The snowball fight that had started earlier slowed to the occasional tossed snowball, but the kids continued to run in circles.
A few had dropped onto their backs and were busy making snow angels.
A few of the Vipers members watched from the sidelines, looks of longing on their faces.
One girl popped up from the snow and grabbed Brent’s hand.
I couldn’t hear the conversation from where I stood, but it became clear what she wanted when Brent followed her over to a patch of fresh snow and fell onto his back.
He waved his arms and legs, great bellows of laughter causing more kids to sink into the snow and copy him.
“I’ll be back.” I halfway expected Bishop or Ash to stop me, but both men nodded and resumed accepting donations.
My boots sank into the churned up snow, and I bent to make a snowball.
Tossing it from hand to hand, I eyed Brent.
He was just high enough up the chain of command that he might have the information I needed.
I lobbed the snowball at his back when he stood.
It hit right between his shoulder blades, and he turned.
A surprised look flitted across his face before he made his own snowball and threw it at my face.
I ducked with a laugh and closed the distance, holding my hands up in surrender. “Quite a show out here.”
He shook snow from his hair and combed it back with his fingers. “Oh, yeah. Just wait. It gets better.”
“I’ve been told that a few times, but I don’t know what it means.” I did my best not to drill him with questions.
Time ticked down too fast for me to keep dancing around the subject of their supposed smuggling, but I couldn’t push them too hard without risking the trust I’d built.
That fine line grew thinner when Brent shrugged. “Not my place to talk about it. If Rafe wants you to know, he’ll tell you.”
In other words, I was shit out of luck.
It was great that Rafe inspired such loyalty.
What kind of criminal could do that without threats and/or bodily harm?
Had I misjudged him this whole time and he really was the irredeemable asshole I’d first thought?
Brent walked away when one of the other guys called his name.
Ever since Ash and the others laid claim to me, no one else in the club made any kind of advance toward me.
They were polite, kind, and they answered my questions when they could.
Nothing else.
“Hard to believe a bunch of hotheaded bikers put on a thing like this, huh?” A woman in a long black peacoat sighed into the crisp air. “I used to think they’d ruin the town. No one wanted a motorcycle club taking up residence here.”
I waited for her to say more, but a lingering pause prompted me to break the silence. “And what do you think about them now?”
No one in town knew about my involvement.
This woman might suspect since I’d been at the donation table, which meant I’d have to run her response through a filter to extract the truth.
