Page 12

Smoke

“Church!”

I heard the shout clear across the room, and I couldn’t help but grin.

“Hell,” Aero grunted. I glanced over at the TV where the girls were absorbed in the latest Twisters movie along with Aero and Cue Ball. “Does he really have to yell it? He sent a text a minute ago.”

I shrugged and finished off the rest of my beer. “Guess he’s just covering all his bases,” I said with a laugh and pushed myself off the stool.

It was Sunday morning.

It had been a pretty chill morning for the most part. Adalee and Fallon had made breakfast and were in the kitchen cleaning up while the rest of us chilled.

“Think he would wait until the movie’s over?” Cue Ball asked as he stretched and got up from the couch.

Olive smiled up at him and patted his butt as he rose. “I think you shouldn’t even ask him that, honey.”

I snorted. Yeah, asking Yarder to postpone church was not a good idea.

I walked in, and Yarder sat at the head of the long table like he always did—serious, intense, and looking like he wasn’t going to take anyone’s shit. The rest of the guys filtered in behind me. We all took our usual places around the table. I settled into my chair and stretched my legs out, ready for whatever was about to go down.

But there was one empty chair.

Stretch’s chair.

Yarder didn’t miss it.

“Where the hell is Stretch?” Yarder demanded, and his eyes narrowed as he scanned the group.

“I assume he’s sleeping,” Compass replied as he took a seat and leaned back. He always had that laid-back air about him, but I knew better. He never took anything lightly.

“Would one of you assholes go wake him up?” Yarder grumbled.

“I got him,” Pirate muttered and pushed his chair back as he headed for the door.

“It’s fucking eleven o’clock,” Yarder growled and shook his head as he rubbed his face with his hands.

A minute later, Pirate came back in, Stretch behind him, and stumbled a bit as he rubbed his eyes. He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and pulled a wrinkled T-shirt over his head as he sat down. He didn’t even acknowledge the fact that we were all staring at him. Typical Stretch.

“You couldn’t even put some clothes on?” Aero laughed and shook his head.

Stretch just shot him a halfhearted glare as he plopped down into the chair next to mine. “Fuck you, man,” he muttered and looked a little more awake now, but still grumpy.

“Fucking circus,” Yarder muttered under his breath, but his annoyance didn’t quite hide the amusement in his eyes. He was trying to stay in control, but anyone could see that we all liked to push him just a little too far.

“Yeah, it is a circus,” Dice chimed in with a grin. “And you’re the ringleader, Yarder.”

The laughter spread through the group like wildfire, and even Yarder had to hide a smirk. He couldn’t help himself.

But of course, Stretch wasn’t done yet.

“If you would give us some notice before calling church, I would’ve been here,” he said and leaned back in his chair with a stretch of his own.

Yarder’s glare could have set Stretch on fire. “Sure, Stretch, I’ll work on a detailed schedule for you so it doesn’t mess with sleeping all day,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

The rest of the table laughed again, but you could tell Yarder’s patience was starting to wear thin. Stretch, on the other hand, didn’t even flinch.

If Yarder’s glare could kill, Stretch would’ve been dead by now.

But Stretch just shrugged and was totally unbothered. “No one told me church was going to be at eleven today. I’m just doing me, man. No harm in that.”

“You know the drill, Stretch,” Pirate grinned. “Church is when Yarder says it’s church, and that’s that.”

“Yeah, I know,” Stretch muttered and yawned as he rubbed his face.

“You’re lucky I didn’t leave you to sleep through this whole thing,” Yarder said and crossed his arms over his chest. “We got stuff to talk about, and I don’t want to waste time.”

“I’m here, okay,” Stretch said. He was wide awake now, and his usual smirk spread across his face. “Let’s get this over with then.”

I leaned back in my chair. Now, we were ready to get down to business.

Stretch fiddled with his shirt to smooth out the wrinkles.

Yarder cleared his throat, and the room quieted.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Yarder said and leaned forward with purpose.

I gave Stretch one last glance before I focused on Yarder.

“Filming starts again tomorrow.”

Everyone groaned.

We all knew it, but hearing it out loud still sucked.

“How do they not have enough footage?” Throttle asked and shook his head.

“Yeah,” Aero chimed in. “They have to be able to piece together what they’ve got and call it good.”

Yarder shrugged. “I don’t know, guys. Don says they need more, and we have to give them more.”

“Garage and Cakery,” Compass said.

Yarder nodded. “That is the plan. We just need to make sure it’s interesting enough so they don’t go sniffing around and asking questions we don’t want them to know the answers to.”

“We got a theory as to why Don is sending two people this time?” I asked and leaned back in my chair.

“Probably because he’s not fucking around anymore,” Fade laughed. “He lost Adalee and then Clay. He’s burning through all of his producers.”

“I think you had something to do with Adalee,” Pirate said with a smirk.

Fade shrugged and grinned. “She’s way better off here than working for the TV show. She hated that shit and only did it because of her dad.”

“I wonder how Don is going to spin that in the final cut of the show,” Dice pondered and rubbed his chin.

“Guess we’ll find out if they ever wrap up filming.” Yarder slowly looked around the table, and his eyes locked with each of us in turn. “We need to make sure the crew gets their footage, and then they leave. They can’t mess around anymore.”

Throttle held up his hands. “I mean, I don’t think we’re the problem; at least last time, we weren’t. Don needs to look at himself for sending that tool Clay here.”

Compass scoffed. “Calling him a tool is nice. Guy was a fucking moron.”

The guys all chuckled, and the tension eased for a moment.

“You know, just because we all agree to let the filming happen and whatnot doesn’t mean that Boone and Gibbs aren’t going to strike again,” Cue Ball pointed out. “I mean, if you really look at things, they are the reason why filming has been taking so long.”

Yarder nodded. “I know.”

“We all know,” Fade sighed. “What the hell are we going to do about it?”

“We just stay ready.” Yarder sighed and ran his hand down his face. “We’ve got our ear to the ground, and we aren’t hearing anything. Boone and Gibbs have their moves locked down, but they’ll mess up eventually.”

“And when they do,” Pirate cut in, “we’ll take them down.”

Yarder nodded, his expression grim.

“So we’re just sitting ducks until then?” Stretch asked, frustrated.

Yarder glared at Stretch. “Haven’t heard you come up with another plan.”

Stretch glowered at him, and his jaw tightened.

“Brother, I think you need to get some more sleep,” Pirate laughed. “We’re going up against some major political people here. It’s not like we can just shoot them point blank.”

“We’re doing nothing,” Stretch growled. “There has to be something we can do. They keep hitting us, and we just do nothing. They killed fucking Faye right in the parking lot, blew the fucking garage up, and now they blew up the strip mall. When is enough going to be enough?”

Yarder sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I am open to whatever you say, Stretch. Thing is, you haven’t said anything other than we need to do something.”

I looked from Yarder to Stretch. We were all restless and itching for some kind of action, but Yarder was right. We couldn’t rush into this without a plan. Boone and Gibbs were too smart and too connected.

“Look,” I said and leaned forward. “We focus on the filming for now. Keep our heads down and make sure Don’s people don’t have a reason to stick around longer than they need to. Meanwhile, we stay sharp and keep watching. When Boone and Gibbs slip up, we’ll be ready.”

Yarder nodded. “Exactly. We don’t let them catch us off guard. Everyone sticks around the clubhouse when the camera crew is here.”

“Only when the camera crew is here?” I asked.

Yarder nodded. “Yeah. And when they aren’t, just keep your eyes open. Boone and Gibbs aren’t going away.”

Throttle sighed. “Fine. But if they start sniffing around again, we’re not playing nice.”

“Agreed,” Compass said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

We sat in silence for a moment. Tomorrow and the next couple of weeks were going to be long days, but if it meant the cameras would finally be gone, it would be worth it.