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“We didn’t plan on a detour, babe,” Duke said as I got out. “What’s up?”
“Can’t have a girls’ night without obscene amounts of sugar.”
“I got this,” Savage said, walking with Waverly and Sailor toward the grocery store entrance.
When they were far enough away, I turned to Duke and said, “It’s weird, you know?”
“What is?”
“How the world keeps turning whether or not you’re a part of it. People drive down the road going to work; their lives are completely the same regardless of what happened to you…and then you try to do something normal like go to a grocery store, and for just a moment you forget you were held in the back of a furniture truck bound for Mexico, never to be seen again. Is it okay to forget, Duke? Is it okay to block it out entirely? To pretend like it never happened?”
“You could,” he said. “But you won’t.”
I sighed. “No, I won’t. And if I won’t, then what does that mean for Sailor? She doesn’t have anyone to work through this with. She’s completely alone at sixteen. I care, but I don’t know what todoabout it. I want to help, I want to be more, I want to do more, but what?”
“You are helping,” he said. “You’re taking care of your sister. You’re being there for Sailor.”
“It’s only going to get more dangerous, isn’t it? I mean, this thing with the cartel heating up. When it finally goes hot, it’s going to be horrible, isn’t it?”
“That won’t happen for a bit. At least on our end. There are things that need to be discussed, people need to be called, plans made. The cartel knows by now their guys are gone, but it’s going to take them a little while to react. But when they do…fuck, Willa.”
“Is Sailor going to be safer if she distances herself from us?” I asked baldly.
“If I said yes, what does that mean for Waverly? For Silas? Cam? Lily? The babies?” He shook his head. “It’s shit either way. But if she’s with us, we can protect her. She won’t be alone. She won’t be as vulnerable. And there’s another thing…we don’t know if Sailor was watched before they took her and they know who she is, or if it was random based on her appearance and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. With us, at least no one can get to her.”
“I’d never forgive myself if something happened to her.”
“You can’t control everything.”
“But Iwantto.” I sucked in a breath of air. “I know what I voted for. I know I said yes to something horrible. But it’s the only choice Icouldmake… Duke, how much blood is going to be spilled? Really?”
“We can’t know,” he said quietly. “And blood is being spilled anyway. Innocent blood. Blood from people that were born and raised in captivity who don’t even have birth certificates so that when they die no one asks questions because no one even knows they exist.”
“Oh my God, seriously?”
“Seriously. And it’s so much worse.” He took a step closer. “Willa…” He cradled my cheeks in his hands. “There are women who’ve been put into breeding mills like animals. You don’t even want to know what they do with the children born in those conditions. I can’t discuss it all with you, but I will say this: when the club found out about what was really going on we decided we had to do something. The cartel snatching you was the final straw. We can’t wait any longer. The things they’re doing…”
My eyes widened.
“If you knew the true horrors…your entire world would change.”
“Why did you tell me?” I whispered.
“Because you’re strong enough to hear it. Because that’s what we saved you and Sailor from. There’s dark shit in this world, Willa. Maybe I was put on this earth to help get rid of some of it. There’s dark shit, but there’s light too. The Blue Angelsarethat light.”
“I don’t understand…” I said. “Why is the club dealing with this? What about the police? I mean this is insane…what about the military?”
“The things we have to do aren’t even remotely legal. There’s no law enforcement agency in the world that can do what needs doing. Besides, a lot of those guys are already on the cartel’s payroll and the military isn’t allowed to operate on American soil. The club is a tight-knit community. It’s why we put the guys through hell waiting to patch in. By the time someone becomes a brother, we know exactly who they are and what they’re capable of. The club is the only thing that can protect Waco.”
I looked down at the grease-stained asphalt of the parking lot. “I didn’t mean to have this kind of conversation out in the open like this.”
“Doesn’t matter where we have it. It doesn’t change the truth of it. The world isn’t the pretty little lie they’ve sold you.”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re right about that.”
Duke took me into his arms. I buried my face in his shoulder and said, “I’m just one person. Trying to change the world is a heavy endeavor—too much for one person. But I can change Sailor’s world.”
“We,” he corrected. “We can change Sailor’s world.”
