Priest and his Anarchist

Chapter 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

luna

present

E veryone is silent as Priest finishes. “At least I thought I found her.”

“So all this time you didn’t change because you were triggered?” Halen asks, her eyes wide with unshed tears. “I hated Darling, not you. I thought you changed and just became nicer.”

I steady myself. “No. I wasn’t triggered. She wasn’t me before this moment. That’s why I was different.”

Mom lowers her head, shaking. Her finger taps on my thigh to the rhyme of a ticking clock, as if trying to run through the scenarios of how this happened. “I’m sorry.”

“Time’s up.” Thank God. “I need to get Madison,” Bishop says, playing with his phone while looking at me. “This is what I meant when I said everyone needs to keep a tracker on their wives.” His eyes flash to Priest. “Especially yours.”

Something gnaws inside my stomach, a placement of questions. I’ve never felt unwelcome within the walls of the Kings, but suddenly with the truth out there for everyone, I can’t help but feel disconnected. As if I allowed them to believe I was someone else, even if I knew they knew me longer.

I swallow, but before I can push from the sofa and leave the room, questions be damned, my mom stops me, and I move back to my place beside Priest, not on his lap, since Evie is already changing another patch.

“I don’t remember the birth. When I had you, I was held against my will by an enemy of Midnight Mayhem, who was also my family. I—I passed out. I woke and a baby was on my chest, and you were beautiful….” She pauses. “She. You. She—” She pulls away and my heart sinks. She realizes that the baby on her chest wasn’t me. I was someplace else. “I love you.” She taps at my thigh as if reading my anxiety. None of this matters. I’m hoping Bishop caught onto my underlying comment about how this aligns with Madison.

“And where are they now?” Halen asks from the armchair, directly beside me.

I hadn’t realized it, but just behind Halen is War, and beside War and directly behind me is Vaden, and when I turn slightly to the other side of Priest, Stella stands there casually, cleaning her coffin-shaped nails with a knife.

“Dead,” Mom answers Halen flatly. “All of them, and trust me when I say we would know if they were still alive. They’re no longer here. Patience, they’re a thing of the past. This is something—has to be something else.”

“Who were they?” Halen asks again.

“They’re dead,” Bishop repeats without looking from his phone. “We check on them every year but nothing. They were as irrelevant as they are now. A dozen useless fucks that were angry that they weren’t part of all—” Bishop pauses. “That.” He’s meaning Midnight Mayhem.

River turns into me, and Priest shifts closer.

Mom picks it up, her eyes moving around us all. “Well, I’m not going to hurt my own daughter!” If looks could kill, though. “I don’t care who—whatever—happened. I didn’t know that girl, and if she really was the person who arrived at the dinner party and all of that.” She is lying. My mother would have loved her the same, but I appreciate her effort. “I’m just glad that you’re safe!” Mom’s hands come to my face, and I smile sadly at her because as much as I want to give her reassurance, I can’t. Not yet.

“It’s not you they think will kill her, Lilith, it’s me,” Bishop ends, but he doesn’t bother looking at me. “And I don’t have the time to pet you lot into believing me when I say I want no harm to that girl and that there’s a lot more that you don’t know , but right now—” He pushes from the sofa. “I’m going to find my wife.” He turns to me finally, raising a brow. “And we need you.”

When it’s time, we need a favor. You won’t want to do it.

I sigh?—

“Like fuck you’re taking her.” He keeps his voice low and level. “She’s not going anywhere.”

Bishop pins him to his chair with a simple glare. “Now’s not the time. We need to go. Now.”

“Rabbit…” His nickname leaves my mouth in a whisper, and I turn to him. Even with us all sitting down, he towers over most.

He angles his head but doesn’t bring his eyes to mine. It’s enough to know I have his attention. “I’m coming.”

His jaw flexes before he stands, making his way to Bishop. While he’s away fighting his case with his dad, I focus on my own parents.

“If it’s any consolation to your not knowing me, I was seven when I arrived. You knew me a lot more than her, but I understand if you feel. I guess…strange about it.”

“Luna…” My mom takes the spot Priest was in. It feels strange with her there now, and I hate that I find myself seeking him out when fronted with my mom. “I don’t care about any of that. I do, but I guess we will talk when you get back. But…” She stops herself, her eyes moving to both of my dads over my shoulder.

“Baby, you can tell us when you get back about all the details.”

I smile but it doesn’t reach my eyes. “Sure.”

I won’t. There are parts of what I know they’ll want to know that I simply can’t tell them.

“Madness.” Priest nudges his head toward the front door. “Let’s go.”

Bishop:1

Priest: 0