Good.
My phone vibrates in my pocket before I get it on.
Ghost.
I answer and turn toward the window while Julie checks the zipper on her jacket.
“Tell me something useful.”
Ghost snorts. “Morning to you too.”
“Got plans.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m calling.”
Of course he does.
“You moving somewhere now?” he asks.
“You’re watching me too closely.”
“For your safety.”
“In ten. We’re going to Swoon Peaks.”
“Shadow’s with me. Viper too. We’ll hang back unless it goes loud.”
That gets my attention.
I glance over at Julie.
She is focused on lacing her boots tighter, pretending not to listen.
“Works for me,” I say.
Ghost’s voice roughens. “House is still hot, Tank.”
“No shit.”
“We’ve had two different sightings of Huntington men in that area in the last three days. They’re squeezing everything around the sale.” A beat. “If this turns, it’s going to turn fast.”
That was always the bet.
“Then stay close.”
“You don’t have to tell me that.”
The line clicks dead.
I pocket the phone and look at Julie.
“Ghost, Viper, and Shadow are riding backup.”
Something eases in her face at that. Not because she wants an audience. Because she knows I am not being reckless with her.
And because she knows who they are now. What the club is. What the brotherhood means when they say they have your back.
“Okay,” she says.
