Page 119 of Savior

“Pole Star will give you true North. Now, Wolverine’s cabin was on the south side of the lake. You get turned around, just keep movin’ downhill. Lake is at the base of the mountain. I’m comin’ to you—”

“I got Kate,” I admitted. “We’re pretty fucked up—won’t be long before the Sons come lookin’ either. I can’t keep this phone, but I’m gonna try to get her somewhere safe. If I don’t make it—”

“Don’t you talk like that, Jamie. I’ll search the entire goddamn mountain if I have to, but I ain’t leavin’ without the two of you. Keep together and stay out of sight.”

I nodded and looked up at the sun shining brightly overhead. Staying hidden was easier said than done.

* * *

“I can’t, Daddy,” Kate pleaded. “I can’t go any farther—”

I tightened my hold on her hip and pulled her forward several more inches. “We’ve gotta keep movin’, Katydid. Can’t stop now. Angel’s comin’ for us.”

She kept her hand on my arm for balance before leaning over to retch again. “I can’t—oh my god,” she panted, her words still slightly slurred. “We’re going to die out here, aren’t we?”

The moonlight hit her face, illuminating the terror in her eyes. We’d been limping along for hours now, narrowly avoiding steep drop-offs and forest debris hellbent on taking us down again.

“Ain’t a goddamn thing gonna happen to you, darlin’. Look up at those stars.” I lifted my arm toward the sky. “See those stars up there? It’s like a giant map, guidin’ us right to Angel. Just a little bit more and we’ll be at the lake. You remember which cabin was Wolverine’s?”

Kate wiped her mouth and gave me a shaky nod. “Yeah, it’s green. Everyone else painted their cabins red or yellow, but Wolverine’s was a deep green, like the color of the trees. And it’s not with the others, it’s off by itself.”

“That’s right,” I encouraged, cautiously taking another step. I had to keep us moving. If we stopped to sit, we weren’t getting up again. “You remember why he built it so far away from everyone else?”

“Because he wanted peace and quiet.”

In reality, it was because we used the smaller buildings on the property for cooking, and the last thing he wanted was nosy neighbors calling the badges in over a weird smell.

The feds would’ve had a field day.

Kate exhaled a soft laugh that turned into uncontrollable sobbing. She brought her hand up to cover her face. “Everything is blank. Like, I can remember things that Wolverine said forever ago, but I can’t remember the past twenty-four hours!”

“Don’t cry, Katydid. Don’t cry, baby.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders in a half-assed attempt at a hug. Someone gunned a vehicle down a nearby mountain road, and we fell silent, holding our breaths as we listened. “I don’t think it’s comin’ this way. Just keep movin’.”

“I want to stop,” she whispered. “I just need to sit down and try to piece together what happened. I remember I woke up—” Her voice cut off in another sob and she stumbled.

“What is it, darlin’? Your foot?”

She shook her head and mashed her lips together, even as her nostrils flared. “It’s not that. I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about Mike, and Nate came in—”

By this point, Kate’s grip on my arm was loosening as she tried moving down to the ground.

“No you don’t, baby. Gotta stay on your feet. What happened to Mike…” My own throat tightened. “It wasn’t your fault.”

I couldn’t let myself think about him right now. We had to keep going with what little strength we had left.

“It’s not that,” she hiccuped, twisting the diamond ring on her finger. “I’m—I’m pregnant. I just f-found out.”

The drugs.

We’d had club whores who’d gotten hooked on their club drugs, not even stopping when they got knocked up. The ones that didn’t pay a visit to Vic carried to term with no issues.

But they weren’t Kate.

I thought of Celia, miscarrying on the bathroom floor, and my molars came together. I should’ve killed him with my bare hands when I had the chance. For that matter, I should’ve lured Cobra out of the Jeep and slammed his head in the door. Fueled by nothing but sheer rage, I lifted Kate with my left arm and began powering through the trees. I’d live just so I could watch them die.

“Daddy?” she questioned.

“Gonna get you to Angel, and then I’m gonna rip that motherfucker’s heart out of his goddamn chest,” I panted. “Jesus fuckin’ Christ!”

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