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“Hmm. I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve only been back in town for a little while. After Reap…”
She glanced at her son and smiled at him. Cash had his mouth hanging open like a baby bird and he was pounding on the highchair tabletop demanding more food.
“I couldn’t stay here. I was pregnant and I went home to live with my mom for a while. But the girls—the Old Ladies—kept bugging me to come back.”
“Why did you come back? Weren’t the memories too much for you?”
“Here you go, Pudge-a-muff.” She sliced a couple more pieces of banana and put them in front of Cash. “I wanted my son to grow up around his father’s friends. They’re good men. Brave. Loyal. I knew they’d do anything for Reap. For me. For our family.”
“They’re not really good though, are they?” I asked. “I mean, your husband died because of the club and what they were involved in…”
Rach’s eyes widened. “You know about the cartel?”
“What?”
“What do you mean what?” Rach demanded. “You just said you knew what they were involved in.”
“Um, that’s not what I said. I said I knew they were involved in something, but Smoke only vaguely mentioned it on our drive from Vegas. He never said anything about the cartel. Holy fuck—”
“Oh.” Rach looked at her son and fell silent.
“Um, hello? You can’t just mention the cartel oh so casually and then not elaborate.”
“I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Well, you did. So, out with it.”
“I can’t.”
“But you just—”
“You’re not involved, Logan. You’re not an Old Lady. You’re not family.”
“Ouch.”
“I’m not saying that to be mean. I’m saying that to protect you. You don’t want to know about this. I’m not supposed to discuss any of this with you. All I’m going to say is that the club isn’t involved in that shit anymore, hence why they’re getting into real estate and going in a different direction.”
“Wow.” My mind whirled. “And you came back to town knowing about the cartel? Wouldn’t it have been safer to stay away?”
“Maybe. But the club is family and the world is a dangerous place. You can’t run from that.”
I was suddenly sick to my stomach.
Smoke had asked Tavy to move to Waco. The timing of it made sense now.
“Dinner’s going to be weird, isn’t it?” Rach asked.
“Well, yeah. Probably. I’m trying to wrap my head around this. Why did you marry a biker if you knew what kind of stuff he was involved in?”
“I didn’t know at the time, but it wouldn’t have mattered. I was in love. They keep the Old Ladies out of club business for a reason. Only, with the cartel, it was going to affect all of us, so we were on a need-to-know basis.”
“You know that’s crazy, right?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Why not? Why can’t I understand?”
“Look, some of us don’t want to live within the boxes society demands we put ourselves in.”
