Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,11

but had called Maverick which was why there had been no interruption in the medicine supply. For that alone, I was grateful to Skeeter, but only because of my brother.

A knock came at the clubhouse door and Mav thrust his chin at Derringer, who heaved his big ass up out of his seat and hitching his deep tan carpenter pants up in the back, marched for the front door.

He opened it up and spoke with someone outside, taking bags from him.

“Alright, thanks now,” he said and let the door swing shut behind him.

“Food!” Fenris cried with enthusiasm.

“Alright!” Cipher echoed.

I stayed put, but I was interested in what might be in the bags. I was hungry.

“Hope you aren’t vegetarian,” Goner said to me and I frowned and shook my head. “Good, ‘cause we got burgers, burgers, and more burgers over here.” He tossed one of the foil-wrapped burgers in my direction. I caught it with both hands and turned to the bar to unwrap it. It was that weird foil that was paper on the inside, and I was pleased to see it was a good burger – like flame-grilled and double-stacked dripping with cheese and all the toppings, not some form pressed soggy piece of caca from a fast food place.

“Toss one here,” Mav said and held up his hands. A silver foil-wrapped missile arced over my left shoulder and landed square in his hands in a catch that would make my old high school team quarterback jealous.

I smiled and carefully took a bite of my double stack, over the wrapper to catch the tomato juice and watered-down mayo that dripped free.

“Napkins?” Deacon asked and I nodded and took the ones he offered.

I let myself zone out a little, while they all talked here and there over their food, but I could tell, they were all tired. They probably would have bantered much more if they weren’t.

Maverick hovered, but didn’t try to make conversation with me, for which I was grateful. I was starting to feel like the day was catching up to me, a deep exhaustion taking over my faculties – not physical, but emotional with a side of mental. I felt bone weary, if your thoughts and emotions could be such a thing seeing as they didn’t have bones.

“You get the fights on that thing?” Fenris asked, turning to the large-screen television at the back of the room and the ring of couch around it. A huge, great sectional that rung the outer edges of a big black throw rug on the concrete floor. It could easily sleep three men with room to spare, which I think was the intent.

“So, you guys coming back the other side of the mountains with us?” Cipher asked.

“We welcome?” Skeeter asked point blank and my ears perked, even as I schooled my face into careful lines of, I’m not listening.

“Until we get out to the Eversong meet, that’s in the air but you swear on your mother’s life you ain’t have nothing to do with what went on out here, we could maybe take you so you don’t have to go nomad,” Maverick said. “It’s a discussion for another time, though, if you catch my meaning.”

I glanced at him as he tipped his head in my direction.

“Talking about the Vargas family? It’s no secret, at least not to me,” I said after washing down a bite of my burger with a swig from my Coke. Mavericks lips thinned, and a muscle ticked in his jaw.

“I understand that you knew them, but on this side of things it’s club business, which is to say, it ain’t none of yours.”

“Noted,” I said.

“Better make that note in Sharpie, little girl,” Cipher said, and I looked at him, eyes narrowed. I didn’t like his tone. “Big block letters,” he said and moved his hands, thumb, and forefingers three inches apart and sweeping out from the middle for emphasis.

I fought not to roll my eyes. I didn’t want or need to disrespect them. As far as I had been able to gather, disrespect is what got a person’s ass beat faster than anything with these men.

I didn’t say anything, just returned to polishing off the last of my meal.

The television came on and Goner scrolled through the channels, a caged fighting ring coming up on the screen with a woman bowed at the waist, trapped in a hold while the other woman threw a knee up into her middle.

It was something to distract, to concentrate on, while