Salvation (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Half an hour after Bishop left, there was a knock on the door. Luna assumed it was the guards, was surprised to look through the peephole and see Keller himself standing there.

She reluctantly opened the door and realized he was standing next to a cart with dinner plates.

“You worked late. I figured you didn’t take time to eat,” he said, and she moved aside to let him pass, fighting the urge to ask for Rocio. Keller had a motive for coming here tonight, and she’d prove to Bishop she could play it cool and deal with it.

“Thanks. It smells great,” she said.

“The car’s coming along nicely.” He sat down at the table. “Please, sit and eat. I’ve already had supper, but I’d like to keep you company.”

She nodded and did as he requested. After a few minutes, she was unable to hold it in, asked, point-blank, “What does Bishop really do for you?”

“Haven’t you asked him?”

“Yes.”

“And he won’t tell you.”

“Right,” she lied. Because she wanted to hear Keller talk about it, explain it.

“Maybe there’s a reason he won’t tell you.”

“Then you should.”

He pressed his lips together for a second, and then he said, “He fights.”

“I know that.”

“What do you think he does?”

“I think he kills.”

“Do you think he’d do that if he didn’t work for me?”

The answer was
probably
. But that wasn’t the point. If he wasn’t here, he’d be with Mathias, his other half, and she told him so, adding, “He misses Mathias.”

“But he’s got you. And Mathias has his woman. So you need to be the one Bishop leans on.”

She digested that for a few moments. When she didn’t say anything, Keller added, “I don’t give people what they can’t handle.”

“You’re different here.”

He raised a brow. “You seem surprised.”

“I almost like you.”

He snorted. “Almost?”

“I guess I can see why you are the way you are when you’re in the outside world.” She ran a hand over her braid, which was over her shoulder. “But if you’re saying this is really who you are, why would you do this to Bishop?”

“Because it’s what he needs.”

“He needs to kill?”

“He needs to do something important. His job? It’s important,” Keller told her. “Kammy wasn’t lying when she said that you and Bishop would do really well here. I don’t see any reason the two of you need to leave here. Any reason you should.”

“You want us cut off from Defiance.”

“On the contrary. I want you to think of yourselves as ambassadors.”

“I want you to leave Bishop out of your jobs.”

He eyed her. “I’m sorry, was that a direct order?”

“Can it be?”

He crossed his arms and stared at her. “I really think you could be my daughter.”

“Unless you slept with a Defiance woman...” She noticed his brows raise, his lips clamp down to hold back a smile. She held up a hand. “You know what? I don’t even want to know. Not at all.”

She could actually see it too. Declan and Bishop would be a formidable pair. And the fact that she was even thinking this, after everything she knew about Keller and his military and government ties...

Yes, she and Bishop needed to get the hell back to Defiance, and fast. “Why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because you’re smart, Luna. You and Bishop, Declan—you’re the future. I owe it to my father, and my grandfather, to continue my legacy.”

“We’re not like you,” she told him, and although she didn’t really know Declan, how could Rebel be in love with someone like Keller? There was no way.

“In some ways, you all are,” he said, not offended by her words. “The sooner you accept that, the better off you’ll be.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hours after Keller left, there was another knock at the door. It was one of the guards and she was afraid to open it, not wanting to hear bad news.

But right behind the guard was Declan. He simply motioned for her to follow and she did, up the ladder and out of the tube. He pointed to where Bishop sat, next to an old tree stump.

“Get him downstairs as soon as you can,” Declan told her.

“What did you do to him?” she demanded.

“Nothing I haven’t done to myself,” was all he said before disappearing down the ladder and into the tube.

She focused her energy on Bishop, who was just sitting there, in the dark, his elbows on his knees, his head hanging down. He was unmoving. Silent. Barely breathing. She was scared to approach him but she did. Knelt in front of him on the cold ground and put her hands on his forearms.

He didn’t move, not right away. She kept her eyes trained on him and finally, after what seemed like forever, he raised his head to stare at her. She moved her palms over his forearms. He was cold—so cold, and she went to grip his hands and warm them. When it wasn’t enough, she moved in closer, put her arms around him, although he remained frozen.

She kissed the top of his head. His neck. She wanted to thaw him. She was determined to do so.

“Bishop, please...let me help you.” She heard him sigh. “We’ll go inside. Get warm. Come on.”

Tentatively, she pulled back and he nodded. He didn’t need her help to rise, but she helped him anyway, held tight to his arm and then his hand, and together they walked toward the entrance to his place.

She led him down, waited while he closed and locked the hatch above them, locking them away from the world. Locking all the bad things out.

She didn’t hesitate, led him over to the shower and stripped him down. First, she bent and loosened his boots, lace by lace before easing one of them off. He stopped her before she could touch the other, reached inside and slid a knife out and placed it on the sink and then she took it off, lined them up and put them to the side. She ran a hand up his leg, because she’d seen a flash of something around his ankle. Another knife, which he bent down and carefully unstrapped.

From his other ankle, he took a gun out of the holster and placed it on the sink as well. She stood and began to unbutton and unzip his cargos. He reached into the pockets and emptied more weapons—she didn’t even look, because it didn’t matter. When he was done, he nodded.

She pulled his shirt off first. He had a knife strapped to his biceps. He went to remove it but she stopped him, unhooked this last one for him and placed it by the others. She reached in and turned the water on. It would stay hot for only ten minutes or so, then go warm, but it would be enough.

She pushed his pants down and then urged him under the spray. He surprised her by pulling her in with him, although he didn’t try to strip her down. Instead, he was content to hold her close to him as the hot water soothed them both. His muscled loosened gradually. She licked the side of his neck, tasting his skin and the water and then she sucked hard and heard him groan. He hardened against her belly and she flushed with triumph. His arm wound around her back, holding her close without making her panic, because that could be enough to make her run.

“Thanks, Luna,” he murmured against her ear.

When the water got warm, she turned it off and grabbed a couple of towels, wound them around him. And he began to take her clothes off, and she decided that there was nothing he did that wasn’t seductive. It was in the way he moved, the way his fingers traced the hem of her shirt before lifting it over her head. It landed on the floor with a wet slap and he wound the towel around her shoulders.

But he did look at her, appreciatively. Smiled a little and then pulled off her wet pants and placed another towel around her. And then they got into the big, ornate bed under the warm, fluffy comforter with the mirrors above them and they ditched the towels and wound around each other.

“Does this happen to you every time you go out?” she asked him.

“Sometimes it’s worse than others.”

She stroked his shoulder, feeling the tattoos under the scars. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m not. I chose it.” He sounded so serious—he truly meant it.

“Is there really no way out?”

“Yeah, in less than eight months. And I’m taking you with me.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

While they lay in bed, Luna told Bishop what she and Keller had discussed. He stared at her and realized how deep in all of this they both were.

“Keller said we’d still be part of Defiance. We’d be liaisons. At least that’s how he made it sound.” She shook her head. “And that would benefit Defiance, but it would also be the MC’s undoing.”

“I haven’t seen him making alliances with any other MCs. We’re the right fit,” he mused.

“I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just take Defiance by force. Or why...”

“Or why he’d want me?”

“I never underestimated you, Bishop,” she said softly. “But I meant it when I told Keller that we’re nothing like him.”

The fact that she believed that—or at least pretended to—meant everything to him. “What are you worried about?”

“I think we’re not going to be given a choice, no matter how much he’s making it feel like one. I get the feeling that it’s like, we agree with him or Defiance is wiped off the map, no matter what kind of deal Jessa struck. And even if that is the choice we make, the choice we agree to, we’re supposed to be okay that people are going to be exterminated by the hand that feeds us?”

Bishop stared at her. “You’ve been okay with it for three and a half years. Before that...fuck, Luna, think there’s anything we can do to stop it? The government’s condoning it. If we do want to help end it, the only way we can actually do that is to be alive at the end. Last man standing.”

“You’ve had nothing but time to think on this.”

“I don’t want power. Don’t want it or need it or even give a fuck about it. But Mathias pledged his loyalty to Defiance. I pledged mine to Mathias and to you, which is the same thing. So now, all I can do is make arrangements to keep my new home safe. And if Defiance is safe, there are a lot of other people who’ll remain that way, because we’ll still have the tube protection.”

“God, I can’t stand that Keller gets away with not playing by the rules.”

“Are there rules left, Luna?”

“No, and that’s the problem.”

“Ah fuck, babe, I don’t think there ever were. And I’d have been dead if Mathias’s parents had played by the rules. Basically, justice could only have been done if I was dead.” Bishop didn’t look angry as much as resigned. “That’s why playing by the rules sucks. You need to make sure someone’s there to help the people who can’t get help anyplace else.”

“And Keller does that?”

“Not at all. But Defiance does. So we deal with assholes like Keller.” He paused. “Declan doesn’t seem that bad.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Do you trust him?”

“Well, I’m still alive.”

She sighed. He pulled her in tight. “I don’t want to talk anymore. Not now.”

Instead of disagreeing, she kissed him.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Bishop had walked her to the garage a couple of days later—she’d taken time off to be with him, to make sure he was really okay—or as okay as he could be. It was cold, with a light drizzle, but Keller was expecting the car to be done soon. She’d started to work and the time passed quickly, and Bishop had promised to come by for lunch.

And so, when she found the papers—five pages stuffed inside the door of Victor’s car, she figured it was just junk. Just in case it wasn’t, she glanced down at it and felt the blood rush from her face.

With a deep breath, and her back to the cameras, she folder the paper, tucked it into her jeans and continued working. Until Bishop got there.

He looked happy to see her—she used that, let him kiss her, pick her up and lay her on the backseat of the car.

All of this could be a trap, but she had to show the papers to Bishop. She worked them out of her pocket while they kissed, unfolded them with one hand and put them on the floor, where Bishop could read them while kissing her. Because Keller was used to these make-out sessions.

Bishop pulled back to stroke her hair, then looked down at the papers, because of course he’d noticed what she’d been doing. And he froze after reading them, then murmured, “Does he know you found them?”

“Maybe?” She knew from Bishop that the cameras weren’t rolling 24/7—that was the only thing she had in her favor.

“Shit.” He kissed her, hard enough to make her groan echo through the garage. Pulled back, scanned them then tucked them back and lay there.

“You’re not that surprised.”

“Not really, no,” he agreed. “You shouldn’t be either.”

There were rumors. Always rumors, and yes, she’d known that Jessa had confirmed them. But still... “All I know was that Defiance was crossed off the list,” she said, and whether that was a direct order from the government or Keller himself, who knew? Ultimately, knowing where the directive had come from would matter.

For now though... “Should I show him what I found? He’s got to know already, because he knows Defiance has Jessa.”

He nodded. “Play it cool.”

She stared at him, things coming together in that moment for her. “Bishop...your last job...”

“Don’t ask me that, Luna. Don’t fucking ask me that,” he told her, before pushing off her and leaving.

He’d be back for her as soon as she finished with Keller. She knew that. But God, if Bishop was involved in the extermination efforts...how would he live with himself?

He was carrying the weight of Defiance on his shoulders. That was how. And she wouldn’t screw anything up for him. She got up and asked the guards to tell Keller she needed to speak with him. Better to make that first move, she decided.

About twenty minutes later, Keller strolled in and checkmated her by saying, “I think you found something I’ve been looking for.”

She walked over and showed him the papers. “A good hiding spot. If that window didn’t have trouble closing, I’d never look there. No one would.”

“Did you look at it?”

“Briefly. I thought maybe it was an owner’s manual. Or cash,” she added.

“And when you saw it wasn’t?”

She crossed her arms and forced herself calm. “It’s nothing I haven’t known for months.”

He folded the papers, stuck them inside his jacket pocket.

After he left, she stayed in the garage, even though all she wanted to do was run back to Bishop. She worked on the car as if the papers and her interaction with Keller hadn’t fazed her in the least, but she literally waited for Keller’s men to come and spirit her away. Forever.

By the time Bishop came to get her, she was a little calmer—working on cars always had that effect on her. But the single paper she’d hidden in her jeans—the one that had the most important information on it—made her feel completely conspicuous.

The first ones she’d shown to Bishop were contracts between Victor, Keller and the LoV. Things that had come to pass already. There were also extermination orders. But the one she’d hidden, the one Bishop had pointed to and then rubbed her pocket to indicate she should take it, that one had no date on it, but as far as Luna could see, it hadn’t happened. But Keller had to know about it—his signature was on the bottom.

She forced herself to do what she and Bishop had been doing nightly here at Keller’s, when there wasn’t a storm or a tear gas raid. They took a walk. Danced a little before going underground for dinner.

While he accepted the food, she went to the night table and picked up his book. Dropped it. Bent down and shoved the paper inside of it.

During dinner, she made sure to mention the page number casually. He’d raised a brow and said, “Now you’re reading my books?”

“I couldn’t help it. You were so engrossed.”

She hoped he could tell she was lying.

An hour later, she saw him cleaning his gun, staring down at the long rifle...and past it to a paper half hidden under his feet. When he was done, she joined him in bed and he simply held her, the two of them now privy to a potential upcoming plan of Keller’s...

Or privy to a trap Keller had set for them. “Do you really think Keller would let the LoV exterminate the hangers-on here?”

“Nothing surprises me, Luna. But that might,” Bishop admitted.

“I just don’t understand what he’d gain. He seems to love making it fun around here—it’s like his version of a street drug.”

“Maybe it’s not in line with what the military wants? Maybe the LoV wants to practice exterminations?” Bishop said, throwing out scenarios, but still sounding disbelieving. But there was no denying that contract...and that, even thought the LoV had been kicked off campus, the extermination could happen at any time.”

“Why does the military show so often?” she asked finally.

“I’m guessing for protection for Keller. If Keller’s goes down, so does Defiance,” Bishop reminded her. “This is where we get the majority of our supplies. Unless we find another mafia—and at this point, I have no idea if the military’s invading them too—we’re screwed.”

Defiance had been growing their own food. Mining their own water supply and finding new ways to use fuel, but they needed Keller. The only upside to that was that Keller also needed Defiance.

“What did you do last night, when you went on the job with Declan?” she asked.

He sighed and confirmed, “What the government asked of us.”

“Do you think it’s a setup?”

“They’d be setting Keller up, not me,” he said. “And that seems pretty fucking foolish, since he’s doing their secret dirty work. Who’s going to miss those guys anyway?”

No one. Luna knew that on every level, had no remorse for them. But she didn’t like the fact that Bishop was a pawn in this, because her man was no one’s pawn.

God
,
I
really am a Defiance woman.
All that bitching and moaning that she wasn’t one for nothing...

Rebel

“You all right?” Declan asked him.

Rebel stuck his hands in his pocket as he looked around Declan’s tube. “M’fine. Is Luna okay?”

“She’s with Bishop. So as long as Bishop stays okay, she’s okay.”

“So there’s really no way to get her out.”

Declan shook his head. “There’s no way. It’s what Bishop agreed to.”

“Fuck. She’s so goddamned stubborn.”

“Join the club,” Declan told him. “Is that all you needed to know?”

“Guess so. Fuck, I can’t believe she did that.”

“Yeah you can,” Declan told him. “She doesn’t seem to be too upset being here with Bishop, by the way. I’m telling you, your girl’s fine. Really.” Dec tugged Rebel to him, and Rebel didn’t bother to resist. “But I’m more interested in making sure you’re okay.”

He wanted to tell Declan that the only time he was all right lately was when they were together. Instead, he let Declan stroke his hair. He imbibed Declan’s live-for-the-moment attitude and tried to pretend that he wasn’t falling hard for the guy, that he kept coming back when anyone in their right mind would stay away.

There was nothing stopping Declan from telling Defiance about Rebel. Rebel figured Caspar would be way more pissed about the fact that Rebel was fucking a Keller guy versus the fact that Rebel was fucking a guy.

“You’re thinking too hard,” Declan told him.

Rebel sighed. “Can’t help it.”

“It’s not that complicated. Just go with it.”

“What the fuck do you think I’ve been doing?”

“White knuckling it.”

“I owe her everything, Dec.”

“I know. Which is why she’ll be fine. Whatever I have to do, all right?”

“You don’t have that kind of power.”

Declan smiled a little. “You gotta trust me, Reb. Otherwise, this is just fucking. And that’s cool—and I’ll keep checking on your friends, but I’ll tell you to go fuck someone else. I can’t get much deeper into this...and we’ve gotten in pretty deep, pretty quickly.”

Declan told the truth. It might not have counted pre-Chaos but now? It was a hell of a commitment. “It’s not, Dec. Wish it was. Would make everything a hell of a lot easier.”

“Nothing good is ever easy.”

“You get that off a fortune cookie?” Rebel teased him and Declan shot him the finger before sliding a hand around the back of Rebel’s neck and tugging him close.

“I trust you enough for both of us. At least for now,” Declan told him.

Declan’s hand twined in his hair, palmed his cock. If Rebel asked, he’d strip and let Rebel have his way. And Rebel would ask, especially after Declan’s mouth landed on his with a hard, demanding kiss. Because as much as Declan would let him take, the man was always demanding.

“Can you stay?”

“Thought you had jobs tonight.”

“Then why’d you come?” Declan asked and Rebel shrugged. “Yeah. I pushed them later for you.”

Declan smiled, and Rebel’s stomach flipped.

“Tallying my favors?” Rebel asked.

“Hell yeah,” was Declan’s response before he let Rebel push him back onto the bed. “And I’m collecting tonight.”