Page 57 of Winter's End

We climbed into the passenger seats and buckled up. Logan finally put down his phone and backed down the long driveway.

The cab grew unsettlingly quiet. Outside, the streetlights faded away along the mountain highway to Carlisle. Logan turned the knob on the expensive stereo system and a light, classical melody filled the empty space between us.

“Should have known you would be a classical man.” Shane’s head poked in between the seats and he clapped his hands on Logan’s shoulders. “You’re high brow, bro.”

Logan shrugged Shane off of him with a jerk of his body. “Don’t touch me, Quicksilver. Listen to the music or give Johnson a blowjob or something.”

Drew choked on air in the backseat. “That won’t be necessary,” he sputtered. I couldn’t see his face in the rearview mirror, but I didn’t imagine it had lost its purple hue.

Shane brightened. “Voyeurism is your thing, huh? Cool. We’ll explore that one later.” He mussed up Logan’s hair again and Logan growled.

“Touch me again, and I’ll leave you out here to hitchhike.”

Shane put up his palms in a signal for peace. “Just getting a little bonding in with you, brother. You know I’m touchy-feely.”

Logan didn’t respond, and the cab fell quiet again, the swirling notes of a talented pianist blanketing us with their song.

Within minutes, the roiling tension between us dissipated. My mind went still as I disappeared into the darkened landscape of shadowed, jutted rocks and spruce trees. Before I knew it, the lit-up sky of Carlisle could be seen in the distance.

I gave Logan the address to Darlene’s place, and we arrived in fifteen minutes. This wasn’t a good neighborhood; many of the buildings had bars on the windows, and graffiti and garbage smothered every surface of the city street.

I had texted her ten minutes before to let her know to be ready. When we pulled up to her complex, she’d rushed from the shadows to the car.

“Oh!” Her mouth dropped open when she pulled the passenger side door open to find Drew.

“Hi, Ms. Knightly,” Drew said politely, getting out of his seat and holding the door open for her. “Let me take that.”

He took the bag out of her hands and gently placed it behind him in the back. It didn’t look like much, but then again, I didn’t know how much she owned to pack.

I turned around to smile at the woman, knowing this was not the welcome wagon she’d been expecting.

“It’s okay,” I crooned soothingly, needing to comfort this woman who’d lived a life full of fear. “They’re here to help.”

“Hurry up,” Logan barked from the front as Drew helped Darlene into the center seat of the car. “I don’t want to get carjacked.”

“Fuck off,” Shane, Drew, and I all said in unison. Darlene’s gaze snapped curiously between the four of us, but she said nothing.

Once we’d cleared the sketchy area by taking multiple detours—I didn’t know if this was intelligent or paranoia, but we weren’t taking the chance—Logan pulled back onto the highway and picked up speed, eager to make up some lost ground. It was approaching midnight, and Kellan had already messaged my burner that Maverick was already at the meeting site.

“So, you’re all friends?” Darlene spoke up after ten-minutes of weighted silence.

I looked at her in the rearview. I was about to answer when Shane’s bright teeth flashed in the dark cabin, using the smile that could put anyone at ease.

“Sure are, Mrs. K! All friends, banded together by blood and brotherhood. Isn’t that right, Loggie?”

“Don’t call me that,” Logan barked. He shot Shane an evil eye in the mirror I was still looking through.

Darlene’s brows rose, but she asked no more questions.

I owed her an explanation, at the very least. She’d been running for years and had put her trust in me. I valued that trust, even if she was still earning mine.

“We’re all tied to the same—issue.” I tried to be as tactful as I could, given the situation. “My friends here”—I speared a look at Logan, but he ignored me—“wanted to help get you to safety.”

The air shifted in the vehicle and I should have known Logan couldn’t resist stirring up trouble.

“What he’s not saying is that they’re all into his girlfriend.”

His shit-eating grin needed to be smacked off his face. I supposed I should be grateful he didn’t bring up the ‘holes’ conversation again.

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