Page 20 of Hostile Saint

Lynx sighed, long and hard. “Lessons can be very painful. But maybe that pain makes you learn them well.” His voice slipped to a whisper. “And you never forget that lesson.”

Infuriated at myself and with my situation, I growled, “Then I hope I hurt like hell as that lesson sinks in.” I had failed Lace. Unacceptable.

Dagger took a sip of his beer, then quietly said, “I think you already are, kid. I think it is possible you don’t know how not to hurt.”

As the reality of that statement seared my heart, I grabbed onto denial and argued, “No, I have Lacey.”

Lynx’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Was there ever a time you got to hold her without being afraid? Truly?”

As I said, I knew their lessons would hurt.

When I just sat there, mind blown because I couldn’t think of a time I had ever held my girl and not worried for her safety, Dagger quietly added, “Try not to torture yourself.”

Wincing, I sat back in my chair. “She is the kindest person in the world. She never deserved an ounce of their unexplained hatred.”

These men helping me see felt like I had just run face-first into a stone wall of resistance that had been, unknowingly to me, there all along. I wanted to put up my hands and stop the wall from closing in on me, but there’s no stopping a flood once the levee breaks.

I hadn’t realized I was tugging at the t-shirt I was wearing until Lynx pointed to my nervous hand. “Who’s causing all that pain, kid?”

With me still reluctant to answer, it prompted Vice to explain, “I’m the Enforcer of the Steel Stallions. It is literally my job to watch over you and fight by your side if needed. I’m right here. Let me fight with you.”

Still feeling faint as I sat back in my chair, I tightly grasped the sides of my head, feeling like it was about to implode due to all the pressure my imaginary wall was causing. “Why? Not even my mom is fighting for me. Why do you want to help me if my own brothers never had my back? They only sliced it!”

After hisses, the silence crackled as if more lightning had struck.

Vice finally replied, “Because… you have a new set of brothers now. And we always take care of our own. That’s you, Nine Lives.” He pointed to Lynx and Dagger. “I’ve known them for many years. If they say you are worth the fight, then you are. That’s it. Done. They never get a stray wrong.” He slapped his chest. “They didn’t get me wrong.”

Oh shit. My hands slipped from my head and fell to my lap. “You? They helped you, too?”

“That’s right. Letting them in,” he tapped gently on his chest this time, “here, was the best decision I ever made.”

Timidly, I looked to the two men waiting for me to truly trust them. I wasn’t sure how to explain there had only been one man I ever trusted. He had been gone for many years now. “Talking to me can be… hazardous.”

Lynx grinned in a daring fashion. “I will pay you a thousand bucks if you ever prove that your enemies are deadlier than mine.”

Those are the kinds of words that can make a young man stop in his tracks. The tracks that were being made by him running away. “Okay. I will speak the hard truth, but… I hope you win the bet. I don’t want your money, and I don’t want anyone hurt.”

All three men dipped their chins with acknowledged respect.

As if afraid of the answer, Dagger said, “You mentioned your brothers slicing your back. That’s not a metaphor, is it?”

Mortified about my reality being so twisted and sick, I shook my head. “No. It isn’t.”

Lynx asked, “And, ‘they’ are the ones who can lie?”

“Mine,” I swallowed. “And Lacey’s.”

Lynx inhaled sharply. “Lacey is your sister?”

My upper lip lifted. “No.” I touched my chest. “My two brothers,” my hands now pointed to a spot on the table, in front of me to show a separation, “and her two brothers…” I did my best to explain about my brothers and Lacey’s twins. How they aren’t related yet connected in a devious manner.

Lynx’s head was tilted to the extent it almost looked broken. “You mean to tell me, you and Pretty Girl happen to each have two brothers, who all happen to be demented?”

Saying it like that, I couldn’t help but wonder… “Well, yeah. Is that weird or something?”

His jaw unhinged as he stared at me in disbelief before recovering. “Uh, it is quite the coincidence.”

When you grow up in violence, sometimes it is hard to conceive not everyone is being raised in the same environment as you are. You tend to assume that your normal is everyone’s normal. That perception makes it challenging to assess your situation from any other point of view since one doesn’t exist.