Ouray is waiting outside when I drive up to the clubhouse. I’ve barely stopped and Ahiga is already out of the vehicle, Jack on his heels. Ouray ruffles the boy’s hair when he passes him and disappears into the clubhouse.

  “Move over,” he says stalking up to the driver’s side.

  “Seriously? You can’t even let me drive to my place? It’s five minutes down the road.”

  “Spent almost two weeks being chauffeured around and it was torture. I’m driving.”

  I roll my eyes at the dramatics, but move over anyway. “Where are the guys?” A couple of the brothers had offered to help.

  “At your place moving the big furniture outside.”

  “What? Already? I haven’t even gone through my⁠—”

  “Sprite,” he cuts me off, as he steers the Traverse onto the road. “They’re not doing anything to your stuff. They’re making you a staging area so it’s easier to sort through.”

  I beg to differ, but I keep my mouth shut. After all, the guys are giving up their Saturday morning to help.

  Sure enough, Kaga, Wapi, and Honon are toting what furniture I have out of the house when we come up my driveway.

  “Whatever you don’t want, one of the guys will drop off to the Salvation Army. The rest we’ll load up and take to the other house. Then we go inside and tackle the small stuff.”

  I’m immediately overwhelmed. Having to pick and choose what stays and what goes suddenly seems more than I can handle. “I can’t decide,” I mumble.

  Ironic, because if you’d asked me to describe the furniture in my place, I would’ve drawn a blank on at least half of it. But standing in front of it, I realize even that ugly dresser I picked up from a yard sale years back would be hard to let go of. These things…are the constant in my life. The reliable. The walls may have changed regularly, but my not exactly appealing furnishings have turned every new place into mine.

  I hadn’t realized agreeing to move in with Ouray wasn’t really the risk—letting go of my stuff is.

  “Look,” Ouray says softly so only I can hear. “You don’t have to decide now or even at all. There’s room in the garage, and I bet we can get most of this in there and still have room for the bike and the Traverse in the winter. You can take your time.”

  I slip my arm around his waist and give it a squeeze. He’s right, I don’t have to make any decisions. But holding on to my security blanket of stuff like some kind of contingency plan, in case things don’t work out, is not the message I want to send to a man who just now proves again he is very much worth it.

  “The dresser can go,” I point to the ugly thing. “The couch, it’s almost falling apart and I like yours better.” As I’m listing the things I can absolutely do without, the guys load them in Ouray’s old pickup, while he moves behind me, his strong body at my back and his chin coming to rest on the top of my head.

  It takes all of five minutes to reduce the pile to a few manageable pieces I actually like.

  “Do you think we should keep my queen to replace the boy’s twin-size?” I ask Ouray, tilting my head back.

  He looks down at my face with a smile before dropping a kiss on my nose. “He’ll probably grow into it soon enough.”

  “Right. Guys? We’re keeping the bed.”

  When one o’clock comes around, I pull the door to my cottage closed.

  Wapi has done the drop off at the thrift store, the rest of my things have been carted to their new home, and this place is spic and span, ready for the next tenant.

  “Ready to see what Momma has for lunch? Or do you want to get started on those boxes waiting for you?”

  “Lunch first, pick up boy and dog, and then take us home.”

  “Good plan.” Ouray throws me a wink before starting the engine.

  As we drive away from my little house on the hill, I don’t even look back once.

  Ouray

  “He was in love with her.”

  Every head turns in Wapi’s direction.

  I invited the cubs in for this powwow in my office and the room is packed. The meeting was two-fold. First of all to welcome Paco back into the fold—he was released earlier this week—and because I needed to clear the air. I still feel guilt over not being straight with my brothers—with the exception of Kaga—and feel responsibility for Rowtag’s death.

  I spelled it out in detail, the how and why of events leading up to and including the scene last week in Aztec, and the reactions are mixed. Yuma in particular seems angry, and I make a note to take him aside after.

  I just described finding Rowtag dead behind the container where Luna and the boy were being held, when Wapi speaks up.

  “With Britney,” Paco confirms, his face haggard. It hadn’t been easy for him to hear the truth about the woman he’d been carrying a torch for.

  Wapi shoots a guilty glance at him. “Yes. He didn’t care she was way older. Said she was showing him a whole new world. I thought at first he was talking about…well…sex, but then he mentioned doing a few ‘jobs’ for her and boasted about something big in the works. I never got what he was on about.”

  “Why’d you keep that to yourself?” Paco asks.

  “I just thought it was Rowtag being Rowtag. He was always showing off and talking big. It wasn’t until after your woman,” he nods at me, “had her brakes messed with that I got worried. He never liked her, but was even more pissed at her after she had the accident. I asked him point-blank what crawled up his ass, and he admitted Britney had asked him to ‘take care of the bitch’ but she hadn’t been happy with the results. After that I tried to warn her he was up to something.”

  “But you never brought it up with me, or with any one of your elders,” I point out and he hangs his head.

  “No. I thought maybe he’d snap out of it. The club was all the family he had, like it is for me. I was afraid he’d get tossed out, and maybe even me.”

  I look around at my brothers, trying to gauge the mood, but having a hard time of it. Some sport a damn good poker face.

  Right. Time to put it in their hands, it’s the only way.

  I nod at Kaga, who’s the only person who is prepared.

  “You’re gonna have to come with me, Wapi. Looks like we’ll both be on the chopping block today.” When he looks up at me confused, I clarify, “You and me, we need to earn back their trust. Come on, we’ll grab a beer.”

  I sling an arm over the kid’s shoulders and walk out, closing the door behind me. We’re not even halfway down the hall when he suddenly dives into the bathroom, puking up his guts.

  “Everything all right?” Luna asks, jumping up from the couch.

  “What are you doing here? I thought you were unpacking boxes?”

  “Momma called. Said something was up and you might need me here.”

  I throw a scowl at Momma, who is leaning unapologetically in the kitchen doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. “Had to be done, and you know it,” I tell her.

  “May well be. Still don’t mean you’ve gotta take what’s comin’ on yer own.”

  “Okay, what are you two talking about? And what’s wrong with Wapi?”

  “I’ll take care of the boy,” Momma announces. “You two talk. I put your smokes on the bar.”

  Smartass. I’ve been trying to quit since I got knocked over the head. Without much success I have to admit, but at least I’m limiting my smoking to the clubhouse. No longer at the house.

  I grab Luna’s hand, snatch my pack up with the other, and head outside for the picnic table, where I light one up.

  “I’m waiting,” Luna says, bulging her eyes when I look at her.

  “The brothers are deciding on Wapi’s and my future with the club.”

  “Wait. What? Why?”

  “The cub knew something was up with Rowtag and didn’t share. As for me, I haven’t been straight with them. Trust is our strongest bond, and not only have I betrayed their trust in me, I doubted my trust in them. Up to the brothers to decide how to move on from there.”

  “Could they kick you out altogether?”

  “It’s possible,” I confirm, taking a long drag.

  “But the club is your life⁠—”

  “Was. For thirty-two years. It’s the only real family I’ve known until now. Now I have a boy, a dog, and my dream woman waiting at home.”

  “Who is she?” Luna teases with a smirk on her face.

  I tag her behind the neck and touch my nose to hers.

  “Love you, Special Agent Luna Roosberg.”

  “Love you right back, Mr. Mark Strongbow.”

  Then I kiss the sass right out of her.

  -

  Two fucking hours.

  Luna just left to go check on Ahiga. She didn’t want to leave him alone too long with just Jack for company at the house.

  I saunter into the clubhouse, in search of another beer. I already had three. This takes any longer and I’m diving into the hard liquor.

  Wapi is sitting on the couch, trying to distract himself with some action movie on TV, but every two seconds his eyes flit to the hallway at the back.

  “Ready for a beer, cub?” I ask, but he shakes his head. He’s still looking a little green around the gills.

  I didn’t think it was going to take hours. I can’t imagine what they’d be discussing all this fucking time. Looking for distraction myself, I plop down on the couch next to the kid.

  Ten minutes later, I can hear the office door open. Momma and Nosh must’ve been lying in wait as well, because both their heads pop out of the kitchen. Kaga comes walking toward us, a stern look on his face.

  “You ready?”

  That’s enough to have Wapi running for the can again. While we wait for him, I try to read Kaga’s expression but it tells me nothing.

  Smoke billows out of my office when Kaga opens the door. The fuckers know better than to light up inside. Momma’s going to have their hide.

  “Probation for the cub,” Kaga announces from behind my desk. That doesn’t exactly bode well. “An additional six months, tacked on to the year he has left to go, before he’s eligible to be patched in.” The kid looks like he’s about to cry. Hope he sucks it up, because that alone could have the brothers change their minds. “As for Chief, the vote was unanimous.”

  I wait for him to tell me the fucking verdict but he stays silent. Then Honon starts heading for the door, putting his hand on my shoulder in passing. “Chief.” Next is Yuma, then Lusio, Nodin, as one by one my brothers file out the door, clapping my shoulder and calling me, “Chief.”

  Last is Kaga. “Chief,” he says to me, a big grin on his face.

  “Took you fucking long enough,” I grumble, to hide the fact I’m moved by the gesture.

  “Nah,” he says, still smiling. “We were pretty much decided before you closed the damn door behind ya. Thought we’d make you sweat a little. Oh, and by the way, you need a better deck of cards and you’re out of good scotch.” His laughter follows him out of the office.

  Bastards left my office trashed.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Luna

  “Are you sure you want me to come?”

  Ouray lifts his head from the sink where he’s just spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste. He looks at me in the mirror.

  “To Monticello? Of course you’re coming.” He says it so matter-of-factly, so confidently, I find myself nodding automatically.

  “Okay.”

  But when I back out of the bathroom, my stomach is still in knots. I don’t know why I got cold feet all of a sudden, but as I was putting on what I consider to be respectable clothes, I started worrying that maybe we wouldn’t be coming home with Ahiga.

  “Luna?” Ouray walks out behind me and stops me at the top of the stairs. “It’ll be all

  right,” he says, his large hands tilting my face up. “I promise.”

  Suddenly the tears are right there, threatening to fall, and I blink furiously to force them back. Ahiga is getting dressed and could walk out of his room any minute. He doesn’t need to see me crying, he’s nervous enough as it is.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I’ve never had to leave a kid behind, because I have a kick-ass lawyer—who is very good at what he does—and because with you there, my odds are better than they ever were.” I roll my eyes at the last, but I do it smiling.

  When Ahiga comes out of his room, I have myself well in control and slip from Ouray’s arms.

  Hungry? Ouray says he’ll buy us breakfast at Durango Doughworks on the way. That gets me a raised eyebrow from Ouray—who never promised any such thing—but also a big grin and a thumbs-up from the boy. I call that a win.

  An hour later, the dog is dropped off with Nosh, the box of donuts and the coffee from Doughworks are about done, and we’re almost halfway to Monticello.

  “There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about, but…well, shit just kept happening.”

  I look at him suspiciously. “What?”

  “I spoke to Blackfoot, after you told me what happened to you.” My head automatically turns to check on Ahiga, who is quietly playing on his phone, which he’d been happy to have returned to him. “He can’t hear us, Sprite,” Ouray says quietly, putting a hand on my knee, which I immediately brush aside.

  “What gave you the right to⁠—”

  “Hear me out. You can be pissed all you want after but hear me out. When you told me, I felt both furious and helpless. I’m not sure why I called Blackfoot, but I needed to do something. I know you haven’t talked to him about the incident since it happened, so you can’t know that he got hold of Superman that same night and damaged him good.”

  That has me stumped. “Why wouldn’t he have told me that?”

  “I’m guessing he didn’t want to open up any wounds. It really doesn’t matter, because although that may have been about what was done to you, it was mostly about him feeling helpless and needing to find some justice.”

  “Did he know him? Keith? Did he know the guy?”

  Funny, I’ve had the means and the resources to pursue this for many years now, but it was just easier to think of them as Superman and Freddy. More abstract and distant than an actual flesh and bone person with a name. Now I’m suddenly morbidly curious to find out.

  “He didn’t but he found out. It never let him go, Sprite, walking away from that. So he did some digging and found out Superman was a fullback with the college football team. His real name was Kyle Topping.”

  I’ve never heard of that name. Not that I hung out with the jocks or cheerleaders in college. I was a loner. “Wait, you said was. Does that mean?”

  Ouray glances over and nods. “He died in 2006 of a brain tumor.”

  “Oh.” I feel a little deflated. I’m not sure what I would’ve done with the information had he still been alive, but kicking at his gravestone isn’t going to do me any good. “And the other one?”

  “Blackfoot was able to give me a few possible names. I managed to pare it down to one: Skip Chafin.”

  That name sparks something. “I think I heard that name before.”

  “Could well be. He was Kyle Topping’s teammate, and it turns out he was also a student advisor in your residence hall.”

  A picture pops up of a handsome boy who helped me find my room my first day at college. Athletic build, brown hair, a shy smile I remember being taken with as he carried my suitcase up to my floor. Holy shit.

  “I remember him. I never would’ve thought…I mean, he never would’ve occurred to me.”

  Ouray’s hand reaches out for my leg again, and this time I tuck my palm under it and slip my fingers between his.

  “You’re not mad?”

  I think about that for a minute. I was, but now I don’t even know what I’m feeling. “I don’t think so.” That makes him chuckle softly. “I’m going to have to process this.”

  “Well, I suggest you process fast, because I found out where Skip Chafin lives.”

  “Where?” I ask the question, but the butterflies starting a riot in my stomach are evidence I already know the answer.

  “He’s in Monticello, Sprite. It’s your call.”

  My first reaction is regret I didn’t bring my weapon with me. I didn’t think it would be an appropriate addition to the respectable impression I was hoping to make. I’m not at all feeling respectable now. Ouray stays quiet while I process every emotion imaginable.

  What do I want to do with the information? It’s not like I can—or even want to at this point—report the son of a bitch. Statute of limitations has long run out.

  Exacting some revenge sounds appealing, but I’ve already let these men take so much of my life, do I really want to risk giving them more? I have too much to live for now.

  I turn to check on Ahiga, who is still totally engrossed in whatever game he’s playing on his phone, before I look at Ouray.

  “What does he do?”

  “He’s a lawyer. A private family law practice.”

  The laugh, semi-hysterical, bursts from my lips without warning, and it takes me a minute to reel it in. “Married?”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Ouray asks, throwing me a concerned look.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Yes, he’s married.”

  He would be. I may not have been sure what I was feeling earlier, but I’m pretty convinced this is anger.

  “I want to look him in the eye,” I announce, twisting in my seat as Ouray pulls in the parking lot outside the Child Services offices. “Skip Chafin—I want to look that rapist in the eye.”

  A strangled sound comes from the back seat, and the next moment the back door is open, and Ahiga is running full speed across the parking lot, about to disappear around the side of the building.

  Ouray

  Before I know what the fuck is going on, I’m alone in the vehicle. Luna running like the wind after Ahiga, who suddenly darted from the car. No fucking way I’ll keep up with those two.

  I reach over to pull Luna’s door shut and then half climb into the back seat to do the same with Ahiga’s door. As I’m climbing back behind the wheel, I notice his cell phone on the floor behind Luna’s seat and snag it.

 

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