Page 24 of Ember
“I take it that you haven’t found that place yet?” she asked.
“Not really,” he whispered.
“Well, maybe Yonkers will be the right place for you. 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 bike,” Lillith ordered. “I left my phone in my saddle bag and need to grab it anyway to give you an address for the local Catholic church. Lucky for you, there is one on practically every corner of this borough. 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 dreamended 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 enough information 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 itover, trying to decide if he could trust her or not. “Don’t be a baby. I just want to 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 (Royal Harlots MC: Yonkers, NY Chapter Book 2) Universal Link-> Coming soon!
What’s coming next from K.L. Ramsey? You won’t want to miss Rebel (Royal Harlots MC Huntsville Chapter). It’s coming in September 2025!
Rebel
Rebel Harris wasn’t sure how she had gotten herself into the latest mess that she was in, but sitting behind bars really drove home the fact that she had royally fucked up. She was in town to visit her little brother, and she almost made it to the bar that he told her about in his last text message. That was almost ten days ago, and her brother never went radio silent for that long—especially with her. It was just the two of them since their mom died three years prior, and she needed to find him. Not just because she had promised her mother that she’d take care of Jace, but because she couldn’t imagine not having him in her life. Rebel worried the worst had happened to him, and that’s why she was currently sitting in jail with no bail available until her court appearance in the morning.
She didn’t mean to be going forty-eight over the speed limit through town, but she was. Sure, she had always had a led foot, but her anxiety over Jace had taken over her common sense and apparently her ability to find the brake pedal. At first, she thought that she’d be able to outrun the cop who was tailing her with his lights flashing in her rearview, but that turned out to be one of her biggest mistakes. She didn’t outrun him in her crappylittle car, and all she accomplished was pissing Officer Moody off enough to put her in cuffs and toss her into a jail cell for the night.
Rebel used her one phone call to text her brother again, telling him about landing herself in jail, and if he got the message, to please help her out of this jam. She really didn’t know why she had bothered to send the text since Jace hadn’t responded to any of her messages in ten days now, but she just couldn’t give up hope that he was alive and well somewhere and just ignoring her. It wouldn’t be the first time that had happened. Rebel had found herself in hot water a lot over the years, always leaning on her little brother to bail her out of trouble. Maybe he was finally sick of her bullshit—or maybe he was in trouble this time and she wouldn’t be able to help him while sitting in a jail cell. The only good thing she had done was to keep Jace in the dark about why she was there each time that he bailed her out.
After her mother passed, and Rebel agreed to take care of her little brother, she realized that she had to be able to work to put food on the table and clothes on the growing boy’s back. She was only eighteen, but old enough to be Jace’s legal guardian. So, she quit high school during her senior year and started looking for full-time work, but no one wanted to hire her to work between the hours of eight in the morning and four in the afternoon, while Jace was in school. She knew that she’d never be able to afford a sitter, especially while earning the minimum wage. That was when Rebel decided to answer an ad for a local strip club. She got the job and went home every night feeling dirty, but she could afford a babysitter for Jace and all the rest of the things that he’d need to grow up. When things started getting tight with their finances, she had to make some hard and fast choices. That was when she began accepting the offers that came in nightly for men she danced for. She’d make them get a hotel room and meetthem after her shift. Rebel gave them an hour of her time, and they paid her one hundred dollars in cash. After some time, she had a few regulars set up, and going home to her innocent little brother became harder and harder.
As Jace got older, she worried that sooner or later, he’d figure out her secret, but she was able to keep him in the dark until he graduated from high school and moved out to go to college. He had gotten enough money in scholarships that he was able to pay for his schooling. He’d come home once in a while, but for the most part, she was on her own. She kept her job, but meeting Johns in a hotel room was a thing of her past. Rebel found a way to stop dancing, and when she found a decent job at a little clothing boutique downtown, she felt like things were finally going her way—until Jace went radio silent for ten days.
The cop who booked her walked back to the holding cell she was in and unlocked it. “I guess it’s your lucky day. Someone is here to bail you out, so you won’t be sticking around until morning.”
“Is it my brother?” Rebel asked.
“I have no clue who the guy is. How about you come with me, and you’ll find out soon enough,” the officer said. Rebel stood and followed the officer out of the holding cell. She hoped that Jace was standing on the other side of the door as they walked into the station, but her hope was quickly dashed. She looked around the room, trying to find him, but he wasn’t there.
“So, who bailed me out?” Rebel asked.
“That guy over there,” the officer said, pointing to a big guy standing in the corner of the room. He was casually leaning against the wall as though he had nowhere better to be. He had on a black, form-fitting T-shirt; his arms covered in tattoos, making Rebel wonder what he had underneath his shirt. She was always a sucker for a man with tattoos. The guy had a beard, and she never really cared for them, but on him, it worked.
“Come with me, and we can get you out of here,” the officer ordered. She wanted to protest and tell him that she needed to know who was bailing her out, but doing so might land her back in the holding cell. Rebel decided that getting out of there was worth having to go with a complete stranger, even if he looked like he could snap her in two if he wanted to.
She followed the officer out to the hallway, where he handed her a plastic bag with her name on it. Her wallet, keys, and a few other items were inside—but her purse was missing. “Where is my purse?” she asked.
“I’ll have to check with the arresting officer, but this was all that was checked in,” the officer said.
“It was brand new. I just got it last week,” she insisted.
“And if it was in your possession when you were arrested, it would have been in that bag,” he said, nodding to the plastic bag still in her hand. She quickly opened it and checked to make sure that everything was still in her wallet. She was relieved to see that everything was there, but it irritated her that her new purse was missing.
