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She was gasping for air. “Knives, stabbing me in here.” She smacked her chest.
He was finally to her. “Yeah, hot blades—searing blades slicing your heart.”
Elle collapsed into his chest. “Hot… like fire.”
The deadly Prez of the Steel Stallions gently held and rocked his son’s Old Lady. “Lava kind of hot.”
Elle was being allowed to express pain, and my Pops was a part of it. It was one of the most powerful moments I’d ever experienced.
She gasped for air. “Hard to breathe.”
Pops told her, “Then run.”
“W-What?” She peered up at him.
“Catch the wind that you create and breathe again.”
Elle didn’t have a bike, but Pops was giving her another escape.
“H-How?” she asked.
He peered at his friend. “Dag?”
“On it.” Leaning his head out the door, he whispered to the Saltbone Sinners who had been on watch. They walked to where I could no longer see them but knew they were there, ready to protect. Then Dagger swung the door wide and held it open for the young woman who needed space to breathe.
When she looked to the door, then back to Pops, he vowed, “You are a free woman who can do as you please. Run. Create some wind to inhale.”
Her face twitched, her eyes shedding more tears as she tiptoed toward the door, eyeing us all as if expecting to be pounced on at any moment.
Once to the open entrance, she eyed us all again.
None of us had moved an inch. I don’t think we could have, even if we wanted to. We were all paralyzed by her past.
Elle looked at me one more time… then she ran.
Through the window she had whispered to Vice, I watched her run out to the grass. Her bare toes gripped the ground as she ran to the right, then jerked to a stop. She ran to the left, then skidded to a stop. Elle simply didn’t know what to do, now having a choice.
Finally, she ran to the seawall.
I inhaled in alarm, afraid she might jump, but she didn’t. That scared and lost woman tilted her face to the sky that held a God who we thought had failed her, epically so, and screamed a fury that rocked Heaven. I’m sure of it.
The door still open, we patiently waited in the bedroom for Elle. Cold air kept blowing in, but Elle was now sitting on the seawall, a blanket around her shoulders that Vice had given her. It hurt me deeply to witness her back—her shoulders shaking every now and then as she cried on and off.
“Keep breathing, son.”
At Pops’ command, I inhaled deeply, unable to take my eyes off the woman I wished I could heal. But Brass was right. This is one thing I couldn’t control.
I pointed to her collection of drawings. “Vice, mind handing me those?”
As he did, he said, “Hey, while she’s not in here, could we talk about her nightmares? I don’t mean details. Those are private. I mean a way for me to avoid blowing out more doors. It’s essential I know my VP isn’t needin’ me.”
Dagger grinned, proud our young Enforcer was taking his job so seriously.
I lit another cigarette. “A knuckle-rap on the wall?”
Vice crossed his anaconda arms over his chest. “Before and after you sleep.”
Pops smirked.
