“Does Dani want you to leave?” Dani had never seemed like the type to want to be part of the MC lifestyle, even if she’d proven she had the balls to handle it. She had an air of being above all this shit.
“No, man,” Blaze said. “She’d never ask me to do that. She knows it’s been part of me forever.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know. It’s all going fine, the gig with Benicio and shit. It’s sometimes I just get to thinking about where we’re headed, what the long term plan is.”
~ ~ ~
Where we were headed is that I knew there was going to be a vote on the cartel thing, but I didn't tell him. I wanted to see the look on his fucking face when he showed up for church and found out just how much he'd been missing by visiting Dani all goddamn year.
I was pissed off at him for neglecting the club.
It was petty, especially in light of what was happening now.
Crunch's voice jolted me back to the present.
“You ever think about coming back here?” he asked.
“I used to,” I said. Not anymore.
“This place is a fucking trip,” he said. “Maybe because I grew up in the city or whatever, but holy shit, it’s small.”
I laughed, wiping my palm on my jeans. “You think this is small? It’s huge now. It was an event when we got a traffic light here. The newspaper covered it.”
Crunch laughed. “No shit?”
“Not only did they cover it, they sent out a reporter to stand by the side of the road, interview people after they went though. Caused a traffic jam.”
"Guess you knew everybody here, huh.”
"Everybody knew everybody," I said.
Crunch nodded. "You and June seemed like you knew each other pretty well."
I groaned. Not this. I didn't want to talk about June. I didn't want to think about her.
My dad saved me, waving at us from the porch. "I think we’re wanted up there, man,” I said.
"So I'm not going to get the story on June, then."
"Not on your life," I said. I glanced behind us, over toward June's house. I hadn't seen her, not even run into her, since the night I'd gotten back here. I'd drunk too much, gone over there thinking I might get lucky. Like she was a club whore or something.
It was stupid, and I deserved worse than I got from her that night.
We walked toward the house. "How's Mac doing with all of this, anyway?" I asked.
“She’s an easy kid,” he said. “Been taking it in stride. She thinks it’s a big vacation.”
“That’s good.”
“We probably need to get them out of here.”
I nodded. “I think it would be for the best.”
“You think shit’s going to hit the fan out here?”
"Not yet," I said. "You been working on getting us any intel?"
Crunch nodded. "Seeing if I can get anything through the medical examiner's office, newspapers, that kind of thing. Doesn't look like the ME's office has anything I can hack into though. Might all be old school."
"Can we get them back with your mother-in-law?"
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s how we had planned it anyway. Should we get them set up?”
"Let's wait, see what intel we can get," I said. "If they think we're dead, at least right now, we may be able to buy some time, get in touch with Blaze."
"You think we should get in touch with Benicio?"
"Not Benicio," I said. "Blaze might know him, but I don't."
“If shit goes down, this isn’t the place to be,” Crunch said.
"I don't know about that," I said. "This town's full of ranchers, armed to the teeth. But yeah, I don't want anything coming down on my old man."
“Well, now, Joe Holder.” April put her hands on her hips. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look as hot as you do right now. You look good enough to eat.” April’s hair was pulled back in a ponytail, an apron tied around her waist, and she brandished a whisk in her hand.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear an apron,” Crunch said. “Are you cooking?”
“I’m being all domestic,” she said, a wide grin plastered across her face. “Don’t worry, I’m not burning the place down.”
"April can’t be trusted near the stove, Stan,” Crunch said. He walked up the stairs and slid his arm around her waist. “Don’t you go burning down this nice man’s house, now.”
April giggled as she leaned against him. “Just as long as you don’t expect any gourmet meals from me at home.”
Crunch leaned in and kissed her neck beneath her ear. “Honey, you know I lowered my expectations when I married you.”
“Assh - I mean, jerk,” she said, laughing as she pulled away from him and punched him on the arm.
“I heard that!” Mac yelled from the side of the porch where she was sprawled out, looking at a book. “Mommy said a bad word!”
“Nope, no bad words came out of mommy’s mouth,” April said. “Right, daddy?”