Red Water Lily

Chapter 5

Everyone was quiet, internally arguing with themselves over the decision that was made. Ryan was the first to break the silence by explaining his decision.

"Jason was kicked out from his clan because of something that isn't his fault. He's hurt and has nowhere to go. Besides, we don't know if Jason will cause us trouble if we let him go. I think those are enough reasons to let him stay." Ryan said as he stood up and looked at the others, waiting for their opinions.

"Sounds good to me and having someone guarding him is probably for the best, for all of us." The man with the blonde hair said as he crossed his arms over his chest. The others seemed to agree while mumbling things to each other. Until one of them stood up from his chair and shifted his glare between Ryan and Lily in disgust.

"Why would you bring him here to start with if you know we can't trust him?"

"Because we help those in need. And Jason here sure looked like he needed help when we found him. We're enough men to take him down if he turns out to be a threat so it wasn't a hard decision to make." Ryan said and glared at the man before he turned his focus back on Lily and continued. "I'm sorry that I forced you to follow us here, but you were injured and close to our territory, so it was my duty to bring you here for interrogation. Maybe you'll feel better if we introduce ourselves. What do you say, care to get to know us?"

Lily knew she'd leave as soon as she had the chance but decided that no harm would be done in getting to know their names and pretending to be interested while waiting for the right time to leave.

Everyone walked up to Lily, some of them simply just said their name and age while the others cared to small talk. After getting introduced to everyone Lily learned that they were not trying to form a clan, they were only a group of six men who saw each other as family.

Ryan was the second oldest, he said he was twenty-six and was seen as a leader, although he did not like being called one. Chad was the big, muscular, blonde guy back at the gas station, he was Ryan's best friend and a year younger than him.

The other one that Lily met at the gas station was Tyler, who was Dales younger brother, which was obvious since they both had brown, curly hair and big brown puppy eyes. Dale was 18 and Tyler was 10 and the only difference between them seemed to be their heights. Tyler was very eager to talk to Lily but was silenced and told to wait when the next guy came and introduced himself.

Freddie was the same age as Dale, they were best friends too. Freddie had light brown hair, green eyes and was the same height as Lily.

The last member of the family was Jack and he seemed to be older than the rest. Lily was sure he was close to forty. His head was shaved, and he had a badly made tattoo on his right hand, Lily guessed it was supposed to be a machete wrapped in thorns, but in her opinion, it looked more like a baguette with a blurry string around it. Ryan was the one introducing him since Jack himself was too pissed off to even try. Everyone was in the dining room, talking about their days, and about Lily of course.

 Lily was listening to Tyler bragging about how great he was at climbing trees when Ryan came and interrupted by grabbing Lily's arm and pulling her away.

"Follow me." Ryan said and took Lily upstairs. When they came upstairs Lily saw a living room filled with blankets, mattresses and pillows.

"This is where everyone sleeps, except me. I sleep in there." Ryan said and pointed towards a door in the left corner. "But I'll let you sleep in my room for now. That way you won't be bothered by us, and it will be easier for us to guard you. Win-win." He smiled with pride as if he did Lily a favor for letting her sleep in his room, which he in one way did since he gave her privacy.