Chapter 17
Austin
Church is called for ten the next morning and we're all in our seats by five past.
Prez stands at the head of the table, looks at us and nobody speaks. When Razor has the look, he has right now, the room knows to wait for him.
"Our friend downstairs has been very helpful," he says. "Thanks to Knuckles' particular skill set."
Knuckles cracks his knuckles. Nobody laughs this time. The context is different this morning.
"What did we get?" Braxton asks.
Prez looks at his VP. "They're regrouping. The hotel raid cost them six men and their VP, because he’s with us, obviously.
They don't have the numbers to come at us hard right now.
But..." He pauses and looks around the table.
"Their Prez is still out there. We don't know where he went after the hotel.
And the VP confirmed they're not walking away from this town.
They want what we run through here. The routes.
The distribution. They've had eyes on us for months. "
"How many months?" Shadow asks.
"Six, at least. Maybe more."
The room absorbs this. Six months of being watched and not knowing it. That's not a comfortable thing for any man in this room to sit with.
"So, they went quiet, built themselves up, came at us through the kids, lost their VP, and now they're going quiet again," Cash says.
He's leaning back with his arms folded, and I know that look, he's already running through the next move.
"We need to hit them before they've finished rebuilding.
Go now while they're weak, not in three months when they've brought in new men. "
"We don't know where they are," Shadow says. "We hit them at the hotel and they scattered. For all we know the Prez is two towns over setting up somewhere new. We go in blind and we hand them the initiative."
"So, we find them first," Cash says. "Braxton and Meg have already pulled CCTV. We've got their bikes on record. Give me forty-eight hours."
"I'll get on the digital side today," Braxton says. "There'll be a trail. There's always a trail."
"What about the town?" Pops says. He says it quietly and it cuts through everything else.
"While we're talking about going after them, they're still out there.
Jules is at the bakery. Rosie's on shift.
Shadow's old lady opened the florist this morning.
We're sitting here and our people are exposed. "
He's right and everyone knows it.
Knuckles leans forward. "I can go downstairs and ask our friend for more information."
"He's given us what he has," Prez says.
"People always have more," Knuckles says, in a tone that doesn't invite argument.
Prez looks at him for a moment. "Give it an hour."
Knuckles nods and settles back.
"Here's what we're doing." Prez puts his hands flat on the table.
"No full lockdown. Last time we locked the women down it caused more disruption than it prevented and we tipped our hand.
What we do instead is this. Every brother in this room carries everywhere, all the time, until this is resolved.
No brother rides solo outside the compound.
The old ladies know not to be out alone.
Nothing gets flagged as an emergency, we don't want to panic, but everyone is switched on. "
"And the kids?" I ask.
"Kids stay on the compound after school until we've got eyes on the Prez." He looks at me. "I know. It's an ask. It's necessary."
"EJ's not going to argue," I say. "Not after what happened to him the last time he went out."
"No," Prez says. "I imagine he won't."
Pops is still looking at the table. "The bakery."
"Jules knows. I spoke to her this morning.
" Prez holds his eyes. "She's not happy about it.
But she knows. The rule is she doesn't open before nine and she doesn't close after five and she doesn't walk between the bakery and the car alone.
We've got a prospect doing the main street rotation from today. "
Pops nods. That's enough for now.
"Cash. Ramsey. Town this afternoon, eyes open. Anything that doesn't belong, you call it in."
Cash uncrosses his arms. "And if we find them while we're out?"
"You call it in," Prez says. "You don't go in without the full table behind you. We're not doing this piecemeal."
Cash looks at Ramsey. Ramsey looks at Cash. Whatever passes between them in that half second is between them only. Then Cash nods.
He looks around the table one more time. "We stay ahead of this. We find out where they went and we finish it. They hurt one of our kids. That doesn't get left open."
No one argues.
"Sprog, I want you at Ruby's. She had them in for coffee before they left, she may have picked up more than she's told us. And use the opportunity." He almost smiles. "I'm told you have some personal news she's been waiting to hear."
Cash grins at me across the table. I give him the finger.
"Dismissed," Prez says, and the room moves.
Ruby spots me through the window before I've even pushed the door open and she has the expression of a woman who has been waiting for exactly this.
"Just the man I was looking for," she says, hands on the counter, already satisfied with herself.
"And why would that be?" I sit down at the booth by the window and play the game.
"I saw Savannah on the back of your bike this morning." She leans on the counter. "The last time I saw her she was walking to the bar with that friend of hers. The male one. Now she's on your bike."
"Sit down, Ruby. And bring the coffee."
She laughs and does exactly that, two cups and a slice of pie in front of me before she's settled.
"You first," she says.
"Sav's back in my life. I'm not letting her go a second time and she seems to feel the same way. She's at the house with EJ right now and they get on like a house on fire." I take a forkful of pie and look at her over it. "Your turn."
Ruby is smiling the smile of a woman who has been waiting to be proved right about something for a very long time. "I always knew you two were meant for each other. It just took a bit of time apart to get you both there."
"Ruby."
"Alright, alright." She picks up her coffee. "After the business at the hotel, they came through here early yesterday morning. Four of them, including one I hadn't seen before. They got coffee to go. I was in the back, but I could hear them at the counter."
"And?"
"They were talking quietly but I caught bits. Something about a delay. Something about more men coming down from the north at the end of the month. And one of them said they weren't done with this town, said it very specifically." She looks at me steadily. "I don't like the sound of that, Austin."
"End of the month," I say.
"That's what I heard. Could be wrong, I was in the back, wasn't catching everything.
But I'm fairly confident about that part.
" She taps the counter. "You be careful, Austin.
Whatever happened at that hotel the other night, I don't need to know about it.
But those men are not good people, and I don't want anyone in this town getting hurt. "
"Nobody's getting hurt, Ruby."
"You got shot."
"I've had worse."
She gives me the look my mother used to give me when I said something she found insufficient. "That isn’t the reassurance you think it is."
I laugh. "I'll be careful. We'll all be careful. That's a promise."
She stands and tops up my coffee without being asked. "Now. Tell me about Savannah. What does EJ think of her?"
I smile and let her have the rest of the conversation. She's earned it. We talk about Sav and EJ and the compound. Ruby tells me she always knew, which I don't doubt. When I stand to go, she hands me two slices of pie wrapped in napkins and tells me to look after both of them, which I intend to.
I text Prez with what Ruby told me. At the end of the month, men coming from the north, regrouping. Prez sends back a single word: noted. That means it's going into the plan.
I ride back up to the house, ready to see my family again.
I hand out the pie and pull up a chair next to Sav and put my arm around her. EJ sits across from us and eats his pie The afternoon carries on with EJ and Savannah, easy and warm. I keep looking at them, smiling, happy, together, and I don't want to have the conversation I need to have with Sav.
But I need to have it.
EJ goes to bed at eight, worn out from the day, and I read him half a story before he's gone. I come back downstairs and Sav is in the kitchen washing up the dinner dishes, which she didn't have to do. She looks up when I come in.
"Hey," she says. "Good day?"
"Yeah." I pull out a chair at the table. "Come and sit with me for a minute."
She dries her hands, comes over and sits down to look at me. She knows by my face that this isn't nothing.
"I need to tell you something," I say. "I'm not going to tell you the details because club business stays in church. But I need you to know enough to keep yourself safe."
She waits. She doesn't rush me and she doesn't fill the silence. I love that about her.
"The men who shot EJ. They're not gone. They went quiet after we raided them, but they'll regroup and come back.
That's confirmed now. We're working on finding them before they can rebuild properly, and we will.
But right now, there's a window where they're out there and we don't have eyes on them yet. "
Sav sits with this. No panic. No immediate questions to manage her own feelings. She just takes it in, and I watch her do it.
"How long is the window?"
"Few weeks. Maybe a bit less."
"And in those weeks, they could come back?"
"It's possible. Less likely than it will be once they've rebuilt. But it's possible."
"What do you need from me?"
The question is so clean. No drama around it, just straight to the practical thing, and it's one of the reasons she's the person she is.
"You go to your surgery in town to work.
You're out of the compound. I need you paying attention.
Bikes you don't recognize parked nearby.
Someone watching the building from across the street.
Anyone who comes through the door and gives you a feeling you can't explain.
You trust that feeling. And you call me before you call anyone else. "
She nods. "Okay. What do I do if something happens and I can't call first? If someone's already inside?"
I reach into my jacket and put my phone on the table. "I've already got my number in Millie's phone. I'm putting a shortcut on yours too. One press, no unlocking, nothing. Just press it and I'm on my bike."
I take her phone to set it up and hand it back. She looks at it.
"How long?"
"Four minutes from the compound gate. Less if I'm not careful about the speed limit."
She turns the phone over in her hands. "Is this what it's always like? There's always something like this in the background?"
I think about how to answer that honestly. I owe her that.
"There's always something in the background," I say.
"Most of the time it's quiet and it stays there.
This is louder than usual because it's fresh and because they went after a child, which means we're not letting it go without a proper answer.
But yeah. There's always something." I hold her eyes.
"If that's not something you can live with, I need to know that now.
I'd rather hear it now than lose you to it later. "
She's quiet. I let her be quiet.
"I'm a doctor," she says finally. "Something is always happening. Someone is always in the worst moment of their life and I'm the person standing between them and it getting worse. That's my whole job." She looks at me. "What I'm not used to is having someone four minutes away."
Something in my chest loosens.
"You've got that now."
"I know." She reaches across the table and takes my hand. "Tell me what I need to know. Not the club business. Just the things that keep us safe. Me and EJ."
The way she said that. Me and EJ. Like it's already a category. Like he's already hers to protect.
I look at her sitting at my kitchen table with her hand around mine, ready to take what comes, asking for the information she needs without flinching from it.
I've loved this woman my whole adult life. I've known it in the abstract for ten years. But this moment, this specific moment, is the one where I know it the way you know the ground under your feet. Certain. Permanent. Not going anywhere.
She fits here.
I tell her what she needs to know. She listens and asks one more question. I answer that too and then we sit there for a while in the quiet kitchen. At some point she puts her head on my shoulder, and I put my arm around her. Neither of us says anything.
We'll be ready.
We're always ready.