“Sure,” Wren says. “We’ll be there in five.”
While I’m waiting, I go grab a bucket and fill it with some hot soapy water. There’s a collection of old rags in the garage left by the previous owners, so I take them out front too.
I start the way they wrote it. Washing the bright letter F off the window. The water runs red down the siding, but I don’t give a fuck.
“What the hell is all that banging?” Kai says as he steps out barefoot and in just his jeans. “Holy shit.”
“I wanted to get this off before you saw it.”
The color has drained from his face. “Not this house. Not this soon.”
I drop the cloth back into the bucket and put my arms around him. “Go back inside and make us some coffee. I’ll deal with it.”
“It must be Isla’s uncle.”
A muscle twitches in my cheek. “Seems like the cowardly bullshit he’d pull. Had no issue going up two men against one woman.”
Out of habit, we step apart when we hear the truck lumbering up the road toward us. While Catfish and Wren know who we are, we still keep signs of affection to a minimum.
Wren’s jeep rolls up, Catfish behind the wheel. The two of them step out together, but Wren’s expression is wretched.
“Oh, hell,” they say.
Catfish steps forward and squeezes Jackal’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, you two. That’s rough.”
Kai nods, but his eyes keep flicking between the windows and me.
“I want eyes on the place, Wren,” I say. “Twenty-four seven. Cameras, motion alerts. All of it. I don’t care how much it costs.”
Wren’s eyes narrow as they look around the property. “I’ll get you covered. No one’s gonna get within a hundred feet of this place without you knowing. Jackal, can you show me around the back?”
Jackal shakes off the numbness he obviously felt. “Sure.”
We watch the two of them go before I turn to Catfish. “You okay?”
“Hits harder than I thought.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I’ve lived most of my life with every kind of privilege. White. Male. Straight. Until I met them.” He glances in the direction Wren just went. “Wren and I get shit sometimes. But most of the world sees Wren and me as straight because that’s all they can acknowledge. But seeing it aimed at the two of you… I dunno. It’s wrong when all you want to do is exist. Feels like the club should be protecting you both more. Maybe if you told them?”
“No.” I dunk the cloth back in the bucket and continue to clean up. I don’t want the paint to dry. “And you don’t carry this. Someone else painted it.”
“Still,” Catfish mutters. “I’m supposed to have your back. All three of you.”
“Brother. You don’t need to do anything other than be here. You headed to church?”
“Was gonna grab a shower, first, but my guess is Wren is gonna want to go shopping for whatever’s needed to secure you tight.”
“I appreciate it.” I tip my head across the street and see Isla come out onto her porch. The woman’s got a hedge trimmer in her hands.
“Is that Isla?” Catfish asks, squinting into the sun as he waves.
“Yeah.”
She sees the two of us looking and quickly hurries back up the stairs into the house, closing the door with a slam so loud, we can all hear it.
“What crawled up her ass?”
I shake my head. “No idea. She moved in the day after us, and her uncle was around here firing off bullets.”
“You talking about Isla?” Kai asks as he reappears with Wren.
