He saw Cash leading Bliss into the gazebo. The brother had surprised him, since he had thought Cash would have made more attempts to see Rachel. Instead, he was seeking solace from the women in the clubhouse.
Shade opened the door to his house and saw Lily and Rachel sitting in the living room. As exhausted as he was, he couldn’t help smiling when Lily got up to give him a kiss.
Rachel rose to her feet. “I’d better go. It’s almost Mag’s bedtime, and I don’t want her to lock me out.”
Shade went into the kitchen to make him a plate of food as the women said their goodbyes.
“Would she really?” Lily asked in shock.
“No,” Rachel laughed. “But she would make me wish she had by the time she quit fussing at me for making her get out of bed.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys. “Here you go. I’ll stop by the store tomorrow to pick them up.”
“All right. Thanks again, Rachel.”
“Dinner more than made up for it,” Rachel replied, giving her a hug. “Bye, Shade.”
He nodded to her while spooning chili into a bowl, mentally debating with himself whether he should stop her. Cash would still be in the gazebo with Bliss.
Coming to a decision, he let her leave.
“I forgot something at the factory. I’ll be right back,” Shade told Lily.
“All right. I’ll put the chili back in the pot so it won’t get cold.”
He went out the door, easily seeing Rachel walking down the path and coming to a stop by the gazebo. She froze on the pathway for several seconds, and then she started walking again until she barreled into Train.
Shade leaned on the porch rail, watching the show as Train and Rachel talked briefly before they walked together down the pathway.
Bliss came out of the gazebo a minute later, stomping toward the clubhouse. When Cash came out, he didn’t go to the clubhouse, walking down toward the parking lot instead.
Shade stayed on the porch until he saw Train and Cash coming back up the pathway toward the clubhouse. Then he walked down his steps, wanting to have a word with Cash yet coming to a stop when he heard the two men talking.
“Train, I ... I…”
“Brother, if you don’t want me to touch her, all you have to do is ask.”
“I’m asking.”
“Cool, I’ll leave her to you then.”
Cash slung his arm around Train’s shoulder, and then Train helped Cash inside.
Shade waited a minute before entering behind them, giving Train enough time to get Cash upstairs. The brother was the most dependable of them. Train always managed to be there when he was needed; however, because he was so quiet, he tended to be overlooked. If Shade was in a life-or-death battle and could only pick one brother to back him up, it would be Train. His skills were as sharp as when he had left the military, and he had been lethal then. His skills as a chopper pilot were unequaled. He was a fucking legend.
Once, a helicopter he had been flying was transporting troops when he had been shot down behind enemy lines. The helicopters in the Navy were pieces of shit, but Train had managed to bring it down without any loss of life. He and the troops had spent five days behind enemy lines, and they had all made it out alive except one, a woman.
After Train came back downstairs, throwing himself down on the couch next to Jewell, Shade went up the steps, noticing the members’ eyes on him. He went to Cash’s bedroom door, rapping on it with his knuckles.
“Go away,” Cash snapped from inside.
“I want to talk,” Shade snapped back, opening the door.
The room was dark, and Shade heard the mattress squeaking as Cash rose up to turn the bedroom light on.
“It couldn’t wait until morning?” Cash asked.
“Brother, you used to fuck all night and work all day then start all over again,” Shade said, leaning casually against the doorway.
“I haven’t gotten all my strength back yet.”
“If you’ve gotten enough to fuck Bliss in the gazebo, then you have enough to start taking a couple of shifts a week. Starting tomorrow morning.” Shade tossed him his set of factory keys.
“No problem,” Cash said, catching the keys in his hand. “You pissed at me for not pulling my weight, you should—”
“I’m not pissed at you, Cash. Brother, I’m glad you’re back and doing well. It’s just I haven’t spent that much time with Lily lately, and with the baby due, I’d like to,” Shade admitted, telling the partial truth.
With Brooke going back and forth from Georgia to Treepoint, his sense of foreboding told him she was up to something. The next one she took, he wanted to follow her and to do that, he needed Cash back at work. He had talked to Cash’s physical therapist, and she had told him she was getting ready to release him.
“I’ll be there bright and early.”
Shade nodded.
“Shade?”
“Yeah?”
“Why was Rachel at your house tonight? She’s never been there before.”