Anarchy Found (32 page)

The sound effects from the arcade game come back to life just as the jukebox starts up again. I pick up my phone, get up, and walk outside. I can’t take that noise anymore.

I lean against the building, my head bowed, just thinking about Molly. It is highly probable Atticus started talking in there. I should at least call her to see how much she knows. Maybe he told her something useful?

I tab her contact on my phone and listen to it ring. I’m just about to hang up after the fourth ring when she answers.

“Hello?” It comes off sad and lonely.

“Hey, gun girl,” I say, smiling as the words come out.

“Hey, Lincoln.”

“You OK?”

“Um,” she says, hesitating.

“I was just thinking about you. Wanted to check and see how your day is going.”

“Well…” She stops again.

Yeah, Atticus definitely told her something. “You want to know what I was thinking?”

I get nothing but some little breaths. My phone buzzes once, signaling an incoming video from Sheila, and when I tab it open, I can see Molly in her work car from the camera mounted on the rear-view. She’s crying. Tears are streaming down her face. “Molly?” I ask.

“Sorry,” she says, holding the phone away from her, so she can take a deep gasping breath and not let me hear it. She wipes her face with the back of her hand and I’m suddenly transported back in time. Back when she was so small, she barely came up to my waist.

She was five and I was twelve and we had just met for the first time. I knew what an Omega was. Thomas had gone through a few of them by that time. And Case had his too. But I was the last of us boys to get one.

I walked to the conditioning room angry as fuck. I was ready to pound my Omega to death, just like Thomas had. I vowed I’d never let anyone have that kind of control over me. Ever.

I was seething with rage when I entered that room. One second I was ready to explode with anger and then…

“The first time I saw you, you were standing over by a window. You had on an orange dress. It was solid orange at the top, but the skirt part was little orange flowers. And it hung all the way down to the ground.”

“What?” Molly asks on the other end of the phone.

“And your hair was more blonde back then. It was long, the tips almost reached your waist. And you were so fucking small, Molly.”

She sniffles into the phone. “I remember you too. I was scared.”

“I was angry.”

“I thought you’d kill me. They said you’d try.”

Jesus. They told her that? “Thomas told me I’d only have one chance to stop the Omega bond and it was at the first meeting. So I
was
going to kill you. But you know what?”

“What?” she asks back in a whisper.

“You turned away from the window and the light, Molly, the light from the sunset you were looking at, it followed you. That’s what I thought anyway. One moment your back was to me and your body was outlined by the orange glow over the mountains, and then you turned. And you were the light. It came
from
you, Molly.”

“He never even gave me a name, Lincoln.”

Fuck. Atticus did tell her. And those few words say everything. Those few words are a list of all the truths she never wanted to know. They say,
He never loved me
. They say,
I was nothing but a lab rat
. They say,
What did I ever do to him
?

“I gave you a name, Molls. I gave you a name. Do you remember what you said to me when you turned around and became my light?”

She nods on the screen, but she is crying again.

“I walked towards you, and you said—”

“‘I’m yours,’” she blurts through a sob.

“And then I said—”

“‘You’re mine.’” She starts crying hard. The tears are streaming down her face and she’s covering her mouth, trying her best to stifle her sadness.

“I meant it,” I say.

“Me too,” she says back.

“You don’t need him.”

“I know. But it would’ve been nice to have the one thing most kids are guaranteed at birth.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I know. But we’re even luckier than those kids. Because we’ve got each other.”

She cries again and I let her. I just say, “Shhhh, Molly. Shhh, we’re fine. We’re fine,” over and over again.

After a few minutes she calms down and then she closes her eyes and rests her head back. “Do you still want to have dinner with me tonight?”

“It’s the only part of my day that matters.”

She opens her eyes and starts her car. “I’m going home.”

“I’m going to pick you up in an hour. Don’t dress fancy. No costumes tonight.”

“I don’t want to be a detective anymore, Lincoln. I don’t want to solve puzzles anymore.”

“You don’t have to be anything but mine, gun girl.”

“Will you stay on the phone with me as I drive?”

“I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me forever, remember? Equal and opposite in every way.”

“That’s the way we like it, right?”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, Molly. I’d rather die than take away the power you have over me. We only exist as a pair.”

We’re mostly silent as she drives home. Sheila splits my screen in half and shows me her progress on the tracking app and when Molly pulls into her driveway, I feel total relief wash over me. “Go inside and look around. I need to know you’re home safe before I can hang up.”

“OK.” She sniffs, shutting her car off. I lose the video feed after that, but I can hear her walking up to her house and the jingling of keys as she unlocks her door.

“What the—” she gasps.

I just smile.

“What did you do, bike boy?”

Her laugh makes my heart swell. “Not enough, Molly. Not nearly enough.”

“How many bags?” she asks.

Paper rustles. I picture her living room the way I left it a few hours ago. Thirty pink bags with glittery tissue paper sticking out of them, lined up on any empty spot I could find. “Only thirty. I owe you three hundred and thirty-five more. One for each night we go to bed for a year.”

She starts laughing. “Oh, my God! What the—”

“I told you, gun girl, if you were mine, I’d dress you up in pretty lingerie every night. You’re mine, Molly. And every night, when you lay your head on the pillow next to me, you will remember that.”

“I could never forget, Lincoln.”

“No,” I say. “Because I won’t let you.”

“I love you.”

“I started loving you the moment you lit up my life, Molly. Now open up all the presents and I’ll see you in an hour.”

We hang up after that and I’m just about to go back inside when Thomas pulls up in a limo. He doesn’t even wait for the driver to open his door, just gets out himself, glances over at me, points to M-Street Bar, and then disappears inside.

One hour. I meant it. And if Thomas has other plans, he can fuck off.

I’m thinking about getting out of the supervillain business.

You Were the Light

You Were the Light

Chapter Forty-Three - Molly

I open each package and take out the presents Lincoln left me, draping them over anything I can find. My living room looks like a boudoir exploded. There is every kind of lingerie in every kind of color. There’s sexy, there’s sweet, there’s long socks and t-shirts, and shorts, and thongs. He’s got every sort of silky fabric represented here, and it seems like a dream come true when I picture myself putting on these beautiful pieces.

I know I need to tear myself away and freshen up for our date, but before I do that, I just want to choose one ensemble to wear for him tonight. I look them all over, picking up the little details of each outfit. Which one would Lincoln like the most?

I finally settle on a black leather bustier, black leather hot pants, fishnet stockings, and black garters.

It’s ridiculous, I know. But he’s Bike Boy and I’m Gun Girl, and together we say badass motherfuckers. Silver-studded black leather skimpies are what badass motherfucking guys buy their badass motherfucking chicks to wear to bed.

I lay it all out on the bed and my heart beats faster at the idea of dressing in this for him. Maybe he’ll watch me? Maybe he’ll watch me take it off too?

OK. I laugh. Gotta get dressed. I wash my face and brush my hair, tying it back into a ponytail. Then I put on his t-shirt that I came home in the other day—God, it still smells like him—and slip into an old faded pair of jeans. My biker boots and an old leather jacket that jingles with silver zippers complete the outfit.

It’s a tease. When I put the leather lingerie on tonight he will see I was teasing him. This makes me smile. Like I’ve got a secret and he won’t know it until later. I look at myself in the hallway mirror, checking my lipstick real fast, and then peek out the window. It’s been a little over an hour, so he’s late.

What if he doesn’t come?

Calm down, Molly. He’ll be here.
After all that sweet stuff he said to me earlier, God, I just know he’s my soulmate. Lincoln Wade is the only man for me.

A text comes through on my phone, and I run into the kitchen to dig it out of my purse.

Running late. Meet me at the maze.

Maze. Hmm. The one behind the cathedral. What could he have planned? I blush thinking of the wild sex we had last night, and my gaze involuntarily wanders to the stairs. He licked my pussy on those stairs.

God, I hope he fucks me in that maze again. Only this time, we need to take our time and do it right.

I text back,
On my way
.

I head to the front door, car keys in hand. But when I look down at them, I spot the key to Will’s bike.
Yeah
, I think, jingling the keys.
The bike.
It totally goes with the outfit. I shrug my purse across my chest, step into the garage, and pull the house door closed behind me. Just last weekend the mere thought of these bikes made me so sad I was making lists and now, well, I can’t wait to get on one.

I open the garage door, shove the key into the ignition, and grab the orange helmet.

It feels like old times. Back when I was part of the show. I never did fancy tricks like Will, or daredevil tricks like my dad. But I was part of the show. I rode my bike in the cage with them. Even my mom was part of the cage. All four of us riding round and round in that metal sphere, criss-crossing each other. It was choreographed to the music, so we knew exactly where we had to be for each beat. It was scary for me as a young girl, but it was my life.

The bikes will always be part of my life and I love that Lincoln has them in his life too.

I swing my leg over the seat and jump down on the kick-start. It roars to life, filling the garage with the sound of the past and filling me up with hope for the future as I take off down the street.

Chapter Forty-Four - Lincoln