Page 15 of Coach (Shady Valley Henchmen #8)

Coach

“His eyes don’t have the same sparkle,” Rafe declared, watching his dog as the dog watched the cat swatting playfully at the curtain.

“He just woke up from a nap,” I reminded him.

Rafe had been absolutely obsessed with Steve since I showed up with him a few days back.

He got a bath. He got a home-cooked meal (using a week’s worth of meat meant for the club).

He got belly rubs and endless games of tug and fetch.

And every inch of the poor dog was analyzed for any changes since the last time Rafe had seen him.

“I don’t know. I think he should see a vet.”

“He saw a vet at the shelter.”

“Yeah, but that’s an overworked, underpaid vet. He should see a specialist.”

“An eye-sparkle specialist?” Colter asked.

“And with what money?” Syn piped in.

“I have money.”

Something about the way he said it suggested he had quite a bit of money too.

“Not in Shady Valley,” Syn said.

“No, but I’m not going to be here much longer either.”

Slash had worked out a deal with one of the other chapters of the club.

Rafe was off to a new town and state in another week or two. Raff and Syn were going to smuggle him out, so Syn could swing by his storage unit to grab the rest of his essentials before he officially became a club prospect.

“He seems fine to me,” I assured Rafe as Steve flopped backward onto Rafe’s lap to shamelessly ask for belly rubs.

“Maybe,” Rafe agreed.

“He’s just adjusting after the shelter,” Colter added.

“Sorry about that again, bud,” Rafe said, rubbing the dog’s ears until his foot kicked wildly. “It will never happen again.”

“You should get him chipped,” Colter said. “And have him registered to us here at the club. That way, no matter what, you know he’s taken care of. Or your new club, whatever.”

“Yeah. I’m gonna do that.”

“You looking forward to starting over?” I asked.

“I am. Fresh start. New identity. Any word on that?”

We had contacts working on a new driver’s license for him. While that was coming, Rook was creating a whole online identity dating back at least a decade—social media, job history, a bunch of fake shit to really sell the new identity.

It wouldn’t help if he was simply spotted or fingerprinted. But if he was dedicated enough, a beard and some fingertip slicing could fix that problem too.

“Alright. Pass me the hat,” Rafe said. Colter tossed it, and he pulled it down over his head, casting his face completely in shadow. “I’m just going to stand right outside the door to keep an eye on him,” he assured us.

“Don’t be long. Don’t want Slash pissed at us,” Colter demanded.

“Got it.”

He’d barely left the room when there was a knock at the front door.

Gazes shot all around, all of us sitting up, stiffening.

“Dunno. My experience with cops is they don’t politely knock and wait,” Saint said, shrugging.

“I’ll go,” I said, since Colter and Saint were still on parole, and Syn was laying low.

We got the occasional drop-in from one of the club girls who wanted some fun or were fresh off a bad date and wanted someone to roll around with for a while.

Then there were the Murphys, who, when shit went down in the area, came by to talk shop.

I’d been expecting one of them.

Not Este.

With Trix eyeing the clubhouse dubiously.

“Hey, honey. Everything alright?”

It didn’t look alright.

She looked like she hadn’t slept in a week. The purple smudges under her eyes were dark enough to look like makeup. The whites of her eyes were red. She was pale.

“Um, can we come in?”

“Yeah, of course.”

I took a step back, reaching for Trix’s leash in case she got any ideas about the men gathered around. Or the cat.

“Uh, hi again,” Este said with an adorably awkward wave toward the guys. “This is Trix. Please don’t be offended if she doesn’t like you.”

“It’s okay, buddy,” Rafe said, coming in too quickly for any of us to warn him off. “The wolves are scare… oh.”

“Oh, uh, hi,” Este said, shooting him an uncertain smile.

I didn’t see any recognition on her face, though. It seemed absurd. Rafe’s face was all over the local news.

“Hey, Steve!” she greeted the dog, immediately brightening as she moved forward to greet the dog who was happy to see the woman who sprung him again. “Are you so happy to be home? Yes, you are. You have the sparkle back in your eye.”

My gaze slid to Colter, and the two of us shared a smirk as Rafe’s shoulders relaxed.

“You think so?” he asked.

“Absolutely. He looks so much more relaxed and happy. I remember that when I brought my sweet Trix home.”

“She’s beautiful.”

“Isn’t she? She keeps me sane.”

“Know that feeling,” Rafe agreed, patting Steve’s head.

“I’m so glad we could get him for you. It’s good to see him back where he belongs.”

Trix chose that moment to let out a little rumble.

“Can we take her upstairs to your workroom? I don’t know how she does with other dogs up close.”

“Sure.”

“Nice seeing you guys,” she said to the guys before following me down the hall. “No, huh?” she asked when Trix grumbled and pulled back away from the elevator.

“Stairs it is,” I said. “I might be able to calm you down, but something tells me that dogs don’t do mindful breathing.”

The second we were inside the workroom, I unclipped Trix’s leash and Este closed the door.

“Okay. What the hell is going on in this town?”

Fuck.

I forced myself to turn slowly, face schooled in indifferent lines even as my heart started to race.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, come on,” she said, brows raising. “Seriously?” she went on, crossing her arms. “That’s Rafe Marsters down there. Escaped convict.”

Not wanting to lie, I said nothing.

“I mean, had I come here a few days ago, I would have been completely clueless. I’ve been kind of deliberately out of touch with the local news.”

“What changed?”

“I got looped in.”

“On purpose?”

“In a way.”

I wasn’t the only one being evasive.

The difference was that I knew what was at risk for me. What was at risk for her?

“Are you planning on going to the cops?”

“About Rafe?”

“Yes.”

She leaned back against the door, exhaling hard, seeming to grow smaller by the second.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Honestly? Because Steve doesn’t deserve that.”

“That’s fair.”

“And also… I don’t think I had any idea what kind of town I was moving into.”

“What kind of town is that?”

Her gaze cut away, her jaw working. “Did you know the area used to feature a prominent Bulgarian crime syndicate?”

“I did.”

She glanced back at me, her eyes landing on the badge on my chest.

“You know, that came up in my research.”

“What did?”

“The patch on your cut.”

“What did you read?”

“That it means one percent of bikers are criminals.” She paused, watching me. “Are you going to deny it?”

“No.”

“So you’re a criminal.”

“Spent a few years of my life in the prison right over there.” I nodded in the direction of the building that loomed over Shady Valley.

“Wait… really?”

I could see her gears turning, trying to reconcile that new fact with the idea she had already formed about me.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“What’d I go to jail for?”

“Yeah.”

“My sister had a man who was beating on her. I showed him what that was like.”

“Oh.”

“Disappointed?”

“In you?”

“Yeah.”

“No. I mean… I think the world needs more people who stand up to abusers. I think I’m just having a hard time imagining you putting your hands on someone like that.”

“The meditation and yoga… it’s a part of me because that other side is in me too. And I wanted to make sure I never became someone who would use it against an innocent.”

Este stared down at the floor like she was seeing right through it. “What about the others?”

“My club brothers?”

“Yeah. Are they all ex-cons too?”

“All of ‘em? No. But me, Colter, Rook, and Judge. Oh, and Saint. But he’s not in the club yet.”

“And Rafe.”

“Rafe isn’t in the club. Rafe was stealing water and chicken eggs. He’s on his way out of town in the near future.”

“Are you helping him because you’d want someone to have helped you if you’d escaped?”

“Not necessarily. We got together as a group to decide what to do about him. Mostly based on his crimes.”

“Why?”

“Because even among criminals, there is a code. None of us like bastards who put their hands on kids and women. Most of us have families, women and kids we love. Women and kids we can’t protect when we’re on the inside.

So when one of those bastards comes in, everyone is lining up to take out our frustrations. ”

“So if Rafe was guilty of that, you’d have sent him back?”

“Bloodied and bruised and trussed up like a pig.”

“The news called him a violent criminal.”

“The original crime he was being brought in on was non-violent. But as they were arresting him, one of the cops kicked Steve.”

“No!”

“Yeah. Rafe saw red. Beat the shit out of the cop.”

“Honestly, I feel like any sane person would have done the same.”

“Agreed. Hence why he’s here. And why we got Steve back for him.”

“No wonder Steve seemed so sad. Not only did he lose his owner, but he’d been hurt by someone else.”

“Yeah.”

“What about the other guy? Colter?”

“Colter was in the military. He was away, fighting for our country. While his wife and his best friend were fucking behind his back.”

“No!” Este said again, eyes going wide.

“When he came home and realized, he took his anger out on his best friend. Went away for it.”

“And Rook?”

“Rook has a fragile mom. Mentally. It was really hard growing up. But she was doing well. Until she met this guy who ran a sweetheart con on her. Made her fall in love with him and he took everything she had. Rook’s ma went downhill fast. Had to be institutionalized. Rook lost his shit on the guy.”

“Again, I kind of think that’s an almost normal reaction too.”

“The system doesn’t always care why.”

“What about the last guys? Judge and…”