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“Nope. I don’t think he knows.”
“Really? That seems unlikely.”
“Well, hopefully, it’ll all be over soon. Maybe then your dad will offer up more information on him.”
“Maybe so,” I agree.
“Try not to worry. I’ll have my gun on me the whole time, and we’ve got eyes on us everywhere we go, even if you don’t see them.”
“Okay, Let’s get this over with.”
The visit with my grandmother is short because we don’t want to put her in danger.
As soon as Bear kills his bike’s engine at the Devil Hounds’ bar, he gets a text.
“What’s up?” I ask when he takes a long time reading it.
“Let’s go inside,” Barrett says, slipping his arm around me to guide me into the bar. As soon as the door shuts behind us, he tells the bouncer, “Lock it.”
“He’s here?” I ask as my heart begins to thump louder.
“One of the Hounds spotted him following us from your house in an old, rusted orange truck,” he tells me.
“Holy shit. This might actually work.”
“Status?” my dad asks as he stomps down the stairs.
“He’s alive, and he’s following us,” Barrett tells him.
When he’s on the ground floor, he wraps me in a bear hug and tells me, “It’s almost over, baby girl. Hang in there.”
Then he slips a knife into my coat pocket, which makes me even more nervous. Because if I have to use it to defend myself against the psycho, then it means someone else is hurt or dead.
Barrett
Leaving Lyla at my house and driving away was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
I know she’s not really alone, that there are eyes on her in every direction, ready to pounce if things move faster than we planned.
But it’s not the same as being in the room with her, holding her hand, keeping her safe.
On the ride back to the bar alone, I get this gnawing in my gut that has me thinking about Tobin.
I think about the friend I lost a lot, but today is different.
We met by coincidence when I was stationed in Afghanistan, working in REF, the Rapid Equipping Force. As a unit supplyspecialist, it was my job to inventory, inspect, load and unload equipment, and deliver supplies.
My first delivery was some magnetometers and Talon robots to Tobin’s brigade late one night. I ended up staying for dinner instead of driving right back to the base. The meal was awful, but the company was needed since I was in a new country, doing a new job, and hadn’t heard from Laurel or my family in days.
At least once a month, I would deliver supplies to those men who were in charge of locating and disposing of IEDs, one of the most dangerous jobs. Each time, there were fewer men, but Tobin somehow made it out alive when so many of his comrades didn’t make it home. Looking back on it, I can only imagine how that would have made me feel. How it did make him feel in the last days.
I never got to meet up with him as a civilian.
I waited too long to extend an invite to Rockland because I didn’t want to bother him or have him refuse.
I won’t wait too long this time.
“We need to go back,” I tell Isaac and my brothers as soon as I walk into Greer’s.
