My chest rises and falls as silence fills the hall. Oh my God. Swallowing, I take a peek over the ledge, finding Candy’s limp body hanging from the chain that was shackled around my wrist moments before. I killed her. I did it.
Stacks rushes out of the room at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes and mouth opening from shock as he realizes what’s just taken place.
“No. No! No! No! No!” he wails, racing to Candy’s body, he grabs her by the feet trying to release the tension of the chain around her neck, but it’s too late. She’s dead. Really fucking dead.
Sliding along the side of the wall, I slowly take the stairs, hoping in his hysteria he won’t look my way. The door is just feet away, I can run and make it outside in seconds if he focuses on Candy. I won’t have to try to fight him or Rad.
“Candy, baby!” he cries, trying to reach the chain around her neck. Hearing him break doesn’t bother me, instead my mind roars with pride. When my foot hits the last step, his eyes snap to mine and I hold my breath. Shit!
The moment the viper comes face to face with its prey, I reel in the terror rolling through my body. A roaring sound fills my ears; my heartbeat drowning out everything.
I run.
Taking off out of the house, my bare feet picking up the loose dust and grime from the porch, I run as fast as I can.
“You bitch!” Stacks howls from the house, his voice sounding as if he’s moving around inside, probably looking for something to chase me down with.
The wind blows the hair in my face, but I keep running, my legs barely able to keep up with my feet. That’s when I see it.
Him.
Them.
The Devil’s Dust.
Several motorcycles sit parked at the entrance of the junkyard, Saint standing in front of everyone else. His dark jeans, black shirt, and leather jacket reminding me how much I’ve missed him.
“Nooo!” Stacks yells from behind me. I glance over my shoulder, still running toward Saint, he has a sawed-off shotgun pointed right at me.
Out stretching my hand I pray that I’ll fly and somehow be in Saint’s arms safe, but I know there is no way I’ll make it in time. I’m going to die.
I’m going to be shot right in front of the love of my life.
He was too late.
I’ve been a liar, cheat, and thief at life. My sins have finally caught up with me and now everyone I love will pay for it. Including my unborn child.
“Boom!”
A gun goes off and I free-fall into Saint’s arms. An unrecognizable wail escaping my mouth as I crumple to my knees, Saint’s body bending along with mine as we hit the ground.
We rock back and forth, and he kisses my forehead as I cry harder than I ever have.
“It’s okay. I’m here,” he tells me softly.
“I love you, Saint,” I whisper, looking into his honey brown eyes. I almost forgot what they looked like, what he smelled like.
“I love you,” he replies, his eyes glossy, his fingers digging into me as if he’ll never let go.
I wait for it. The pain, the blood to pour beneath me as me and my unborn child’s DNA paints our ending in the dull dirt beneath us.
But it never comes.
Pushing myself back, I look around me, feeling my body for a wound but there’s nothing. I’m fine. But I heard a gun go off! I look to Stacks’ whose body is hanging halfway off the porch, shotgun on the ground. Blinking the tears from my face, I slip my gaze back to Saint, who has a gun in his shaky hand.
He shot Stacks.
Saint’s eyes slowly trail down my body to my stomach, his face unreadable as he sees me pregnant for the first time.
“Holy shit,” he whispers, one of his hands rubbing his bottom lip in awe.
A weak laugh wracks my body, he looks more scared now than when Stacks almost shot me. I take his hand, the one not holding the gun, and put it on my stomach.
“Good work, prospect,” Shadow says, stepping up behind him, but I never take my eyes off Saint.
“The Prospect who saved us,” I correct Shadow.
11
Saint
One hand on Piper’s smooth rounding belly, I can’t take my eyes off of my palm. I knew she was pregnant but to see it and feel it. To be here with her and know I saved her.
It seems like a dream.
“Where’s Rad?” Big Chief asks Piper.
She blinks, turning back to the house.
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him today,” she replies, her voice weaker than I’ve ever heard it. Letting go of her belly, I wrap my arms around her, pulling her in close. I can’t imagine what she went through in that house, I want to take her pain and replace it with nothing but what an expecting mother should experience.
Taking off my leather cut, I wrap it around her, her gray eyes looking at me as if she’s still trying to decide if I’m real or a hallucination.
Shadow and the men head into the house with their guns drawn, but I don’t let go of Piper. I never will.
If she survived this chase, she can do anything.
She is not a victim, nor a survivor. She’s here to conquer and show our child how to live in a world full of danger.
She’s going to hate me, she’s going to fight me, but she’ll be tucked in next to me every night with my lips on hers.
“Hey, you okay?” Lip asks, his eyes glossy but relieved Piper is alive.
She nods, tears coming down her cheeks and he brings her into a tight hug. Watching them together it dawns on me that could be me one day. Holding my child in relief that they’re okay, it’s some heavy shit.
Big Chief looks Piper over as I walk into the house, Shadow wanting me to see it. They had Piper chained up, living like a pet. The hanging body from the stairs fucks with my head a little bit, I didn’t think Piper had something like that in her.
“Rad isn’t here,” Zane informs, crossing his arms as we stare at the body of Candy.
“He’ll come out of hiding, he has nowhere to go,” I mutter.
Lip stands beside us and pats me on the shoulder.
“Don’t be so surprised, Piper is a devil and part of her mother. There’s nothing Piper can’t do.”
I look to him, knowing full well now that Piper will do anything to survive, even if it means leaving a trail of crime scene tape in her wake.
I love her all the more for it.
Bobby walks in from outside, a pale look on his face.
“We got a problem out here.”
I look to Zane before following them outside. There’s a bunch of weak old looking people standing outside the garages. More men and children then there are women.
“They worked for Stacks, and Candy,” Bobby informs. He gets closer. “I think the men were raping the women, there’s even an eleven-year-old that looks pregnant,” Bobby whispers, and I feel the need to puke.
“How do you know they were raping them?” I ask.
“Just looking further in the garages, some of the cots had blood on them, handcuffs. The women are really shy, and just… something isn’t right about it, man,” he continues.
I turn, finding Piper talking to a little girl by the motorcycles. I wonder if she knew what was happening out here.
Walking away from the present situation, I come up to Piper and the girl.