I walked straight into Janette’s open arms as I skipped behind the counter. The place always gave me the feel of going to Grandma’s. It was familiar and homely and filled with people I loved. Not working there for a while was weird for me, and I missed them, but as Drew had reminded me, it was all about my safety as well as theirs.
“You want coffee and a muffin?”
“Two please.”
“Deeks with you?”
“Yes, ma’am. He’s just making a call. How’s things been?”
Janette worked as she talked, her feet carrying her around the place with ease. It wasn’t long until I was on the other side of the counter, helping her out, chatting away as I filled up the salt and pepper shakers, combined the half bottles of ketchup and filled the napkins. It was busy work and it felt natural tobe doing it as we gossiped like we did.
As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one noticing strange people on bikes, or the small gang of kids with fake patches. It was the talk of the town. It hadn’t occurred to me that Deeks had been outside for almost an hour until I refilled my coffee and started nibbling at his double chocolate chip muffin. I excused myself and headed to the door, sticking my head out and finding Deeks sitting on his bike talking to three other older gentlemen on their bikes.
“Ayda! Come meet, Michael, Rich and Don. They were the folk on the bikes.”
I was pretty sure that in Deeks speak that was the all clear. The small group looked friendly enough, and one of the men stood up and smiled behind his silver beard and offered me a hand in greeting. “Nice to meet you, Ayda. We were just telling Deeks about the Lone Star Rally in Galveston. You ever been?”
“No, sir, but isn’t that in the beginning of November?”
“It sure is, but we rented a place and had thanksgiving down there. It’s real pretty to ride down the coast, especially around sunset. You should give it a try next year.”
“Isn’t it cold?”
The guy leaned against his bike and gave me a warm smile before launching into a long story about the days and the weather. I was beginning to understand why Deeks was still outside with them. I just hoped he’d managed to give Drew the all clear, too. These were obviously just riders, no affiliation or club, just good people on good bikes, enjoying what they could of the fair weather.
That was enough to give me pause, but it still had me wondering about the people Janette had mentioned passing through a few days earlier.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Drew
My finger drifted across the screen, the dorky smile creeping along my face again as it pinged to life.
“You’ve definitely put her number in?” I asked Jedd, swinging my legs up onto my desk as I leaned back in my chair, leather squeaking against leather.
“Were the first fifty answers to that question not enough?”
“I find myself trusting you fuckers less and less,” I said quietly, my attention falling back down to the shiny new phone in my hand. “You’ll have stored her under Ayda and next thing I know, I’ll have agreed to suck the tits of some Chinese mafia head and have an angry mob on my doorstep.”
Jedd laughed roughly. “We have enough enemies for now, Tucker.”
“No shit.” I smirked.
Crossing my legs at the ankle, I let out a small grunt and began to press on the little square picture things in front of me. Everyone knew I was crap with that kind of technology, and the last thing anyone would be expecting was for me to join them in the modern day and finally admit defeat.
“As if you weren’t distracted enough before. This new toy of yours is going to get us all killed.”
“It was either this or fix the bat signal.” I grinned, keeping my eyes on the screen as I tried to work out where the fuck her name was hidden.
“I thought you had yourself down as more of a villain than a hero.”
“Don’t you start fucking psychoanalyzing me, Jedd. I’m all therapied out. Now shut the fuck up while I play.”
Jedd fell back in his chair, both hands rising to cradle his head as he watched me like I was his kid and this was our first Christmas morning together.
“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, reaching up to scratch the side of my beard as I tried to remember what he told me to do.
“Need help?”
