Sage was already inside.
That alone didn’t sit right with him.
Law didn’t move for a second.
Then he shut off the engine and stepped out into the warm night air, gravel shifting under his boots as he started across the lot toward the bar.
Another truck door closed somewhere behind him.
The sound was faint, but Law slowed anyway.
A second later, footsteps came up beside him, and Black fell into stride as easily as if they’d planned it that way.
Law turned his head just enough to look at him.
Black lifted one shoulder.
“Relax,” he said. “I’m just here to watch.”
Law let the words pass without answering and turned his attention back to the bar.
Pushing through the door, he stepped into a wash of sound and warm air thick with beer and dust.
Country music rolled through the room from a jukebox somewhere along the far wall, the steady twang of steel guitar cutting through bursts of laughter and the sharp crack of pool balls colliding. Boots scraped across worn wooden floorboards. Glasses clinked. Someone near the bar shouted for another round.
The place was busy and crowded—the kind where half the room knew each other and the other half didn’t ask questions.
Law paused just inside the doorway, letting the noise and movement settle around him while his eyes adjusted to the dim light.
Black stopped beside him. “Who are we looking for?”
Law’s gaze moved slowly across the room.
“Sage.”
One of two bars ran along the left wall, crowded to all hell. Men leaned over it with their shoulders nearly touching while several bartenders slid longnecks and fancy drinks across the polished wood. Couples sat near the dance floor with their chairs tipped back. Others clustered around tall tables, watching dancers move to the rhythm of the song. In a side area, a rack of pool cues leaned against the wall beside tables where groups of locals argued over a shot.
Normal. Busy.
Law kept scanning.
Toward the back of the large front room, the lights dimmed slightly where rows of smaller tables lined the wall, the shadows deeper there, and the noise of the dance hall faded just enough to make conversation easier.
That was where he saw him.
Sage sat alone at a table near the back corner, the position tucked behind a thick support post that cut off any direct view of the front door.
One elbow rested on the table, fingers moving restlessly around a cup of what looked like coffee while his gaze tracked every person who walked by.
Who was he waiting for?
Even from across the room, Law could see the tension in the line of his shoulders, the way Sage leaned slightly forward in thechair like a man who had no intention of relaxing until someone—or several someones—finally showed up.
Law didn’t move for a moment.
Then he started toward the tables in the back. None were open, so he took up a position against the wall just out of Sage’s line of sight.
“I’ll get us two beers,” Black said.
