"I'm okay. Go."
I let go of her, slide my cut over my shoulders, pick the hat off the hook, and step out into the morning.
Hadley locks the door behind me. The bolt turns under her hand.
* * *
Banshee is leaning against the side of his bike with his arms crossed and the sidearm visible at his hip. The black Explorer is fifteen feet back from the gate, idling. Todd is in the driver's seat with his window down and his hands on the wheel.
I park my bike, get out, and walk past Banshee toward the Explorer.
Banshee speaks low as I pass him. "Sleep-deprived. Shirt's wrinkled. Hands shake when he reaches for things. He's not armed that I've seen but I haven't searched him."
"Good work, brother."
I keep walking.
I stop at the open driver's window. Todd looks up at me. His eyes are too wide. His face is pale under the morning beard stubble. His shirt collar is creased the wrong way like he slept in it. "You're Rogue, right?"
"Yeah, and you're done. Turn around and go back to Marble Falls."
He shakes his head three times in fast succession. Like he's trying to clear something out of it. "I need to talk to Hadley. There's been a misunderstandin'. She's the only one who knows the truth about Garrett and me and what we—what I was to him?—"
"Stop usin' his name."
He blinks. "What?"
"Garrett told his mama on his deathbed to keep you away from her. He told her a couple of times in the last week of his life. Mama Cross told Hadley. We all know it now. Stop usin' his name like you got the right."
His mouth opens, closes, opens again. "That isn't—Mama Cross is confused, she's been confused since he died, you don't?—"
"She isn't confused."
"You don't know her, you don't?—"
I put my hand on the door frame of his Explorer. I lean down. I get eye to eye with him through the open window. I drop my voice. "Listen to me, Todd. I'm only sayin' this once."
He stops. The pulse in his neck is going visibly under the skin.
"Hadley is mine. You're not gonna see her. You're not gonna call her. You're not gonna send her anythin'. You're not gonna come to this gate again. You're not gonna say her name in Garrison. You're sure as fuck not gonna ask her mother-in-law about her."
I let the words sit.
"If you do any of those things, you and I are gonna find out what kind of man I am. Do you understand me?"
His pulse jumps in his throat. He opens his mouth. "I—you can't—my work called me. I have to go to Houston tomorrow. Something is happening at my job. Hadley is the only person who would?—"
"Hadley has nothin' to do with what's happenin' at your job."
"You don't know what's?—"
"I know enough."
His face goes the color of old paper. He looks at the steering wheel. Then back at me. His mouth works once like he's trying to say something else and can't get it out.
I take my hand off the door frame and step back. "Get the fuck out of here."
He doesn't move.
