Chapter 37
ZANE
Everything is in place. Sienna is at the Saloon waiting for her husband.
Alice and Smoke are in there too, in normal clothes, pretending to be just a couple of friends who stopped in for a drink.
Rock is behind the counter, Trinity is posing as a waitress and Rogue and Blade are in the back room, the one Sienna called her husband from.
I’m with Creed in one of the MC’s SUVs with black tinted windows, parked down the road in case Kurt tries to make a run for it.
I wanted to be in the back room with Rogue, the first to grab the guy, but Rogue decided that it’s best we don’t create a situation where the husband could possibly see me and know something’s up.
Skye has a drone in the air, and we all have access to the live feed from the cameras on our phones.
It’s been hours since Sienna called him. It’s starting to get dark and there’s still no sign of him. Maybe he’s not coming.
Maybe she didn’t even call him.
I should’ve insisted she put him on speaker.
But then he might’ve heard me breathing or something.
I don’t like these mistrustful thoughts, these fears that she’s not on my side.
That she’s lying when she says she loves me.
That she does actually want to go back to him.
That everything we’ve been through since I rescued her from him has been a lie.
Just a little fun for her to have. A little excitement before she goes back to her privileged life with him.
I used to have the same doubts in the beginning, when we first met.
I was so madly in love with her, but she wasn’t from my world.
She didn’t belong in it, and I didn’t belong in hers.
And every day I feared she’d turn around and laugh at me for believing it was all true. Tell me she never loved me.
“Man, can you brood a little less loud,” Creed says, looking at me sideways.
“What? So you can hear thoughts now?” I snap. “Lucky you.”
He chuckles. “Sure, I can read minds. Whose do you want me to read? Sienna’s maybe?”
I shoot him one of my darkest looks, the kind that would make most men wither in fright. But not Creed. He just laughs.
“Dude, I’ve known you since we were in diapers,” he says. “You don’t scare me. And I remember you had this same look on your face back when you first fell for her. So what gives? You think she’s gonna betray us or something?”
I check the video feed of the empty road leading to the Saloon on my phone, then look out the window at the setting sun. “I don’t want to think that.”
“But you do because you’re a brooding, mistrustful kinda guy,” he says knowingly. “I know the signs. I’m like that too.”
“She’s fucked me over before,” I say aloud the thing that I’ve been afraid to put into words all this time. Afraid that saying it would make it more real.
“That she has,” he says. “But for what it’s worth, I don’t think she did it on purpose. I mean, she couldn’t have known you were gonna go murder that priest. Or did she?”
I shake my head. “She never asked me to do it, no. It was all my bright idea.”
“Not so bright,” he says. “But you did what you had to do.”
I don’t like the direction this conversation is turning, don’t like the reminder of the mistake that’s cost me my life. And Sienna.
“I don’t think you gotta worry about her. I’ve seen you two together, it seems real.”
But what would he know?
I was sure nothing could tear us apart. I was sure she’d get on the back of my bike after I killed that priest, and we’d get lost in the world together. Instead, I spent a decade wandering the darkness alone while she married someone else.
The guy she’s waiting for to come get her now.
“We looked into that priest you killed,” Creed says.
“The guy had it coming. Raping young girls. He was part of this child abuse ring we’re investigating now.
The thing goes way back, and he was deep in there when you killed him.
It was only a matter of time before he did to Sienna what she accused him of doing.
But we could never figure out why she lied to you. ”
I guess the we he’s talking about is him and Rogue, possibly Blade.
I don’t like that they’ve had conversations about my fucked-up life.
But strangely, I do appreciate that they cared enough to look into it all.
Even if none of them wanted to know me after I escaped from prison.
And knowing that the priest I killed was guilty of something, just not hurting Sienna, sits surprisingly well.
Go figure that I still have some semblance of a conscience. Didn’t think I did.
“It was her stepfather raping her, apparently,” I say. “If only she’d told me that at the time, then we’d all be living completely different lives right now.”
“Her stepfather? That big-time lawyer?” Creed says. “He worked for my parents. They trusted him completely. What a world.”
He sounds genuinely surprised. Maybe I should be too. Because maybe the story about her stepfather was just another one of Sienna’s lies.
“Why did she say it was the priest then?” Creed asks.
“Apparently, the priest had tried something with her too. But she fought him off. At least that’s what she said,” I explain. “And it’s not like she asked me to kill anyone. I think she just wanted me to know, but couldn’t bring herself to tell about her stepfather.”
Creed nods like he understands. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t. Makes no difference now. Because what’s done is done.
“Heads up, a car is approaching from the north,” Skye says over the earpieces we’re all wearing. “Looks like one of those Hydra cars, but there’s only one guy in the front. Could be the target.”
I see a car approaching, but it’s just a black dot on the horizon for me.
“As soon as he parks and goes inside the Saloon, we’ll join the party,” Creed says and starts the engine.
I hold a pair of binoculars to my face, but the sun is too bright, and I can’t make out the driver’s face.
Regardless, I gaze at him through the binoculars all the way to the Saloon, hoping I’ll get a better view once he gets out of the car.
And I do.
“It’s him,” I say as I watch him exit the car and head into the Saloon. “It’s the douchebag. And it looks like he’s actually alone.”
“He’s inside,” Rogue’s voice comes over the earpiece. “We’ll give it a few minutes and then take him. Everyone, get in position.”
Creed starts driving towards the Saloon.
I haven’t been on any big missions with the MC yet, and it’s pretty awesome to see what a well-oiled machine they seem to be.
No needless talking, just quiet, calm execution of the plan.
Reminds me of the time I spent with Devil’s Nightmare MC.
But those guys always had a much more murderous plan in mind.
Though I guess this is one of those too.
But I’m sure now that this will go smoothly, that everything will be fine from here on out.
And just as I think it, a gunshot pierces my eardrum through the earpiece.
“What the fuck?” Creed says and steps on the gas.
Two more gunshots sound. There are yells and screams too. I think I recognize Sienna’s voice.
“Go faster!” I yell and Creed tries. But we’re already going as fast as this car can go.
We get to the Saloon just in time to see my worst nightmare coming true.
The husband is leading Sienna out of the diner by the hand. Her copper hair is shining and her skin shimmering in the day’s dying light. Just how I love to look at her.
But she’s going with him. Fast. Getting in the car without being prodded as he fires a few more shots at the Saloon.
They speed away just as we reach the Saloon’s parking lot. And the silence that follows is so absolute I’m not entirely sure I’m still alive.
Rogue is first out of the Saloon, followed closely by Alice.
Both have their guns drawn and are looking around wildly.
Smoke follows, her long silver-grey hair like actual smoke as she turns to hold the door open for Trinity, who is leaning heavily on Rock.
Blood is soaking through a wound on her leg, but her eyes are fierce.
And if I focus on all that I don’t have to think about Sienna getting in that car with her husband. Getting in willingly.
“What the hell happened?” Creed asks.
“The guy just started shooting,” Rogue says.
“Incoming! Incoming!” Skye yells through the earpiece. “Hydras. Ten cars at least.”
“Can we outrun them?” Rogue asks her. “Can we get back to the clubhouse?”
“Maybe, but you gotta hurry,” Skye says. “They’re coming from all sides.”
“All right, we gotta try,” Rogue tells us. “Let’s go.”
I’m just rooted to the spot, watching everyone run to the bikes and cars they drove here.
“You too, Zane,” Rogue says. The light is dying fast.
“Did she betray me again?” I ask.
He doesn’t say anything, but his eyes are full of pity. So there’s my answer.
“I don’t know,” he says after a while.
“But I gotta know.”
I run back to the car Creed and me drove here in. The keys are still in the ignition. I ignore Rogue’s yells that I need to follow them to the clubhouse.
What I need is to know the truth. I need to know it from Sienna’s own mouth. And that’s all that matters. Because if she betrayed me again, nothing else matters.