Page 10

Chapter

Ten

LUNA

“ I s your real name God or Ed?”

We’ve been on the road for over an hour now. With each passing minute, I know we’re getting closer and closer to the lighthouse.

He slants his eyes at me. “To you, it’s God.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes, fine,” he snaps. “My real is Ed.”

“So, why choose the name God?”

“Because that’s what I am to you. I’m the man who raised you, fed you, and clothed you. You will call me God and only God. I never want to hear you call me Ed again. Is that understood?”

None of this makes sense, but I nod anyway. The more upset he gets, the more upset I become. I just wish Maxim was here, smiling at me. Making my stomach flutter. Making me feel safe.

“Why did you make me grow up in the lighthouse all by myself?”

“Because I was making you into my perfect woman.”

“What does that mean?”

“I want you innocent, Luna. That’s why I’m pissed Maxim took you out of the lighthouse and taught you things. It makes my blood boil. Can’t you understand why I’m upset? It’s not fair.”

It’s not fair you kept me locked up my entire life. I keep that to myself, though. God doesn’t want to hear that.

“Are you my dad?”

He scoffs. “Why would you ask me that?”

“Because you said you raised me. Does that make you my father?”

“I am not your father, Luna.”

“But … did I have parents? From before the lighthouse?”

“You’ve only ever known the lighthouse, and your life will return to that.”

I shake my head. “But I’ve been out of my lighthouse. I’ve seen more of the world. How can I go back?”

“Because I said so. Don’t question me. Just do as I say. See? This is why I’m so upset. You’ve learned too much being outside the lighthouse, and now, it’s messing with you. We can’t have that.”

“But what I’ve learned isn’t bad.”

“It is for me!” he shouts. The sound is so loud in the small car that it makes me flinch. God had always just been a voice to me, so I have no idea what he’s truly capable of.

And that is terrifying.

God takes in a deep breath and smooths his hand over his hair. He has greasy hair, I notice. It’s not lush and soft like Maxim’s. I keep this to myself.

“Now, enough questions. We’re almost there.”

I’m desperate to know what God knows. Who are my real parents? Where exactly did I come from? Does anyone miss me? These are questions I’ve asked myself before, but now that I’ve had a taste of freedom, they’re questions that have become real.

The lighthouse appears in the distance.

My entire body tenses at the sight of it. Once I left with Maxim, I never thought I’d be back here. I thought I was free of God for good.

But instead, he’s right next to me, a real man. A sweaty, greasy, rude man.

God stops in front of the lighthouse and tells me to get out.

“I don’t want to.”

The look he gives me chills me to the bone. “You will get out, Luna, or I will make you. Which is it?”

Quickly, I open the car door. My feet touch the earth. With my sneakers on, I can’t feel the gritty sand between my toes like before. Because of my shoes, I have the power to run away.

I do just that.

“Fuck,” God mutters, chasing after me.

Growing up in my cramped lighthouse, I didn’t have much space to run. I would walk a lot throughout it just to keep my muscles working—God told me it was good for me, so I did it. Now, I see he unintentionally helped me because I can use my muscles to get away from him.

The only problem is—my lungs are not that strong. I quickly tire, but if I stop, God will catch me, and he’ll force me back into the lighthouse. Going back in there is the last thing I want.

I make it to the main road and run and run and run. The wind whips across my face. It’s so different from how the wind felt when I left on Maxim’s bike. Then, I felt free. Now, I just feel trapped all over again.

I feel even more trapped than I did before. And I know why: It’s because I’ve tasted freedom. Once you’ve tasted it, you can’t let go of it.

God huffs and grunts behind me. For a moment, I believe I can outrun him.

But his footsteps get closer and closer …

… and then he grabs me. “Got you.”

I scream, but my voice blends in with the waves of the ocean. No one lives around here. No one can help me.

I fight against him with everything inside me. I will not give up. I will never give up.

Rose’s teachings go through my mind. Defend myself.

I turn around and kick him right between the legs. God grunts and bends over, giving me a chance to escape. But he grabs my leg right as I take a step, sending me falling to the ground. The impact of it knocks the wind right out of me. For a second, I can’t breathe.

He flips me onto my back. “I’m sorry, Luna. I never wanted to hurt your pretty face. If you’d just done as I said, none of this needed to happen.”

Before I can react, he brings his hand down across my face.

Pain splits through my head right before everything goes black.

MAXIM

I have Ed’s home address from when I looked into him. I always do some digging on the men who want to join the Knights.

Taking Luna to the lighthouse seems too obvious. If I were trying to kidnap a girl, I wouldn’t take her back to the place I kept her hostage.

His home is a brownstone in an expensive part of the city. Ed is clearly not a man who’s hurting financially. So, why would someone who has all the money in the world kidnap a girl? Why couldn’t he find a willing woman to date?

Because he’s a fucking sick bastard; that’s why. No matter the money, some men just want to control women, and that will never change.

I bound on his door, and when no one answers, I kick the door in. After searching the entire house, I still don’t find Ed or Luna.

Which only leaves one other place: the lighthouse.

It’s a couple of hours away. He could be there right now. He could be hurting her right now.

I get on my bike, but before I take off, Rose calls me again. Something in my gut tells me to answer it. “Yes?”

“Maxim, you need to get here now. There’s a man here. His name is Anton. He’s threatening to blow the clubhouse up. He’s holding me at gunpoint.”

Shit. Not now. Not now . Luna needs me. Ed will hurt her, I have no doubt.

But Rose and my club need me. Going after Anton is already showing the repercussions of my actions. I poked the bees’ nest, and now it’s come to sting me.

I can’t risk my clubhouse getting blown up. I’ve already had to build from the ground up before. I can’t do it again.

Hating every fiber of my being for not going after Luna, I turn my bike in the direction of the clubhouse.

When I get back there, everything is still standing.

Before I can get inside, Anton steps out of the building, smiling in a way that makes fear settle in my stomach. I’m not a man who gets afraid often. It takes a special someone to make me feel this way.

“We meet again,” Anton says.

“It’s only been a few hours,” I growl.

“I know, but I didn’t want to waste any time in delivering my message. Don’t fuck with me, Maxim Baranov. You or Nikolai. How’s Dimitri, by the way? Dead, I hope?”

“Alive.” At least, when I dropped him off at the hospital, he was. He might be dead right now, for all I know.

“Shame. I’m leaving this message for your own good. Don’t come after me. Don’t get in my way. I’m going to run this city, and no one can stop it.” He brings some remote control thing out of his pocket and presses a button.

The clubhouse goes up in flames.

“NO!” I draw my gun and fire at Anton. He dives behind his car. I keep shooting even as he manages to get into his car and drive away.

Rose comes stumbling out of the clubhouse, covered in black soot, coughing and hacking.

The sight of her alive gives me some small semblance of happiness.

“Rose.” I rush to her side and catch her as she collapses. “Rose!”

“I’m alive,” she grits out. “But Colin was inside. I’m not sure if he made it.”

Not Colin. Out of all my men, not Colin. He’s the most good out of all of us.

I set Rose gently onto the ground and run back to the clubhouse.

“You can’t go in there. You’ll die.”

“I have to save him.” I tear off a piece of my shirt, wrap it around my face, and dive into the flaming building. I can’t see anything. The ceiling has collapsed in some areas, blocking my path. The flames lick at my skin, trying to burn me.

And that’s when I see him.

Colin.

On the ground, not moving. Flames start to cover his body.

“No.” I run to his side, staying crouched as I go. I touch his unburnt arm and drag him outside.

“Oh my god,” Rose gasps.

I set Colin on the ground and check his pulse, though I know it's pointless. He’s dead. Half his body is charred. It’s probably for the best that he’s dead—he can’t feel any pain this way.

But Colin didn’t deserve to die. He just wanted to be a member of the Knights so fucking badly.

Tears sting my tired eyes. “No. NO!” I pound on Colin’s chest, thinking for a second that will make him wake up. But nothing works. He’s truly dead.

“Maxim.” Rose grabs my hands and tugs me away from Colin’s body. “He’s dead. There’s no point.”

“I have to do something.”

“I know. But you can’t save him.”

“Was anyone else inside?”

“No. The clubhouse was quiet tonight. It was just Colin and me when that man came in.”

“Anton,” I growl. “He’s going to pay for this.”

“You make him pay for this. You make him pay for Colin’s death. But, Maxim, there’s Luna. She’s still gone. You have to save her.”

“I will.”

With even worse timing, a bunch of my men arrive on their bikes, pulling into the parking lot. They all stop at the sight of the clubhouse on fire.

“What the fuck happened?” Sal cries, running over to me. His eyes settle onto Colin’s dead body. “What the fuck?” He drops to his knees and cradles Colin’s head. “What the fuck?”

My other men all look worried. Lucas looks ten years older.

“What happened?” he asks in his grave voice. “Why is the clubhouse in flames?”

“A man named Anton Volkov blew it up.”

“A Bratva man?”

“Yes.”

Lucas scoffs. “I knew working with Bratva men would get you into trouble.”

“This wasn’t Nikolai or Dimitri’s fault.” I hang my head low. “It was mine.”

“Yours?”

Rose places her hand on my arm. “Maxim, you don’t have time. You have to save Luna.”

“Who gives a fuck about the girl? Why is our clubhouse on fire?” Lucas gets right in my face. As an older man, he’s never a part of any drama within the MC. The sight of him red-faced and sneering chills me.

“Because I provoked Anton. He’s been blowing up our gun shipments and making us lose on money. I wanted to reason with him, but I quickly learned he’s not a man you can reason with. He blew up the clubhouse to teach me a lesson.”

“What the fuck?” Sal snarls. “Why do all these Bratva men keep blowing up our clubhouses? First, it was Nikolai years ago, and now, this Anton guy. We need to go after him right now and send a message of our own.”

All the men cheer their agreement.

“No.” My one word is heavy and loud in the night air.

Lucas frowns. “What do you mean ‘no’? We should go after the man who did this. End this before it gets worse.”

“I now know what Anton is capable of. He killed Colin.” The sight of the young man on the floor covered in burn marks fills my heart with grief. “Anton is unpredictable. There’s no getting through to him. If you go after him, who knows how many more men will die?”

“Who gives a fuck? He can’t just go around living his life after he blew up our clubhouse. After he killed Colin.”

“Yeah,” Sal agrees. “We have to do something, Maxim. We have to end this right away. Go after Anton before he least expects it.”

“He’ll expect us to retaliate. We can’t do that. We need to think. We need to plan and prepare.”

“And give him time to escape?” Lucas scoffs. “I know you’re our president, Maxim, but I’m the vice president. I get a say in this, too.”

“I know. But Colin is dead. Our clubhouse is gone. The best thing to do right now is calm down. Rushing into action will only lead to more dead, and I’ve already lost so many men over the years.” Many of them to Nikolai and Dimitri. Deep down, a part of me still hates them for it, but I’ve learned to work with them. I’ve learned to put aside my anger and do what is best for my men. For the Knights.

I’m choosing to do the same again with Anton.

“Let us mourn Colin,” I tell my men. “Let us start work on a funeral for him. Let us work on finding a new clubhouse. I will deal with Anton when it’s time. I can promise you that. I want him dead just as much as you all do. So, let us think rationally about this.”

“How can you be so calm?” Sal asks. “You practically killed Jasper for how he treated some girl, and yet, when it’s one of our men who’s killed, you won’t lift a finger?”

“Luna isn’t just some girl. And Jasper was a man I knew. I kicked him out without any more bloodshed. But with Anton, things will lead to a bloodbath if we’re not careful.”

“Funny,” Lucas scoffs. “How much blood have you spilled to help your Bratva business partners?”

I clench my jaw. “That blood wasn’t any of ours. I’m fine spilling blood as long as it’s not a Knight. You’re all too valuable for me to lose. So, don’t, for the love of fucking god, do something stupid. Let’s all go someplace else. Cool down. Talk things through. Come up with a game plan to go after Anton. And once we do that, we can kill him. But right now, I need to go save Luna. She was taken by Ed, the man who kidnapped her in the first place.”

“Who gives a fuck about her?” Sal asks.

“Funny. I seem to remember you salivating over her. Now, you don’t care? I’m going to get Luna because I know I can save her without spilling more blood. I can’t say the same about Anton. So, just go somewhere to cool down. All of you. As your president, I command it. Once I’m back, we’ll talk.”

Lucas and Sal grumble under their breath, but they don’t put up more of a fight. That’s one reason I’ve become a good leader—I know how to calm down a group of men. It’s something our previous leader, Lev, was terrible at.

“Are we good?” I ask.

“No, we’re not,” Lucas spits out. “But you have a point. Going after Anton now when we’re upset will lead to bad things. Men! Meet at my place. We’ll talk about what to do.”

“Don’t do anything without me,” I warn.

He inclines his head but doesn’t say anything more.

Sal pats Colin’s head as tears seep from his eyes. “We need to plan a funeral for him.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. “We will. I can promise you that. We will get our revenge. All in due time.”

That placates the men for now, and they all get on their bikes and drive away, except for Sal, who’s still crying over Colin’s body.

“I got this,” Rose says. “Go save Luna.”

“Get yourself to the hospital. I can’t lose you, too.”

She nods, then throws her arms around me. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know. But I need you to know I’m just as upset as all of you. I’m always on your side, Maxim. Something tells me you’re going to need it.”

I pat her back and step away. “Thanks, Rose. But I can handle my men. I have to.” There’s no other choice.

Getting on my own bike, I leave Sal and Rose crying over Colin to go save Luna.

My girl.

LUNA

When my eyes flutter open, I see the familiar ceiling I’ve laid eyes on my entire life.

The lighthouse.

I gasp and sit up, discovering I’m in my bed. Not Maxim’s nice soft bed. No. The old mattress I grew up on. The one God refused ever to change.

It dawns on me why: To change a mattress meant he’d have to send someone to do it for me. He couldn’t risk someone coming by.

He’s not on the second floor with me, which is a relief. I check my clothes—all there. Nothing’s been removed. Nothing feels different about me. Would I even know if God had sex with me?

That’s the scary part: I don’t think I’d know.

My head is ringing and pounding from where God hit me. Never did I think he’d hurt me. God always said he just wanted to keep me safe and treat me right. He said I’d love to be with him.

None of that is true.

Forcing myself to stand up, I look over the banister, but I can’t see anything downstairs. I don’t hear anything. Wanting to be as far away from my bed as possible, I go downstairs.

I’m fairly certain that sex happens on a bed. If I’m not on it, then God can’t make me have sex with him.

Too bad Rose isn’t here. I could’ve asked her, and she would’ve explained everything. She was never worried about keeping things from me. In fact, the more knowledge I had, the better, she said. “Ignorance is bliss, Luna, but knowledge is power. Use it to your advantage,” she told me.

Taking a deep breath, I reach the bottom floor and find it empty. No God anywhere. Thank goodness. The truth is—he smelled bad. Like rotten eggs. I know what that smell is because I didn’t put the eggs God gave me into the fridge one day, and he scolded me for it. He said I’d smell bad.

How interesting that he smells the same way.

“Luna.” His voice carries through the room. It’s so sudden it makes me jump. I look around, but he’s still not there. It’s then I realize his voice is coming from the intercom.

Like it used to. Like it always has.

I’m right back in the lighthouse. Right back in my old life before Maxim and Rose. Before I was free.

“You look good in the kitchen,” he tells me. “So domestic.”

“Why are you speaking to me through the intercom? Why aren’t you here in person?”

“Because you don’t deserve me, Luna. You deserve to be punished for leaving me. I’m going to leave you in that lighthouse for the time being. Until you’ve learned your lesson.”

“My lesson?”

“That you belong to me. That you exist because of me. Once you can show that, I’ll come back to you, and we can be together.”

“Wait. Do you think being with you is my prize?”

“Isn’t it?” he asks flatly. “You want to be with me, Luna. It’s all you’ve ever wanted.”

“No, it’s not. You’re not making sense.”

“Of course, I’m making sense!” His scream makes the speakers glitch out. “You want me. It’s all you’ve wanted. So, I’ll give you me when you learn to appreciate me. Until then, enjoy your time all alone.”

“No. I don’t want to be alone.” The idea of being stuck back here in my lighthouse with no one to talk to except God, who’s always made me feel bad about myself, is torture. “Please. I can’t be alone.”

“Well, tough luck, Luna. You didn’t appreciate me before, but now, you’re going to.”

“What about Maxim? He’ll come looking for me. I know he will. What happens once he finds me?”

“I have plans for him, don’t worry.”

“What plans?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head,” he says tensely. “Did I not just say that?”

I flinch, my gaze moving downward. God was always good at making me feel like mold on a piece of cheese.

“If Maxim shows,” he continues, “then I’m going to kill him. He’ll never bother you again.”

“But Maxim never bothered me to begin with.”

“Shut up!”

I gasp, sinking into the seat at the table. “I’m sorry.”

“As you should be. Maxim was wrong to take you from me. He will be punished for it, and once he is, you’ll be all mine. Now, enjoy your solitude, Luna. Don’t lose your mind. I want you in peak condition when I claim you as my own.” With those final words, the intercom turns off.

And once again, I’m on my own. Alone with my thoughts. I got used to entertaining myself, but I don’t want to have to do that. I want to talk to Rose and learn from her.

I want to bask in Maxim’s presence and feel truly seen for the first time in my entire life.

I can’t stay here. I can’t stay here. I can’t stay here.

I pace around the room, grabbing my hair and tugging it hard.

I’m going to die all alone in the place. I know it. God will kill Maxim, and then he’ll kill me. I’ll never know true happiness.

This can’t be happening. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be.

With a scream, I pound my hands onto the door. I don’t stop hitting it, not even when my hands turn raw and red. The pain snaps me back to reality.

I’m stuck in the lighthouse again.

And I’m never getting out.

Then I hear it—the familiar sound of Maxim’s bike.

I race upstairs and look through my bedroom window. There he is. He’s come to save me!

“Maxim!” I pound on the window, but he must not be able to hear me because he doesn’t look up.

He gets off his bike right as God appears behind him.

With a gun in his hand.

He really is going to kill Maxim.