Page 27 of Tangled Threats on the Nomad Highway
“Even when he sent the message, I didn’tgive it enough weight. He’d gone after previous members before, nomatter if they’d gone out good or were out bad. Status didn’tmatter. To him, they were traitors. I told you about what he’d saidand gave you my evaluation of the threat to the club, but Idiscounted what it might mean for my family.” Angling his face tothe side, he stared at the boot-churned ground, not finding anyrefuge there. “He was cold. So fuckin’ cold, and didn’t give a fatshit about anyone but himself. I shoulda been more careful.”Lifting a hand, he scrubbed it across his cheeks, surprised to findthe skin dry. “I feel like it’s on me as much as him. But thatdoesn’t change my need. He’s got to pay.”
“That’s the kind of introspection I can getbehind. I don’t agree with everything you just said, but I seewhere it might weave that story in your head. Understand, this iswhy you’ve got to talk to us, brother. You get inside your head andfuck up your mind, and we—me and Mudd at least—we can help youunfuck that shit. Scar took you and your family. It’s his actionsthat caused Lauren and Makayla to be where they were, andultimately what happened is on him, not you. Not you. Fuck no, notyou.” Retro laughed, the anguished sound causing Einstein to lookinto the man’s eyes. There was no recrimination there, no harddismissal. “You got to get with the program, find a way to believein what I believe. Then, if we can keep movin’ forward like this,you’ll be okay.”
Mudd shuffled closer. “None of us gave hismessage the weight it needed. It was positioned as a cry for helpfrom a club’s president and something entirely unheard of for theman Scar had always shown himself to be. Why would we believe alick of it, knowing the kind of hard-ass shit he’d pulled in thepast? No.” Mudd shook his head. “I still trust in our process. Wedigested, pulled it apart and put it back together, and came upwith a logical thesis for the situation. That means between thetime he messaged and when he showed up in your house, somethingchanged. He wasn’t there right away, wasn’t there even a weeklater. Whatever it was, it took a while to set things in motion.Maybe that needs to be the first thing you look for, to find thattrigger, see what knocked him loose from his mooring and aimed himyour way.”
“Good thoughts,” Retro agreed, straighteninghis shoulders. “I’d be all over it, but I trust Einstein to knowhis path.” He leaned closer, tip of his index finger thuddingagainst Einstein’s sternum in an insistent beat. “I also trust yourass to check in like I tell you to, and if you don’t, then I’llhaul your ass back home. No in-between bullshit. You do it my way,or you’ll be on the highway back to where I can kick said ass.”
“You’re—” Einstein wasn’t sure what hewanted to ask.
“Yes.” Fortunately, Retro didn’t have anytrouble reading him. “Yeah, brother. I told you I’d do whatever youneeded. Did you think so little of me to believe I’d lie aboutsomething like that?”
“Bastards haven’t had a nomad before.” Hisgrin broke free, and he worked on taming it back. It couldn’t hurtto show how much it meant, but wouldn’t bode well if he looked likehe’d lost his mind.I probably look worse than Crazy Mike on athree-day bender.“You always said that wasn’t in the cards.That you wanted to keep things close to home.”
“Well, it’s high time we got with theprogram, then. All these clubs here have managed to do it andsurvive. Yet, here I am, ass hangin’ out and suckin’ hind tit,because you slackers never forced me to up my game.” Retro’seasygoing expression said he wasn’t serious. “Y’all are assholes.Alla y’all.”
“Maybe.” Mudd’s chuckle broke the word intopieces, but the laughter also let them slip effortlessly intoplace. “Not like we would front that shit, man. You’ve got to bemore self-aware than that.”
“Come on,” Retro urged, flicking his fingeragainst Einstein’s chest a final time. “Let’s go do a meet andgreet with the man of the hour. Never seen Blackie as high onanyone except Horse, and you know I like that man. I fielded a fewrequests from him through the years, ran the first couple pastBlackie to ensure the veracity of the request. He was always on theup and up. From where I sit, Blackie’s a good judge of characterand reads people nearly as quickly as Mudd here does. If he’s notonly vouching for him but putting him forward to lead an expansionchapter two states from home, then this dude is someone worthgetting to know.”
“What happened to this being an RWMCchapter? That’d been all I’d heard talked about, and then all of asudden, the tide changed. Got ideas on that?” He followed Retro,only a stride behind him, able to hear his words withoutstraining.
“Not sure who fronted the idea to beginwith. Seen more posturing in the past two days than at many aformal sit-down. Even before Bane rolled in, he’d been pulledhither and yon without his knowledge, everybody wantin’ him intheir corner. Says a lot about him and also about the placement ofBaker in general. Great stopping-off point for back-and-forthtraffic, and a welcoming community is always a good thing. Banerolled in asking for what you have, wanted to go nomad, rule thearea in opposition to Truck’s longtime residency. Should have beena slam dunk, except that left the territory up for grabs.” Retroslowed his long strides, and Einstein matched his pace, knowing theshift would allow the delivery of the full story before they gainedthe group of men tens of yards away.
“Blackie was the naysayer, touting a varietyof reasons, but the most compelling was his desire to plant hisflag here. There was some wavering between FRMC and their supportgroup, the Iron Riggers.” Retro lifted a finger. “Remember thatname; it’ll come into play again in a minute. Once Blackie had saidit straight out, first Mason, then Twisted and Wrench backed theidea of rolling up a direct charter as opposed to a support groupthat wouldn’t be welcoming to big boys like Truck and Gunny. Skyd,president of the Iron Riggers, was more than down for Blackie’sbacktracking to the FRMC charter idea, and I don’t blame him.Rolling up a chapter here would have stretched his resources thin,being a smaller support club to begin with. We also found outMason’s Rebels were looking to patch over the IRMC, something thatwas guaranteed to have pissed off Blackie. If they’d spun up acharter here, Mason would have just gobbled them up faster. Sothis, as it shakes out, is a win-win all around.” Retro lifted ahand as someone called his name. “And that’s you being up to speed,much as I can get you in ten-point-two seconds.”
Einstein laughed as they stopped near alarge group of men, the ring expanding to include their three. Hegrinned and acknowledged faces he knew, nodding at those he didn’twhen they were introduced. A lot of men he’d never seen before, andhe worked to commit names and associations to memory, expecting aquiz from Mudd later.That’s just how we work.It struck himthen, how going nomad would remove him from this kind of exchange.One where he had faith in his patch brothers and knew they werebacking him up.
Doesn’t matter.
Scar needed to be brought down. No matterwhere he’d run to, Einstein would find him.Find him anddeal.Didn’t matter what the end looked like, as long as thingscame to an end.
***
“No, no. That’s not how it was.” Gunny’sdisappointment was clear as he argued against something Mason hadsaid. “Jesus, Prez, you can’t tell a story worth shit.”
“That’s because I tell the truth, not astory.” Mason’s chuckle was low and quiet, matching the mood of themen surrounding the dying bonfire.
Blackie and Mason had set men to buildingthe beginning of a formal campground in a small field between twohouses. The path connecting the two homes had been freshly cleared,chopped bits of brambles and stinkweed scattered across the track.A second, shorter path wound between trees to this field, which wasbacked by a creek. Bikes had been wheeled into the area, kickstandsblocked up with pieces of wood and rock to keep them from sinkinginto the soft ground. A score of tents lined the field, with mostof the people who’d arrived today opting to stay on site afterhearing from yesterday’s arrivals that the local motels were allfull.
Retro had laughed about this turning into amini-rally, likening it to the kind of ragtag gatherings he’dattended decades ago. Blackie had stared at Truck, the two menimmediately moving to the side with their heads together, andEinstein assumed the gathering would become an annual event.Birth of something new, right here.
He was glad everyone seemed pleased by allthat had happened today, because from his side of things, it hadbeen a bust. Bane didn’t know anything about his blood brother overthe past several years, having pretty much avoided him like theplague. Their shared parentage didn’t mean a lot, with Scarsticking to the Italian side of things and Bane more open toexploring his mother’s heritage. He claimed his trek up to Montanahad been an attempt to find family there, but something in hisstories just didn’t ring true for Einstein.More there to checkup on, for sure.
A pause in the conversations pulled him fromhis thoughts, and he watched as Gunny stepped around the fire tostand over Horse. The look on Gunny’s face wasn’t humorous, and thetense way he loomed shouted he was seconds away from dealing withwhatever had pissed him off. Horse had his hands up in a defensiveposture, but he wasn’t trying to get away, wasn’t even trying toget off the log he sat on, and the way he gave all the power in theexchange to Gunny said he understood clearly that there were onlymoments left to stop what could be a bloody encounter.
“Gunny, stand the fuck down. Don’t do this,man.” Mason’s voice cut through the low chatter. “Man didn’t meananything by it.”
“She’s not the topic of your fuckin’ jokes.”Gunny leaned closer. “Not now, and not ever.”
“I get it.”
“No, you don’t. You didn’t see her, man.Didn’t see the way she cowered but accepted that she’d probablybeen sold to me and Bane. Her eyes gave everything away. She’d cometo believe that everybody was a threat, but we weren’t gonna be oneshe could fight against.” His hand rose, finger and thumb afraction of an inch apart. “She was this close to giving up. Thisfuckin’ close, man. We brought her back from that. If she’s goingto come out of this a winner, she doesn’t need people around herwho are gonna keep tearin’ her down.”
“It’s not tearing her down to say I find herattractive.” Horse’s head went side to side in negation. “Fuck,man. You’re taking things entirely the wrong way.”
“How should I take it, you sayin’ she’ll betoo much trouble for any man, being as she’s so damaged? How shouldI take it, asshole?” Muscles bunching in Gunny’s arms illustratedwhat Einstein couldn’t see—the big man wasclenching his fists, hard. “How should I take those words?”
“I didn’t say she’d be too much trouble. Ijust said a man would need to know what he had on his hands, that’sall.” Expression telegraphing he’d had enough, Horse jackknifed upfrom the log, standing close enough his chest brushed Gunny’s. “Iwas talkin’ about myself, you fucking dick. Thinkin’ out loud,because I can’t get her out of my head.”
