I cringe. I wasn’t the only one who had too much to drink last night, he was obviously wearing his beer blinkers and didn’t see that I was older than him.
“Don’t you know you should never ask a lady how old she is?”
“Give me a ballpark then.”
“None of your fucking business.”
He opens the door, looks left, then right, then leaves, shutting me in alone. If Harper or Slade hears about my night with Shane, the miniscule chance I have will be gone forever.
Chapter Three
Shane
The back room has always been so full of life. Now we have three empty chairs, though Grim only returned to Mercy. Pope and Ricky are never going to sit in these chairs ever again. Death came for them and all that remains are two empty chairs and a heavy hanging sense of grief over the brothers. I used to have Grim to lighten the mood with but he’s in Mercy with Nora and their son. He has his own responsibilities, and I’m left here with only the patch to focus on. And when I’m not needed, I’m free but alone to drink and fuck without a brother for a wingman.
“Is that good with you, Shane? Or do I have to fuckin’ repeat myself?” Leo grunts.
Snapping back to the present, I have no fucking idea what was just said or what is expected of me.
“Yeah, all good.”
Sparky’s laughter is hoarse but amusing. “He has no fuckin’ idea. Where’s your head at, brother?”
“Sorry.”
Leo taps the table and Sparky and I’s conversation is dead.
“Moving on,” Leo says. “Lily told Slade that she overheard some assholes in a bar, saying they’re coming after us. She didn’t see any patches, or know who they were, so as far as I’m concerned, we do what we always do and keep our eyes open, and we’ll see what happens.”
“It’s Lily, she probably made it up as a way to get back in,” Sparky offers, not looking Slade’s way.
“Fuck knows, so like I said, keep your eyes open,” Leo orders. “I also wanna mention the town. People are moving stupid with all the job losses and the town rapidly declining. I wanna remind ya all not to take any shit but tread carefully, I don’t want blow backs on the club.”
Brothers cheer. It wasn’t that long ago that Leo was telling us to wait shit out and handle our fights after taking some time to let the dust settle.
Leo slams the gavel down and brothers move to get up. Zach nudges me and asks, “You good to go in ten?”
“Huh?”
He laughs. “I knew you weren’t listening. We’ve got to drop off the sheriff’s monthly payment.”
“Yeah, I knew that.”
Rolling his eyes, he leaves the back room, and I drag my ass up. Since I have nothing else to do besides go with Zach to the pay off the sheriff, I head outside and wait on my bike. Lighting a cigarette, I’m not waiting long when Zach is mounting his bike and bringing it to life.
Slade jogs over and blocks Zach as he’s about to ride out. He passes him an envelope and tells him, “Drop this off to your aunt at the motel. She’s not picking up my calls.”
“Can’t you do it?”
“If I could, I wouldn’t be asking you, would I?”
Sighing, Zach takes the envelope and shoves it in his pocket.
“I’m starting to feel like the fuckin’ mailman.”
I’ve not been on a drop off to the sheriff before, Leo or JJ normally do it.
It seems ridiculous to me that she meets out in the open every month. If I were the sheriff and taking hush money, I’d arrange for it to be dropped off then I’d pick it up when I knew I wasn’t being watched. Anyone could see us with the law, but she doesn’t seem to worry about such things.
