Page 32 of Biker's Property

Hawk’s eyes flicker to mine, nervously.

“Fuck.”

“Doesn’t mean anything,” I reassure him. Truth be told, I’m only here because when Ryder needs me, I’ll be there. It doesn’t matter what he needs me for. It doesn’t matter what I have to tell Juliette. We’re not just brothers. We come from the same mass of cells, separated only by our experiences. Protecting my brother’s life feels just as important as protecting mine.

“He was religious,” Ryder admits after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence. “He would have had an obit.”

“You didn’t think to look this up earlier?”

He had to have had this woman in his custody for at least a day, although I don’t know when she made her grisly confession.

“I was distracted,”Ryder says, taking a swig of his flask.

I hate when he misses obvious details like this. We have to get to Southpaw and this will only make our job harder.

“By liquor or pussy?”

“Fuck you,” he says, shoving the flask away, but unable to hide the flush across his freckled ass face quite so easily.

“I’m serious.”

“She’s not just some pussy.”

“She’s something, or we wouldn’t be going on a quest to find her husband.”

He ignores me.Ryder has always been insanely jealous. I don’t know why.

“He could still be dead.”

“When the fuck have we ever been that lucky?”

“You meta woman who let you within ten feet of her. That’s lucky.”

“If I didn’t need you…

“You would kick my ass. Now let’s go. Wherever the fuck we’re going.”

Ryder leads,which I regret after the first three miles. He swerves all over the road and if we weren’t out in the middle of fucking nowhere in the Southwest, we would have state troopers all over our asses. Couldn’t get away with this shit in Illinois or Missouri, that’s for fucking sure.

Maybe this woman will get him to stop drinking, the way Juliette helped me.

Just better hopeRyder doesn’t screw it up. I’ll remind him not to bring up any race talk he might have learned in prison if he wants things to work. Dust picks up the closer we get to this town. By the time we drive past the large sign sayingWelcome To Dripping Springs,the only thing I’m dripping in is sweat.

I can’t believe it’s this hot, this late. We only have a few hours of possible surveillance until daylight and despite my brother’s pretense that he has this shit entirely under control, I think he’s in way over his head with this murderous woman.

I wasin way over my head with Juliette. Then again, I left the dirty work to someone else. Not Ryder’s style. He was already a bit of a control freak before prison, but the rigid schedule he must have had in federal prison has turned him into something much deeper than a control freak. It’s hard to admit that he’s not the same man who went in. The old Ryder would have never hunted down a woman’s ex like this out of the blue…

But he’s my brother and he needs me. It’s neither my place nor my desire to disagree. For all Ryder’s flaws, even the drinking, he’s damned loyal. If nothing else, this woman will be safe with him.

We stoptwo blocks away from the house we’re meant to watch. Ryder parks behind a conveniently large maroon Chrysler Pacifica with a bumper sticker saying “Kids Up In This Bitch!” Looks like something Tylee would have on the back of her car, if Isaac could convince her to drive something responsible.

I park my bike next to his. He wobbles on his way off. I hit him in the shoulder.

“Pull your shit together.How much more did you need to drink?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

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