I saw it was Lennon calling, so I found a quiet room and answered. “Hey, beautiful.”
“Hey.”
I frowned. “You okay?”
“Yes. I just had a call from a panicked Waverly. She’s all alone out there and she thought someone was breaking in, and couldn’t sleep, which then sent her spiraling. She’s convinced that Boneyard is going to find her and assault her again.” Lennon let out a long breath. “She had to call out of work, her anxiety attack was so bad, and I’m stuck here unable to do a goddammed thing to help her.”
“She’s got no one?”
“No one,” Lennon confirmed. “Maybe I should postpone my trip and go out to Portland to spend time with her.”
“Did you ask her what she thought about that?”
“I sure did,” she said with a huff.
“And what did she say?”
“That she’d smack me upside the head before buying me a one-way ticket to Botswana.”
“Aren’t you going to Tanzania?”
“Yeah, well, she’s not so great with geography.”
“Or maybe she is and said it on purpose.”
Lennon chuckled. “Well, you’ve got me there. As long as her attackers are roaming around scot-free, she’s never going to feel safe. I just wish I could castrate those fuckers.”
I dragged a hand through mybeard. “I’m sorry, Len. There’s nothing worse than not being able to help someone you love when they’re in pain.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “Thank you for letting me vent.”
“Always.”
“I need to get going. I promised Granny a lunch date.”
“Okay, we’ll talk soon.”
“Bye.”
After hanging up, I went looking for Orion, finding him in the shop working on what looked like a generator that was built circa World War II.
“You know they make new ones of those,” I said, pointing to the relic.
“What? Are you fucking kidding?” Orion replied. “This old gal still runs like a top. She just needs alittle love and lubrication, that’s all.”
“You’re a sick fucking man, talking about a machine old enough to be your grandmother like that.”
Orion hugged the generator and scoffed. “You’re just jealous of what we have together.”
“Sundance should have had you committed when he caught you jerking off to Popular Mechanics when you were thirteen.”
“Did you come here just to shame me, or is there something else you need?”
“Actually, I do have a question. You or anyone else in the club tight with anyone in the Supreme Riders?”
“Fuck no. Why the hell would I hang with any of those piece of shit white supremacists?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t figureyou did, just checking.”
