I nod once. “Yeah.”
Mason’s gaze moves across the room. “We’re not letting some two-bit parasite put roots down near our territory.” He looks at Blade. “I want eyes on Voss’s businesses.” Then he turns to Rev. “Check if anybody in Jackson has had quiet visits lately.” Finally he looks back at me. “Ghost, you keep an eye on Harlan.”
I nod. “I’m on it.”
Mason holds my gaze for another second before giving one short nod. “Good.”
Church doesn’t happen, but the meeting might as well count. Orders have been given, wheels are turning, and men are moving.
It should be enough to settle me.
But it isn’t.
Once the room starts breaking apart again and everyone heads back to whatever they were doing, Rev wanders over with a grin that tells me he’s about to say something irritating.
“Keep an eye on Harlan, huh?”
I stare at him. “That’s what he said.”
“That bar got a name?”
I don’t answer.
Rev’s grin widens. “That a yes?”
Blade walks past us carrying a part in one hand. “Leave him alone.”
Rev points after him. “You hear that? He didn’t deny it.”
Blade doesn’t even slow down. “I said leave him alone, not because he’s innocent.”
Jax laughs from across the garage.
I pick up my coffee again and look at Rev until some survival instinct finally kicks in.
He lifts both hands. “Alright. Touchy.”
But he’s still smiling when he walks off, and I know exactly why.
I’m not usually the guy who volunteers to keep eyes on a town.
I’m the guy who handles the immediate problem and disappears.
This feels different.
That’s the problem.
By late afternoon, I’ve done enough actual work to pretend I’m not distracted.
Pretend being the key word.
I spend two hours helping with a shipment issue that should have taken one. I check in with Dagger about another matter involving one of our suppliers. I even go by the lot behind theclubhouse and run through enough drills to get sweat running down my back and my knuckles aching pleasantly from contact.
It still doesn’t fix it. Every time the motion stops, every time the noise dies down and the day finally slows, there’s space for her to slip back into my head like she’s been waiting for the quiet. Rae laughing across the bar like the world is a joke she’s already in on. Rae leaning her elbows on the counter while she watches people the way she watches everything, curious and completely unafraid. Rae telling me with absolute seriousness that Pickle would be very upset if I never came back.
I head home before sunset and tell myself I’m going back to Harlan because Mason asked me to keep eyes on the place. That part is true. It’s a good reason, a solid one, the kind that fits neatly into the life I’ve built where everything has a purpose and nothing happens without a clear explanation. But it’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is uglier than that, simpler too. I want to see her again, and that realization sits in the center of my chest like a nail I can’t quite pull out.
I shower, change into clean jeans and a black henley, then stop in the kitchen with my keys in hand and stare at the counter for a second like maybe there’s still time to rethink this.
