Dead Man Walking (The Fallen Men 6)

“You know something?” Loulou whispered. “How?”

I moved forward, not stopping even when Phillipa flinched at my approach.

“Priest,” Nova called as he left the Chapel. “Try not to give the woman a heart attack ’fore she can share her info.”

I stopped two feet from her, arms crossed over my chest, head cocked as I stared at her unblinkingly.

She wrung her hands so hard it looked painful. “Lately, I’ve been having a bit of a crisis of faith.” There were a few snorts from the biker babes. “I’ve found myself enjoying the company of the club and I didn’t know how to reconcile that with my beliefs…or maybe the beliefs I’d inherited through my marriage with Benjamin.”

“We don’t speak that fuckin’ name in this place,” Zeus said from the door to the Chapel, staring down his mother-in-law without sympathy.

“Well, that’s understandable,” Phillipa agreed awkwardly before dragging in a deep breath. “I turned to First Light for guidance, my community there. In particular, Seth Linley took me under his spiritual wing, and for a time, I thought he was helping me. Now, I see he just confused me, made me lose sight of everything important.”

She hiccoughed on a sob. “My daughters, most of all. Now, Bea’s been taken by some killer, and the last words we would’ve spoken to each other were vile.”

“Get to the point,” I encouraged, baring my teeth.

Her eyes widened, but she swallowed her fear. “The point is, I was thinking about how I’d done Bea wrong because I’d followed Seth down this zealous path that wasn’t true to me, and something occurred to me. Isn’t that what this Prophet man is doing? Seth is so lovely, so charismatic. But Bea told me these psychopaths could be like that? It’s one of the reasons they’re so dangerous. And Seth? He’s so close to my father’s flock, with Natalie Ashley, who was killed, and Amelia Stephens. He was so close with Opal Burns, he offered to mentor her misguided son. I just wondered if that might be helpful.”

“Call Lion,” Zeus demanded to no one in particular before turning to head back into our chapel. “Curtains will find this motherfucker’s hidey-hole before the damn pigs.”

Loulou went to her mother, softly thanking her for the information, but the rest of us ignored her. In my humble opinion, the bitch still didn’t deserve Bea’s affection.

“We aren’t sharing this information with them yet, right?” Carson Gentry, our new prospect, asked with wide eyes. “They did fuck all to protect Bea.”

“No,” I promised so darkly the kid’s eyes blew even wider. “We’re past cop justice. This is outlaw territory now, and that motherfucker Seth Linley will be judged by me.”

* * *

* * *

An old cabin high on the mountains beyond Entrance off the winding Sea to Sky Highway had once been owned by a prospector who made a minimal fortune in the 1862 Gold Rush. The forests and peaks were littered with abandoned structures built by outliers and rebels.

This particular one was built by a Ronald Havisham.

Tabitha Linley’s maiden name was Havisham.

That was how Curtains found the records, dug deep in the Entrance archives.

It was the perfect place to take Bea, utterly secluded from civilization and impossible for her to escape from on foot.

I walked out the door as soon as Curtains spoke the coordinates, already armed to the teeth and ready to get my Little Shadow back where she belonged. I was swinging on my Harley, about to shove my helmet on when Kodiak, Wrath, and Bat appeared at the mouth of one of the garage bays. They each wore Kevlar beneath their cuts as their choice of weapons glinted in the silver light.

“We’re comin’,” Bat declared.

I stared hard at them as something moved in my chest, something painful and newborn, too vulnerable to weather moments like this.

Zeus emerged from the clubhouse with his arms crossed, bearded face somber as shit. “Take ’em, Priest. You need all the help you can get. Stayin’ here to coordinate the rest’a the men, but we’ll be right fuckin’ behind you.”

Burning down my throat like I’d sucked back holy water, and it rebelled against my sinner’s form.

Zeus pushed off the doorframe and stalked down the stairs until he was just a few paces from my bike. Under his furrowed brow, his silver eyes cut through my flesh and bone straight to the shadowy cavern at the heart of me.

“How many times since you came to us have you had our backs?” he questioned low, just for me. “How many times you put yourself on the line for this club? Got no doubt, you can slaughter this motherfucker the way he deserves, but Priest, for fuck’s sake, let your family help you for once.”

There were words in my throat, but I didn’t know how to give them air and voice enough to speak, so I just jerked my chin at my prez, the man who’d taken me in at seventeen and given me purpose.