Page 13 of Shade

“Neither are we,” I said, putting my hand on the small of her back and rubbing it.

She looked up at me for a long moment. Then she let out a breath and some of the color came back into her face.

“Okay,” she said. “Okay. Then I’m going to go make Pete’s coffee drinkable, because somebody has to.”

She went. I stood in that hall and watched her walk away with her shoulders back, and I’d have put her up against any man in that building.

Preacher called church that afternoon.

Everybody was there. Smoke sat at Preacher’s right hand, where he’s sat as VP since before I came to this town, with his chair tipped back and his arms folded. He came in late from a run up north and had only heard about the plane secondhand. He’d heard about Mya too, by the way he looked at me when I sat down.

Deacon went first.

“Talked to Rudy Baca this morning.” Rudy sells used cars in Las Cruces and owes Deacon more favors than he’ll ever pay back. That’s come in damn handy lately. “Harlan’s been flying for the cartel about a year. The guns come in from Texas, he flies them down to that ranch in the Bootheel, and from there they go south over the border.”

“How much did we take off them?” Preacher asked.

Gage had spent the morning in the garage with the crates. “Ninety-six rifles, and ammo for every one of them. Down south that’s a hell of a lot of money. More than Tomas can afford to lose.”

“He’s already lost plenty since he came after this town,” Smoke said. “The road he ran his trucks down. The buildings he hid in. The laundromat he tried to wash his money through. Now an air route and a planeload of guns, and the only witness is sitting in our clubhouse.”

“He can’t let this one go,” Deacon said. “Not and keep his job.”

Gage leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “He won’t come at the compound. He tried that once and it went to hell. He’ll come at us where we’re thin. A brother on his own. A bike on an empty road.”

“So nobody rides alone,” Havoc said. “Great. I’ll start riding with Lock. He’s real chatty.” He laughed.

Lock didn’t even look at him. Lock did time for nearly killing the man who went after his little brother, and he’s never been big on small talk since.

“I’ll take the plane watch tonight,” he said.

“Take a prospect with you,” Preacher said.

Lock grunted, which was as close to yes as Lock gets.

Preacher let the table go quiet. Then he looked right down it at me.

“Shade. How long do you mean to keep her?”

Every head turned.

“As long as it takes,” I said.

Preacher looked at me a while longer and said nothing. Then he brought the gavel down.

Smoke caught me out by the bikes afterward.

He leaned on his seat and watched me check my oil, which didn’t need checking. Smoke and I served in the military together, a long time ago, in a unit neither of us talks about. He’s the only man alive who knows everything I did there. He’s also the only man in this club who can tell me the truth without me smacking him in the mouth.

“Never seen you like this,” he said.

“Like what?”

“Wanting something.” He looked over at the clubhouse door. “She’s going to leave, brother. The minute it’s safe, she’s gone. She’s a pilot. Salvation doesn’t even have much of a need for one of those.”

I wiped the dipstick and put it back.

“You going to ask her not to?” Smoke said.