Dinner was a quiet affair, and when it was over, I escaped to our room to put on my pajamas. Everything felt too tight. My clothes. The elastic on my socks. Even my scalp itched, but when I entered the main room, my husband wasn’t there anymore. Sitting next to Slate at the card table, I waited for Snake to shuffle the cards.
“Are you playing?” Slate asked me, nudging my elbow.
I shook my head and leveled the Wise Men with my best smile. “I need...to win.” It had the right effect, and they all cracked up laughing. Slate even held his stomach as he pounded his hand against the table. It wasn’t that funny, but I let it go.
“I know what you’re doing. Where’s your Old Man?” Slate whispered.
“Outside?” If I had to guess, he was sitting on the back stoop. If he didn’t come inside before I went to bed, I’d go looking for him.
Snake dealt the cards, ending the conversation.
We’d gone through four or five rounds before Thunder appeared. He grabbed a chair, straddling it next to me. He didn’t smile, nor was he relaxed, but the veins in his arms popped as he propped them up against the back of the chair. I didn’t dare peek at his thighs, fearing merciless teasing.
Snake tried to deal him in, but he waved off the invitation. “I’m good.”
“You’re not,” I whispered, patting his thigh before I threw a few of my chips into the middle of the table. “Space.” He reached for my hand, kissing my knuckles before placing it back on the table.
“These cards suck ass.” Slate threw his away. “It’s a good thing it’s chip night, otherwise I’d be broke.” A few of the Wise Men nodded. We played round after round, teasing each other, but no one gained the upper hand.
A few hours later, a blaring alarm went off.
Cyph took off running towards his room, and we all faced the top of the stairs, waiting for his return. He took the stairs two at a time while clicking on his tablet. I held my breath until he landed on solid ground.
“We gotta go. Masked men at the back of the banquet center.”
No one hesitated. Men ran up to their rooms, skipping two and three steps at a time. They wove around the men coming back down with riding gear in their hands. The club girls stood in a corner, out of the way. JR’s cries mixed into the background.
“I’ll stay as the executive member,” Count said, moving towards one of the barstools.
Grace started to run towards the front door, but Meredith grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop. She put her hands on either side of Grace’s face, making her focus. “I’ve got the kids.” Grace nodded, but I doubted she had heard anything.
I stood, forgetting I was wearing my slippers as I headed for the front door, but Thunder reached for my elbow, turning me into his body.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked me, trying to be gentle, but the frenzy in the room was hard to ignore.
“I go.” It was Grace’s, and I wouldn’t stay behind.
Grace popped up on my other side. “Can you drive my SUV?” she asked Thunder.
There were three hallways that ran from the main room to the back of the clubhouse. Sabre must have gone to his office because he came running from the middle one. “Mama,” he called out, getting Grace’s attention as he headed toward us.
“No,” she said. “I’ll stay in the car with Aunt E, but I’m going.” Her lip trembled. Thunder agreed to stay with us, and Sabre relented. I held Grace’s hand as we hurried out the front door, but I made the mistake of looking over my shoulder.
The poker table sat untouched. The chips were in the same place we’d left them. An eerie chill crept down my spine at the image.
***
“Tell me the Lopezes didn’t show up this morning,” Grace pleaded with Thunder.
“I’m going to have to remind the brothers that some things don’t need to be circulated within the clubhouse.” His eyes didn’t leave the road.
“You all have that haunted look in your eyes, like the night Diego Lopez attacked the clubhouse. I just had to wait for the rumor mill to catch up.” She fell silent, staring out the window.
Thunder drove under a streetlight, the beam of it hitting Grace’s face directly. I gasped at the stress lines forming between her eyebrows, deepening with each second that passed. It took me a minute to gather my thoughts, but when she saw me staring, she asked, “Do you think they destroyed it?”
I opened my mouth, ready to stumble through false words of encouragement, but Thunder beat me to it.
“You’ve been here long enough to know good things don’t happen behind masks.” He sighed, making the turn onto the road that led up to the banquet center’s parking lot.
