CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Badger ran into the clubhouse and grabbed Thumper, who was sitting alone playing on the Xbox. It was not long past ten o’clock, and he’d expected the Hall to be livelier, but maybe the other guys were already getting their play.
“Hey, Thump. I need a box. A big, cardboard box. Something like that. Dig one up for me. Quick. Just set it…over there”—he indicated the corner nearest the television—“and then come out to my truck.” Thumper nodded at the order and got up from the couch. Badger turned back to the front door.
Adrienne was sitting in the middle of his truck bed, buried in puppies. As Badger approached, the alpha pup left the pile and walked toward him. He was a big guy, with huge paws, all four looking like he’d walked through a trough of white paint.
“Hey, buddy. You keepin’ watch?” He put his hand over the wall of the truck bed, and the pup nosed him, then gave him a lick. “How you doing, babe? Your legs okay?”
Adrienne was giggling, so he already knew the answer, but she beamed at him and answered, “Oh yeah. These guys are great. I want all of them!”
“I don’t think so. Maybe one. But let’s see what the rest of the guys say. It’d be cool if they all went home with the Horde some way.”
Thumper came out then. “I found a big toilet paper box. What’s…oh.” He noticed the pups. “Cool. Where’d they come from?”
“Some asswipe dumped ‘em on the road.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah.” Badger leaned into the bed and lifted a pup. “Here. Take this one, and…”—he handed the pup to Thumper and then lifted another—“this one.” Grinning, Thumper turned and took his wriggling burden into the Hall.
Reaching over the bed wall, Badger held his arms out to Adrienne. “Here, babe. Let me help you out.”
She stood up—he noticed her stiffness—and came over to the side. The remaining pups followed her, climbing over each other to stay as close to her as they could. He lifted her over the side, ignoring the sharp pull and ache in his chest. He was starting to get used to it, actually. He wondered if, someday, he would stop noticing completely. Like pain would just be normal.
When he set her down on the gravel, the pups began kicking up a fuss. “Easy, shorties. You’re not getting left.” He reached in for a pup and handed it to Adrienne. “I’ll get the other two—go on inside.” She nodded and turned to the clubhouse. Badger grabbed the alpha and the last pup and went in.
Thumper and Adrienne had set their pups down and were both sitting on the floor with them. Badger put his down, too. The alpha immediately went to the litter, sniffed around, and then began exploring. Badger watch as he investigated the whole room, cycling back repeatedly to the other pups, all of whom stayed close together, close to their new people. They yipped and rolled and climbed all over them and each other. It was impossible not to laugh, impossible not to feel good, around all this untrammeled enthusiasm.
Badger was pretty sure this litter was mostly a Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix—their bodies and markings made it obvious to him. The alpha was noticeably biggest and looked most like a Shep, at least in terms of his markings, though he had the broad head and chest of a Rotty. Three of the others were more solid-colored, ranging from almost blond to a deep, reddish-brown.
The only female was the smallest pup, less than half the size of the alpha. She was deep red, with a nearly-black marking over her brow that looked very much like an “M.”
But one, the one now curled contentedly on Adrienne’s lap, getting his ears stroked and watching the fracas but not participating in it, looked a lot like an Australian Shepherd—blue merle markings and blue eyes. So there were a few flavors in this gene soup. They looked like they’d end up being massive dogs, though, all but the little girl.
Badger watched Adrienne as she loved on the pups. It had been ages—since long before she’d moved here—that he’d seen the kind of naked joy she was wearing now on her pretty face. Her eyes sparkled with it. Her cheeks were round and rosy with it. And he was so suddenly suffused with his love for her that he actually put his hand over his heart.
He would do anything for her, give her anything, everything he had, everything in his power. He would make her happy. He would love her forever. No matter what.
A wet nose pushed under his hand where it still lay on his chest, and he looked down to see the blond pup demanding his attention. When he looked up again, his hands full of puppy, Adrienne’s brightly happy eyes were on him.
“I love you.”
Her smile stretched wider. “I love you.”
Thumper coughed and stood. “Uh, I’m gonna get some newspaper. Isaac’ll tear me another asshole if they piss and shit all over the floor.”
That made Badger think. “Yeah. We need water for them. And food. Damn.” It was far too late to get puppy food tonight.
Adrienne put her hand on his knee. “It’s okay. We can do water just with bowls from the kitchen for tonight. And they’re not starving. They’ll be okay until tomorrow. They need a vet, though.”
“Yeah. I’ll call Isaac in the morning, and then the vet. Um. For tonight…I don’t know.”
“Can we take them back into your old room and keep them with us there tonight?”
“You want to spend the night in the clubhouse?” He didn’t like the thought of her undressed here. But maybe that was an overreaction. Tasha had lived here with Len for months, from the time of Havoc’s death until several weeks ago, when their house was finished. The anniversary of that day spent in Hell was less than two weeks away.
Badger set that thought aside, and right quick. This was a good night. It had been a good day.
“I don’t mind it, as long as the bed is clean. It’ll be fun. We can use that box for them to sleep in. Just bring it back to your room.”
He smiled, easily convinced. “Okay. Thumper—help us set it up.”
~oOo~
The puppies thought the box was a uniquely horrible idea, and cried and whimpered pathetically. After about twenty minutes, there was an emphatic pounding on the door. Badger answered to find a rumpled Zeke, and Double A, and Dom, all standing in the hallway in assorted stages of undress. Zeke was full monty. Badger pulled the door mostly closed, leaving only his head pointed into the hallway. Adrienne did not need to see Zeke’s full monty. Nobody needed to see that.
Though Zeke was front and center and had probably done the pounding on the door, it was Dom who spoke. “What the fuck, man? What you got in there?”
“Sorry. Puppies. Long story. We’ll talk tomorrow. I’ll get ‘em quiet.”
“Yeah. Please.”
Badger closed the door and turned back to Adrienne. “I don’t think the box is going to work. Not here.”
Her relief was obvious and immediate. “Good! I feel bad with them trapped in there.” She freed them one by one and then turned the box on its side. “Maybe they’ll like it better like a fort, so they can come and go.”
And sure enough. After several minutes of petting, kissing, exploring, and tumble-bumbling, the blonde pup wandered into the box and lay down. He got up, turned and lay down again. He scooted and was still. Then another pup went in. And another. The little girl was next, and she scooted around the edges of the growing mound of pups until she found a spot, her nose buried under the bodies of her brothers. The alpha went in last. He turned and lay down, a few inches away from the pile, nose out of the box, his eyes open. On watch. Badger felt something give in his heart.
“He’s taking care of his family,” Adrienne whispered.
“Yeah.”
“He should live with Isaac and Lilli. He should be Isaac’s.”
Badger turned to her. She was watching the pups and didn’t notice the change in his attention. He studied her profile, sweet and perfect. She understood. He thought she understood more than she realized.
“Yeah. That’d be good.” He reached out and slid his hand under her magnificent hair, cupping his palm over the back of her neck, and pulled her to him. As he came in to kiss her, she opened her mouth. He covered her lips with his and laid her back on his crappy clubhouse bed.
As he lifted her skirt, his hand sliding gently, lightly over the uneven skin of her right leg, he asked, his lips at her ear, “Which one is ours?”
She turned her head and nuzzled her nose into his beard. “The one with the beautiful eyes. He’s quiet and strong. He’s a watcher, too.”
~oOo~
There was not a lot of sleeping that night, by the canines or humans in that room, but the humans managed to fuck three times. And they’d gathered up all the pups twice for a trip out back for their business, which did not get done. They preferred to take care of that in Badger’s room. Near, but of course not on, the paper. His room was going to need a thorough airing out.
They were both tired, but Adrienne was still riding a high of puppy love and in a great mood. Badger took his energy from that.
At the earliest opportunity that it would not be deadly to call Isaac with anything other than an emergency, he let his President know about the new clubhouse residents. Then he called Delia Borden, the local vet, who made house calls as a matter of course, since most of her patients were livestock. By the time she got there, the entire club was in the Hall, including families. There was an air of celebration in the room. The kids were over the moon—and the puppies were, too. They might have been dumped on the side of the road, but they’d landed on a cloud.
Delia checked them all over, estimated their age at eight weeks, did all the basic medical stuff they needed. With a portable scale she’d brought in with her, she weighed them all. The alpha came in at just over thirteen pounds. Delia muttered, “This one’s gonna be a beast.” The little girl was just under seven pounds. The other three were clustered around ten.
When she was done, Delia turned to Isaac, even though it was Badger who’d called and was more or less in charge of the pups. Isaac was the leader, period. “Other than the usual stuff of an unwanted litter—worms, fleas, that stuff—these guys are fit as fiddles, Ike. They are gonna be big ‘uns. I’d say the biggest will top a hundred pounds easy before he’s done. Maybe most of ‘em will.”
Isaac had the alpha in his arms. Without any prompting or suggestion from Badger or Adrienne, he had gravitated to that pup, and vice versa. He turned the pup’s head up to face him. “What breeds are in here?”
“Oh, they’re mutts, through and through. Mutts are good dogs, though. I’m seeing Shep, some Rotty or maybe Bull as the dominant features. They’ll need strong hands. These won’t be the kind of dogs that piddle when they’re barked at. More like bark back. Or bite, unless they’re trained.” She looked around the room. “I guess you got a full supply of strong hands around here. You keeping ‘em?”
Isaac’s eyes followed the same path that Delia’s had. Badger looked, too. There was a lightness to the Hall that had been so long away it seemed alien. Children and old ladies laughing, puppies bumbling around, wrestling and playing. Gia was trying to lift one of the pups into Millie’s carrier seat to show it to her. Bo was crawling around barking, and Loki crawled along with him, trying to imitate him.
The Horde, too, were caught in the happy haze of puppy love. Grins all around. Even Nolan was laughing, his eyes on Loki and Bo.
With a laugh, Isaac turned back to Delia. “Yeah, I think we are.” He put his big hand on the alpha’s head and gave it a gentle shake, then set him down. The pup went off into the fray.
After Delia packed up and left, the Horde clustered loosely near the bar and watched the goings-on around the pups. It was still well before noon; the club girls had been sent home, and most of the adults were drinking coffee. Zeke, Double A, and Tommy had beer.
Isaac poured himself another cup of black coffee and took a sip. Standing behind the bar, he said, “It’s good we’re all here. We needed to meet anyway. Got a lot of news coming in since last night. But it can wait a minute. There enough of us want a pup?” He was watching the alpha pup pulling on Bo’s shoestrings. Bo sat on the floor, trying to take his shoe off. Badger assumed he intended to hand the shoe over, but then Lilli was there, taking his shoes off and away, safe from puppy teeth.
As he walked around to the front of the bar, Isaac said, “I’ll take the big one—with the white feet. Make a good guard for the kids.”
Badger already knew which one he and Adrienne wanted. “We’ll take the black and grey one, with the blue eyes.” Adrienne had already named him: Hector. He had no idea why, but she was adamant, and he thought it was a good, strong name.
“I want the girl. I like my girls,” said Len, who then called out, “Nolan! You want a pup?”
Nolan looked over at his mom. Cory cocked her head for a second, and then nodded. He turned back to Len with a genuine smile—those were rare on Nolan’s face anymore. “Yeah. Which one?”
“How about the one with a mouthful of Loki’s Pamper?” Laughter made Isaac’s voice light. Everybody looked over to see the blond pup, his mouth locked onto Loki’s denim-and-diaper-clad bottom, dragging Nolan’s brother down to the floor. Loki turned and yanked on the pup’s ear.
Cory separated the two, then lifted them both into her arms. She looked at Nolan and shrugged. “Why not?”
Only one pup was left unclaimed, but Show spoke up. “I’ll take the big red boy, then. Dog’ll be good for the kids. Always wanted the girls to have one.”
Gia came over with her little yellow backpack in her fist. “Look, Daddy.” Isaac put his mug down and picked her up, setting her on a barstool.
“What you got, squirt?”
Gia tucked her long, chestnut hair, which was very wavy and always working itself loose of whatever ties Lilli had forced it into, behind her ears. Then, with studious care, she opened her backpack and pulled out a picture book. Badger checked out the cover: Forest Creatures of North America. It looked like a library book.
“I can’t read to you right now, G. Sorry. Later, though.”
Gia sighed, and its tone spoke of her disappointment with her father’s intellect. “No, Daddy. I’ll read it. I want to show you something.” Kneeling on the barstool, she opened the book flat on the bar and carefully turned the pages. The book seemed to be alphabetically arranged, showing watercolor images of common wild animals. She got to the Bs and stopped, pointing to an animal. “Look, Badger. That’s you.” Drawing her finger under the word ‘badger,’ she continued, “Baaah-duh-jer. But you don’t look like that at all.”
“Thanks, Gia. I don’t think so, either.”
“I like your name, though. Badgers are cute.”
Ignoring the laughter of his brothers, Badger winked at the little girl who was now scowling at the men around her.
She turned the next page. “Here, Daddy. Look.”
The page showed four different bears: black, brown, Grizzly, and Kodiak, three with cubs, the Grizzly standing upright. Isaac looked over his daughter’s shoulder. “Yeah, G. Bears.”
Gia huffed irritably. “But look. Like the puppies.”
Isaac looked again, his hand resting over Gia’s neck. “Yeah, they do look a little like bears.”
“I think the one you like looks just like this one. Koh-duh-eye-ak.”
“Ko-dee-ak,” Isaac corrected her. “Yeah, I see that. Good eye, squirt.”
“Ko-dee-ak. Kodiak. Do we get a puppy?” Gia closed the book and turned to her father, her eyes wide and serious. Badger thought he would hate to ever have to say no to that face. Especially since Gia was an absolutely epic tantrum-thrower.
“We do. We’re taking the one you think looks like a Kodiak home with us.”
Without warning, Gia sailed from her knees right into Isaac’s arms. He caught her with barely a flinch. “Yay, Daddy! Yay!” She grabbed his beard and kissed his cheek. “His name is Kodiak. You can call him Kodi for short.”
“Maybe we should ask your mamma and Bo if they have ideas for a name.”
“No. His name is Kodi.” She squirmed. “Okay. Put me down.”
Isaac did as he was told, and Gia ran over to the puppies. He watched her for a minute, then turned back to his brothers. “Jesus Christ. She’s just starting kindergarten, and already she’s smarter than me. I’m gonna have to lock her up when she hits her teens. There’ll be no managing her.”
Suddenly, Lilli was behind him. “Maybe if you tried, you’d have some success. I hear we have a puppy?”
Isaac turned and pulled her close. “Uh, yeah.” He grinned. “I love you, baby.”
“Uh huh. You housebreaking him? Training him?”
Isaac just kept grinning, his eyebrows up innocently.
“Right.” She gave his braid a tug. “You owe me, love. I’ll be collecting soon. You’ll need protein and carbs today, I think.” Then she turned and went back to the family cluster over by the couches, leaving the men to themselves.
“Speaking of unmanageable women…”
At Tommy’s muttered crack, Isaac fired a furiously dark look his way. “Watch yourself. The line’s behind you, asshole.”
“Sorry, boss.”
Isaac stared long enough to make Tommy squirm, then said, “I have news. We’re all here, so let’s go.”
~oOo~
From beyond the walls and closed doors of the Keep, the Horde could hear the laughter and happy cries of their children, answered by the yips of their new pups. The lighthearted mood that had suffused the Hall came with them as they took their places at the table. Isaac was still smiling as he picked up the gavel—a new one since that meeting in March, when, arguing with Badger, he’d thrown the club’s original gavel into the wall and broken it beyond repair.
When he struck the gavel, though, his face realigned into solemnity. “To order, brothers. We got things to talk about. Nothing we have to leap up to deal with right now, but all of it deadly serious. First—Santaveria contacted me. He’s calling in his pet bitch for a special job. And I think the window we’ve been waiting for is open—or we gotta bust through that fucker, because we’re not doing the job.”
Badger remembered nothing about being shackled to a wall, Havoc dead at his side, while Santaveria ‘met’ with Isaac. But he knew that the Perro boss thought he’d brought Isaac and the Horde to their knees. In the past year, though, he had not called on them to do anything but the weed run—and, of course, to stop planning against him. They had not done the latter, though they had been more careful and circumspect—and thus much slower—in trying to plan. In fact, working only with the Scorpions LA, and under heavy cover, they hadn’t managed to make a workable plan yet.
Len asked, “What’s the job? We should vote?”
Show answered—not surprisingly, Isaac and Show had already discussed it. “He wants us to take out the Brazen Bulls at the next weed pickup.”
“What do you mean, ‘take them out’?”
Isaac turned and faced Badger as he answered his question with a question. “What do you think it means?”
“He wants us to take out a whole fucking MC?” Len’s jaw had literally dropped. “Why the fuck?”
“He’s not exactly forthcoming with the details. We’ll vote—of course we’ll vote. But my vote is a loud fuckin’ ‘nay.’ Becker is a friend. We’ve been skimpy with our trust lately, but he’s still a friend, trapped in the cartel snare, same as we are. And the Bulls are a little single-charter club like us. I do not want to take them out in the service of that piece of filth. So if we buck Santaveria, that’s our hand played, one way or the other. Next weed run, we fight. Whether we can win or not. Ride or die.”
“Put the vote up, boss.” Show’s voice was low.
“All in favor of taking out the Brazen Bulls on Perro Blanco orders? Nay.”
They went around the table. Nobody even paused. Unanimous.
Isaac smiled a different kind of smile from the one he’d worn so comfortably in the Hall, watching his kids play with puppies. This smile was a grim rictus, an expression of weary resignation. “Okay. We have a couple of weeks before the next run. That’s the time we have to plan. Dom, I need to be able to talk to Hoosier in depth off the grid. Can you and Bart do your code thing today and get a message out?”
“Yeah, boss. No sweat. And I have other stuff to bring up.”
“I know. Let’s clear this first. I want to bring Becker in. Whatever we got goin’ is goin’ down on his turf—or at least it’s starting there. Any discussion about that, extending our trust that far?”
Badger shook his head, and saw his brothers doing the same.
“Okay. Show, Len, Badge—when we get it set up, we’ll meet with the Bulls.”
“I don’t like that, boss.” Len leaned forward, his arms crossed on the table. “You know it’s not good to put all the leadership on the same run, not with shit so hot.”
“Gotta be us. We show him respect and trust when we put the whole top of the table in front of him. We’re telling him heavy news. It’s us.”
“But why me, then?” Badger wasn’t club leadership; he didn’t understand his role on the run.
“Because I want you there, Badge.”
At Isaac’s simple statement, Len turned to Badger with a knowing smile. Was this more ‘future of the Horde’ stuff? Badger didn’t know and didn’t wish to confront the idea while sitting at the table. So he nodded and let it drop.
Isaac leaned back. “Once again, Dom, the weight’s on you. And you’ve got news for the table, right?”
“Yeah, boss.” Dom looked around the table. “It’s Seaver. A lot of news. We had a breakthrough with the code—not all of it; names are coded differently. But some detail. Something else first. I think it was Seaver who did the fire at the B&B, and I think I might know why.”
The rest of the table reacted, but Isaac only nodded. Of course, Dom would have brought this news to Isaac first, but the boss was giving the floor to Dom. Badger was glad to see it. Dom had struggled to fill Bart’s shoes; his learning curve had been steep. But it looked like he was topping it. “It’s not proof. With everything else going down, I don’t know if I can find proof. But I found a connection to Signal Bend. A reason that Seaver might have such a hard-on for us. And I was thinking about what Badger said, about Seaver trying to turn the town against us and maybe bein’ mad when they had our back at the Spring Fest. I was tryin’ to think why he was after us so hard, so fast.”
“Get to it, Dom.” The impatience in Isaac’s voice was clear.
Dom cleared his throat. “Mac Evans and Leon Seaver are cousins.”
Show sat up. “What? Wait—we know his kin. He came up here in town.”
“Not this kin. Mother’s side.”
It felt to Badger like the whole table was working that through in unison. When Show nodded, signaling that he’d processed the new information, he did so for the group and then asked the next obvious question. “Okay, go on…why blow the B&B and hurt people?”
“Evans has known our fist more than once, Show,” Isaac answered. “We about crippled him the last time. He’s a smarmy little puke and deserved what he got, but if they’re close, it might be cause to take extreme measures to get us gone.”
“They’re close. Summers together when they were kids. Holidays together still. He was probably coming from Seaver’s house the night he hit Nolan.”
“Still doesn’t add, does it?” Len asked. “Would our law-and-order Sheriff get his hands this dirty? Arson—and murder? Attempted murder? That’s heavy shit.”
“He tried to clear the place. We know he wasn’t anywhere near the fire, because he slowed you guys down when you were on your way. Think about that: He slowed you down. I think he put out a contract and the guy he hired muffed it. Or just didn’t care if somebody got killed. I don’t think Seaver wanted anybody hurt, though. Except us. I think his plan just went balls up.”
“If that’s true—if he has an innocent death on his conscience, that could be a way in with him.” Show swiped his hand over his beard, pulling it thoughtfully.
“If he has an innocent death on his conscience, I don’t want a way in with him, Show. I want to end him—life or career or both.” Isaac sat back.
The table was quiet, taking all that in. Badger’s head was whirring frantically, making new connections. A whole lot was beginning to come clear. It was beginning to feel like all the disparate tensions that had been pulling the Horde in too many directions to manage, trying to pull them apart, might not be so disparate after all.
And then Dom said something that filled in the final piece. “I got more. The code. Seaver is definitely talking to a Fed. He was talking to two of them for a while—the one in St. Louis put him with another guy. Now he interfaces with the other guy on a regular basis. He’s DHS. And he’s inside the Perros. Lilli’s sure of it.”
“Wait. Again. Seaver is connected to the Perros?” Len’s brow wrinkled deeply under his eye patch.
“By a few degrees of separation. Don’t think he knows. I don’t think he realizes exactly who he’s talking to. Lilli picked up a couple of things in their emails, and had me trace the IP bounce. I ended up in Caborca, Mexico. That’s Perro Central. Can’t be a coincidence.”
“You think the Feds are using Seaver.” The picture was nearly complete in Badger’s head.
Isaac answered. “Why not? Small-time county Sheriff with a bug up his ass about an MC, MC in bed with a major drug player—use Seaver to wear us down, make him think he’s getting help on a big bust, then ride us in to take the cartel down—or at least disrupt them. Feds’ wet dream—Perros down, us locked up, the little Sheriff left standin’ alone in the cold with his dick in his hand.”
“Jesus Christ.” Len laughed darkly. “I feel like a dosed chick at a frat party. Everybody wants their turn fuckin’ us.”
“And the B&B fits in how?” Show was the only one at the table who looked completely calm.
Dom checked with Isaac, and when the boss nodded his permission, Dom picked up his story. “Side project. It doesn’t, just shit going to hell at once. The LA bombing happening so close to the B&B fire is really just a coincidence. I guess they happen sometimes. Seaver’s link to the cartel is the only connection, and it doesn’t make them related. It’s correlation, not causation—he doesn’t know he has any link to the cartel. He’s just after us, any way he can get us. Maybe he’s starting to feel like the Feds aren’t giving him the help he thought they were.”
Isaac sat forward again. “There are gaps. They’re using a code in a code, and it shifts. Pretty sophisticated. Lilli’s a little rusty and she hasn’t been able to crack it. Names, dates, those details—still unknown.”
“Can she get help? Maybe Bart?” Badger was sure Bart would help.
“Too risky.”
“We don’t trust him?”
“Not what I mean—it’s too risky for him. You know he’s got a flashing light on his head right now. The Perros are watching him, the Scorpions mother charter is watching him. We can’t ask him to take this on. It’ll get him killed for sure. It’s Lilli and Dom. If they can’t get it done in time, we go in a little blind.”
Len laughed again. “Okay. Checking for understanding. This is our theory: Seaver hired out to blow the B&B, as some kind of payback for what we’ve done to Evans over the years—and to try to turn the town against us for good and all. There’s a DHS agent undercover in the Perros, and he’s using Seaver to use us to implode the cartel. That cartel wants us to kill an entire MC, friends of ours. And we have no way of fighting back against any of it, but we’re fighting anyway. Am I right?”
Isaac nodded. “You are, brother. But now’s the time to find the way. One way or another, this shit will all come to an end very soon.”
“Fuck. Days like this, I wish I just sold hardware.” Len crossed his arms on the table and dropped his head.
~oOo~
After the Keep, the Horde all were still dazed and uncharacteristically quiet. Badger figured everybody was doing what he was doing—fitting their world into this new picture. He was of two minds about the news. In some ways, it was a relief to know that everything they’d been going through, all the demons they’d been fighting, were all connected in some way, and it was strangely satisfying that somebody like Seaver had managed to land unwittingly on the pivot point of the whole unstable balance. Like theirs weren’t the only plans that could go tits-up at a moment’s notice.
Then again, if everything was connected, even through the weak link of Leon Seaver, that was a hell of a huge storm cloud over their heads. If it let loose before they could find shelter, they’d drown.
None of the old ladies were in the Hall, but Nolan was sitting on the floor, his back against one of the worn, leather couches. He was playing with Loki and Bo and the puppies. Gia sat on the couch, her legs straight out before her and her feet resting on Nolan’s shoulder. She was reading loudly from a picture book.
The other Horde went to the bar, where Thumper had started pouring drinks, but Badger went over and sat next to Gia and Nolan.
“Where are the women?”
“In the kitchen. Don’t know why. Lilli called them all in there.”
“Badger, I’m reading.” Gia scowled at him.
“Sorry, Gia. Go ahead.”
He didn’t know if she was actually reading or had just memorized the book, but if she was reading, then he was impressed. School had only started a few days ago, and she was only in kindergarten.
When she was finished, she closed the book and gave him a benevolent smile. “Okay. You can talk now. I’m going to find Mamma.” She scooted off the couch, her book tucked under her arm. Before she left, she turned and wagged a finger at Nolan and Badger both. “Keep an eye on the boys, now.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Satisfied, she turned and trotted off toward the kitchen.
Hector was near his feet, so Badger picked him up and set him on his lap. He immediately settled down and got comfortable, his little head moving as he tracked the play of his siblings.
Nolan looked over his shoulder. “The puppies are cool. I’m glad you found them.”
“Yeah. Me, too. You got a name for yours?”
“Thor.”
Badger considered the blonde pup barreling into Kodi at that moment. “Yeah. That’s good. Hav would’ve dug it.”
“That’s what I was thinking, too.”
Loki climbed into Nolan’s lap, leaned back against his brother’s chest, and stuck his thumb in his mouth. Nolan kissed the top of his head. “Tired, pal?” Loki nodded, and Nolan shifted so that his baby brother could lie back more.
Stroking Hector’s soft fur—amazing how calming petting an animal could be—Badger asked, “How’s school starting?”
Nolan shrugged, then answered quietly, “Okay. Don’t care much. I’d just drop out, but my mom would hate that. I promised her I’d finish, so I will. But there’s not really a point, except she wants me to.”
“It’s good to finish. Even if you don’t do college—”
“—I’m not doing college, Badge. I’m prospecting. Soon as I turn eighteen. On my birthday.” He looked over his shoulder again. “Will you sponsor me?”
“I told you I’ll always have your back, Nolan. Yeah. I’ll sponsor you. If that’s what you want. Any of us would, you know.”
“I want it to be you.”
“Okay, then.” They were quiet for a while. Loki fell asleep. Bo had dumped a pile of LEGOs on the floor and was building some…thing. “How’s your mom?”
“She’s okay. Almost normal again. Or maybe she is normal, and this is how she is now. She doesn’t play her guitar anymore. Ever. I miss that. But she’s okay. I don’t think she’s gonna try to do what she did again, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I wasn’t. I was just wondering. How about you? Okay?”
“I will be. When I have a kutte. That’s when I’ll be okay.”
“Riding lessons going good?”
“Yeah. But Show says I can’t have Hav’s bike until I’m patched in.”
“No. That’s the way that works.”
“You think we could put the gas on this winter, try to get the Sportster up? The B&B is quiet in the winter, right? You’ll have more time?”
“Yeah. We could do that.”
“Cool. I need to ride.”
Badger knew a little something about needing the Horde, needing the club, and the bike, and the leather. Needing the brotherhood. Needing it as much as blood and air. So he said only, “Yeah, I know.”
And he wondered whether there would be a Horde for Havoc’s kid to patch into.