Chapter Ten
Caius
F lying would’ve been much faster.
But flying leaves a trail and I don’t want to be tracked. Instead, I took my Range Rover over the Canadian/United States border, parked it in Spokane, Washington, and purchased a car in cash from some teenager who was selling his. It was a beater, and he wasn’t bright enough to understand the transfer of title work.
I swapped license plates with a car in long-term parking at the airport and then made my way out of the state. We’ve been on the road in an essentially untraceable vehicle ever since.
If Dad really wants to find us, he will.
My intent isn’t to hide from him indefinitely. It’s to put distance between us so I can figure out what the hell my plan is next.
We’ve been on the road for three days, sleeping in cheap motels along the way. LuLu has spoken little and focused on drawing in her iPad. I’ve stewed the entire way.
When I crossed over into Oklahoma, I expected to be hit with a wave of nostalgia. But I feel like my brain has been fucked with so much, I’ve lost what little precious memories of home I had. Luckily, my birth home was never a secret to me. I suppose since my real parents were dead, Dad didn’t have any reason to keep that information from me. It’s nearly six in the evening when I finally pull off the winding road onto the long driveway that leads to my parents’ land.
“Where are we?” LuLu asks, finally noticing the scenery around her.
“My home.”
From my vantage point, I can see a Ford flatbed truck and an SUV parked in front of the small farmhouse. Chickens walk freely around the yard near the house, pecking the grass.
“Who lives here now?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, feeling sheepish.
“What are we going to do?”
Again, I don’t know.
What was I thinking? That I’d roll up to this house and ask them to let me come inside while I reminisced about my childhood? That’s delusional.
And yet…
“I say we introduce ourselves,” I mutter, mostly to myself.
This is stupid.
“Okay,” she says slowly. “I haven’t ever seen a chicken up close before. Do they bite?”
I chuckle, relieved at the levity of her question. “Well, they don’t have teeth, so no. They’re most likely more afraid of you. It’s the turkeys you have to watch out for. They’re mean as hell.”
She scans the yard, looking for one. If there’s a turkey, it’ll make itself known eventually.
“You’ll protect me?” she asks, voice small.
Though she’s not my flesh and blood, I feel responsible for her. There’s a love that’s been wired into my brain for her. Even if it was against my will, it still exists.
“With my life,” I assure her.
We exit the vehicle and a warm wind that smells of pollen and dust blasts us. The scent is so familiar, my chest aches. I can almost smell my mom’s kitchen—the air lingering with bananas, nutmeg, and cinnamon from her latest baking treat.
I get the odd sense that we’re being watched. This was a bad idea. We’re most likely freaking out the new homeowners by showing up on their remote property.
The last thing I want is to get shot.
“Maybe we should go find a hotel—”
The rumbling of engines cuts off my words. There are a lot of them. From the sound of it, a group of motorcycles are headed this way. I turn toward the noise and squint. As predicted, several burly men on bikes haul ass toward us.
Will they pass?
Or…
They slow to a stop and turn down the driveway. I yank LuLu to my side, a protective arm around her, as they circle us. The cacophony of loud-ass engine revving makes me want to cover my ears.
Why are they surrounding us?
What the hell do they want?
I get a sick, oily feeling in my gut. These men aren’t like the ones I run with in my circle. They’re all bearded, insanely ripped with muscles, and covered in tattoos. The thing that sticks out the most is they’re all wearing similar leather vests.
A man with an X scarred into his face snarls at me with pure hatred.
Another man passes, wearing a creepy but oddly beautiful grin on his face. On his second pass around, he smacks me in the back of my head with something hard and metal.
Everything turns black.
I wake, smelling something metallic. Blood? I’m unable to see anything and I quickly realize I’ve been blindfolded.
Am I back at the torture lab?
What will he do to me next?
If he starts blasting the whistling music, I think my brain may actually explode this time. I can’t take that shit.
No music.
Someone hocks a loogie and spits. Another person coughs, deep and rattled from years of smoking. Whoever is making these sounds, they’re not from the doctor or his nurse.
Slowly, the events of earlier return. Me and LuLu went to my old home and were about to introduce ourselves to the owners when the motorcycle gang arrived out of nowhere.
“LuLu,” I croak out, voice brittle and dry.
“He’s awake,” a voice states.
Footsteps approach me and then someone rips off my blindfold. A massive man towers over me, gripping the blindfold in his hand. He’s so close, I can smell his cologne. Oddly enough, this biker trash wears the same brand I do. That shit isn’t cheap.
“There a reason why you rolled up to my ex-wife’s house tonight?” the man demands. “Were you planning on taking her like you took that teenage girl?”
I frown and tilt my head to look up at him. The back of my skull throbs with pain from where I’d been hit. “What? No, man. We were just visiting.”
The man snorts. “You visit people you know, you piece of shit, not strangers. You were there to cause harm. Unfortunately for you, she has me on speed dial. You failed, asswipe.”
Confused, all I can do is squint, trying to make out his features. It’s dark aside from what looks like a fire burning from behind him. My clothes are soaked through with sweat, which leads me to believe we’re outside.
“Your interrogation skills need work,” another man states as he comes to stand beside him. It’s the man with the X on his face. His vest says Prez. “Step aside, Copper.”
The other guy—Copper—crosses his beefy arms over his chest. It’s clear he doesn’t like being told what to do, but he relents, stepping back. “Krista doesn’t know him, Koyn. He was up to something shady as fuck.”
“I realize that. I’ll take it from here.”
Despite how roughed up these men look, there’s a sharp intelligence that exudes from both of them.
“Where’s LuLu?” I choke out, tugging at my arms that I’m realizing are bound behind me. I’m sitting in a wooden chair in the middle of God knows where.
“Safe now that she’s away from you,” Koyn assures me. “We have people who will make sure she’s taken care of.”
I don’t believe a fucking word.
These men just assaulted me and then accosted us.
“I want to see her,” I growl, struggling in earnest against my bindings. “Now.”
Koyn snorts. “Awfully demanding for someone who traffics little girls.”
What the fuck?
I glower at him, trying not to let on how confused I am. I’m about to demand even more when I feel a cold, sharp blade against the side of my neck from behind. Lips find my ear and the devil himself tickles a warning into my ear.
“We do terrible things to terrible people. Say goodbye to your pathetic cock.”
“Information first, Dragon,” Koyn says, smirking. This guy is amused by the freak show behind me. “Playtime later.”
If playtime involves the removal of my dick, they can play without me.
“You’re fucking with the wrong guy,” I threaten as fear trickles through my veins. “You have no idea who I am.”
Koyn kneels in front of me so I don’t have to strain to see his face. Behind him, a fire blazes in an old fireplace despite how warm it is. There aren’t doors in this building we’re in, so the Oklahoma summer heat and bugs welcome themselves inside. A mosquito nips at my face as if to say hello.
“Caius Crowne,” Koyn says blandly. “Son of the brilliant, influential Orion Crowne.” He snaps his fingers right in front of my face. “I know you people aren’t the good guys. There’s a whole dark underbelly of CUP. While you slept out here, I’ve been picking apart who the fuck you are.”
It unnerves me that these seemingly rednecks are skilled at obtaining information that’s not easy to get.
Wait.
How do I know this?
My mind whirs with clarity despite the thundering headache. The haze that still had its hold on me seems to finally lift. Was it the hit to the head? Maybe these guys just did me a favor.
I need to start talking and fast.
Otherwise, who the hell knows what these men will do to me.
They think I’m like my father or Gareth or Bastian or Solomon. Scum of the earth. Someone who preys on the young or mentally vulnerable.
“You see what we want you to see,” I bite out, meeting the eyes of the hard man. “You’re lucky to have found what you found. In fact, it was probably put there on purpose.”
“To everyone else, we’re powerful and men who move the world forward. But we can’t ever let those far beneath us assume we’re weak. If they know, even through rumor, what we’re capable of, they’ll respect us, Caius. Don’t forget that.”
Koyn’s eyebrows furl, which makes his scar pucker in an odd way. “You’re saying what we know about you was planted there?”
“I wouldn’t put anything past my father.”
“You sound like you don’t agree with him,” Koyn murmurs. “Is this your way of pussying out to protect your own skin?”
The other guy, Copper, approaches, still fuming with anger. “Why were you at Krista’s house? Answer the question or so help me, Dragon is going to make you spray like a fucking water hose at a house fire.”
As if to punctuate this statement, the blade burns hot into my skin. Blood, mixed with sweat, races down the side of my neck. My carotid artery pulsates wildly just millimeters beneath tissue and muscle, barely protected from Dragon’s knife.
“That was my old house,” I hiss out. “My parents used to live there. They were killed in an accident. I was put into foster care and then bounced around until Dad, er, Orion adopted me.”
I leave out the whole mindfuck part of my life at the facility because I don’t know these guys and am not about to spill my story to them.
“Bermuda,” Koyn barks out and stands.
“On it, Prez.”
A few seconds later, another man enters my line of vision, showing Koyn something on his laptop. Who would’ve thought that roughed-up bikers would even know how to use a laptop, much less own one?
“What was your name before the adoption?” Koyn demands, again looking down on me as if I’m filth on the bottom of his scuffed-up boots.
“Johnny Caius McElroy.”
“And why are you here, Johnny ?” Koyn waves off Bermuda before cracking his neck in a menacing way. “Why are you with a teenager who looks nothing like you? What exactly were your plans for her when you got her alone?”
When they put it that way, it does seem creepy.
Guilt stabs me in my chest. “I’m trying to help her. This was the first step in slipping off my father’s radar. I swear.”
Koyn scratches at his beard and then cocks his head as if to implore me to say more.
I don’t hesitate.
“They have my woman,” I rasp out, pain lancing through me. “They put me through their fucked-up brainwashing shit and I’m only just now finding clarity. All I want to do is help LuLu and find my girl.”
“Even if that means taking your new daddy down in the process?”
I meet his gaze with a hard one of my own. “I’m fucking counting on it.”