He smiled and shook his head. “No, but that explains the line of bike helmets back on the pew.” He nodded to the back of the room, and she giggled again. God, the sound of her laughter was magical.
“So, can I maybe give you directions to another church in the area?” she asked. “I just got into town myself, but I’m betting that Google can help us find a place for you.” She held up her phone and shook it in the air, as though it had all the answers that he was looking for.
“That would be great,” he said. “My phone died a few states back, and I need to pick up a new charger. I’m looking for something close, and preferably Catholic, but it’s not a deal breaker if it’s not.”
“Well, I didn’t have you pegged as a Catholic boy,” she teased.
“I don’t know if I’d call myself that either, but I was raised in a Catholic church by my grandfather. I was hoping to light a candle for him today. It’s been a year since he passed, and I just wanted to remember him.” Tank wasn’t sure why he was telling a complete stranger about his upbringing, but here he was, probably boring the poor woman to death.
“That’s incredibly sweet,” she said, covering her hand over her heart. “I’m sorry about your grandfather.”
“Thanks,” Tank said, “he raised me, so I’m sorry that he’s gone too. I’ve been alone ever since, and kind of wandering around the country, trying to find a place.”
“I take it that you haven’t found that place yet?” she asked.
“Not really,” he whispered.
“I know how you feel, but maybe Yonkers will be the right place for you. Maybe it will be the right place for both of us. Who knows?” she said with a shrug. Tank wanted to tell her that he had no plans on sticking around town. He had stopped in New York for a hot meal, hopefully a shower, and to remember his grandpa. Other than that, he knew that he had to keep going. If he didn’t, the demons from his past would catch up with him, and he couldn’t allow that to happen. No, he wasn’t going back, no matter how long he had to run.
“Maybe,” he lied.
“Follow me out to my truck,” Lillith ordered. “I have an extra charger in my glovebox that you can have. Then, I’ll look up an address for a local Catholic church in the area. Lucky for you, there seems to be one on practically every corner of thisborough. I’m sure that you’ll find one you like—you know, if you decide to stick around.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure if staying in Yonkers is in the cards for me,” he admitted. “I kind of like roaming around, you know?” He was lying, but the pretty stranger wouldn’t know that. He hated having to live life on the road. In fact, a part of him longed to be able to settle down, buy a house with the money that his grandpa left him, and maybe even start a family, but that dream ended the night that he stumbled upon a dead body down at the docks. He had gone to work early, not wanting to sit around his grandfather’s big home while it was empty. The home that he had once loved as a kid now felt foreign to him without his grandpa there. He decided to eat his dinner before clocking in, and it was such a nice night that he sat on the docks and had a makeshift picnic.
That was when he heard the three gunshots. He dropped his sandwich and ran around the corner of the building to find the body of a man lying in the alleyway. Two men stood at the top of the road, staring him down until sirens filled the night, and they took off. He had no clue that he had just witnessed two cold-blooded murders—but he had. What was worse was that the body he stumbled upon was that of a senator, and the men who killed him wanted to tie up loose ends—namely, him.
He never clocked into work that night for fear that they’d come looking for him. Before the cops showed up, he had gathered his picnic dinner and took off for his truck, not bothering to wait around. He didn’t want to be involved in that mess any more than he already was. His grandpa had taught him to keep his nose out of other people’s business, and he was sure that rule applied to what he had just seen. He just didn’t count on anyone figuring out who he was—but they had. The men who murdered the Senator were part of a crime family with resources that stretched far and wide. They were able to get enoughinformation on him to track him down to his grandfather’s house. But they found it empty, and last he heard, they torched the place. He lost everything—his grandfather, the home he grew up in, and his old life. They were all gone, and now, he just needed to stay one step ahead of the men who were searching for him. That meant being smart and living on the road.
Lillith held out her hand to him, “Give me your phone,” she ordered. He pulled his cell from his pocket and looked it over, trying to decide if he could trust her or not. “Don’t be a baby. I just want to make sure that this charger works, and I’ll program in the addresses of the two closest churches.” She snapped her fingers at him when he didn’t immediately comply, and he couldn’t help his smile. Lillith was just the type of woman that he’d usually go for, but getting involved with any woman right now wouldn’t be fair. He’d be putting her in danger, and he already liked Lillith enough to know that wasn’t an option.
She entered the information into his phone and handed it back to him. “I put my contact information in there, too, in case you decide to stick around town for a little while. I know we just met, but I like you, Tank. I’d hate to see you not give New York a fair shake.”
She turned and walked back into the old church, and all Tank could do was watch her leave. It was for the best, really, because not even a dark-haired raven like Lillith could help him forget the trouble that was always knocking at his back door.
No, letting her walk away was for the best, no matter how badly he wanted to follow her back into that building; she wasn’t for him. The sooner he accepted that, the easier leaving town was going to be.
LILLITH
Lillith stood just inside the doorway of the old church with her hand still wrapped around the edge of the wood as though it might steady her, but it didn’t. Outside, she could hear the low rumble of engines fading into the distance, mixed with the scrape of tools being unloaded and the easy laughter of women who clearly belonged here. Inside, the air still smelled like dust and something older—like secrets soaked into the walls. And somehow, she’d just walked into the middle of it all.
“Hey,” Ember called. Lillith startled, turning to find her sister watching her from across the room. Her sister—God, that still felt unreal. Ember had her arms crossed, and her expression was unreadable, but that probably had everything to do with the fact that Lillith really didn’t know her sister or how to read her yet.
“You okay?” Ember asked.
Lillith let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Yeah, I’m just taking it all in, I guess.”
Ember nodded slowly, like she understood more than Lillith had said out loud. “It’s a lot.”
“That’s one way to put it.” Lillith huffed out a soft laugh, rubbing her hands down the front of her jeans. “Yesterday I was dodging my landlord and getting my ass grabbed for five bucks. Today I’ve got a sister who runs a biker club, and—” she gestured vaguely toward the door, “Whatever that was.”
Ember’s lips twitched. “He said his name was Tank, right? Don’t worry about him. People come in here all the time thinking that we’re really a church. I guess that most are surprised to find out that we’re a biker club. You two seemed to hit it off, though.”
“Yeah, I got that part.” Lillith tried for casual and failed. Miserably. “He seemed nice, but I wouldn’t say that we hit it off.”
“Nice doesn’t usually wander into the wrong building looking for a church,” Ember said dryly. “Guys like him are usually running from something, in my experience.” Something in the way she said it made Lillith’s stomach tighten. She had known guys like Tank, too. Hell, she had even dated a few of them, and that never ended well for her.
“Yeah,” she murmured, her mind flashing back to the way his voice had gone quiet when he talked about his grandfather. The sadness there hadn’t been fake. Neither had the tension in his shoulders, nor the way his eyes had scanned the room like he expected trouble to follow him through the door. She was sure that he was running from something or someone. Lillith knew that because she was usually running from something, and this time was no exception.
