Page 109 of Maple Mountain
He paused for a moment and then he said, “Colt told me that Mia’s father is President of the Coeur d’Alene chapter.”
“Small, small world.”
“Yeah.”He nodded.“I know him.”
“Oh yeah?How?”
He let out a breath.“I met with him a while back.”
“Why?”I asked.When he didn’t reply, my brain made the leap.“Oh.You were thinking of getting back in with the club, weren’t you?”
He rubbed his jaw with his thumb.“Yeah.Maybe.I don’t know.Not anymore, though.”
“Because of Lenni.”
“Because of Lenni,” he agreed.
I opened the dishwasher and began to fill it.“Does Brooks know?About you meeting with?—”
He shook his head.
“Why not?”
“Because he would’ve called me a damned fool,” Archer muttered.“He bought our freedom with his prison sentence.It would’ve been a selfish decision to jump back into that life.”
“Maybe.”
He frowned.“Maybe?Definitely.”
“I don’t know.I mean, I don’t know anything about motorcycle clubs or that kind of brotherhood.But I can’t imagine it’s easy to just walk away.Live a normal life.Kind of reminds me of men who’ve been to war.They’re just supposed to return and fit back into society?How?”I glanced at him.“You miss it.Don’t you?”
“Aspects of it,” he admitted.
“The danger?”I asked.
He cocked his head to the side in affirmation.
“Made you feel alive,” I said quietly.
“Yeah.It did.”
“And now?”I pressed.
“Now, there are more important things than chasing the high of being in a motorcycle club.”
“Like raising a daughter?”
“Like raising a daughter who’s on the verge of being a teenager,” he muttered.“And worrying about her liking boys.And Silas may only be thirteen, but that kid has the gift of gab.Reminds me of me at that age.”
“You were charming all the thirteen-year-old girls in your class, huh?”
“Pretty much.But I’m reformed now.There’s only one woman I want to charm.”
“Ms.Thomas?”
He didn’t reply to my barb.He stood by the sink, holding the salad bowl.“You wanna know what my road name was?”
“What’s a road name?”I asked.
