Caspar said, “Yeah, I do.”
What about Keller?
“If we don’t move fast, he’ll get to the VP before us, tell him she’s alive,” Caspar reasoned. “If we don’t give her to her family, we give her to Keller.”
You’ve got to be kidding me with that shit. I flung Bish’s hand off my shoulder as I spoke.
“Not.” Caspar’s eyes were pure ice. “Want you and Bish here. You’re family. You saved Jessa and I get why you did it. But now we’ve gotta figure out what’s best for Defiance.”
“And if we give her to her parents, Keller’ll still be pissed,” Bish said.
“Not if he gets the reward,” Caspar offered. “Everyone wins.”
I don’t.
Caspar stared at me steadily. “She told Tru she’s not sure about staying here. Not sure about anything.”
She doesn’t know what she wants.
“Do you?” Caspar shot back.
I know I can’t let her go back, for her own good. Whether she wants to be with me or not is entirely up to her.
Behind me, Bish sighed, but I had to speak the truth. He said, “We’ll leave Defiance with her, if that helps.”
Which it wouldn’t, because of Keller. If we released Charlie, it would mean death for Defiance. We’d have to run. It was all or nothing with the war on Keller.
Giving in to Keller now is only a Band-Aid, I told Caspar. You think he’s not going to try this bullshit again?
Caspar considered that, then said, “It’s not the perfect solution, but you’re asking me to risk Defiance for a woman who might not be loyal to us. And for two men who haven’t made up their minds about the MC either.”
That was a blow, one we deserved. I couldn’t argue. You didn’t come into Defiance to save someone else. We’d given a lot to Caspar and we’d never been disloyal. Because of that, we were still standing here in one piece.
Bish ran a hand through his hair and stared at Caspar. “Agreeing now wouldn’t mean a damned thing.”
“Which is why I didn’t bother asking.”
For a long moment, the weight of what we’d learned tonight settled over us.
There was this one guy Bish and I met in the military who swore the Chaos was God’s way of punishing us for our sins—specifically, reality TV and the internet. I never bothered arguing with him, because when someone believed something that strongly, I think you should let them.
That’s not to say that the Chaos didn’t completely suck. I think the worst part of it is the not knowing. Not knowing exactly what was happening in the rest of the world; not knowing when the next storm would hit. Even if the sun came out, would that stabilize the environment enough?
And now, we’d learned that the satellite most likely could’ve come out more often, that the government had been working against the people who were only trying to survive. The people who trusted them.
Of course, conspiracy theories to that effect had abounded, especially in the MC world.
“Lot of guys around here gonna realize how right they were.” Caspar’s words held an anger to them he wouldn’t show to the majority of Defiance. But to me and Bish, there was no reason to hide it. Rebel and Hammer were there too and they both sat quietly, with Rebel shaking his head and Hammer looking disgusted.
“It’s not like we weren’t prepared for anything,” Rebel said finally. “But the rest of the world isn’t. And fuck me, no one should have that much power that they can select whole groups of people to live and die.”
Hammer got up and stared out the window. The stress of the past months, coupled with what had happened to Aimee, had really begun to show. He’d been short-tempered, with everyone but her. It seemed like the better she got, the more he fell apart.
Bish clapped him on the shoulder and Hammer’s tension seemed to ease a little. He asked, “How are we going to let the others know?”
“Don’t know if we should. Not sure what the hell it would change. Gonna cause panic we don’t need. Like Reb said, we’re prepared for anything.”
The thought of being forced underground for the majority of the time though... What if they find a way to fuck with the tubes?
Caspar stared at me for a long second, and then he smiled. How I’d missed it was beyond me, and I could only blame the fact that he’d kept me and Bish busy enough that we would, but it was clear as fucking day now.
He’d been building another compound somewhere. He’d been disappearing for weeks at a time for years now. Rumors were that he’d been out fighting or whoring or on jobs for Lance, and Lance had let him go. Which meant... Did Lance know?
“He did. Agreed with it. Might be the only thing we ever agreed on.”
“So we’ve got an out,” Bish said.
Reb smiled and shook a finger at Caspar. “Tricky fucking bastard—glad you’re on my side.”
Caspar smiled—Reb was probably the only one who could call Caspar a bastard and get away with it in one piece.
“There’s a lot more to this than uprooting the entire compound,” Hammer pointed out and Caspar acknowledged that with a nod.
“What do you think we should do then?” Caspar asked. It wasn’t a challenge—not really. But in some ways, it was a way to force Hammer to step up.
And he did. “Defiance has never run. We stay and we fight.”
“We don’t know what we’re fighting,” Reb pointed out. “Could be bombs. Or lack of sun.”
“Or it could be an army of men sent to take us out,” Hammer said evenly. “Maybe we should find out before we think about cutting and running.”
Caspar was silent for a long moment, an icy look settling over his face. Then he held his hand out to Hammer and said, “Welcome back,” when Hammer shook it. Then he said, “Got a source on some of this. I’ll confirm when I can.”
“Think it’s Kian?” Bish asked me later over take-out burgers on the hill overlooking the compound. His rifle was slung carelessly behind him, the burger loaded with everything he could possibly fit on it and still bite into it.
I chewed my own burger for a few minutes before shaking my head. Caspar would’ve said it if it was.
“Don’t know about that. Icy bastard still plays it close to the vest.”
It wasn’t a defamation—Caspar had to, for his own survival and security. Being president of an MC was a lot of moving chess pieces on the board—and he knew he was the most important piece of all. He always needed to be in play, always looking over his shoulder.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Watching the world wake up from history
Jessa
I knew the next twenty-four hours would make my head spin. I paced inside the guesthouse, wondering when and how I’d run. Wondering how easy it would be for Keller to come for me.
Wondering how close the Secret Service might be to Defiance. If they were even coming.
A knock on the door made me jump. I went to it, uneasy, prepared not to open it until a familiar voice called in.
It was Tru. I let her in and she closed the door quickly behind her.
“Everything’s okay. The guys are just meeting.”
“What about Keller?”
“He’s not on the compound anymore. He left almost immediately.”
So Mathias had told the truth about that. I let out a sigh of relief. “I still can’t believe he was let in here.”
“It’s a calculated risk.”
“I don’t understand your world, Tru. I’m not you.”