Page 108 of So Steady

Toby put a hand on her shoulder. “This is going to be intense and you’re not the best person to have around when things are intense.”

“But—” Tabby snapped her mouth shut. She looked furious, but Noah could see she wasn’t going to push harder.

“Tab, please don’t be mad,” Toby said. “I’ll wash the puppies for the next six months.”

“Whatever,” Tabby said. “I’m heading home. Good luck with your OG bikie shit, I guess.”

She turned on her heel and marched away, the swishing sound of her pants undercutting her furious exit. When his graffitied door slammed shut, Toby winced. “She’s never gonna forgive me for this.”

“You did the right thing,” Noah said. “She’s a liability.”

Toby looked miserable. “I was just worried she’d get hurt. I couldn’t handle that.”

“How long you been together?” Noah asked, mildly curious. As far as he knew, Tabby had never had a serious boyfriend.

Toby’s expression became even more miserable. “We’re not together.”

An awkward silence fell.

“So…” Scott said. “What now?”

“We sit down and discuss this.” Noah clapped his hands together hard, then cringed. He’d just echoed his dad opening a chapter meeting. “Let’s just sit down.”

“Sit down where?”

Noah looked around his fucked up kitchen, every chair broken, the floor covered in splintered glass. “Pub?”

Chapter 20

Noah looked in the rear-view and saw Toby gnawing a fingernail. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want. Two’ll be enough.”

Toby shook his head. “I can handle it.”

“You’re nervous as fuck,” Scott said, his feet tapping up a symphony on the floor and a thin sheen of sweat on his brow.

Noah readjusted his grip on the wheel. He didn’t blame them for being nervous, but he hoped they’d pull themselves together by the time they got to Gil’s. The little prick wasn’t dangerous, but this was a dicey, borderline illegal situation where a million things could go wrong. For the first time in years, he racked his mind for old memories. Helpful shit.

“Best shakedown’s a quick shakedown,” his dad had said some half-forgotten summer afternoon. “Quick, and you keep your mouth shut.”

Yarrow had said something about a tyre iron, and his old man laughed. “You come in that hard, they’ll run out the back door. Call the pigs. You need to come on reasonable. Half the effort and better results.”

“Stay quiet,” he told Toby and Scott. “We’re not here to chat about what he did and how we know. We say what we need to say and take it from there.”

Toby nodded, as though to prove he could keep quiet.

Scott rubbed his sweaty forehead. “Did you do this sort of thing for your father?”

He kept his eyes on the road. “Not as much as you’d think. They’ve got guys to do what we’re about to do.”

“Punishers?” That came from Toby.

“Sons of Anarchy?”

The young man flushed.

“How’d you join The Rangers?” Scott asked.

Now the cat was out of the bag, Noah knew he should get used to being asked about it, that he owed answers and explanations, but right now it felt like Scott was trying to start shit. “Why’d you want to know?”

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