Page 17 of Killing Me Softly

Ash

Eagle is gunning it through town, going much too fast, so the colorful shops, cafes, bars and other places that seem to be sprouting up like mushrooms after it rains around here, are just a blur of color and shadow. This town was tiny when I was a kid, but growing. It’s already twice as large as the last time I visited two years ago.

“They think Lily had something to do with it,” Eagle says. “It’s just because of who her father is. And he knows it. I’ve never seen him this mad.”

“Who’s her father?”

He glares at me, his whole face a grimace of disgusted confusion. “Cross.”

Oh, that explains a lot. Like his insistence that I meet the man, for one thing.

“You and the president’s daughter? Well, you sure moved up in the world. Does he know?”

From the fact that the grimace on his face turns a couple of shades darker I’m guess the answer is no. I’m also getting the distinct feeling this is not the time to get into it with him.

“They think I had something to do with it too,” I say. “I don’t think they have jack shit.”

“They don’t always need to,” Eagle says as he makes a sharp left turn, cutting off a black sedan which has to break so hard smoke wafts from its tires. “My father’s been in prison for almost twenty years and they never had anything on him.”

Eagle must be in a dark place in his mind if he’s thinking about his father with this amount of rage. He’d come to terms with the life sentence a long time ago.

We’re finally at the edge of town, and another hard left puts us on the forested road that leads up Resolution Hill. The sign simply whizzes by, but I know what it also says. No trespassing. The Devil’s Nightmare MC has its headquarters on top of this hill, and the entire thing belongs to them besides. The locals know to stay away.

“I hope you’re wrong,” I say, after awhile of trying and failing to come up with anything better. He scoffs and steps on the gas some more. We very nearly fly out of several curves in the road, and before I know it, he’s slowing down. We’ve reached the concrete wall that encloses the HQ.

The metal gate opening reveals an imposing, castle like building at the end of a long gravel driveway and the closer we get to it, the more majestic it seems. All fancy tall windows adorned with stone work the like of which I’ve never seen outside of movies or TV shows. I’ve been here before, with my father, when I was younger. It seems like a lifetime ago. Eagle is still gunning it, kicking up a cloud of white dust, which is only making the building appear more dreamlike.

We enter the building through a set of double oak doors twice my height and get told to go straight to Cross’ office by a tall, muscular man, who still looks like he could take me despite the grey at his temples. His brow is so prominent that his eyes are in perpetual shadow, but as he looks at me, I’m pretty sure he’s thinking the same thing.

I only saw Cross a handful of times, but he featured heavily in my father’s and his friends’ stories. And the common thread of those stories was always the man’s ruthlessness. As a kid, I pictured him like this invincible god of death. My heart is thumping in my chest as Eagle knocks on a set of gleaming dark wood doors to the side of the sprawling, wide staircase leading to the upper floors of the house.

“Enter,” a man says inside, and as soon as Eagle opens the door, I’m pierced by the darkest, most intense look I’ve ever had pointed at me.

Yes, definitely a dark god of some sort. Lily is sitting on the fancy leather sofa and Cross is standing by a large, dark desk. The look on their faces and especially in their eyes is identical. Not only is she most certainly his daughter, but the apple clearly didn’t fall far from the tree.

“How is Bea?” Lily asks getting up from the sofa. She’s still wearing the red satin dress she wore to the club, but has a large black sweatshirt over it and her feet are bare. A pair of black shoes with neckbreakingly high heels in on the floor beside her.

“We’ll talk about it later, Lily,” Cross says before I can answer. Good, because she wouldn’t like my answer and I know I don’t want to piss either of them off. They both look dangerous as hell.

She rounds on him, her long, perfectly straight shiny black hair flying in a perfect half circle behind her. “She’s my best friend. My oldest real friend. I want you to help her.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Cross says sternly. Grown man would cower under the intense finality in his voice, but she doesn’t even flinch.

“So you’ll just do nothing?”

“What do you want me to do? Whisk her away from the police station?”

“It’s nothing you haven’t done before,” she snaps.

“Later, Lily,” he says. “I want to speak to Bone’s son now.”

Bone was my father’s road name. It comes from Skull and Bone. And that’s what he’ll be soon enough now.

Lily finally succumbs to her father’s intense black look, but mutters pretty fiercely under her breath as she storms out of the room. Eagle follows her, shutting the door firmly and loudly. Now I’m alone with Cross and I know I don’t have anything to worry about, but this man just exudes danger.

He walks to me, extending his hand. “Your father was a great friend of mine. My condolences.”

His handshake is every bit as firm as I expected it to be. “Thanks.”

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