"Did you?"
"For about four days until I was fairly sure he was taking the piss."
I laugh. An actual laugh, which surprises me. "What gave it away?"
"Cash started calling him that too. And Cash was laughing."
"Yeah," I say. "That would do it."
He's watching the gate while we talk, which is right. Not distracted by the conversation. Aware that his job is the gate and the conversation is secondary to the gate. I would have done the same thing at his stage, and I probably would have been more obvious about it.
"You rode today," I say. It's not a question. I know he was one of the prospects on the road with us because I saw him and because Prez said patched members only before he quietly added Decker as an exception, which is a thing Prez doesn't do unless there's a reason.
"Yes."
"How was it?"
He's quiet for a second, and I know he's deciding how much to say. "Clarifying," he says finally. "Good kind of clarifying."
I look at him. He means it. He's not performing, not telling me what a patched member wants to hear. He's telling me the truth about how it felt to ride with purpose toward something that mattered.
"Good," I say. "Hold onto that."
I leave him to the gate and go inside. I think, not for the first time since he arrived, that this kid is going to be good for this club. He's got the right kind of steady. The kind that holds when things get loud.
I go to bed and I stare at the ceiling for a while before sleep comes, and the last thing I think about before it does is Savannah's hands, calm, sure and precise, cleaning my son's wound and never once letting him see that she was shaking.
CHAPTER 10
Savannah
Luke arrives at half past seven with a duffle bag over his shoulder and the energy he always brings into a room. Which is the energy of someone who finds everything at least mildly entertaining and has decided to be delighted by wherever he ends up.
I throw my arms around him before he's fully through the door. He lifts me off the ground and squeezes until I feel something unknot in my chest that I didn't know was knotted. I've missed him more than I'd let myself register.
"God, if I'd known you'd greet me like this I'd have come down sooner." He sets me down and looks around the apartment. "Very you."
"Is that good?"
"It's very good. Small. Tidy. One of those weird candles that smells like a forest." He picks it up and sniffs it. "Yeah. Very you."
"There's only one bed," I tell him. "So, you either sleep in it with me and keep your hands to yourself or you sleep on the couch. Your choice."
"I'll decide later." He drops his bag. "If I've had too many drinks I might try it on and I don't fancy a knee to the balls. I'll probably end up on the couch. Is there a bar we can go to?"
I laugh. He probably would try it on if he was drunk. He's done it enough times before. But after that once, years ago, we'd agreed it wasn't where we were meant to go and it had made us better for it. "There used to be one down the road. I haven't been since I got back."
"Then it's past time." He grins. "Go and put something on that'll make your ex miserable when he sees you."
"My ex is not going to be there."
"Put on the red top anyway."
I put on the red top.
Ruby spotsus from the diner doorway before we've made it halfway down the street. Of course she does. She was probably watching from the window.
"That’s Ruby. Don't give her anything," I say quietly to Luke.
