Page 44 of Hostile Saint

Dagger laughed, too. “Dude! I need soft lips!”

“Well, they ain’t gonna be mine!” All stress had left his body as he told Vice, “Make a call later. You both head to the clubhouse.” He glared at me from the corner of his eye. “I’ll babysit Pup.”

Bouncing on my toes, I thumbed my nose like a boxer. “Then we’ll have a round two.”

I tried to duck from his reach, but that large man moved surprisingly fast. I was yanked in another headlock. As he tussled my hair, he sneered, “You think you got what it takes?” Before I had a chance to smart off my answer, he shoved me.

Stumbling away, I laughed. “Hell yeah. I don’t have as many miles on me.”

I’d like to say I had the balls to stare Lynx down after that jab but…

Nah, I ran.

That sunny day in the woods, I was following a trail, but I had yet to begin the hunt that would change my life, once again.

Dagger’s mind had slipped back into high process mode. “Was your mom home during any of the assaults?”

Willing to offer any intel to help our cause, I answered, “Yes, but as I got older, she was barely ever home for any length of time. She was always going to see her boyfriend.”

“What does he look like?” Vice dug for intel.

“Don’t know. Never met him.”

Dagger’s brow bunched against his patch. “He never came over to meet her kids?”

“Uh, no. He didn’t. Is that weird?”

And there was that shocked look from my comrades, informing me I had just said another odd thing.

Vice’s burly way softened as he kindly answered, “If a man is getting into a serious relationship with a woman who has children, yeah, he eventually meets them.”

“Oh, well,” I exhaled, “there’s your answer. I’m not her child. She didn’t introduce me, but Damien and Crow knew him.” Walking past more trees, I shrugged. “He never came over. And I learned long ago not to ask questions.”

Lynx rubbed the back of his neck. “All your scars… There must have been so many signs… Kid, how did all this get past teachers?”

Learning my situation wasn’t of the norm, I wondered how many other kids suffered as I had. I thought of classrooms and how I behaved while in them. “The quiet students don’t draw much attention compared to the loud ones. Due to learning basic survival tactics at home, like never draw attention to yourself, I was a very quiet student. I tried to tell once,” I still remember that teacher’s expression, “but was too young to articulate my circumstance.” I felt a little weight creep toward my shoulders. “She told me not to watch so much TV, then was distracted by misbehaving students. The rejection. I never tried again. Then, after what happened with my dad…”

I was so incredibly young when he was murdered that I was clueless as to what I was witnessing. I had been lying on a lawn chair, where I was taking a nap, when all the splashing slowly woke me. By the time I rolled over, the four brothers were climbing out of the pool. My dad was floating, facedown, a pink raft next to him, but he never reached out to use it. He never reached for anything again.

Including me.

At least, not in the traditional sense, but I heard him none-the-less. Heavy boots made fallen leaves crackle as my formidable guardian angel walked by my side.

There were no trails, no hints of which direction to head in order to find Serenity, yet Lacey had found it. The further we went, the more I was amazed she had made it at all. Maybe her dad was here, too.

As if a confirmation was presenting itself, a tiny clump of blond hair laid in my path. “Oh my God.” I rushed to pick it up. “This is Lacey’s.”

No one questioned me. The dried blood was a telling sign I was correct.

As if she were still out there, waiting for me, I raced forward. I couldn’t fight the sudden lunacy to find her hiding somewhere as if she were in danger, all over again.

All of a sudden, a small pond appeared about ten feet in front of us. Again, with no rhyme or reason for my actions, I now ran toward the pond. I ran toward the water, almost believing she was drowning in it. It was like my mind had experienced so many shocking events, it was getting confused whether or not I was in the past or present.

Before I knew it, I was splashing in the pond… “Lace! Lace!”

When I noticed three men standing on the muddy shore, watching me with such empathy in their expressions, I stopped.

After a pause, Lynx told me, “You’re almost to her, Saint.”