Page 40 of Malice

Jake nodded and pulled out his phone. Malice knew enough about the kid to know he was pulling up his note app and taking notes. The question was, were they about everything the pres was saying or just the parts that pertained to him?

Lurch turned to Ghost. “I don’t want the women to have to feed everyone the whole time the mother chapter is here. You’re in charge of setting up an outdoor kitchen so we can feed everyone. Check with Tuck about the location and budget.” He once more scanned the room. “I’ll have some smaller jobs for some of the rest of you. I’ll let you know as they come up.” He turned to Tuck, and it seemed to Malice as if he was asking if there was anything else, but he was too far away to hear for sure. Tuck gave a barely perceptible shake of his head then Lurch turned back to the room.

“You’re all dismissed. Malice, can I speak with you a moment?”

Malice didn’t say anything, just stayed where he was, leaning against the wall while he waited for the rest of his brothers to go back to what they’d been doing, then he approached Lurch.

“You wanted to speak with me?” he asked once it was just the two of them.

“I need to know how long this thing with your girl’s ex is going to last?”

“I wish I could say. I think yesterday only set things to escalate, as much as I hate to contribute to a problem. I think he’ll be back, but he’ll bring backup, whether someone else or a weapon.” Malice glanced around the room. “We won’t have a warning next time because now he knows where she is.”

Lurch nodded slowly. “I’ll make sure we’re keeping a diligent eye out. Maybe we should have a camera or a sensor at the gate off the highway to alert us when someone comes onto the property. I’ll talk to Tuck about it. It’s a good idea even if we didn’t have to worry about this guy.”

Malice didn’t know what to say, but he didn’t disagree.

“I’d like to get this settled before the group from Arizona comes. I don’t want to look like we can’t handle our shit. On the other hand, if it’s not, we’ll have enough men to put the fear of the Souls into him.”

“There is that,” Malice admitted, not sure it was the best idea, but not able to keep from wondering if the stupid fucker would shit his pants if confronted with a wall of men in full Demented Souls regalia. “I want to get it done too. I hate what his showing up does to Bonnie. She didn’t talk to him, nor he to her last time and she’s been having nightmares. I’m about ready to take him to the train station myself.” Malice didn’t know if the other man would get the reference, but in the moment, he didn’t care.

Lurch’s eyes went wide, he took a long blink as if he wasn’t sure what he’d just heard, then he grinned. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were a Yellowstone fan.”

Malice lifted one shoulder and let it fall in a dismissive gesture. “My buddy got me hooked a couple of years ago.” He shook his head. “I don’t know why I keep watching, as it’s not at all realistic, but I can’t seem to help it.”

“I’ve watched it for a while,” Lurch said with a laugh. “But we need to find a better solution, cause we haven’t found our train station, at least not yet.”

“I know of a couple of places, but they’re not local and I wouldn’t want to get stopped between here and there.”

“Not local is actually good. How far?”

“Eight to ten hours, depending on weather and traffic.”

Lurch scowled and watched him a moment, but didn’t say anything before shaking his head and dismissing the discussion, leaving Malice a little disappointed. He’d thought the pres might have more to say on the subject.

“Anyway, that was all, you can go back to what you were doing before I called you over here.”

Malice headed back to the barn, checking his watch as he went. Only another hour or so until Bonnie was due home. He reminded himself to check and make sure she made it home safe, then went back to work.

30

Bonniestoodinsidethefoyer at the hotel for a moment, scanning the parking lot for any sign of Phillip, or any one else, waiting for her. When she didn’t see anyone, she stepped outside and made her way to Corey’s truck. Once inside she started the engine and sat for a moment, trying to calm her racing heart, then plugged in her phone and started home.

That thought jarred her. When had she started thinking of the ranch as home? Was it the ranch and that cabin or the way Corey made her feel? She’d been looking forward to when this was all over, and she could return to her apartment, but did she really want to go back to that? To go back to living alone and not having the shared evenings, the time spent curled together on the couch, the weekend rides on his motorcycle?

For the first time ever, she began to realize that while she’d had a good life on her own, she liked the one she was building now too. The one with someone to share all those little experiences with. And while she didn’t want to have to deal with or even encounter Phillip ever again, she had to admit, he was the reason she’d found Corey. As much as she hated to credit him with anything, Phillip was the reason she was so happy now. Well, that and she had someone truly horrible to compare against didn’t hurt either.

She kept her eyes open on her trip back to the ranch, trying to see if Phillip was following her again. Though why would he need to, now that he knew where she was? On the drive she thought more about the mural she was still looking forward to. She’d met with the owner during her lunch that day and he’d liked the sketches she’d shown him and wanted to see more. He’d also made a couple of requests and a couple of changes, but she had plenty of time to work on them.

She’d just turned off the highway onto the road into the ranch and determined to stop wondering about Phillip and what he was doing and focus on the good things in her life. The things she loved and looked forward to.

She didn’t know if Corey would be done for the day when she got there. If he wasn’t, she needed to spend some time working on her sketch for the mural. She still had a few weeks before she would start the actual painting, but she needed to know what she’d be putting up with enough time to do the math for sizes, proportions, colors and how much paint she would need. Bonnie pulled up in front of the cabin and parked, her mind still on her project as she got out and went inside.

Finding the place empty she pulled out her sketch book and the notebook she was using for this project, took them out on the porch and got busy.

“Nowthere’saboutthebest thing I ever came home to,” Corey’s voice pulled her from the sketch taking shape in her hands. Bonnie looked up to find him standing at the bottom of the steps up to the porch, watching her.

“What?” She resisted the urge to pat her hair and make sure it hadn’t done something weird while she’d been working.

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