Page 22 of Of Sinners & Salvation
AHeartlessHeathen: bruh. We r bld related.
ASoullessSaint: A doesnt care about that
AnAvengingAngel: fuck u
ASoullessSaint: keep it in the family
AHeartlessHeathen: u rly gonna talk after u came in M???
As soon as I send the message, I wish I could take it back. Saint’s handle goes inactive, and I curse myself for being such a dick.
Fifteen minutes later, though, there’s a knock on my door, and Saint sticks his head in.
“So that’s how I get you to come running,” I say. “Just tell you I’m going to do something dangerous.”
“Can’t let you be stupid all by yourself,” Saint says, coming into the room with a backpack. He opens it and tosses me some clothes. “As much fun as it is to see you hobbling around with your hospital gown flapping and your bare ass hanging out, it’ll be easier to sneak you out of here in those.”
“Really?” I ask, a grin breaking over my face.
He shrugs. “We’re going to get Mercy. I’d rather you were somewhere safe, but since you clearly can’t be left unsupervised for five minutes even in a fucking hospital, I’d rather you come with us. That way at least I know one of us will be keeping an eye on you.”
“I was asking if you really think it’s fun to see my bare ass, but we’ll circle back to that later. What do you mean, you’re going after Mercy?”
“It took us way too fucking long to figure out where she is,” he says. “But we’ve got a lead, so we’re going right now.”
I can hear the urgency in his voice, and it makes my heart pound heavy. “Where is she?”
Saint glances around. “Let’s talk about it once we’re not in such a public place.”
I pull on the jeans Saint brought me, shove my feet into the boots, and then have to undo all my monitors to put on the shirt. They start ringing again, but I just grin at Saint as I tug on the ballcap he brought.
“Don’t worry, they’ll probably give me a few minutes to cum before they run in here,” I say. “That should give us time to bail.”
Saint pokes his head into the hallway, then signals it’s all clear, and we hurry away. I duck my head when two orderlies pass, and then we turn the corner and run for the end of the hall.
“You’re not a criminal,” he reminds me, jabbing the button for the elevator. “You can leave any time.”
“Yeah, just not up for the arguments or the paperwork,” I say, stepping into the elevator with him. A minute later, we’re stepping outside, and I’m taking my first breath of real air in ten days.
Saint hurries ahead and opens the door to one of the church camp vans. I start laughing as I climb in, but stop when I see Walker Delacroix sitting next to Angel on the first bench seat.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” I demand. He may be a town legend and my first male crush, but he’s still got Sincero blood in his veins.
“Daddy Dante took him hostage,” Angel says. “Apparently he has a rope kink we didn’t know about. Good to see you, brother.”
He holds out his hand, and I clasp before climbing into the van. I move back to the last seat and drop into it, and Saint takes the middle seat after sliding the door closed behind him.
“You know the people who tried to kill me were his cousins or some shit,” I mutter to Saint. “That’s why I did it first. I wasn’t going to let a Disciple get credit for the kill.”
“I know,” Saint says, turning around in his seat to talk to me as Father Salvatore drives the van out of the lot. “Nate found him on the camera. It’s an uncle. When we find him, I’ll personally make sure he never walks again.”
“Aww, you’d do that?” I joke, batting my lashes. “For me?”
I was trying to feel him out, but Saint just scowls. “Why wouldn’t I? Just because I’m not a Skull, that doesn’t mean I’m a pussy.”
“I know,” I mutter, sinking back in defeat. I’ll probably never figure the bastard out, and all the excitement has run out my energy, so I close my eyes and lay my head back.
I’m sitting on the curb outside the Fred’s store in downtown Faulkner, near the train tracks. Summer heat shimmers off the asphalt in the parking lot, baking us from both directions. My hands are cuffed behind my back because we got caught stealing, but our parents never came to pick us up and talk to the manager, and my shoulder is aching from being in that position for so long. My sister is beside me, her long hair hanging down, hiding her face, and I just know Dad’s going to yell at me for being such a failure and a loser, letting my sister get arrested. Mom will just hug her and give me a look over Eternity’s head that’s a hundred times worse than Dad yelling that I’ll never be a man. Mom won’t say any of that, but I’ll see all the disappointment in her eyes, her pinched lips, the slight shake of her head that says, “What did I do to deserve such a useless son?”
