It wasn’t.
The clubhouse door creaked open behind me.I heard it even over the distant hum of traffic and the occasional bark of someone’s dog.I didn’t turn.
Boots crossed the lot.
Jude stopped a few feet away.
“You good?”he asked.
I took another drag and blew the smoke out through my nose.“Just thinking.”
Jude snorted softly.“You’ve been doing a lot of that.”
I tipped my head back slightly, staring up at the sky.“Yeah.”
He waited.Jude always did.Never rushed into things.Never filled silence just to hear himself talk.Finally, he asked, “Thinking about what?”
I exhaled, long and slow, watching the smoke scatter.“That I’m sick of fucking thinking.”
Jude shifted his weight.
“And I want to fucking do something.”
He was quiet for a moment, then said, “Hopefully in a few hours we’ll have answers.”
I turned my head then, meeting his gaze.I shook my head once.“No.”
That caught his attention.
“No?”he repeated.
“I’m not waiting,” I said.“I’m going up there.”
Jude frowned.“Up where?”
“To that town the pipeline’s working out of.”
His brows pulled together.“Why?Mason already asked around.Scoped the place out.”
I flicked the cigarette to the ground and crushed it under my boot.“Because she’s up there,” I said.
Jude studied my face, like he was looking for something.Anger, desperation, doubt, or anything.
He didn’t find it.
“I can feel it,” I said.
That was the truth.Not a guess.Not a hunch.Something deeper than logic that had been gnawing at me since the second Wrecker saidpipeline.
Jude shook his head slowly.“You sound real sure about that.”
“I am.”
Silence stretched between us, thick but not uncomfortable.Jude glanced back toward the clubhouse, then back at me.“You want company?”he asked.
I swung my leg fully over the bike and settled into the seat, my hands gripping the bars.“Come with if you want.”I didn’t look at him when I added, “But I’m going up there either way.”
Jude huffed a quiet laugh.“Figured.”