Page 2 of Lily's Eagle

I don’t want his blood money financing any of my causes. Devil’s Nightmare MC, the club my dear old dad runs so efficiently, is involved in so many criminal activities that nothing good can possibly come out of it. They were killers for hire when I first came to live with him. they’ve cleaned up some now that they only sell weapons, but not by much.

And that’s the reason I’m standing out here in the heat, afraid I’ll pass out at any moment. Because good has to come out of it. And I’m the only one who can create it.

“So, what do you think, Lily? Is it time to go inside and chain ourselves to the pipes yet?” Josh asks.

He’s a twenty-four year old kid I only vaguely remember from high school, with blonde surfer dude hair, perfect facial features, perfectly blue eyes and a perfect body. It was his information that first alerted me that the community center was getting sold, and he’s been helping me organize this protest every step of the way since then.

He’s taking a year off law school to become part of the solution, as he puts it, but I’m pretty sure he’s only here because he’s madly in lust with me. Not love, I’m sure, since it all has to do with my exotic dark looks, my sun-kissed skin and long black hair, I got from my mother. Or maybe the intense black eyes I got from my father. My beauty is what all guys see in me, and the thing none of them ever see past.

This is the first time Josh has ever broken the law. But we might as well be from different planets, that’s how little we have in common. I try not to lead him on too much and I do appreciate his help.

“It would be good to get out of this sun,” I say and smile at him. “But I want to wait until there’s more people on the streets, so they all know we’re in there and why.”

It’s four PM now, and people should start coming out in droves for happy hour, afternoon strolls and evening yoga classes soon.

Roxie, my father’s wife—well, my stepmom—is coming towards us across the parking lot with my little brother Hunter in tow. Well, half-brother, but I never make that distinction. Nor do I think of Roxie as just my stepmom. She’s done more for me in the first two years after I moved here than my bio mom ever did.

“I’ll just go say hi to Roxie and Hunter real quick,” I say to Josh, hand him my banner and walk across the parking lot to meet them.

“We brought you some water and snacks,” Hunter says excitedly as soon as I’m within earshot. He’s carrying a huge red cooler which he proudly lifts up high for me to see, his arms shaking from the strain.

He’s almost twelve, but still mostly a little kid. And with his wavy brown hair and piercing blue eyes as unlike our father as I am like him. He’s also the most positive, gentle-mannered little dude I know. Again, as unlike our father as I am like him. I sometimes wonder if that upsets Cross. If it’s a problem for him that his son isn’t tough, hard and ruthless like him. But I’ve never seen any evidence that it might.

“Did you really?” I say, taking the heavy cooler from him and smiling. “That’s so kind of you.”

“He wanted to help his big sister,” Roxie says, smiling at him. She’s also carrying a cooler, but a smaller, blue one. I bet Hunter insisted he carry the heavier one, because that’s just how he is.

“Can I protest with you now?” Hunter asks. “Can you chain me to the pipes too?”

Hearing it come out of his mouth, makes it sound horrific.

“Hunter, you have school tomorrow,” Roxie says softly, probably thinking the same thing.

“But you can stay out here in the parking lot for awhile with us,” I say, putting the cooler down at my feet and tussling his hair. “We can make a banner for you. I have some markers and cardboard.”

His eyes light up brighter than the sunny, cloudless sky.

“I’ll come get him around six,” Roxie says and places her cooler on the ground next to the red one, before turning to Hunter. “Now, you know what to do…”

He nods solemnly. “What Lily says.”

That’s another quality I doubt either myself or my father ever possessed—the ability to conform and do only what’s right. I worry about Hunter. He’s got my father’s shoes to fill. And they’re big.

Roxie is smiling serenely as she pats him on the head, nods at me and leaves. If she’s not worried, maybe I shouldn’t be either. She’ll protect her son from everything. The same way she protects us all.

My real mom is the exact opposite of Roxie. She only ever cared about herself. The way she told it, she spent her youth traveling around the US on the back ofsome guy’sbike, and one of those some guys was Cross. She didn’t tell him she was pregnant or that she had his kid. Instead, she left me with her parents on the reservation and went traveling some more.

I used to make excuses for her, blamed it on her wild, native blood. Dreamed about being as free as she was one day. After my grandparents died when I was eleven, she brought me here to live with my father who until that moment didn’t even know I existed.

For all that, he took me in and never treated me as anything less than the child he always wanted. I didn’t see my mom again for years, and at the present time, I have no idea where she is. As much as I loved my grandparents, it wasn’t until I came here that I knew what having a family really meant. And Roxie had a lot to do with showing me that.

Hunter is chattering excitedly, running by me all the slogans he’s come up with to put on the banners. He’s a really smart kid. But how far does a guy in my father’s world really get on smarts? Or kindness?

I love my father, and I know he loves us both. But I worry.

Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should just enjoy my little brother’s company and excitement about this project.

The more I listen to him, the more my own fire to stop tomorrow’s demolition returns. And maybe that’s what life’s all about. The happy moments. Not the dark shadows, real or imagined, lurking everywhere.

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