that made her happy.
He'd had few moments to be himself and drop the attitude lately.
Trip sat the motorcycle, talking with Zach until he rode in a circle out of her yard and down the driveway. She stepped outside and waited until the noise lowered and then called her sons to her.
Kenny ran over while Zach meandered, taking his time. Once they stood in front of her, she said, "We're going to a barbecue for dinner. We'll go shopping for groceries in the morning."
She expected them both to put up a fight about going around other people. People that were strangers. They were teenage boys. It was expected.
But both of them remained quiet and accepting.
"Okay, then." She blew out her breath. "Let's finish cleaning the bedrooms and roll out our sleeping bags, so we have somewhere to sleep when we get home."
She walked to the house and stopped. Now that she had the money Trip gave her, she could make things right for her boys.
Looking over her shoulder, she said, "If you guys want, before we come back home tonight, we can stop by the gas station—where our phones came in the best—and I can order us each a bed."
"How will we get them back to the house?" Kenny pulled his sweaty shirt over his head. "They won't fit in the car."
"Delivery, my boy." She smiled, pleased with herself.
They each went to their designated bedroom. She stood in Grandpa Gene's room and let her head fall back, and closed her eyes.
Goosebumps broke out on her arms, remembering how Trip had looked at her. He was aware of her as a woman. That much was obvious.
She couldn't help noticing him, too. He was off-the-wall gorgeous and big. If he hadn't been open to talking with her, she would've never approached him on her own. He looked badass in his leather vest, worn jeans, and riding a Harley Davidson.
He kept his dark hair on the shorter side which accented the shadow of his whiskers. She wouldn't call it a beard, but the length and fullness showed he kept it that length on purpose. It was a mature look, and she guessed his age around fifty, maybe forty-five if he had good genes.
The natural lines of squinting too much in the sun and a stubborn tilt of his mouth only made him sexier. Rough and tough, his appearance appealed to her.
She grabbed the broom leaning against the wall and swept with more vigor than she thought possible, considering she was dead on her feet.
"Mom?"
She startled and whirled around to find Zach standing in the doorway of the bedroom. Brushing her hair out of her face, she tried to calm her racing heart.
"What, honey?"
"Trip said some of the kids that'll be at the clubhouse tonight ride dirt bikes in the field while the grownups talk and do whatever," Zach's Adam's apple bobbed. "Do you think when we get there, I could check them out? I'll take Kenny with me."
Knowing her son's love for anything with wheels and he'd dreamed of getting his driver's license before she uprooted him from his life, she smiled at him. "I think that'll be okay."
Zach gave her a flash of a slight grin and stepped into the hallway, going back to cleaning his room. Tears burned her eyes, seeing a little bit of normalcy squeeze through the chaos in her life.
Maybe moving them to Avery Falls was the right thing to do after all.
Chapter Five
Trip stood inside the cave at the base of Sether Mountain. Because of Bonnie and her sons going to the get-together, Prez wanted him working on the outside. Keeping the Durham-Murphy family away from the house was critical while the lessons were going on inside the cave.
In Trip's absence, Steven would run the five current prisoners through the training process.
Five prisoners.
Each of them had names at one time. Now they were known by numbers. One through five.
One, having been incarcerated for the longest. Four years, locked inside the cell, deep underground, beneath the Bitterroots.
Most prisoners lasted three to seven years in the cave, depending on the outcome of the training. Afterward, if approved, they were given a name and transferred into the Avery Falls community as a patched member of Avery Falls Motorcycle Club.
Trip ignored the bellows coming from Three and Five. Used to the noise below the earth's surface, amplified and soul jarring, he was ready to walk back through the tunnel as soon as Prez reached his side.
"Did you succeed in getting the woman