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“That’s pretty much what Simon said too,” Roark replied. “Before he fussed about her never running for a council seat.”

“She’d bop someone over the head with a rolling pin for wasting her time with pettiness,” Cor said. “Which is probably why she never ran. Look at how much bullshit Brooks had to put up with before he switched divisions.”

“I’m shocked he never made good on his threat to dropkick someone out of his office,” Rusty remarked, snickering as he worked. “Was there more?”

Smiling, Roark recalled the way Simon looked when he was sharing the story, with a dreamy look on his face like he longed to be back on the road again. “He said she once ended a six-year feud by trapping a family of beavers and relocating them while the rest of the club and the feuding families dismantled the beaver dam that had been the real reason why one family’s water supply had dried up.”

“Shocked she didn’t turn them into stew for the crew,” Cor said.

“They were just doing what beavers do,” Roark said. “In this case, it let her teach a valuable lesson to the families about not jumping to conclusions just because your fur got ruffled by something someone said that was taken completely out of context. Those neighbors could have figured things out on their own if they’d talked instead of one of them hurling accusations at the other and immediately looking for ways to get back at them.”

“Wait a minute, I feel like I have heard a piece of this story before,” Rusty said. “When she was telling us about how she found her mates. They were from opposing families. When the feud started, they were like, seventeen or something, too young to get their bondmarks, and never allowed to have contact after that. Not only did Mama G bring peace to the families, but she left with her mates and brought them back to live with her at Comet Lake. I didn’t realize she’d been riding with the Devils at the time. I thought it was just one of those right place, right time things.”

“In a way, it was,” Roark said.

“True.”

“Eli remained on the road for a while, if I remember correctly, then he found his mate and settled out there in the woods near Mama G and her brood.”

“Hell of a way to meet. Wow, what if things had taken a different turn?” Cor said.

“Right?”

“Sometimes I lay awake at night thinking about how wrong things could have turned out for me with Zane,” Cor admitted. “I don’t know what I’d have done if he hadn’t forgiven me.”

“Still been making daily pilgrimages to his door,” Rusty said. “If Brooks and the Doc hadn’t buried you someplace first.”

“Yeah, that would have been a toss-up,” Roark said. “So far, things are looking good over here.”

“Speak for yourself. I taped one leak and found a second. The metal cut right into the line when it scraped against the bottom of the trail. Probably caught the same spot where that Tahoe got stuck,” Cor grumbled.

“Simon said Mama G was the one who brokered the treaty with the arctics,” Roark said. “Had to smooth out tons of ruffled fur on that one, with all the insults that had been given on both sides.”

“Was a good thing for that tonight, or we’d have missed our chance to catch these guys,” Rusty said. “Did you guys get a look at the prison bus the High Council rolled in here? I’ve never seen anything like it. Those jackals might wind up praying they’d met their fates at our hands by the time the council is through with them. I hear their methods of execution are a bit archaic.”

Cor coughed several times and something clanged against the metal underside of the vehicle he was working on.

“I’m sorry,” Cor said. “Did you say a bit like they don’t still have a functioning guillotine?”

“Gotta give them an A plus for efficiency,” Rusty remarked.

“No bull,” Roark said.

“I’m done over here,” Rusty said. “This one is good to go.”

“You are our only hope for miracle number two,” Cor said. “Cage has already booked us some rooms at a motel about forty miles from here so we can rest before pushing on.”

“Those forty miles are going to suck, regardless of if we’ve got to turn around and come back here to go over the pass or drive through the range and circle around to get home,” Rusty said.

“I’d be much happier with the turnaround, if you can manage it,” Cor said as Roark climbed out from beneath the SUV he’d been checking and moved on to the next one.

“Me too,” Rusty said as he crawled underneath it.

Roark heard him whistle a tragic tune he was far too familiar with and knew what he saw wasn’t good.

“Are we fucked?” Roark asked.

“Maybe. Grab the emergency repair box out of the back of truck six,” Rusty said.