Page 67

John

A t first light, we left to get the horses from the stable outside the Post. We made a loop around the abandoned city through the forest to avoiding run-ins with gangs or the Order.

I made sure Claire was hidden in the hollow of a tree before I went to scope out the Post. If the Order was still there, it wouldn’t be safe for her.

Luckily, the stable was still standing, and the horses were still there. Corny told me that the ‘small Asian lady’ had traded with him to keep them overnight. I could only assume he meant Kimmy, so I went back to the Post to find her.

It didn’t take long; she was busy treating the wounded in the street.

The main strip was devastated. Stalls and caravans were overturned, and there were bodies everywhere.

I was grateful that most of them seemed to be cultists, but I spotted a few familiar faces in the wreckage.

No one I’d known well, but people I’d seen in passing.

It hurt to see people grieving in the street around their dead loved ones.

Kimmy had dark shadows under her eyes. She’d been up all night, giving medical care to those who needed it. That was who my sister was, and Asha had never deserved her for even one second. I had to tell her the truth now, and I felt sick.

“How’re they holding up here?” I asked Kimmy after she’d finished with her last patient.

“As best they can,” Kimmy answered. “We drove back the Order, though they abducted a few of the children. All things considered, though, it could’ve been worse. Not much comfort to the families, though.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sorry, Kim. You shouldn’t have had to handle this alone. Are you ready to head home?”

She frowned. “What about Asha? We have to find her.”

The worry in her voice hurt. I was going to break her heart.

I sighed. “I already did. We need to talk.”

We sat on the crumbling curb, and I told her everything about the day before. It was somehow worse the second time. When I explained Asha’s plan, Kimmy didn’t believe it.

“There has to be a mistake,” she said, an edge to her voice. “She was…troubled, but she wouldn’t do that. Not to us. To me.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”

“You never liked her,” she said, shooting to her feet, her arms crossed. “Why would you—I mean, she—”

We locked eyes.

“Have I ever lied to you, Kimmy?” I asked gently.

All at once, her denial suddenly crumbled. She let out a wild sob and dropped to her knees. I wrapped my arms around her and took a steadying breath. I’d only seen Kimmy cry a handful of times as an adult, and it tore my guts out.

“I should’ve seen it coming,” she said into my shoulder, choking back another sob. “I could’ve stopped her.”

“You didn’t know,” I replied, squeezing her.

“How could I be so stupid?” she whispered.

“You weren’t,” I murmured. “You were kind.”

“Same difference,” she said, and I couldn’t help but chuckle in spite of myself.

“You trusted the wrong person. But believing someone can get better isn’t a crime. It’s why you have such a talent for healing people.”

She moved back, swiping at her eyes. She gulped down deep breaths, and after another minute, she seemed better .

“I want to go home,” she said, and I nodded. “Where’s Claire?”

“Waiting for us. Let’s get the horses.”

The weeks after the attack on the Post were rough as fuck.

When we got home, Kimmy went straight to bed, and I couldn’t blame her. I lifted Claire into my arms and carried her upstairs to our ensuite bathroom. She didn’t even protest.

“Let’s get cleaned up,” I said, and pulled my ruined t-shirt over my head.

Claire didn’t react as I started the shower. She just nodded with a blank look on her face, like she wasn’t sure where she was, before stripping down.

I needed to take care of her.

The hot water was a goddamn revelation. We were both sticky with sweat and dried blood.

I had Claire sit on the small bench inside the shower.

She looked so small and so broken that my chest hurt.

Her beautiful red hair was caked with blood and dirt, and her pale body was covered with cuts and purple bruises.

Each one felt like a punch to the gut. I promised to protect her .

I grabbed a shampoo bar and the detachable showerhead.

I rinsed her head, carefully avoiding her stitches, and she sighed and relaxed into my touch.

I gently washed her hair, watching bloody water circle the drain.

When it finally ran clear, I offered her a bar of soap, and she scrubbed herself down while I washed up.

Once we were clean, I knelt in front of her and kissed every bruise on her trembling body, telling her things that couldn’t be said with words. For the first time, her eyes showed emotion, and she touched my cheek.

After, she got into a nightgown and sat on the edge of the bed. I braided her wet hair, if only because my touch seemed to be the only thing that calmed her. We didn’t speak again until I tucked her into our bed.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and I gave her one more kiss .

Despite how fucking wrecked I was, I went straight to the Lodge to find Danny.

Predictably, he was in the command center, sitting behind his desk with his crutches leaning against the wall behind him.

When he saw my face, his expression changed to alarm, and he tried to stand up. He fell back into his chair on his ass.

“Damn leg,” he blew out in frustration. “I’m losing my mind with no time in the saddle.” He looked back at me, his blue eyes searching my face. “What’s wrong?”

I glanced over my shoulder into the lounge. Nobody was around this early, but I closed the office door anyway. The last thing I needed was to be overheard.

I took a seat in the chair on the opposite side of the desk and sighed, rubbing my tired eyes. Danny raised an eyebrow.

“You look like hell,” he observed, and I gave a bitter chuckle. “Who died?”

I winced at his choice of words, and he leaned forward, eyes widening.

Finally, for the third time, I went through what’d happened at the Post with Asha and Zach.

I told him everything, feeling a weight slowly lifting from me.

For the first time, I was telling someone I didn’t have to comfort, who didn’t depend on me. The closest thing I had to a brother.

Danny listened in silence, frowning and rubbing his beard. I didn’t know what to make of his reaction.

“He attacked you that night,” I said with a sigh. “Asha confessed, and from what I overheard him saying, I think it’s true.”

At that, Danny’s eyes widened. He glanced at his medical boot. Frustration and anger snuck into the crease between his brows.

“So, what happened to Asha?” he asked, still staring at his boot.

“I shot her,” I answered.

“And Zach?” His name came out as a growl.

I swallowed hard. “I shot him, too.”

Danny met my eye, and for a long moment, we just stared at each other. He finally broke the silence with a single, clipped syllable.

“Good.”

Relief flooded my limbs, and I leaned forward and buried my face in my hands.

“I know I’ll have to go in front of everyone and tell them, but—”

To my surprise, Danny snorted. “Why the hell would we do that? ”

I looked up at him. “I'm an outrider…and I killed a Valley resident.”

“You killed a traitor who attacked your Chief and was going to sell all of us out to a dangerous outsider,” he replied with a shrug. “You kept your oath, which is to the Valley, not to its chairman. You did your job.”

He leaned back in his chair. “But have some sense, Johnny. I believe you were justified, but you’ve been my best friend practically since birth.

Hard to predict what the rest of them might do.

I’m not giving them a reason to toss you out, especially because if what you say about this cult is true, we can’t afford to lose you. ”

I blew out a breath. “So, what now?”

“Simple,” Danny replied, looking toward his crutches. “It’s your word against no one’s. Can you help me with these fucking things? I can’t seem to get the hang of them.”

In the following days, outriders were sent to recover Zach and Asha’s bodies based on the directions I gave.

When they got back, Danny called me into the command center.

He sat behind the desk, his crutches leaning against the wall behind him, and I’d never seen him look so grim.

Immediately, I worried someone else had fucking died.

“We found Zach’s body,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “Not Asha’s, though.”

I just about fell over.

“What? How the hell is that possible?”

He shrugged. “You said she fell in some long grass. They reported that there was a lot of blood, and they followed a trail from there, but when it ended, they didn’t find her.

They tracked down a campsite in the area that looked recently abandoned, but based on what you said, she wasn’t in any condition to be camping. ”

“Definitely not,” I answered, frustrated. “So, she might’ve gotten help?”

Danny shrugged. “I can’t see how else she got away, losing that much blood.”

I lowered my face to my palm .

“Fuck. What now? Do we try to track her down?”

He shook his head. “The trail went cold after the campsite. But based on how much blood they said there was, I don’t think she’ll live long even if she had help. All we can do is ramp up security around here and hope Asha’s shit with directions. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.”

Danny had outriders go to tell Jameson his son was dead. He then called another emergency council meeting, which happened a day after the body recovery. I sat at the centre of the meeting, Claire and Kimmy on either side of me, while everyone else stared a hole through us.

I told the story: I’d left the festival to find Asha, only to discover her and Zach. When he refused to keep going with her scheme, she’d killed him, and I shot her in self-defence. Kimmy added details where she could, backing up my story, and Claire nodded along, her eyes on the floor.