Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,6

if they were as truly club loyal as they claimed to be.

We did the trade-off with Idaho at a different location each time in the surrounding area. We’d been over the clubhouse in Moses Lake for wiretaps and bugs and the like, and the place had come up clean – but that didn’t mean we hadn’t missed something and as a general rule, you didn’t shit where you ate to begin with.

So, every time we stopped to overnight at the Moses Lake clubhouse, we made sure to head there clean, considering the fate of our brethren.

I sent Marisol in to use the bathroom and told her not to come back out to the bikes for at least twenty minutes while we conducted business out here. She nodded fervently and made herself scarce while we waited for the Idaho boys who had to loop around to get us back on this side.

We were at the Schrag Rest Area off I-90 Eastbound, and since our Idaho boys were coming westbound, it got a little weird. Not to mention, it got a little dicey doing any sort of shit at a rest stop. Washington State Patrol tended to roll through on the regular, which is why I did this shit. They never expected you to do shit right under their noses and it was basically like hiding in plain sight. So, we waited.

If State Patrol happened to roll up while we were waiting, we stood around smoking, vaping, and just generally lookin’ like we weren’t doing shit else, except stopping for a piss break and a smoke, waiting on them to either hassle us or fuckin’ leave.

Occasionally, we rolled up and the little piggies were already here and we had to wait on them to leave. Once a while back, they rolled up just as we got finished with the trade and set to roll out.

So far today, we’d been lucky and hadn’t encountered them at all.

We didn’t do these rest stop exchanges very often because of the Staties. In fact, I couldn’t remember in recent memory, the last time we’d done one, but this was also a last-minute deal. The original agreed upon location had fences go up and construction begin sometime between the last run and this planned one so this, in addition to Marisol, was totally improvised.

Speaking of the girl…

“Mav, you maybe wanna let the rest of us know just what the fuck you are doin’?” Deacon demanded and I turned.

“To be honest with you, Deac – I have no idea, but don’t you worry. I did the math. Your cut ain’t affected none.”

“We’re not worried about that,” Cipher declared. “I ran the numbers too.”

“So, what’s the problem?” I asked, squinting in the direction of the restroom as the two Idaho brothers rolled up.

“Later,” Fenris growled and I nodded.

We made the exchange with Hollow and Vex, Marisol rematerializing just as we finished up talkin’ shit and cuttin’ up. I threw her some chin, impressed that she hung back by the outbuildings and waited for me to indicate it was okay to approach.

“We’ll see you happy bastards later,” Fen said and Hollow, a tall and skinny motherfucker, nodded.

“Until next time, amigos,” he declared and cambered his lanky ass back on his chopper with the ape hangars. Vex put a middle finger to his forehead and gave us a literal one-fingered salute. I laughed and shook my head and the two of them fucked off back to the border.

“Let’s go get us some well-deserved shut-eye,” I said. Riding through the hottest part of the day, and the majority of us having been up late last night, we were all tired. These were always big weekends with a lot of miles.

“Let me back out before you get on,” I told Marisol and she nodded.

“I know,” she said, and I smiled.

We rode back to the Moses Lake clubhouse. The accommodations there left a lot to be desired, just a bunch of couches and floor space to crash on and roll out bedrolls if we had them, but it would do for tonight.

I could tell the guys weren’t all the way happy, especially with my decision to take a woman as payment – but that was something she and I still needed to discuss.

“Marisol.” I said her name as I finished hefting my own pack onto my shoulder from where it’d been bungee corded to death to my back fender.

She looked up from where her eyes had been fixed on the ground, a fire in