“Fuck, no. I wouldn’t talk about it with anyone but you, brother. You know that.”

“How’s everything else downstate?”

“Calmer now. With all the chaos of coming in the way I did, I don’t think I realized how fractured the club was with Shadow in the VP seat.”

“Yeah? Anyone else gotta go?”

“Smoke put in for a transfer to Florida.”

“Good riddance.”

“Amen. I’m keeping an eye on Tiny, but I think everyone else is solid. We’ll see what happens when Sway comes home.”

“God help you.” His phone rings and he smiles when he checks to see who it is. The call can only be from Hope. I doubt he looks like that when anyone else calls him. “Hey, baby doll. You almost here? I’m out front with Z.”

“You want me to go?” I ask when he hangs up.

“Nah, stick around. She wants to see you.”

Not sure I should intrude on their brief window of time together, I nod. A few minutes later, she pulls in and Rock goes over to open her door. The intensity of their affectionate greetings hasn’t lessened while I’ve been away. That’s a good sign.

When Rock’s finished properly molesting his wife, much to the delight of evening traffic, she turns and beams at me. “Z! What are you doing here?” She hurries over and envelops me in a ruthless hug. “I’m so happy to see you,” she mumbles against my cut.

For some reason, Hope, more than anyone else, makes me home sick and I hug her back just as hard. “Miss you, sweetheart.”

“Nothing is the same without you.”

“Yeah, no one comes barging through our screen door every morning,” Rock adds.

“Is it really ‘barging in’ if I do it every day and you’re expecting me?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, stop.” Hope slaps her hand against Rock’s chest. “We miss you.”

“Eh.” Rock wobbles his hand from side to side.

Ignoring his comment, but keeping her arms around him, she asks me what I’m doing here. “Don’t tell me you missed CB so much you had to visit?”

“No. I went to visit Grinder, so I wasn’t far. Thought I’d stop in and see how Dex was doing. Never expected to find Rock here.”

Her mouth turns down at the mention of Dex’s name. “The club’s having a rough time lately.”

“We’ll get through it. We always do.”

“How’s Lilly? Chance? We’re supposed to get together again sometime next week.”

“I think she’s looking forward to it.”

“Good.” She pauses. “You said you saw Grinder? How was he?”

To my knowledge, Hope’s never met him. Only heard things Rock or one of the brothers has told her. But her love for the club runs deep and extends to all the members.