Page 113 of Snake

Heading toward the Night Horde clubhouse, Autumn smiled and waved at the townspeople she passed, and they greeted her in return. She saw Angie Shustermann, a teacher at the new preschool, and her sister Mandi, who managed The Nib of Time, a Pavilion boutique that sold pens, papers, and other writing products as well as watches and clocks from a local artisan, in the Price Chopper parking lot, loading up Angie’s SUV with groceries. Mandi had become something of a leader among the Pavilion tenants. She was excited about the hotel going in and had been a big help to Autumn getting the town on board with the Hyatt deal.

She tootled her horn to get their attention. “Hi, ladies!”

They both looked up and waved. Mandi called, “Hey! Happy birthday!”

“THANK YOU!” she yelled before she got too far down the road for them to hear.

Not since she’d lived in a sorority house had so many people known her birthday. Her dads had always gone overboard (surely there were gay men who didn’t love a party, but she had never met one) when she was a kid, and they still did the milestone birthdays up big even now, but otherwise, since she’d been grown, most of her birthdays had been celebrated with Ida. Occasionally, they’d do something extravagant, like a birthday trip somewhere cool, but usually it was dinner and too much cake and wine.

But last year, the whole of Signal Bend seemed to have known her birthday without her ever mentioning the date to anyone but Cox. She couldn’t imagine him blabbing it all over town, but clearly he’d told someone who had.

Autumn had been telling herself another lie all these years: that she didn’t really care about birthdays. As it happened, she got a huge kick out of getting random good wishes tossed at her throughout the day.

Small towns were good for that.

Pulling into the Horde compound, Autumn slowed and frowned at the front of the building. There weren’t nearly enough bikes and cars on this lot for a Friday evening. It was too early for the place to be hopping, but it was always about half full by now, and she saw only two bikes: the Dyna that Loki Mariano, the club’s prospect, rode, and Badger’s vintage Electra Glide chopper.

There weren’t even any woman here, getting ready to feed their crew.

Cox wasn’t even here, and he worked in the SBC shop, right next door.

More importantly, it was her birthday, and he was supposed to take her to dinner tonight.

What the heck?

She parked and went into the clubhouse.

It was quiet and empty. At six o’clock on a Friday night.

“Hello?” she called, thinking of the bikes outside. “Loki?”

“Yeah, hey!” the young man in question called. A moment later, he appeared from the side hallway, a beer keg on his shoulder. His eyes were wide with surprise, and that surprise had a tinge of ... fear? Or maybe guilt?

Neither fear nor guilt made any sense, so Autumn decided she was wrong. He was just surprised. “Hey, hon. Where is everybody?”

“Uh ... you should talk to Badge about that. I’ll get him.” Loki turned around, the full, chilled keg still on his shoulder, and headed down the corridor from which he’d just come.

Okay, this was weird. Autumn pulled out her phone and texted Cox.

Hey. I’m at the clubhouse and you’re not.

This is not a situation I expected.

Where you at?

She was relieved to see him read the message at once and begin to respond.

Hey city girl.

Talk to Badge. He’s got you.

Again: what the heck?

She started to text him that exact question when Badger said, “Hey there, Autumn,” and she looked up. She’d ask the club president instead.

“Hi, Badge. What the heck is going on with you weirdos tonight?”

Grinning like a fool, Badger came around the bar and straight for her. “All will be revealed in its time, ma’am.” He curled a gentle hand around her arm. “Come with me.”

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