Page 13 of The Saviors: Part One

“You need to learn, or you’re going to lose them.”

In all the years that we’ve been doing this, we’ve never fought like this. All it’s taken is two weeks in this shithole, and we’re at each other’s throats constantly. Cole and I are lost to the memories of what happened that fateful night to make us have to run and Sean because he doesn’t understand any of it. Kai stays to himself just like any other time, but I can feel the tension radiating off of him.

“We need to get Nolan over here to run the cameras while we’re gone.” Kai glares when he realizes I’m purposely avoiding what he said.

Kai stands up and heads to the door but turns back before he walks out. “I’ll always respect you for saving my life and giving me the freedom to be who I am. But I won’t back you if you continue to push them away. I’ll go get Nolan.” With that, he leaves the room, shutting the door softly behind him.

And leaving me alone with my thoughts once again.

* * *

Kai gets backwith Nolan an hour later, and he goes straight to the office to set up his laptop. I follow him in and shut the door behind me.

“Do you think I’m an asshole?”

He stops in the middle of hooking his computer up and turns to me with wide eyes. “Uh…”

“You can tell me the truth.”

He drops into a chair and continues setting up. “I mean, yeah, sometimes, but that’s just who you are.” His head whips to look at me. “That came out wrong.”

I wave away his worries. “I’m not going to kill you, Nolan. Jesus Christ.”

“It’s just that I guess sometimes you have to be because you’re the leader.”

“Are you happy here?” I have no clue where any of this is coming from besides my conversation with Kai earlier.

Nolan shrugs and flips his laptop on. “Yeah. You guys actually seem like you give a shit.”

When we caught Nolan, I thought for sure we were going to kill him. You can’t feed information to the FBI on someone in the Mafia and not die for it. But I took one look at his innocent damn face and knew that he didn’t do it out of hatred. He really had no clue what he was getting himself into. I even surprised myself when I agreed to take the little shit into the Saviors.

“Do you ever want to go back to your parents?”

Nolan turns to me with a frown. “What the hell for? Do you not want me here?”

“That’s not what I mean,” I say, sitting beside him. “We uprooted your life and made you work for us. You can go back, and we’d let you now.”

Nolan shakes his head. “None of them even care that I’m gone. Why would I want to go back? I’m living more now at twenty-one than I ever have. Why are you asking me this?”

I lean back in the chair and stare at the ceiling. “It’s just something that Kai said earlier.” I look back at Nolan, and he’s got a confused look on his face. I don’t blame him. I’m not one to start conversations like this. “Do you have a good visual on the warehouse?”

Nolan slowly turns back to the computer. “Yeah. I can see all sides except for the back.”

“Where’s Sean going in?”

He points to the roof. “Right there. I can watch him the whole time until he goes inside.”

“You don’t have access to the inside yet?”

“No, but I will before you guys leave tonight. I’ll call Holden if I can’t.” I’m glad he has Holden to talk to about this shit because I’ve never understood the shit that they do. I’m actually kind of envious of them. They want information? They just hack their way into it.

He starts typing, and I let it fade into the background. I need to focus on the job and quit worrying if they actually do hate me. It’s my job to keep them safe, not make them like me. I just need to take this motherfucker down, and everything will return to normal. We can get the hell away from Forest Grove and move on with our lives.

“I got it!”

I jerk my head to Nolan, and all the cameras inside the warehouse start filling the screen. “Hell yeah, you did. Good job, man.” I know my father had that locked down tight, and Nolan proves once again that he’s made for this shit. “Do you have all angles?” He starts clicking through at lightning speed and starts nodding like crazy.

“I do.” He stops on one and points. “There’s the safe. I’ll pair the feed with your phone so you can watch the whole time.”