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“Why are you crying?”

She swipes a few tears off her cheeks and smiles down at her son. “Because we have to say good-bye to our friends.”

“Oh,” he whispers, looking down at the floor before he launches himself at me, wrapping his arms around my legs. I crouch down in front of him and hug him back, my throat feeling a little tight.

“I hope you have the best adventure, little buddy.”

He pulls back and smiles. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back.”

“I can’t wait, dude,” I tell him, my chest aching like a bitch.

Fuck.

I didn’t expect this part to suck so fucking much.

Clearing my throat, I stand and clap Joey on the shoulder as I turn to look at Raya. “You guys need to head out the back at the same time we go out front. Go straight to the van. Your things should already be there.”

She nods. “Thank you, Rooster. For everything.”

“Go find the life you deserve, Raya.”

Her lip wobbles and she nods as she takes Joey’s hand again and moves to the back of the store. When she reaches the back door of the station, she turns and looks back at us. I nod to her as Jumper, Gear, Izzy and Hudson join me.

Then, we all head out.

My heart is pounding in my ears as we walk Izzy and Hudson back to the cargo van. I can see Raya and Joey making their way to the van in my peripheral vision but I refuse to look in their direction. We can’t call any extra attention to them right now.

My brothers are talking and laughing loudly, drawing the attention of the two other people in the lot, over by the gas pumps and as soon as we reach the group, Jumper, Gear and I stop while Izzy and Hudson continue on to the van. Storm comes up to me and slaps me on the shoulder like he’s welcoming me back into the fold.

Fucking trippy.

“How’d it go?”

I nod. “Good.”

I glance over just as the van pulls out of its parking spot and release a breath.

There they go.

Everyone continues to talk and laugh with each other but I know each of us is watching the van pull out of the lot and head west before Storm lets out a whistle.

“All right, ya animals, let’s go.”

We all head back over to our bikes and Jumper meets my eyes. I give him a nod. He knows what the next part of the plan is.

“We gotta go take care of something,” I call to Storm and his expression turns serious. He studies me for a moment before shaking his head.

“Don’t make me come bail you out of jail.”

Yeah.

No fucking promises.

“Rooster,” he warns as the engine of my bike rumbles to life but I ignore him. He can’t seriously tell me that if someone threatened his old lady that he wouldn’t do exactly the same thing I’m about to. Besides, it’s not like I’m really going to kill Owen but I will make him think twice about ever approaching Lennon again.

I pull out of my parking spot with Jumper and Gear right behind me and head back towards town, questions churning in my mind. As much as I would love to bust the door down and immediately start beating this fucker’s face in, we still need answers.

Like why the fuck he’s been standing outside Lennon apartment.