Page 82 of Redemption Road

They’d fed everyone lunch, and then the Hat Island teams showed up, and they fed them too. One thing running a motorcycle club had taught Ryder was organizing the food line. Wolves were like the Army, he said, laughing. They marched on their stomachs.

Whatever, she thought with an eyeroll and a grin. Still, running an MC with 40 men wasn’t all that different than running all those recruits. Well, the MC might not be as clueless....

It had been a relief to have the Hat Island teams arrive, she conceded. She just had to watch Benny to realize that. He’d been really stressed, probably because he actually had some idea of how dangerous this all was. But she’d seen his shoulders relax as he’d greeted the men in charge, and then he’d pulled two men off to his own cabin for a conversation. She didn’t know what that was about, and she’d been too busy to find out. She hadn’t seen those men since. Well, if they didn’t show up for supper she’d know something was up.

The medic and the security chief were men she’d known from Margarite’s, and that helped too. Michel Fournier had gone off with Dennis McKenzie to Dennis’s clinic downtown. They’d taken a couple of security guards, some recruits and Sharon Campbell with them. Sharon was getting the word out, Dennis had reported back to Duncan. They’d already give two serum shots. Dennis was elated.

Jessie smiled. If they could save the lives of girls at first shift, she’d count it a win. It did feel good to be improving the lives of people instead of figuring out how not to get killed. Or how to kill.

Not going to think about that, she told herself firmly. She hoped her other self was listening.

Then Ryder decided he was going north to look at the lodge himself. The original plan had been for Titus to take some of the bikers and a security team up there. They could scout it out and report back. But Ryder had been antsy all day, and it got worse as Titus prepared to leave. Finally he announced he was going up there, himself. And that meant Benny was going too.

Benny had looked pretty grim about it, but he didn’t argue. Jessie found she could gauge the situation by watching him. She had been under attack for so long she no longer knew if things were getting worse, or if it was just another bad day in a long line of bad days. From Benny’s expression, she thought things were definitely getting worse.

Duncanhadprotested, however. “What about the funeral pyre?”

Ryder had paused to consider it. “The pyre won’t be until late,” he said finally. “We’ll be back by then. I’ll go there directly.”

He’d pulled Jessie aside for a quick talk and asked if she’d be OK running things. She appreciated him asking, although she suspected he was going no matter what she said.

“You’ve got Jason to manage the young guys,” he said, with a tilt of his head toward the front lawn. “And you’ve got Duncan and Dennis. You OK with me going?”

She wasn’t sure she was, but she could see Ryder needed to do this. And maybe he was right. She wondered if he was getting something from the pack bonds — something he couldn’t define but it was telling him he needed to do this. So she’d kissed him and sent him off.

She’d taken a moment to talk to Benny, however. “You bring him back to me safely,” she hissed at him. “Running things for a day? I can do that. I think, anyway. But I’m not getting stuck with this pack alone. You hear me?”

Benny had been amused, but he’d answered her seriously. “On my word,” he promised her. “I’m bringing him back.”

So she’d taken a deep breath and waved them all off — Ryder and Benny and his six wolves on bikes, and Titus and a security team leader from Hat Island driving SUVs. They could have taken just one. She wasn’t sure why they hadn’t. Reasons, she thought with a sigh, and then she’d come up here to take her turn as the lookout and to have the shakes in private. The lookout had become standard operations. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt better when there was someone up here watching. And it was her personal refuge, a place to think.

She glanced at the rifles leaning by the windows. Maybe she should get Jason to give her and the other women a second lesson.

Amanda had found her and proposed the swap. “They’d still have to camp out,” she said, referring to the recruits. “But they’d have bathrooms and showers. The leadership could sleep inside. And us women wouldn’t feel like we were trapped upstairs.”

Jessie nodded. She could see how they would feel trapped, and she knew from her own experience what that felt like. It was one thing to use ‘feeling trapped’ as a saying. It was another thing if you’d actually been trapped. She’d gnaw a limb off like an animal to get out of a trap if she had to. She suspected these women felt the same.

And here was a whole other group who needed some therapy.

“You discuss this with the other women?” she asked.

“Yes,” Amanda said. “And I talked to the bikers before they left. They’re cool if we double bunk them or move some inside. We only need two cabins for us women. We’d all feel safer with numbers.”

“Fine,” Jessie said. “You’re in charge. Get them all moved. It’s not like anyone has much to move. You might want to think about that too. I’ve got a credit card you can use. Go online and order what you and the other women need.”

Amanda brightened at that, and Jessie found her wallet and handed over one of Cujo’s debit cards. It was becoming a running joke between her, Ryder and Benny. Cujo’s debit cards were funding this whole endeavor. Cujo was good for it, Benny said. And she’d seen he was amused by it.

Benny was amused by most things, she’d found. Really he had the most macabre sense of humor. She chewed on her lip. Just because you’re laughing doesn’t mean you’re not hurting, however. And she thought Benny might be hurting a lot. Well, if they got this crisis over with, she’d haul him off for some of his own medicine — talk therapy.

And then she had the attic to herself again, and settled in to watch out the window.

Duncan was the next person who climbed up the stairs. “We’ve got a problem,” he said, pausing uncertainly at the door.

She sighed. “Do I need to come downstairs?” she said, not wanting to get up. “What’s going on?”

“Dennis called. He says Sharon talked to her great-grandfather — Angus Campbell.”

“She what?” Jessie scrambled up, and went down the stairs, Duncan following behind her.

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