Collier stared up at him evenly. “I’m worried we’ve got another rat in our ranks.”
There was a large warehouse space at Moor Fleet, the club trucking business, with enough room to bring the box trucks and tractors in to be worked on, and that was where Maggie was collecting and cataloguing all of the yard sale contributions.
“We had so much old baby stuff,” Mina said, climbing from behind the wheel of her Tahoe and walking around to lift the rear hatch. “Strollers and car seats and high chairs.” Her sweet face was tweaked with a quick sadness. “I was having trouble getting rid of it, but Rottie said we don’t need it; it’s just taking up attic space.” She shrugged. “He’s right. But it still got me a little choked up. My boys are getting so big.”
Maggie smiled. “Wait till they’re going off to college. That’s when the pain really starts.”
“Ha,” Nell said. “Wait till they’re getting divorced. That’s the worst.”
Mina put her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to hear any of it.”
Maggie glanced up from her list-making and saw Aidan and Tango coming in through the high roll-top door. “Oh, good. Did you guys bring me your stuff?”
Tango made a face. “Haven’t gotten to that yet. Sorry.”
Aidan came to stand beside her, looped an arm around her shoulders and rested his chin in her hair, wordless and troubled.
“Rough night?” she guessed.
He sighed and it ruffled her hair. “Nothing a plate of spaghetti wouldn’t fix.”
She reached up to pat his hand where it rested against the base of her throat. “I keep telling you to come by for dinner. Tear yourself away from the marathon of beer and pussy and come be part of the family again, you brat.”
He chuckled.
When Tango grinned, she said, “You too. You’re too skinny, Kev.”
“What are you making tonight?” Aidan asked.
“Spaghetti, if it’ll get both your butts in chairs.”
They both agreed.
Then she turned, Aidan’s arm dropping away as she faced him. She lowered her voice, so only he could hear. “There was some kind of rally at the courthouse when I passed it earlier. Things are escalating.”
He nodded, face grim. “Yeah, I know. You had the prospect and the jock with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Keep them with you.” He kissed her forehead and stepped away. “Make plenty of dinner,” he said as he joined Tango and they headed for the door. “We’ll be there.”
“Jasmine wasn’t kidding,” Aidan said as they pulled off their helmets and glanced up at the apartment building above them. “Skank-ass.”
The siding was rotting away in big patches, unpainted, pulpy wood showing through in large chunks. If the roof didn’t leak, it was a miracle. Sad, four-paned windows sagged in their frames. Some lawn care company had thrown in the towel long ago: shaggy unclipped shrubs, tufted half-dead grass, thick cracks spidering through the sidewalk. Every car in the lot looked held together with duct tape and scrap yard parts.
“And I thought our place was bad,” Tango said, shuddering. “Let’s make this quick and get outta here before the depression sets in.”
Aidan agreed.
They headed up the walk toward the staircase, and a flash of something shiny – so alien in this parking lot – caught Aidan’s eye. “Check that out,” he said, gesturing to the Harley parked at the curb. They hadn’t been able to see if before, with it between two cars.
“Probably stolen,” Tango said, and then he frowned. “Wait…” He stepped down off the curb. “Look at this.”
But Aidan could see it from where he stood: the faint edging of red paint along the black fuel tank, a subtle embellishment to the otherwise very-downplayed Wide Glide.
“That’s Jace’s bike,” Aidan said.
Tango glanced up at the building. “But he was just at the clubhouse…”
