Page 23 of Obey

He doesn’t stand out inside the diner, which is one of the reasons I picked this diner specifically. There are plenty of big burly truckers grabbing an early lunch before they continue on their long hauls.

I slide into the booth opposite of him, looking at the large breakfast plate he’s ordered. I know it tastes good, but my stomach is still churning from all the bullshit that morning.

“Yo,” I say, wincing at how gruff my voice comes out.

Thunder is a reedy guy, but he’s got his own leather jacket with several patches that mark him as a member of a motorcycle club—realistically, a gang. He carries himself with a casual confidence that so many in here share, and I know that despite his relative size, he can more than hold his own in a skirmish.

I’d seen that firsthand when we’d served in prison together.

“You sound fresh as a daisy,” he drawls. “Bright and full of sunshine.” He flags the harried-looking waitress, who signals that she’ll be a moment, then goes back to his own meal. He eats like he hasn’t eaten in weeks, but then, he always has. It’s like he thinks someone will try to steal it if it isn’t consumed quickly enough, though where all that food goes, I’m not quite sure.

“Yeah, well. I had a night,” I grumble. “At least you’re doing well.”

“Just peachy,” Thunder says between bites. He flashes me a sunny smile. “So what’s up? Right in the middle of a…” He tilts his head, considering. “Project. It’s a fun project, too, speaking of sunshine and rainbows.”

“That’s nice for you.” I sigh and raise my hand. “Sorry. This fucking thing I’m working on is pissing me off. Hopefully you can help me make it less of a headache.”

“You get too many headaches, Knives,” he chides me just as the waitress comes over to us. “Want something? It’s on me, seeing as how I can’t do anything about the headache or the storm clouds.”

“Funny,” I say, deadpan. “Coffee and the house pancakes, please. Extra blueberries on the pancakes.”

The woman nods to me, her smile dropping after one glance at me, and jots a few marks down on the pad of paper she’s carrying. “Yep, got it.”

She vanishes into the busy restaurant, leaving Thunder and me alone in the chaos.

“So anyway, I wasn’t able to find out much,” Thunder says, chewing on a piece of flaccid-looking bacon. “Sorry, man, but whoever stole your package covered their tracks good. Chatter I’ve heard stops right in New Valence.”

It’s what I already know, which is irritating.

I groan and massage my brow. “You gotta have more than that. I need to get this shit done sooner rather than later.”

“I’m not psychic,” he says, stabbing at his eggs. “Just because I’m from New Valence doesn’t mean I know everything going on there. Especially now. You know my crew is more in the northeast these days.”

I give him an unimpressed look. “So when you were bragging about having connections to all the, ah, cool shit in New Valence, you were just making it up?”

“Of course I wasn’t making it up,” Thunder scoffs. “Look, I can give you a few rumors. You want confirmed shit, you gotta give me more time to see who’s just blowing smoke and who’s actually sitting on a new gold mine.” His expression turns crafty, and he leans forward. “Speaking of gold mines…”

I sigh, but I slide a small piece of paper over to him. It’s got information about a new drug shipment from one of our rivals.

“I’m risking my neck giving this to you,” I whisper. “So don’t do anything that could be traced back to me.”

His eyes light up, and he takes the paper, folding it and sliding it into his pocket. “Ooh, fun stuff. Is it written in code?”

I roll my eyes. “Sure. You can decode it with the special decoder ring that comes with the kids’ meal here.”

In truth, Silvano had expressed that it would be convenient if that shipment disappeared. Thunder doesn’t need to know that though. I’m certain he’s being coy with his information on purpose, too.

“Well, since we’re being generous…” Thunder takes the last bites of his meal just as the waitress arrives with mine. He waits until she’s gone before he continues, “I got a friend down in NewVa who was complaining that some of the Demon Gators members were acting a little too self-important. Asked me if I knew what their big score was, since they’ve got a chapter up here. I hadn’t heard anything, but now I’m thinking…”

Fuck, I don’t want to deal with bikers. We can negotiate with other mafia groups or even some of the more loosely organized gangs, but bikers? They don’t respect our authority. It doesn’t usually matter, since they operate more on smaller scales, but if they’ve taken to hitting our supply lines, we’ve got a problem.

“How legit do you think this is?” I ask.

“Legit enough for me to tell you.” He nudges my plate. “You should eat up, big man. You gotta keep up your strength if you’re gonna chase some guys down to NewVa. And say hello to Nev while you’re down there. Tell her we’ll be down there, eh… Soon.”

I’m not actually hungry, but he’s right. I end up eating all the blueberries first, picking at the fluffy pancakes in smaller portions.

“So what’s the other guy look like?” he asks casually, right as I take a bite.

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