Page 4 of Bones and Ashes

I narrow my eyes. "They didn't mean anythin’ to you, did they?"

Mike scoffs. "I barely even knew their names. The only thing that matters is that the trucks keep movin'."

The sun's fully up by the time I turn off the highway toward Badlands, my mind still rackin' and stackin' the pieces Mike laid out.

Not the parts he said—the parts he didn't.

The spaces between.

Forty miles between the gas station and home gives me plenty of time to play it forward and back. Brick wasn't just a rat, he was a fuckin' operative. And I killed an operative. And the man who ran him isn't even mad about it.

That tells me everything I need to know about the kinda value they place on a human life.

Or the president of this oil protection operation they got goin'.

Dusty's at the gate lookin' half-asleep when I roll up. He snaps to attention when he sees it's me, swingin' the gate wide without a question. Still doin' prospect work despite bein' secretary/treasurer now.

I respect that. Boy's got no entitlement in him. That's rare.

"Dusty," I say, slowin' down to idle. "You holdin' up all right?"

"Yes, sir. Got an hour left on watch."

"You get a break after?"

"Yessir."

"No more gate work," I tell him. "You're a fuckin' officer now. Assign someone else your next shift. Anyone gives you shit, you tell 'em I said so."

Dusty's smile is big and immediate. "Yeah, OK. Thanks, Demon."

I roll through and park next to Diesel's bike, which means he's been waitin'.

Inside it's quiet. The kind of quiet you get when a group of men are all pretendin' everything's normal while actually waitin' on one guy to walk in and tell them the world ain't endin'.

Diesel's the first to spot me, and I watch him clock my face for signs of trouble. He breathes out, not quite relief, but a step in that direction.

"What took you so long?" he asks, pretending he wasn't worried. "I called hours ago."

"I was with Savannah."

"And?"

"And… now I'm here."

He gives me a look. One I can't immediately decipher. One I normally wouldn't even try to decipher.

But my world has now been divided into a very clear 'before and after'.

The world before I killed Brick for being an FBI rat.

And the world after I learned I'm now the new FBI rat.

And that line I just crossed changes everything about who I thought I was.

Diesel sighs. "I cannot fucking believe we forgot about June."

OK. So that's what he's thinkin' about. June. Yeah. It's a mistake that costs more than my final nod to Mike back at the gas station.