Page 52 of Saving Blood

He turns to the door, and I call after him, “You did good.”

Javi throws me a smile over his shoulder, then weaves his way through the crush of people in the gym.

“What the fuck was that about?” Smoke asks.

“I’ve had Javi watching Maxine’s apartment.”

Smoke’s eyebrows rise.

“We know she fought for him back in the day, and now, according to Javi, he’s also slapping her around.”

“Sounds like she’s not giving him what he wants,” Diesel says.

“She said he wants her to fight for his club. So, either he wants her back, or he sent her here to check out our operation, but I know she’s holding back something else.”

“Like what?” Bolt asks.

“I don’t know, just a feeling.”

Then I go and offer the perfect escape—a passport.

“Knowing Hector, he’s using her to fuck with our operation.” Smoke jerks his head at Bolt and Diesel. “Give us a minute.”

Bolt eyeballs both of us, then he and Diesel leave the office.

When the door closes, Smoke pulls a cig out of his cut, then takes his time lighting up. “All right, what’s goin’ on?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“With you and Maxine.”

I return Smoke’s glare with one of my own.

“Don’t give me the fuckin’ fisheye. You’ve barely been to the club all week.”

“In case you forgot, I got a lot going on. I’m putting together a huge fight tomorrow night.”

“And you missed a church meeting.”

I point to the green and yellow bruise decorating my cheekbone. “Yeah, and I paid the price.”

“We go back a long time.” Smoke leans on the edge of my desk. “Putting the club together up in Cali. Doing deals and all kinds of shit to make a buck and keep the club together. Bargaining with the cartel for gun shipments.”

“All true, so what’s your point?” Best offense is a fucked-up defense.

“My point is, you’ve been breaking a lot of rules lately—and you’re not a rule breaker.”

“Right, that’s usually your job.”

Smoke drags deep, then blows out a long stream of smoke. “I know, it was because of my bullshit we got shipped down here, but through it all, you kept me straight. You were loyal to me and to the club.”

“And you’re sayin’ now I’m not?” I ball my fists at my sides.

“I’m saying you’ve got a lot going on, and you don’t need any road blocks making shit harder.”

“Sometimes things happen for a reason. If we didn’t end up in Tijuana, you never would’ve met Marisol, who’s now your old lady.”

Disbelief covers Smoke’s face. “You wanna make Maxine your old lady?”

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