Keller stared at him, nostrils flared for a second before making a motion with his hand. Slowly, grudgingly, the LoV retreated to just outside the gates, but still within listening distance.
“I mean, outside the main gates,” Caspar growled.
“That’s as far as they go,” Keller told him, and before Caspar could say anything more, he continued, “You think over my proposal?”
“No,” Caspar said bluntly.
“My son Victor was coming to visit you.”
“Been underground. Haven’t been taking many visitors.”
“We lost three supply trucks in this storm.”
Caspar shrugged. “How’s that my issue?”
“You know exactly why, Caspar. I couldn’t fit them into the tubes I have and they were full of enough goddamned supplies to keep a compound like this running for a month. You could grow your own food and pretend that’s going to be enough, but we both know you’re fooling yourself. You’re running this place into the ground. No one’s going to stand behind you. It doesn’t matter who your father was.”
“Don’t care much for lectures.”
Keller took a step forward. Caspar stayed where he was, an almost amused smile on his face, while Reb moved forward. Keller eyed him, then brought his gaze back to Caspar. “Don’t push me.”
“We’ll keep the deal we’ve always had. Tubes for food and gas for your enterprises. Not the LoV. We’re not your personal bitch.”
“That deal is over. Lance and Roan promised a cut.”
“Lance and Roan are dead. Keep that in mind.”
And with those rumbled words, a war was truly born. I thought about Jessa, close enough to hear this, and I wondered if trusting her was the worst thing I could do.
It didn’t matter. I already did.
The upshot was, Keller wanted the tubes for free—wanted them for his LoV bodyguards too. Normally, this all worked on trade but Keller wanted too much...and they wanted Defiance to either pay or cut them in on the tube business. Lance and Roan had been prepared to allow this for a onetime payout, which was not only stupid, but incredibly shortsighted as well.
“Cut ties with the LoV and you’ve got a deal,” Caspar told Keller, knowing full well Keller would refuse, because the LoV was his main supplier of girls for the trafficking business.
Keller shook his head at Caspar, almost sadly, but Caspar just smiled and said, “Then we’re done here. Take that trash with you when you go.”
Keller’s face hardened. “You’re making a huge mistake, Caspar.”
Caspar took a step toward him and growled, “Don’t ever tell me what I’m doin’, Keller. That’s a mistake you’ll only make once.”
Keller wisely backed away, as did his men, but it didn’t mean that we’d won. Still, until Keller realized that Victor was gone, along with his spoils, it’d be business as usual. The LoV would try to fuck with us as often as possible, Keller would short Defiance food and gas, the way he’d been for months.
I assumed that the main twelve of Defiance, the men who made the bylaws, who sat at the table, all knew what Bish and I had done. But the only one who came over to me was Caspar. He motioned for Bish to walk away too and I caught Bish’s eye, letting him know it was all right.
I knew it would come to this. Part of me wanted to walk away and let Jessa out of the trunk. The other part knew I needed to hear whatever the fuck the leader of Defiance would tell me.
What now?
“You tell me, Mathias. I’m supposed to risk Defiance for an outsider?”
You mean three outsiders. ’Cause I don’t count that asshole Charlie—you can do whatever the fuck you want to him.
“Don’t go there,” Caspar warned.
I’ll take her out of here. Take the burden off you.
“Can’t let you do that now. She’s a bargaining chip.”
My hands fisted at his words, the old anger rushing up fast and furious. Caspar glanced between my fists and my face and jutted his chin, acknowledging that it would be a hell of a fight between us.
“So now I know how you feel,” was all he said.
That matters to you?
Instead of answering directly, he told me, “Find out everything you can about what she knows. For all our sakes. Find a reason for me not to turn her over to Keller to save the rest of this club.”
With that, he walked away, but his words echoed in my ears, burned hotter than the brand I’d endured to pledge my loyalty to him.
For a second, I was back in a different time and place, hearing different words...but the meaning behind them was exactly the same.
Find me a reason to let him stay with your family, sir. Because if he won’t admit to anything, there’s nothing I can do to help him.
I shook that off, went to the van and unlocked the trunk. I helped her out and she looked shaken, but she still gripped my hand and said, “Thank you.”
Chapter Nine
I was up before the dawn
Jessa
It had been hard to believe that only a day and a half had passed since Mathias and Bishop grabbed me, but the visit from those men who’d kidnapped me, who wanted to buy and sell me, brought it all back in vivid detail. Shaken, I’d waited for the inevitable. Because everything had changed again, and the issue of who I was exactly was brought into sharper focus.
I was easily used, as was Charlie. And I was painfully aware of that fact.
Mathias looked as shaken as I felt when he helped me out of the old trunk. I grabbed him and he stiffened with surprise, like he knew I’d caught wind of some unnamed moment of weakness. But then his arms wound around me, and he buried his face in my hair and I wanted to run with him, to a place where I wasn’t the vice president’s daughter and wanted by some very bad men.
He pulled away and grabbed for the alphasmart. Not worried about Keller or those assholes. It’s just...something else. Signs.
“Will you tell me?”
He shook his head, but there was a hesitance there. I was going to push, but a couple caught my eye. A man with hair so blond it was almost white, and icy blue eyes that cut through me from across the room. A scar bisected his cheek, deforming his mouth and eye slightly. I wanted to hide my face from him, but I didn’t. After a moment, he looked to the blonde woman at his side and his entire countenance changed. Still fierce—protective—but the look on his face when he looked at her...
What was it like to finally have someone who understood you?
I looked back up to Mathias and realized I already had that answer. All I could say to him was, “I believe in signs.”
He looked pained and pleased at the same time. I wanted to tell him more, but then Bishop came toward the van. I’m not sure from where, but he definitely moved like a ghost. I caught sight of him only when he was right next to me. I was sitting in the back of the opened van facing outward, my legs tucked under me when I caught sight of him leaning against the side of the van.
He didn’t say anything—not to me, anyway. Just gave a hand signal to Mathias and the understanding passed easily between them with that barest of communication. And then Mathias signed to him and Bishop signed back, presumably because they were either talking about me, things that concerned me—or things that didn’t concern me at all, reminding me how much of a stranger I was here.
I tried not to concentrate on that painful reality when I heard, “Hey, Jessa, my name’s Tru.” I looked up to see the lithe blonde who’d been with Casper coming across the warehouse floor. She wore jeans and a tank top and she carried a sweatshirt, but I noticed that the warehouse had begun to heat up now that the storm had passed. “I’m Caspar’s old lady. You haven’t met him yet, but he’s the president of Defiance.”