We both take a seat in his leather chairs, and he grabs the bourbon on the corner of the desk.
He pours two fingers in a glass and slides it across the desk to me.
He pours himself a glass as well.
He lifts the glass. "To my daughter, who was a badass who rode bareback through the third barrel and finished her damn run."
"To Dakota."
We drink.
He sets the glass down and looks at me for a long second.
"You know Holt'll be here at sunup," he says. "He's going to want to talk to you in the morning. Privately. Family chat."
Phantom keeps going. "Holt's going to ask you about your intentions toward my daughter. He'll want to hear the same thing I want to hear."
"Which is?"
"That you're going to marry her. That this isn't the rest of a fling. That when this dumb fucker is in the ground, you're going to put a ring on her hand and stand up in front of this club and call her your woman in the way that means something."
I look at him steadily. "Yes, Prez. That's what I'm going to do."
"When?"
"As soon as she'll let me. Which I'm hoping is soon."
He looks at me for a long time.
Then he picks up the bourbon and finishes it in one drink. "Good."
He sets the glass down and looks me up and down. "Get some sleep, Spur. You look like you need it." He almost smiles as he says it, and I walk out.
I cross the property back to the main house in the dark.
Banshee's at the round pen with a thermos and a Glock on his hip, doing the perimeter rotation with one of the prospects.
He raises the thermos at me as I pass. I raise my hand back.
The main house is quiet when I come through the kitchen door.
Marlena is at the sink with a dish towel in her hand, drying a coffee mug. "Spur."
"Ma'am."
"She's in the back bedroom. Grace got her into pajamas. She fell asleep about an hour ago."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"You stayin' with her tonight or going back to the cabin?"
"I'm staying. Doesn’t make much sense to move her back to our place tonight, you know?"
She nods and sets the mug on the rack.
Marlena pulls a plate off the counter that's wrapped in foil and slides it across to me. "You eat. Then you sleep next to her. We're all right tonight."
"Yes, ma'am."
