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When Katie left, Petra stood still. There were things she had to do, but shock and sadness had paralyzed her.
She missed Jake. Everything felt better when he was with her.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Runs to Nevada sincethe new charter weren’t like any Russian runs Jay had been on. In the past, there had always been another crew at the handoff. Usually friendly, sometimes with true friends, but other times tense as fuck, either because they weren’t totally sure how far they could trust those allies or because they weren’t Bulls’ allies at all, but contractors for the buyer. In any case, handoffs had usually been quick, businesslike deals, a shift of cargo, a handshake, and scene. Bulls headed east, the other crew headed in whatever direction the run took them.
Now they handed off their Volkov cargo to their own people, to the Nevada Bulls, a couple of whom, including Zach, had been in Tulsa, werefromTulsa.Belongedin Tulsa, in Jay’s opinion.
That was weird enough, but the really weird part was that the cargo was still right there. Tomorrow, the Nevada charter would head south, into Mexico, and deliver the cargo to its buyer, the queen of a Mexican drug cartel—or, more likely, to her lieutenants. Tonight, all the Bulls were partying at the Nevada clubhouse, and upwards of a million bucks in black-market weaponry was locked in their garage, about a hundred feet away from where Jay now sat.
He couldn’t relax around that shit. People called him stupid, reckless, careless, all the time, they accused him of not thinking about consequences before he acted, but if he were in charge they wouldn’t be partying in the middle of a run that could send them all to federal prison for a very long time—or draw the attention of about fifty other outlaw crews that prowled Nevada, the consequences of which would make a fifteen-year stint in Leavenworth look like a vacation.
Everybody else seemed to be unaffected by the Russian heat a few yards off. They were all sitting around a bonfire behind the clubhouse, in something like a courtyard, created by the ‘bunkhouses’ they’d built to house guests. Jay sat in his cheap plastic chair, stared at the fire, and sucked on another beer, trying not to stress about the guns at his back, or get bent about the way all of Zach’s attention was on his girlfriend—oh, sorry,old lady—or how Duncan had disappeared already into one of the ‘bunkhouses’ with a Nevada sweetbutt, or how everybody else was talking and laughing and partying like old friends.
Even Cooper had an old lady now. That didn’t even make sense. Coop had always insisted he preferred riding solo. And his old lady had a kid!
“Yeah, we found a place on the Arizona side,” Cooper was telling Dex, Simon, and Fitz. “Bullhead City. Not far from Zach and Ly’s place. Plenty of room to spread out. It’s got a pool, too—Geneva loves that. ButIbought it for the garage.”
“Ah man,” Zach said. “That garage isamazing. Three bays and a beautiful workshop area. It’s even got a loft!”
Cooper laughed. “The garage fucking dominates. The whole place looks like a stack of boxes. Siena thought the house was ugly as sin, but then she saw the inside. Who needs curb appeal in the desert, anyway.”
“What about you guys?” Fitz asked Zach and Lyra. “You’re building, right?”
“Not yet,” Lyra said. As always, she was sitting on Zach’s lap. Did the chick not know how to use a chair? “We put down a tiny house, like these”—she waved at the bunkhouses—“but we made ours prettier. We’re saving up to build.”
Cooper’s old lady, Siena, came over and said something to Lyra, who kissed Zach and stood. Cooper caught Siena’s hand and pulled her down for a raunchy kiss. Then Siena and Lyra headed to the house.
“Food in about ten, sounds like,” Cooper said. “Siena makes these fajitas you can’t believe.” He looked across the fire at Jay. “Hey, JJ. Why’re you sitting off by yourself?”
He hadn’t been. He’d been sitting with Duncan and Geno, sharing a blunt, but Duncan had gone for a fuck, and Jay didn’t know where Geno went off to. Probably for a fuck, too. A very cute sweetbutt, with great tits and long black hair past her waist, had pushed up on Jay, too, but he hadn’t been especially tempted—even though he’d banged her the last time he was here and knew she was a good lay.
Now that he had a girlfriend, he’d been a little worried about how he’d react to freely offered sex from very available girls—one of the main perks of outlaw life and something he’d partaken of at every possible chance. Now he knew that his head was so full of Petra nobody else could catch his eye.
What was catching his eye right now: Cooper was talking to Zach, and they’d both turned to Jay. So he wasn’t surprised when Zach finished his beer, set the empty in the dirt, and stood.
Eight had said outright that the reason he wanted Jay on this run was Zach. There had apparently been some kind of Old Man Summit between Cooper, Eight, and Pop, and now Jay had been pretty much ordered to make nice with his brother.
Not wanting the heat when he got back to Tulsa, feeling just high enough, just buzzed enough to be mellow about the whole thing, Jay sat where he was and watched his brother come.
It wasn’t like he wasn’t speaking to Zach. They’d had a quick hug when Tulsa arrived. He answered most of Zach’s texts. He just didn’t go out of his way to talk to him. Because he didn’t trust him anymore.
“Hey,” Zach said and took the seat Duncan had vacated.
