Leo was on his porch when Bev’s motor raced down the road and to her drive. Less than ten minutes later, her motor raced back toward town.

 

“A clearing,” he mused.

 

Close to 3:30, he was ready to go check out one clearing in particular. It wasn’t far, maybe a little more than a mile north. Maybe he would pull the thumper out of the garage and take it for a little spin. It was time to take it out anyway. And maybe he was feeling a little nostalgic.

 

But his plans were interrupted by the sound of three Harley engines coming up the road. They slowed down as they came up to his access road. He watched them from his rocker as they came closer, and he recognized them as soon as they were in his yard: Jonny Vargas, Wesley DeVry, and Austin, which, now that Leo thought about it, was the only name he had for the man.

 

Jonny was a wiry, leather-skinned man whose muscles were well defined and who worked hard nearly every day of his life. He ran a hand through his light brown hair and looked up at the sun before climbing the steps to Leo’s porch and coming through the screen door.

 

Jonny was one of Danny’s trusted, and he was trusted enough to already be on the list of men who were going to help in a couple of weeks with the heist of a great deal of cocaine — though Jonny wasn’t aware of this yet.

 

“Jonny,” Leo said as he came across the threshold.

 

Jonny wasn’t expecting him on the porch. His easy manner turned feral in an instant, but it just as quickly turned easy again. “Leo. Good day to be outside.”

 

“There’s beer in the fridge if you want one,” Leo offered.

 

“Don’t mind if I do. Want one for yourself?”

 

Leo lifted his hand and gave it a shake. “Yeah, I guess so, if you don’t mind.”

 

“I’ll be there getting your beer for myself and two others. I guess I don’t mind getting one of your own for you.”

 

Leo nodded at the well-worn humor and watched Austin come up the steps. Austin was at least 300 pounds: a lot of weight, most of it fat. He was a good-humored man most of the time, and a man you could normally count on to be thoughtful and slow to act. Austin, as it happened, was looking thoughtful now.

 

“Austin,” Leo greeted him.

 

Austin nodded his head and looked around.

 

“Jonny’s in the house, getting beers.”

 

“Nice. Thanks.”

 

“No worries.”

 

Last in, letting the members enter the place first,

 

Leo had once asked Bev’s opinion of Wesley’s looks, and she had given him an approving nod. “Yeah, he’s good looking. Well, until Preston Pope comes through the door. Then you remember what good looking really means.”

 

Leo took pride in his powers of observation. As Jonny came out with four beers and passed them around, he tuned his mind into figuring this visit out. All three of them had been up at the club a little while ago. Danny got the statement. All three of them had been in attendance last night, so one or all had probably been briefed right away.

 

All three of them were the core of Crash’s remaining friends.

 

Leo got slowly up from his chair. “Any of you shoot pool?”

 

Jonny smiled. “Been known to, from time to time. Nine ball?”

 

“If you wish, sure.”

 

“Five on the five, ten on the nine?” Jonny asked.

 

“If you really want to lose that kind of money,” Leo told him.

 

Jonny laughed and they went inside, Leo leading.

 

His pool table was set up where the dining area would normally be, but there was plenty of room around the table for shooting.

 

Leo racked up the diamond for a nine-ball game and allowed Jonny to break first. Playing this game with this type of bet, if you sunk the five, then five dollars were owed. However, if you sunk the five out of turn, using a combination, for example, with the two-ball, then the five came back out of the pocket so that it would pay again. A game like this could get expensive quickly against a player who knew what he was doing.

 

Jonny broke, sinking the eight with the cue coming in behind enough balls that he had no shot for the one. He chose to call a safety and put Leo in a similar position. Leo studied the layout.

 

Jonny said, “So, you’re bedding the new filly.”

 

Leo raised an eyebrow. He leaned down and took his shot, sending the cue off the wall, clipping the one into the corner pocket, and the clipping the five into the corner on the other side.

 

“Not exactly a nice way of saying that, but yes, it’s true. And getting close to her as well. She’s a good riding partner,” Leo told him, which basically meant: She means something to me, so be polite, or…

 

But Leo knew where this was going, no matter how many warnings he made. Crash was dead, and last night he had been banished, and they figured if Leo hadn’t actually pulled the trigger, he was guilty nonetheless. So, justice was to be served. Leo figured he should be a little insulted that they had only brought three.

 

In fact… “Jonny, why only three?” he asked. He leaned down and careened the two ball into the side pocket with the cue coming off the wall to kick the nine in the corner.

 

Jonny lifted an eyebrow.

 

“You don’t have to insult Bev to get a rise out of me. You already owe me fifteen bucks. You’ll owe four times that if you let me keep shooting.”

 

Jonny set his pool stick down and came at him fast.

 

Since rules of engagement were set in that moment of Jonny setting his cue down, instead of using it, Leo sent his cue down the wall, angling it so that it would trip up Wesley when he finally got around to acting. Austin was on the other side of the room near the living room.

 

Jonny came in fast, really fast. His muscles rippled along his arms and chest as he hammered his fist toward Leo. Leo watched him, taking in every detail of speed, momentum, and body weight. He brushed the strike aside with a twist of his body and brought his own fist down on the back of Jonny’s skull like a sledgehammer as Jonny’s momentum carried him past.

 

Jonny’s momentum kept him going into the far wall of the dining room as Wesley charged at Leo. He got tangled for a moment in the pool stick that was angled and rolling across his path. It didn’t slow him down much, just by a fraction of a second, but that was enough time for Leo to snatch Jonny by the shoulder and redirect his nearly unconscious body into Wesley as well. The two went down into a heap at the side of the table. Leo gave Wesley no time to recover, coming in with a solid kick to his head and catching him on the side of his face just under the eye. Then he kicked him again in the forehead, and Wesley was out. Jonny moaned, dazed from the blow to his cerebellum. Leo sent a kick into the side of his head and the moaning stopped.

 

Austin had just set down his beer and was figuring out what to do.

 

“You really want to do this, Austin?” Leo asked, walking toward him.

 

“Not really, no,” Austin admitted.

 

“Good, because someone has to carry these guys out of here,” Leo told him.

 

“I can do that,” Austin agreed.

 

“Then get to it. I have a phone call to make,” Leo told him.

 

Austin walked by him and, with more ease than Leo expected, picked up Wesley’s body and tossed him over his right shoulder, then started for the door.

 

“Shit,” Leo breathed, duly impressed.

 

Leo called Preston Pope, the sergeant at arms, and gave him a brief account. “I hope I’m not going to be visited like this all night.”

 

“No, that’s not happening. I’ll drop some words and make some calls,” Preston said. “Want some guests?”

 

“Naw, not going to be here tonight anyway, I don’t believe,” Leo told him. “Just giving you the heads up.”

 

“And thanks for it,” Preston said, ending the call.

 

Austin was walking back through the door heading for Jonny.

 

“So, this was Jonny’s idea?” Leo asked from the other side of the pool table.

 

Austin nodded, saying, “Yeah. He said he really needed a third, so I came, but … well, they’re my friends. What could I do?”

 

“I know the feeling. In fact, that feeling, a little more than four years ago, was really what started all this shit,” Leo told him.

 

Austin straighten back up, letting Jonny droop to the ground again. “Yeah? How so?”

 

Leo told him the story of him and Crash. At least, his version of it, up to the part where he turned and rode away.

 

“See,” Leo said, “I shouldn’t have gone in with him, and I knew it was all wrong. Crash was too up, probably did too much meth that day. The bike was damaged.… Who goes into a robbery with a damaged getaway vehicle? I mean, that’s so fucking stupid. And I knew that, but then he said he was going to do it on his own and started for the door — like you said, he was my friend. What could I do?”

 

Austin shook his head. He had leaned back against the wall as he listened. “I never heard the whole story. I only heard that you were on a robbery, the cops showed up, and you rabbited. That was it.”

 

“Most of the time, Austin, things are never that simple, and the person trying to tell it as that simple is either lying or doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Take Jonny here, for example. He gets you two and tells you what? One guy, three people? Simple job and Crash deserves it, right?”

 

“Yeah, pretty much like that. Said you would be alone, and no one was around your place. So it was a three against one fight and you would never see it coming, because Crash was already banished and you probably didn’t even know he was dead yet,” Austin told him.

 

“Well, I did see it coming as soon as I recognized you three coming up my lane. Jonny confirmed it by insulting Beverly. But for future reference, you don’t attack a man like me in his own home.” Leo bent down and pulled the 9mm from the holster he had nailed to the bottom of the table. He showed it to Austin.

 

“I have twelve of these in various areas of the house. Twelve, Austin. I have twenty knives hidden in the same manner. To top it off, there are five grenades. I’ve ridden a lot of trails and seen a lot of things, and some of those things were really scary. So, yeah, this is probably paranoid, but, hell, sometimes people are really out to get me. So, again. Never on the man’s home turf. And it is never going to be simple.”

 

“You could have taken your shot and then shot all three of us. Fuck, we were in your home. No one would have said shit,” Austin said with nervous laugh. “Why didn’t you?”

 

“I don’t like killing. Never have. That’s why I got out of the military. I did it, served my time. But … this will probably sound kind of dorky, but it really felt like part of me was getting ripped away with every bullet. By the time I got out and back State-side, whole chunks of me were gone.”

 

Jonny started to stir, making questioning moaning sounds. Austin kicked him in the head and the moaning stopped. “No, I get that. I felt the same way. Exactly like that.”

 

“You were in?”

 

“Recon,” Austin nodded.

 

“So, like, what’s the deal?” Leo asked, looking him over.

 

“It just felt pointless. What was I exercising for? I didn’t want to be a killing machine any longer,” Austin said.

 

“Then do it for your son,” Leo told him.

 

“I don’t have a son,” Austin said with a laugh.

 

“Yeah, right now you don’t, but you will. Probably within five years. And you’re going to want to play with him, and ride with him, and do shit with him. Seriously,” Leo told him.

 

“You’re kind of strange,” Austin said with a smirk.

 

“Think so? You’re from Arkansas. The reason you have the name Austin is from the band, not the city. You’re twenty-eight years old and going to have a birthday within two months. You have a little sister, and you look after her. Steak is alright, but really you prefer a good hamburger with a beer. Your mother still writes you letters, not emails, even though she knows how and has a computer.”

 

“Holy shit!” Austin gasped, “What the fuck — how can you possibly know all of that?”

 

“Five years Austin, five years. Now, get Jonny out of my house, and let’s get them awake.”

 

Leo used the hose to wake Jonny and Wesley from their state. Both of them looked like hell had ridden over them. Leo tossed the hose down and walked up to their bikes. “I want you two to remember that I could have shot you in there, and neither the cops nor the club would have batted an eye at me for it. I could have shot you, but I didn’t, just like I didn’t shoot a defenseless fucking deputy.” Then he fired his gun, and with two shots, left wicked burning scars across each of their fenders.

 

“Fix that before a year is up, and I’ll kick the living crap out of you again. Only this time, I’ll go for bone breaking. I swear to god. Now, get the fuck off my land before I decide shooting you in the leg isn’t really going to kill you.”

 

The three of them rode off, and Leo watched them go.

 

“Arkansas license plate. Club is famous for steak, but I only see you eating hamburgers. Letter from your mother is in your back pocket…” he murmured to himself with a smile as he walked back into his house to put away his gun.