“Said she wanted a change of scenery. Someplace to start over, ya know? I guess when I told her I was from San Jose, she filed the answer away. She needed to leave town in a hurry.”
“Why did she need to leave town?” TJ asks.
“She told me some guy was getting abusive with her, and she needed to put some miles between them.”
Billy leans his elbows on the bar. “So, she comes all the way to California? San Jose, more specifically, and you don’t think she came to see you?”
“Nah. I think I’d just mentioned I was from San Jose area when we met, and something made her latch onto that.”
“Do you know how absurd that sounds?” Marcus asks.
I ignore him and take a sip of coffee.
“You gonna tell us the rest? Did you hook up with this chick last night?”
“I waited for her after Sonny’s closed. Took her to breakfast.”
“Did you fuck her?” TJ asks.
“No, asshole.”
We hear the rumble of a couple of motorcycles pull up, and our VP, Crash, comes through the door with our president.
Crash spots me at the bar and points a finger at me. “Cody. Let’s go.”
They head toward the hall that leads to Cole’s office.
I stand, and TJ smirks. “Dead man walking.”
“Knock it off,” I say, grabbing my coffee and heading down the hall.
Cole moves behind his desk, and Crash and I take the chairs in front of it.
“What the fuck happened last night?” Cole barks. “I gotta get a call from Ronnie to deal with my crew.”
I tell him everything that happened, and when I’m done, Cole runs a hand over his beard.
“You swear on your patch you didn’t touch her?”
“I touched her. Okay, I broke the rules, but I didn’t hurt her. Well, I mean, I grabbed her arm trying to stop her from running out, but…”
Crash shakes his head. “Jesus Christ, brother. You don’t touch the dancers, and you sure as fuck don’t restrain them like that.”
“It was a reaction. I was shocked to see her.”
Cole leans his elbows on his desk, steeples his hands, and presses his forehead to them like he’s praying for strength to keep himself from blowing up. “Where do you know this girl from?”
“When we were in Alabama, I went to visit the grave of my buddy who was killed.”
“The one from your unit?” Crash asks.
“Yeah. I met her at the gravesite. I recognized her as the chick from the bridge.”
“Wait a minute. You mean the jumper?” Cole asks.
“Yeah. Then when I saw her at Ryan’s grave, I immediately knew she was the girl from the photo he’d had above his bunk. His girl.”
“And now she’s here?” Cole lifts a brow.
