Page 47 of Journey

“Any thoughts on how to make it work?” Ghost asks. “I’m thinking a prison transport somewhere is our best bet, but not sure if you wanna go down that road or not.”

“I’ll check and see if he’s got any court appearances coming up, although I doubt it since he already used his last appeal.”

“Are there other options for a transport?” I ask. “Is that something you can make happen?”

“You know as well as I do that it takes a lot of coordination for a transport, but I’m sure I can make it happen. It’s just gonna take time, like I said.”

“What time frame are we looking at?” I ask. “A few days, a week at most?”

“Try a month, at least,” she counters. “I don’t work at the prison, so it’s not like I have direct access. I can pull it off, but I still have to operate within certain limits.”

“That’s not good enough,” I snap. “A lot can happen in a month.”

“Yeah, it can,” she agrees. “Which is why you all need to do whatever it is that you do and leave me to what I do.”

“Thanks, Ace,” Crow says. “If you can start on that tomorrow during your shift, that’d be great.”

“You’re welcome.”

Addi doesn’t need to be told when she’s being dismissed. She’s good at picking up clues. After she leaves, I return to my chair.

“That killed you, didn’t it?” Screamer taunts.

“Fuck yes, it did,” I huff out. “This is my spot.”

“Grow up,” Crow snaps. “Back to business.”

“Let’s say Addi can get things arranged,” Tracer begins. “How’re we gonna get Stone from the transport vehicle?”

It takes an hour, but we come up with a solid plan. Once that’s complete, Crow gets Shuffle on the phone, and a unified effort is organized for the Wingless Angels on the outside of a jail cell.

“Church dismissed,” Crow says once all votes are complete, and he’s confident we’ve done all we can.

Tracer, Crow, and I remain in the room once the others leave.

“Bro, give us a minute?” I say to Tracer. “I need to discuss something with Pres.”

“Yep.” Tracer moves to the door. “Don’t touch any of that shit. I wanna keep studying it.”

“We won’t,” I assure him.

As soon as the door closes, Crow faces me. “What’s up?”

“Wren’s gonna ask me what our plan is.”

“Probably, but it’s club business. You know the rules.”

“I do, Crow, and I’m still asking you to bend them a little in this case.”

“Why should I do that?”

“Think about it,” I begin. “Wren has multiple personalities. What if one of them takes over and hears something they shouldn’t or gets the sense that I’m lying? I can’t do that to her.”

“Jesus, that’s a lot to digest,” he mutters.

“Tell me about it.” I chuckle, but there’s little humor behind it. “I’m trying to do right by her, and that means doing right by every part of her. I can’t lie. I won’t.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve made it clear you’ve got no problem leaving the club.”

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