news to Jax. “What?”

  Fuck.

  Silver had forgotten Jax was even in the room, and forgotten about the little white lie she’d told. Jax crushes the butt of her cigarette against the wall and squares up to Silver.

  “You said we were working for our warrants?”

  “What difference does it make? You don’t want to go back to the city anyway.”

  Jax shoves Silver into the table, causing Trieste to fudge one of Alex’s stitches.

  “You lied to us.” Jax gives her another shove. “Maydevine’s giving you blue, and all we were supposed to get is a brief extension of our sentence?” She looks over at Oz. “Did you know about this?”

  He shakes his head, looking to Silver for clarification. “It’s true?”

  Silver’s silence confirms it.

  “You bitch,” Jax snarls at her. “This whole time you’ve been working for yourself. You don’t give a damn about us.”

  “No,” Silver denies the accusation vehemently. “I was trying to give you a second chance—I didn’t lie about that. Once I’m repatriated, I can try to get your sentence overturned.”

  Jax punches her in the face and throws her to the floor. “Go back to the city. Take whatever lie you’re going to sell and get the fuck out of here. I don’t ever want to see your face again.” She urges Oz to follow her and they both turn to leave. “We don’t need anything from you, traitor.”

  There it is again.

  That word.

  Traitor.

  In this moment, Silver actually feels like one. She leans up against the table and dislodges a broken tooth from the back of her mouth with her tongue, spitting it out onto the floor. Alice, now awake and on the other side of the room with Dylan, allows him to help her back on her feet.

  She stares at Silver in disbelief. “You were really going to do it.”

  Silver flicks her lost tooth away, watching it tumble beneath the cracks in the floorboards. Using the table for support, she makes herself vertical again, her head beginning to pound from dehydration and fatigue.

  “Do what?”

  “Leave me.” Alice sniffs. “This whole time I thought you were being paid to catch my brother. I didn’t realize you’d been bribed with the promise of a new life on the other side of the bridge.”

  “Don’t talk to me about honesty, Sasha,” Silver spits back at her. “Every wretched day I spent with you was a lie.”

  “How could I have told you the truth? You’d have killed me. Or worse, brought me back to this godforsaken place.”

  “Speaking of which …” Arcadian locks Alice in his sights. “Welcome home, baby girl.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  A New Divide

  Silver watches over a sleeping Alex at his bedside. Meanwhile, Jax and Oz are busy making new friends among the Fusion colony, and trying to forget about their old ones.

  After dining with Arcadian, Red comes to Silver with news. “You know, he has Alice locked up.”


  “I’m not surprised. She tried to kill him.”

  “Dylan’s with her.”

  Silver looks up at her. “What’s the matter? Feeling guilty?”

  “I didn’t put the gun in his hand.”

  Silver turns back to Alex, disinterested. “She’s a big girl. She’ll take care of him.” She shrugs. “Or Arcadian will kill them both.”

  “You’re angry because she lied to you, and that’s fine, but does she really need to die because of it?”

  Silver stretches her aching shoulder and arm, now carefully bandaged up. “She manipulated me.”

  “Any more than you manipulated her?”

  “I saved her life, and gave her six years of mine.” Defensive.

  “You let her believe she had a future with you, and then you cast her aside.”

  “You think I did that on purpose? I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Spare me the bullshit, Silver. I know you. You were lonely, and you invited her into your bed despite the fact that you knew you could never love her back.”

  “Thanks for that. That was really uplifting.”

  “What do you want me to say? Congratulations, you exploited each other. Now get over it.”

  “Look, if you want me to save her and Dylan, why don’t you just come right out and say it? You don’t want to stand by and watch the boy die for no good reason.”

  “There’s that, and there’s the other thing.”

  “What other thing?”

  “Your plan to deceive the Governor.”

  “You don’t like it?”

  “I’d like to recommend that you make a slight adjustment, that’s all.”

  “It’s already been taken care of. Arcadian’s picked the decoy, and we’ll go all Queen of Hearts on him in the morning.”

  “Another innocent life.”

  “Kill one, save a thousand.”

  “For how long, Silver? For as long as it takes Phaeden to launch another Out District attack to steal more land away from the Fusions? What we need is compromise, not sacrifice.”

  “You should launch a peace rally.”

  “Bringing Phaeden the severed head of a Fusion leader does nothing but delay the inevitable for them. Come on, you’re smarter than this.”

  “That’s an opinion.”

  “If you go ahead with this scheme, you’ll be the only one who benefits from it. Don’t forget why you really came here. You’re not that selfish.”

  “I came here to kill Phaeden Rist, and I failed.”

  “You came here to free Jax and Oz, and you did it. You came here to save Alice, and you did it. You reunited her with Dylan, and now they’re just one step away from having their very own happy little ending.”

  “I feel like I’m in a comic strip.”

  “Don’t fall at the last hurdle, Silver. Ensure Alice and Dylan’s safety by taking out the only obstacle left standing in their way, and then claim your repatriation from the Governor. If another life has to be lost, at least make it count.”

  “You want me to kill Arcadian?”

  “Complete the job you were hired to do, and let Maydevine work out the rest.”

  Silence.

  “You can’t bring peace to this side of the wall,” Red goes on, “but you can give two people a chance at something real.”

  Silver thinks about that.

  Two people.

  Jax and Oz? Alice and Dylan? Herself and Alex?

  In any case, Red’s right. With Phaeden Rist still alive, the Out District can’t be saved—the Fusion people cannot be protected. Whether she presents him with the head of a decoy or the head of the real thing, it’s all the same in the end.

  Except for Alice.

  Her life depends upon Silver’s willingness to protect her, one last time.

  *************************

  On an upper floor of Arcadian’s hotel, Alice and Dylan are being held in a disused bedroom after being badly beaten by Arcadian’s men.

  Dylan is lying in a heap on the floor. Both of his eyes are swollen, and it’s impossible to tell whether he’s awake or unconscious. His breathing is irregular and shallow, and his hands are bound behind his back.

  Alice, faring slightly better, struggles to break the binds tying her hands. She looks around the room for help and spots something familiar on the dresser: a knife holster.

  Silver’s.

  Alice knows Silver’s behavior by heart, and if there’s a chance she slept in this room, then there’s a chance she left something behind. Alice checks under the pillows on the bed.

  Nothing.

  She tears the sheets off the bed.

  Still nothing.

  Kneeling down on the floor, she puts her back up to the bed and contorts her hands to reach down between the mattress and the bed frame …

  Bingo!

  Alice pulls Silver’s back-up hunting knife free and starts to cut the rope binding her wrists.

  Success.

  She frees herself, and is about to check on Dylan when footsteps thunder toward the door and someone unlocks it. She tucks the knife into her back pocket and looks frantically around the room for a weapon of distraction.

  Aha!

  She snatches a lamp from the bedside table and dives into a corner behind the door.

  Slowly, it opens and a body steps in.

  Smash!

  Alice cracks the lamp into the person’s face.

  Arcadian.

  Instinctively, Arcadian puts his hands to his face, blood pouring from his nose. Alice glances once more at Dylan before bolting out of the room, past Arcadian and down the hallway. In the haste of her escape, the knife slips from her pocket and lands on the hallway floor.

  Seconds later, chasing after her, Arcadian spots the knife and doesn’t think twice about hurling it down the hallway at his little sister.

  It strikes her in the back, knocking her to the floor.

  “I know you don’t believe me, but I never wanted to hurt you.” He wipes blood off his face with his sleeve. “I only did what was necessary.”

  On her hands and knees, Alice reaches for the handle of the knife, but she can’t quite get her fingers around it. “I looked up to you. You were supposed to protect me.”

  Preventing her from getting to her feet, Arcadian puts a firm foot against her back and forces her down against the floor.

  “I had no choice.” He crouches above her and pulls out the knife. “I had to think of the others.”

  “Since when did being a hero mean more to you than your own blood?”

  He rolls her over and presses the knife against her throat, ready to cut her. “I couldn’t expect them to make any sacrifice I wasn’t willing to make myself.”

  Suddenly, a noise.

  Behind him.

  He whips back around to see Dylan pulling himself out of the hotel bedroom on all fours. Alice exploits the distraction and pulls Arcadian’s HK P46 from his holster, shooting him several times in the chest. He falls down on top of her, but he’s not dead.

  She pushes her brother away and crawls out from beneath him, rushing over to Dylan as fast as she can. Kneeling beside him, she helps him to sit up.

  “I was going to come back for you.”

  Down the hallway, a door slams shut and Arcadian’s gone, leaving behind nothing but a blood trail.

  Preparing to go after him, Alice kisses Dylan on the forehead. “Wait here.”

  She gets up and follows the deep, red smear, trying with all of her Fusion strength to appear as if she’s in control. The doorway leads into a maintenance stairwell, and it only goes one way: straight to the roof.

  On top of the building, the world bathed in darkness and shadows, the silence of the night is shattered by a loud click, and motion activated floodlights illuminate the rooftop.

  Alice, the HK P46 still firmly in her hand, follows the trail of blood until she comes across Arcadian, dragging himself over the roof toward a fire escape stairwell.

  “Ni
ce try.” She smirks overconfidently. “Ten out of ten for effort.”

  He hauls himself up to the steps, while Alice gets closer and raises the HK P46. He appears weak, and allows her to approach him. When she finally steps within range, he swings round and launches the knife back at her.

  She falls backward, onto the cold, stone roof, the knife embedded in her shoulder and the gun lost to the shadows. Arcadian stands up and stretches his back, his wounds already beginning to heal. He kneels over her, pressing his knee against her chest, forcing his weight down on top of her.

  “We heal fast, remember?”

  She struggles under his weight, the pressure in her chest almost unbearable. About to succumb to his brawn, she nearly passes out … but resists it at the very last moment.

  Suddenly revitalized, she pulls the knife out of her shoulder and thrusts it deep into Arcadian’s neck. She forces him down onto his back, and watches him begin to choke on his own blood. With what little strength he has left, he pushes her off him and staggers to his feet, stumbling hazardously close to the ledge of the roof.

  He pulls the knife out of his neck and lets it drop to the floor. Another step backward and his foot catches on the ledge, causing him to lose his balance.

  Alice picks herself up and collects the knife from the floor, just in time to see Arcadian disappear over the edge of the building. Rather hesitantly, she creeps up to the spot where he fell and peers down below.

  He’s lying motionless, in an unnatural position, with blood pooling around him.

  It’s over.

  Silver takes the knife out of Alice’s hand.

  Alice sensed her arrival on the roof moments before, but wasn’t about to let her steal the pleasure of exacting such long-awaited vengeance.

  “Go inside,” Silver orders her.

  Alice seems as if she might want to object, but she obeys nonetheless. Silver looks back over the ledge at Arcadian’s body, then down to the knife in her hand.

  Problem solved.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  All That Remains

  Silver finds the armored truck exactly where they’d left it in the tunnels. She throws a heavily filled backpack onto the passenger seat and gets in.