Sicko(91)

She kisses me. “Nine.”

“Fine.” That was the fucking kiss of death. “They got nine months, then he’s mine.”

“Okay.”

Just as the words leave her mouth, Isaac and the feds storm through the submarine. Jade is tucked under my arm as Olivia falls into step beside Lion, rigid and nervous. In a matter of hours, Lion’s world has flip-flopped back and forward. All of us have somehow lost our grip on reality.

Jade climbs into the back of the SUV with Poppy and Wicked, as I shut them inside and make my way to Isaac, who’s watching me near his squad car.

I nudge my head. “How long you been under?”

Isaac shakes his head. “Since she first came in.”

I turn over my shoulder. I can’t see Jade through the tinted glass, but know she’s watching us closely. “Seven months, Isaac. I told her nine, but you got seven months.”

When I turn to face him, his eyes are weak. “I have enough information on most of his clients already, so I’ll only need seven.”

“This underground trafficking issue. She’s fucking passionate about it.”

Isaac shoves his hands into his pocket. “That girl, Royce, that girl has had the worst of the worst happen to her. I wouldn’t worry about her mentally. She’s strong. Somehow built a wall to block out the life she had with Kyle, and her young life of being in high school. But tread carefully with her. There were a handful of times when I almost threw the towel in to save her from Kyle, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

The thought of Jade being in any kind of trouble is enough to have me seething.

“She said that some of them were kids.”

Isaac leans back on his squad car, crossing his legs at the ankles. “Not often. The ones that were passed through were up from their parents for debt, money. The children that she mentioned, they weren’t trafficked for sex or slavery. That was for the adoption trade. A lot of rich folks out there who can’t have kids and have too much money to wait in line.” His hand is on my shoulder, squeezing. “Seven months, you’ll receive a text from me. Follow the instructions and you’ll get your wish. In the meantime.” His eyes went to the van and I followed, that same guilt eating up my stomach. “Be there for your girl, and your mom, man. They’re going to need it.” He turns to leave and just as I make my way back to the van, I pause in my steps.

“Isaac?” I call out, turning around.

He catches me. “Yes?”

“The tip you got?”

I watch as a smile truly curves up on his mouth. “Well, let’s just say it was Anonymous.”

Fucking hell. Thoughts twist into knots over what and how I’m going to come to terms with not just everything that has unraveled, but handling the one thing I don’t think I’m strong enough to deal with.

Guilt.

Jade is the one person on this earth that I would straight-up kill, die, bend, snap, do anything for. She had me at her feet, ready to do whatever she wanted, but what if what she wants is to let me go.





I remember feeling fear for the first time in my life. It was when I saw Royce fall off his skateboard and skin his knees so bad that you could see bone. I cried for days because I thought he was going to die.

We’re back at the clubhouse an hour later, the realism of everything falling around the SUV like a heavy cloud. No one has spoken a word to each other, and Royce hasn’t so much as flinched near me. That same fear I felt when I was a kid, I feel now too. Please don’t leave me.

Wicked turns the car off and we all pile out, my knees weak and eyes sticky with fatigue. My phone starts ringing in my pocket and I take it out, seeing Sloane’s name on the screen.

I swipe it to answer. “Hi.”

“Oh my god! I just saw the news.”

I gulp past the nerves. Here comes the next part that we will have to live through. The shame. The pity. The “Oh my god, I wonder what he did to her!” All of that doesn’t mean anything to me, though.

“I know,” is all I manage to say, my throat parched and lips cracked. My skin itches to be washed, my eyes desperate for sleep.

“Are you okay?” she asks, and I love her for it. The simplicity of Sloane and I’s friendship has played a big part in my survival over the years. She helped keep my feet grounded, helped provide a normal life for me when I wasn’t with Kyle.

“I will be. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“I love you, Jade.”

“I love you too.” We both hang up and I take a moment to really look at the damage of the clubhouse. The shooting where Bonnie was standing, the blood on the ground from Kyle being dragged to the back of the house, the wired gates at the front shattered in the explosion.

“Royce,” Lion interrupts, but I’m still lost in the midst of the chaos that I don’t realize the tears that are streaming down my cheeks. “Take her home and come back tomorrow.”

Royce is by my side, his hand in mine as he directs me toward his car. “Come on.”

Wicked calls out as I slide into the passenger seat. “We’ll catch a ride.”

Forgetting that Wicked has been living with Royce, I slip the belt on across my chest and rest my forehead on the cool window. My arms are around my torso protectively, my lips trembling. It’s over. I don’t trust those words, even though my muscles relax at the thought. I don’t trust that he’s not going to escape and chase me, throwing me back into his world.