He cleared his throat and started, not sure what he would say. “I know you’re all here because you heard what happened to the Keller place, and what happened to Will, rest his soul.” Most everybody bowed their heads at that. A few murmured prayers. These were a godly folk, even those who supported themselves by cooking crystal meth. Isaac didn’t much go in for religion, but he could respect the good that common bond did for a community. “I expect you got questions. I don’t know if I have answers, but I’ll tell you what I can, and then I got some things of my own to say.”
First, he reported what had happened, to get the record straight and clear of the warping ways of gossip. As if he were covering a news story, he spoke dispassionately and without extraneous detail, but he gave a full report.
It was the mayor, Martin Fosse, who spoke out first. Mayoring a town like Signal Bend wasn’t a gig that paid a full-time salary. Fosse owned Fosse’s Finds, one of the Main Street “antique” shops. “This is bigger than us, Ike. How the hell are we supposed to fight off the kind of evil that does what it did to the Kellers?”
There was a undulating wave of approving sound at the question.
“First off, you’re right. No mystery that what happened at Will’s wasn’t an accident. Outside these walls, though, that’s not the story. You know why we don’t need outside eyes on our town, and I know you know better. We keep to ourselves, right?” As one, the people listening nodded. “But in here, you know, and I’ll be straight.
“You all know we’ve had this trouble moving in on us for a while now. We’re moving fast as we can, doing all that we can to keep it at bay, and a lot of you have been helping with that, riding patrols and whatnot. Well, we’ve been doing a good job, and now our enemy is coming at us harder. But don’t think of him as evil. He’s not the Devil. He’s just a man. An asshole with reach and pull, but just a man. We need to stand strong. Bad as it is to lose Will—and everybody here knows who Will Keller was—
is
—to me”—his voice cracked, and he took a breath and cleared his throat. This was not the time to give in to grief. “We can’t let it shake us. That’s what our enemy wants. Stand strong. Come to the Horde if you need help. We stand together. I know it’s askin’ a lot, but I’m askin’.”
Jimmy Sullivan, the cooker who’d first flipped for Ellis, still wearing a brace on the wrist Isaac had broken the night he’d found out, stood and faced him now, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “What’s that mean, Ike? How do we stand together? Seems like you’re just askin’ us to make ourselfs a easier target. Maybe it’s time we take a seat and let it play out.” Another rumble, this one lower, and not as obviously in agreement. Isaac turned a hot glare on the little rat until he put his bony ass back in his seat.
Taking a beat to secure control over himself again, Isaac answered the challenge. “We stand together by watching out for each other. The Horde need to meet today and work out some details, but we need to beef up patrols, and we need to stick together. Nobody’s alone. Until we get a handle on what we’re facing, nobody’s alone. Ever. You see a car or truck you don’t recognize, you call me, Showdown, or Len. Don’t send your kids to the bus without an escort. Watch out for each other, keep each other safe. And when we call, you come. You come, and you come armed.”
The front door opened, and Show came in. Isaac met his look, and Show nodded. Evans was handled. Show took a step to the side and leaned back against the wall next to the door, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Years now, we’ve been keeping this town rolling by will power and devil’s bargains. A good friend and a wise man told me that after times of trouble, you look around and see who’s left. Those are the people you know will stand and fight. Well, we’re who’s left. Most of us sitting here live in the houses we were born in. Hell, some of you sleep in the
beds
you were born in. This is the only place we have that. It’s only here, and we give a shit about keeping it. If we were going to fold, we’d have folded when everybody else did. I’m askin’ you to remember that and to keep fighting for what’s ours. Our birthright. Our legacy. And I’m tellin’ you that the Horde will fight for this town to the last man.”
~oOo~
It was almost an hour after he was done speechifying before he, Lilli, and Show were able to get out of there. Show grabbed his arm as they were walking to Isaac’s bike. “I’m going to follow Holly home, boss. I’ll meet you at the clubhouse.”
Isaac turned. When he’d said nobody alone, he’d meant it. He wasn’t leaving Show to ride back from his place on his own. “We’ll ride with you.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine. Holly’ll flip if she’s got both of us on her tail.”
Holly needed to get up over herself, and, in Isaac’s opinion, Showdown needed to get his old lady in hand. Show was a tough son of a bitch, but he liked a quiet home, and he gave his wife, prone to histrionics and ill-suited to club life, wide leeway to keep her drama down. “We’ll ride with you, Show. Statement, not a question. Holly will deal.” Isaac pulled his burner out of his pocket. “And I’m callin’ Erik to meet us there, keep with her and the kids today. I’ll have Dom ride with him, then he can follow us back.”
Show and Isaac stared at each other for a couple of seconds, then Show nodded and turned to his bike. Isaac handed Lilli her helmet; she took it and then grabbed his hand. She’d been quiet all the time they were in Marie’s. Every time he’d turned to her, he’d met her eyes. She’d seemed thoughtful, considering.
“Hey. You did great in there. I’m a little in awe of you right now.”
He pulled her close and leaned down to kiss her. “I had no fucking clue what I was gonna say. Wouldn’t be able to repeat it if I tried.”
“Well, then, I’m a lot in awe of you, because I don’t think you could have said anything better.” She ran her fingers through his beard and then onto his cheek to trace his scar. It felt strange that she knew its story. Strange, but good. “Hey, can we talk before you go into the Keep? Is there a few minutes for that?”
He turned his head to kiss her palm, then stepped back and put his helmet on. “Sure, Sport. What’s on your mind?”
Fastening her own helmet she said, “I’ll tell you when we get there.” He nodded, and they mounted up and followed Show and Holly.
~oOo~
Isaac took Lilli’s hand and led her into the clubhouse, Show and Dom coming in behind them. Most of the Horde were in the Hall, waiting. Isaac scanned the room and didn’t see Len, Havoc, or Dan. He turned to Vic, sitting at the bar next to Bart, who was on his big laptop. “Len and Hav in the Room?”
Vic nodded. “Yeah, boss. Want me to get ‘em?”
“Yeah. Tell ‘em to put their friend on ice for awhile. We’re in the Keep in ten. Where’s Dan?”
Vic stood up, on his way to the Room. “Ain’t seen him yet.”
Bart looked up from his screen. “Want me to call him?”
Isaac nodded. “Yeah. Don’t like strays right now. You find anything?”
“Some. You want it before the Keep?”
“Just bring it to the table.” Isaac pulled gently on Lilli’s hand and headed toward his office.
Once there, he led her to the couch and they sat down together. He was curious; Lilli had been quiet and thoughtful since they’d left the house. He thought he understood; this was his show, and she was learning that it would take her some time to earn the regard of the town. That she would earn it Isaac had no doubt, but until then, she was an outsider, and she knew to be careful where she lay down her two cents on town business.
He picked up her hand and pulled it onto his lap. “What’s going on in that head, Lilli?”
“Do you know what the offer on Will’s place is? How much, I mean?”
The question threw him completely. At first he just sat there dumbly, not sure what she even meant by asking and certainly not sure why it mattered so much it earned a detour from the real work of the day. Finally, he just answered. “I don’t know. It’s high—way over market. Last one was about $420,000. Liza said he upped a hundred, so $520,000, I guess. Way too rich for the Horde to match.”
“I can match it. I can beat it, if necessary.”
No,
now
Isaac was thrown completely. “What the fuck are you talking about, Sport?”
Lilli took her hand from his and got up from the couch. She walked the few feet to the bookcase and just stared down at it for a few seconds. She couldn’t have found anything interesting in a bunch of binders and Harley guides. Still with her back to him, she said, “When my dad died, he left me a big life insurance policy. He didn’t have many debts, and the house was free and clear. I couldn’t stand dealing with almost any of it without him, so I sold the house and most of the contents. All the money—the insurance payout, the house sale, all of it, has been sitting for ten years. I haven’t touched a cent. There’s about a million and a half in it now.”
“What?” Isaac stood. He didn’t know what to think. Here was a chance to save the town, or at least to strengthen its position markedly, and his old lady was serving it up to him on a silver platter—no, on a fucking platinum platter. Diamond-encrusted. His stinkin’ rich old lady. How had he not known this? Why had she not told him? It was a big secret to keep. Too big.
Lilli hadn’t responded to his one-word question. She hadn’t even turned around. Isaac was beginning to think that there was new trouble between them. He walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “Lilli, fuck. Why didn’t you tell me? Why keep it from me? Do you not trust me?”
At that she turned, and he saw her eyes shimmering. When she blinked, a tear escaped each eye, and he brushed them away with his thumbs. She shook her head. “It’s not that at all. I just…I never think about that money. I hate that money. I only have it because my dad died. It always felt like it would be exploiting his death to use it.”
Isaac pulled her to his chest, and she hooked her arms around his waist and settled against him. As he held her, Isaac got his head around the information she’d laid on him, the offer she’d made. And what it had cost her to make it. That she was willing to use money that obviously caused her pain touched him deeply.
“Baby, no. I can’t ask you to do something like that. It’s too much.”
She lifted her head from his chest and looked him in the eye. “Yes. It’s the right thing. I think he’d be glad I used it for something like this. And anyway, you didn’t ask. I offered.”
“You know it makes you the next target. He’s not gonna give up that easy.”
“I know. Better me, with you at my side, than Liza and her kids. And definitely better than Ellis getting his hands on it.”
He didn’t know what else to say. She was right, and she was wonderful. He framed her face with his hands, running his thumb over her soft, lush lips. “I love you, Lilli. Jesus, I love you.”
CHAPTER TEN
Isaac took Lilli’s hand and led her out of the office and back into the Hall. The guys were already waiting for him in the Keep, so he kissed her cheek and went in, leaving her in the nearly empty Hall, only Dom and Badger, two Prospects, for company. There weren’t even any girls around. Lilli thought that might indicate the depth of the danger more than anything else—things were so intense in Signal Bend right now that the danger whores who liked their men bad and rough were staying away.
The clubhouse seemed sad this empty, everything a little dark and worn out. Dom and Badger were sitting on one of the couches, playing a video game. Lilli walked up and stood next to the couch, and Dom paused the game immediately. “Get you anything, Lilli?”
“No, thanks, Dom. Mind if I sit and watch you guys?”
Badger, the youngest Prospect, the lingering traces of his adolescent acne giving his face a striped appearance and accounting for his nickname, said, “No, ma’am. Have a seat.”
Lilli twitched a little at the “ma’am,” but not because it made her feel old. Her military service made her tolerant of such forms of address, but she’d always preferred “sir” to “ma’am,” as her squad had known. She didn’t correct Badge, though; he wouldn’t understand. She simply smiled and took a seat in a leather armchair nearby.
The guys were in the Keep for a long time. Lilli sat and watched Dom and Badge kill zombies, not really paying attention, but it gave her somewhere to focus her eyes while she thought. She’d been sure and steady with Isaac when she’d told him she wanted to buy the Keller property, and she knew it was the right call to do so. But her stomach clenched at the thought of using her dad’s money. Not because it wasn’t a good reason, but because she could see and feel a door between her and that money, a door she’d have to open. She was already preparing herself to have the contents of her California storage locker shipped to Signal Bend—her dad’s books, his military medals and awards, her nonna’s pottery, the rest of the few heirlooms and mementoes she’d kept. But the money…it seemed to Lilli that to use it would finally release her father from her life.
It was the right thing. No question. Lawrence Ellis getting hold of that property would end Isaac’s town. Lilli would do whatever she could to stop him, and because her father had died too soon, Lilli had the power to stop him. She would use it. But it would break her heart.
Both doors to the Keep opened and slammed back against the wall. Dom and Badge leapt up, abandoning their game and coming around the couch to be ready for whatever the patches ordered them to do. Len was out first, looking ready to do violence. In fact, the whole club came out looking intense and intent. Len grabbed Dom by the shoulder of his kutte and, without saying a word, dragged him out of the clubhouse to the lot. The other guys followed. Badger stood there, looking at loose ends.
Show trailed the pack, with Isaac coming out behind him. Show made a turn and headed down the hallway. Isaac came up to Lilli. He put his finger through the belt loop on her jeans and pulled her close to kiss her cheek.
“Is Dom okay?” She knew better than to ask, especially standing in the middle of the Hall, but she was worried about how abruptly Len had pulled him away.