Page 65 of Nomad

“Well,” Brenda smiled, “the only way you’ll get past that is for me to get out of the way so you can find your own way and forge your own relationships with the crew.”

Bud had a feeling there was no point in arguing. “Are you leaving, like, now?”

Brenda laughed. “No. Not until next week sometime. Stop lookin’ like a rabbit. Where’s that girl that stood up and told her daddy, the Ranger, to take a hike?”

“I don’t know.”

“No. That’s not the answer. The answer is, right here.” She patted her own chest. “Come on. Say it.”

“Right here?” Bud said.

Brenda cocked one hip and put her hand on it. “I’m not convinced.”

“Right here,” Bud said a little forcefully.

“Better. We’ll work on it.”

Brash stopped by a few minutes after five and asked Bud for a Lone Star. When she set it in front of him, he said, “You want to go to the arraignment tomorrow? Things…”

“Yes.” She didn’t let him finish before she answered definitely.

Brash smirked good-naturedly. “I was gonna say that if things go our way, he’ll be comin’ back here with us. Things don’t go our way, you’ll at least get to see him. Know he’s okay.”

She looked at Brash with big clear eyes. “What time?”

“Pick you up at nine.”

“Thank you.”

“No reason. You know, Cann and I were prospects together. We’re the same age. It made us, I don’t know, I guess you’d say close. Guys who prospect together, it’s a bond you don’t have with other…” He stopped and looked around, almost like he’d be embarrassed to be overheard talking about feelings. “I’m glad he’s back. Hope he’s gonna stay. There’s a place here for him.”

Bud nodded. “What was he like? Before?”

Brash grinned. “He knew how to have fun, but he was never one to drink too hard or whore around. He saw a future with the club and took it seriously. He was a good storyteller. And he can sing.”

“He told me he couldn’t.”

“He told you he couldn’t sing?”

“Yes. He brought me a birthday cupcake with a candle and said, ‘Please don’t ask me to sing, ‘cause I can’t’.”

Brash looked serious all of a sudden. “Well, I guess he had his reasons.”

“Something to do with her.”

Brash stared at Bud for a few seconds before saying, “Probably.”

“It’s all right. I’m not going to be able to tiptoe around it. It’s going to come up and it won’t break me when it does.”

Brash nodded with a deep sigh, knocked on the bar, and said, “Nine,” as he turned to go.

Bud put on her tan dress to go to court and sat watching the monitor that displayed the camera feed trained on the gate. She didn’t know what Brash’s car looked like, but she figured anybody coming in at that time was probably him.

When a black SUV pulled up, the gate opened.

“Time to go,” Arnold said loud enough for everybody in the building to hear him.

Bud watched as ten bikers pulled in behind the SUV. She was right behind Arnold as he left the clubhouse and she was followed out by everybody but Brenda, Axel and Burn.

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