Chapter 28
SIENNA
Moira and Tony fed us well and took good care of us in other ways too.
We’ve been here for the whole day, Zane’s arm around my shoulders for most of the time while he talked to Tony.
I dozed off leaning against him at one point while they reminisced about the old days.
Funnily enough, the stories weren’t all doom and gloom.
Maybe Zane’s life on the run hasn’t been all bad. I hope so.
No one else came into the diner all day and we’re standing in front of it now, Moira and Tony just inside the doorway, Zane with his arm around my shoulders by his bike. The only light anywhere is coming from inside the diner, the rest of the world is pitch black.
And that’s the darkness we must enter now.
The thought makes me shiver and Zane holds me tighter. At least there’s that.
“We should hit the road now,” Zane says. “Thanks again for the hospitality. And for the memories.”
I thank them too.
“Don’t be a stranger now,” Tony says.
“You know me,” Zane says. “I stop by when I can.”
“Yeah, once in a blue moon,” Tony says and laughs.
Then they shake hands and Moira gives both of us a hug. They’re still standing out front as we ride away into the darkness and I’m glad someone is watching us enter it. Because it makes it feel less scary.
“Where are we going, anyway?” I ask over the hum of the engine.
“To LA,” Zane says. “Rogue says to come on home. I don’t know if that’s a good idea, but he usually knows best. And he did order it.”
He chuckles as he says it and I hug his waist tighter.
“Friends look out for friends,” I say. “That’s the way it should be.”
“I just hope he doesn’t live to regret it,” Zane says as we reach the main road. I can smell the pine trees and the redwoods, but I can’t see them, because the headlight on his bike barely illuminates anything in this darkness. “Or more like that he doesn’t die.”
“He won’t. God wouldn’t be that cruel,” I say. “Everything will be all right from now on.”
The last of my words get swallowed up by the sound of his engine as he speeds up down the road. Into the darkness.
Is that an omen of even worse things to come?
I’m shivering again, and it has nothing to do with the cold. Just fear and the darkness and knowing that where I go, good things don’t follow.
But I lay my head against his back and ignore it. Because what else do I need but this—Zane in my arms as I sit on the back of his bike as we race to meet the darkness together?
I fell asleep for real, because the next thing I know, the night isn’t so very dark anymore, we’re stopped and people are talking around me. Voices I kind of recognize, like they’re part of a long-forgotten dream. A part of better times.
I open my eyes and straighten up to look around.
We’re inside a compound of some sort, behind a tall wall. The lot around us is full of bikes and before us is a tall building dotted with mostly dark windows.
Light is spilling from the wide-open doors on the ground floor, silhouetting the man speaking to Zane so that I can’t see his face.
But I still very much feel the intensity of his eyes as he looks at me.
I remember that they are the brightest green, and kind of see the color even though they’re actually black in this lack of light. It’s Rogue.
He always was a good-looking man, and he’s gotten even more handsome with age. The darkness seems to coalesce around him, but it doesn’t touch him and I’m finally certain that we did the right thing coming here. That everything truly will be all right now that we’re under his protection.
“Rogue,” I say. “It’s been a long time.”
Beside him is Blade, his constant sidekick. I guess nothing much has changed there. He’s grown into a very formidable man too.
“It’s been a lifetime, Sienna,” Rogue says in a carrying, terse voice. “Welcome back.”
I dismount and he shakes my hand. He’s wearing black jeans and his leather jacket, looking like he just got back from a ride.
But I doubt that’s the case. I think he’s been here and awake all night, working on something, waiting for us, worrying.
He always was the type to want to have everything under control.
“Are you sure we should be here?” Zane asks as he dismounts too. “We bring heat. And it’s not far behind us.”
Both Zane and I glance over our shoulders at the wall like we’re expecting those SUVs to come storming through. But the gate is firmly shut.
Rogue laughs. “You’re safe here, brother. The walls are tall and the gate is secure. But we need to talk.”
He glances at me and there’s no mistaking that he means in private.
“OK, I’ll just show Sienna my room,” Zane says while unloading his saddle bags.
I take them from his hands. “I can find my own way. You go talk.”
Isabella, Blade’s girlfriend from high school is standing in the doorway with another woman I don’t know.
“I’ll carry these inside,” Zane says, refusing to give me the bags. I let him have his way, give him a quick kiss on the cheek and stride towards Isabella before he can stop me.
He needs to speak to Rogue and I don’t need babysitting. Especially not here, among these familiar faces and voices that I never thought I’d hear or see again.
“Sienna, you haven’t changed,” Bella says as I reach her. And before I can wonder if there’s maybe some deeper, darker meaning behind her words, she pulls me into the bar so the guys can pass and gives me one of the tightest hugs anyone’s ever given me.
“This is Melody.” She says, pointing at the other woman once she releases me. “Rogue’s girlfriend.”
“And Angel, she’s fine with that?” I blurt out. Melody was just about to hug me too, but her face grows serious, and sadness passes over Bella’s eyes—deep and wide and insurmountable.
Zane, Rogue, and Blade are just disappearing through a door at the back of the bar, and I regret insisting I could handle this homecoming on my own. I clearly can’t.
“Angel’s dead,” Bella says. “She’s been dead for ten years.”
I nod. “I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t know.”
It must’ve happened after Zane did what he did for me. Because after that I’d cut ties with everyone I knew. It was the only way to survive being without him.
“She’s been avenged,” Bella says harshly and wraps her arm around my shoulders. “Now let’s go get a drink and leave these sad stories for some other time.”
“Yes,” Melody says and leads the way.
And as we sit down at one of the tables in this cozy bar, and Bella starts catching me up on everyone’s lives, I think maybe the sad stories can wait to be told indefinitely.
Because I feel like I’ve finally made it home. In a way I’ve never been home anywhere else in my whole life. All that’s missing is Zane by my side. But that’s coming very soon now too.