Page 43 of Hostile Saint

“Tell him!” suddenly yelled Dagger. “Tell him the biggest reason for his road name!”

Shoulders caving, as if to speak made something all too real, Lynx finally looked at me… “At the vet’s, you died… three times, Saint.”

Knowing how close I came to exiting this world and only seeing Lace from the sky, I suddenly had a whole new perception to latch onto. I may have just found out I’d died three times, but I had never felt more alive. Oxygen seeped into all my cells, reinvigorating my desire for my Pretty Girl. The guys were practically chasing me as I fast-walked toward her beautiful soul…

“Saint,” Lynx’s mind was still in the vet’s office, “at Doc’s, you told me ‘they wore condoms’ when I asked you if Pretty Girl could be pregnant.”

These men may have been ‘Stallions’, but there was also another animal tendency to them. Each reminded me of a bear, following and studying a human, before attacking. These bikers were treating knowledge gained as the woods a bear would stalk. They were learning all they could so their attack would be most effective and successful. They asked questions so that they could eventually feed.

They were correct to learn all they could, so I willingly answered all their questions, even as I was truly focused on the smile I envisioned in my mind.

With honesty but not shame, I replied, “Yes, I said that.”

I had sacrificed myself—my body—to spare Lacey’s, yet the sadists ended up taking her anyway. So unfair. But already done.

Agitated, Lynx asked, “How are you so calm?”

I suddenly stopped and faced him. “Calm?” In dismay, I shook my head. “Nah. That night, every time I dared to close my eyes while four devils raped my girl, I was stabbed. When my eyes started to shut because death was on my horizon, they started stabbing her to gain my obedience. Calm?” Now it was Saint who had the disturbing chuckle. “I will never be able to describe myself as calm when thinking of that night, but… I can either focus on how God will forgive me for killing them, or,” I faced the direction that was calling to me, “I can focus on my saving grace.”

Lynx came to my side. “That’s what I mean, right there.” His large hands gestured to me. “You’re, you’re a seventeen-year-old pip-squeak that is, almost always, willing to move forward. No matter what boot-to-the-gut you just received.”

I shrugged. “What other option is there?”

Gawking, he blinked. “For starters, you can get really pissed off about what you just described to us and… and—”

“And dwell in that horrible place my soul will never forget?”

As if I was suddenly getting on his nerves with my valid question, he sneered, “Yeah. Soak it in. Let that shit eat you alive. What the fuck you smilin’ at?”

Proudly, I said, “Besides my dad, you have been the best teacher I’ve ever had.” I dipped my chin. “It honors me to return the favor.”

His upper lip lifted. “Huh?”

I smacked his shoulder. “You ready?”

With a raised brow, he peered at the shoulder I just hit, then at me with very daring eyes.

I rolled mine. “See? You’re stuck in the past again! You’re more concerned about what I just did versus the good things that might be coming.”

His nostrils flared, then he pointed to behind me. “You’re just loving this shit, ain’t ya?”

I peered behind me to see a grinning Dagger with his hands in the air. “I ain’t doing shit.” He waved him off. “Get back to learning from Saint.”

Poking fun at Lynx, I wobbled my head as if saying, “See? He gets me.”

Lynx gave me a lecture finger. “I saved your life, punk.”

“We’ve been over this, and I already thanked you.”

Two guffaws of laughter howled behind me, causing Lynx’s whole body to tighten up, seizure-like, which stopped his breathing as he shook.

“Tsk. Tsk,” I warned. “If you kill me, you’ll really never know what I have to say.”

Vice whispered to Dagger, “Prez may blow a gasket.”

Dagger mumbled, “I got a hungry dick he can blow on.”

Lynx burst into laughter, ending his seizure and having him falling forward. “Asshole!”