29. Sara
SARA
I spent the better part of two hours making sure Mom was on track to pick up where I left off in a month's time.
Bills were paid, salary reports updated with our API to make sure everyone was paid on time, and as long as we had no catastrophes things would run themselves and give Mom a while to relax.
If she needed more time, I could talk Amber through things over the phone.
I just knew I had to get out of town.
After hearing about the fire—and smelling it for days now—I knew Tony would plan some huge retaliation.
He spent forty-eight hours in county lock up while the arson investigators taped off the Anvil property and chased looters away multiple times.
The whole place reeked, which drew in some predators and scared off other wildlife, but the scary part wasn't the animals.
It was whatever chaos would unfold when the Gravehounds decided to move.
I'd told Mom the Griddle was shut down for a week minimum, and that she wasn't to go to work for a month.
I hoped that would give them time to cool off.
But shouting carried through the office window while I worked on the week's receipts.
I knew right away that it was Tony's voice.
I'd heard a few bikes and figured they were out there cleaning stuff up, but I hadn't gotten up to look because after not hearing from Garret for a few days, I knew if I saw him I'd break down crying.
I pushed the chair back though, curious to see what the angry voices were about, and looked out the window.
Bikers were gathering at the burned-out Anvil, milling around while Tony stood on an old charred crate and had his fist in the air as he shouted.
I cracked the window so I could hear him clearly.
"Every last one of them!" He stomped on the rickety crate and pointed in the general direction of Locust territory. "This ain't no shakedown, and we ain't sending a message. This is revenge. We ride tonight and end this. Every Locust who had a hand in burning our home to the ground dies tonight."
It made dread curl in my stomach. The men were shouting back, feeding off his energy.
It was like watching a high school pep rally on steroids, except these weren't football players.
They were grown men with guns and tempers and it was dangerous.
Tony would get some of them killed and they didn't even care.
Garret was in that crowd somewhere, listening to Tony call for blood, and if they rode tonight, there was a real chance he wouldn't come back. Men died in wars between clubs. It happened all the time, and Tony was pushing for exactly that.
I shook my head and pressed my eyes closed as he continued screaming and chanting, riling them up.
Not one of those men realized the only reason they were fighting the Locusts at all was because of Tony, and now he wanted them to shed blood.
It didn't make sense at all. All of this to cover up the fact that he killed a woman?
He could've let it die down and no one would've remembered a thing.
But maybe it was his own guilt making him stir stuff up. He couldn't live at peace because peace was boring and it gave him too much time to sit and think about what he'd done.
Well, I had been silent for long enough.
It was easy to stay afraid when I lived hundreds of miles away and didn't know what was happening. I couldn’t stand by watching Tony lead these men into a fight where some of them would die or end up killing someone and going to prison.
I'd seen how angry Garret got—mad enough to hurt me if he wanted to.
His temper would get him in trouble, and if he survived, there was a good chance he'd kill someone. I couldn’t let that happen.
I shut the window and powered the computer down, then walked out the back door of the diner and into the sun.
Not one of those guys noticed that I walked up to them and started weaving through, searching for Garret among them.
He was near the back of the crowd, standing with Butch and Rusty, his arms crossed and his jaw tight.
When he saw me coming, he rolled his eyes and he turned away.
"Garret," I said anxiously. "Please."
"Go home, Sara." He refused to look at me, but I pulled on his arm. Rusty snorted at me and Butch walked away. Maybe he had told them, or maybe this was part of the unrest and they had a chip on their shoulders.
"I can't. You have to listen to me." My anxiety was building. I could feel Tony’s eyes burning into my back as someone else took over the shouting.
I should've called the sheriff to be here for this, because I knew I couldn't keep Tony's secret anymore.
Garret had to know what he was walking into and what Tony had done.
"Look, can you go away? We're sort of in the middle of stuff." He gritted his teeth, and I winced at how harshly he was speaking to me. But I knew he was hurting and I couldn’t hold it against him. But I also couldn’t walk away now.
"I love you," I said loudly, just as there was a slight pause in the noise around us. Butch looked over and I watched Garret's shoulders drop an inch. "I love you and I don't want you to get killed tonight over something that isn't true."
Garret finally turned toward me with a look that could kill. He grabbed my bicep like he was going to drag me away from the crowd, but this had to be done publicly, right now.
So I spat, "Tony killed Mandy."
Garret froze mid stride and I watched Butch and Rusty turn in my periphery, like they were suddenly interested in me more than the chanting. Garret looked confused as he glanced up at Tony, but the scowl stayed locked on his face like a permanent part of his physique now.
"I saw it happen," I whimpered, and my voice was shaking so hard, I barely got the words out. "I swear, Garret. I watched him choking her, and he saw me. He came after me."
His face softened into understanding as he let go of my arm and backed away like he'd been burned, but I didn't stop. I had his attention. It had to be now.
"That's why I ran, Garret. Tony threatened to murder my family if I said a word, and I was terrified." Tears were running down my face and I couldn't stop them. "I found out about Kip a few months later, but what was I supposed to do? Let Tony kill him too?"
"Sara—"
"You can't listen to him… They didn't kill Mandy and he's gonna get you all killed."
Garret's nostrils flared and I watched his fingers curl into fists. Then his jaw worked again, upper lip rising almost as if he would bare his teeth like a dog. Butch took a step back like Garret was going to explode, and I kept talking because I had to get it all out.
"I'm sorry I kept Kip from you. I'm sorry I lied.
I was wrong, and I've known I was wrong every single day for three years.
" I reached up and grabbed his cut with both hands.
"If you hate me for it I understand. But please don't ride tonight.
Please don't let him send you out there to die for something he did. "
His hand closed around my arm so hard it hurt, and I winced. "Hey, ow," I whined, and he loosened his hold but didn't let go. Then he turned without a word and started walking toward the front of the crowd, pulling me alongside him.
"Garret, what are you doing?" Butch followed along like a nagging puppy, biting at his heels, but Garret didn't answer.
I had to scramble to keep up with him as he focused right on the crate where Tony had been standing and beyond it. He had tunnel vision, and I had a racing heart. I thought I would pee myself again.
"Garret." My voice was barely a whisper now and terror was crawling up my spine because Tony was thirty feet away and closing fast. "Garret, please tell me what you're doing."