The room is quiet for a second.
"I agree with Sprog," Shadow says.
Razor looks around the table. No objections. "Kids on lockdown after school today. Braxton, get word to the school that we'll be collecting. No prospects, patched members only." He puts his hands flat on the table. "We don't want anything happening to the people in this town. This is our territory and we protect it. We find out what these people want and then we deal with it. Cleanly and without collateral damage."
He looks around the room one more time and then he says, "Dismissed," and the table comes back to life.
I walk out with Knuckles, who says nothing as we cross the yard, and then says, "Good call on the kids."
"Thanks."
"Not a compliment. A fact." He peels off toward the garage and that's Knuckles done with the conversation.
I get back under the truck.
Two hourslater my phone rings.
I see Ruby’s number. Was I supposed to get the sandwiches today? I thought one of the prospects was getting it.
"Yeah," I say.
"Austin, there's been an incident outside the diner. Can you come immediately? The paramedics are on their way. It’s EJ. Come quick."
Everything in me goes completely quiet. Not silent. Quiet, the particular focused stillness that comes down when everything peripheral drops away and there's only the thing that matters.
"What happened to my son?"
"He was on his way to the diner with one of the prospects and the other kids from the clubhouse, then there was a sound. I rushed out of the diner and EJ fell. He's been shot, Austin. It looks like it grazed him but he's bleeding. Please hurry."
I hang up.
Thirty seconds. I sit on the dolly on the floor of the garage bay, and I have thirty seconds where I don't move. I lay out what I know. EJ’s been grazed. He’s bleeding. Paramedics are coming.He's conscious because she didn't say otherwise. Grazed means the bullet didn't enter. Bleeding from a graze is manageable if it's managed quickly. The paramedics are coming but they're eight minutes away at best because this end of town is always eight minutes from anything.
The new doctor's office is three minutes from Ruby’s on foot.
I get up and I call Prez as I walk to my bike.
"This better be important, Sprog, I'm with Rosie right now."
"EJ's been shot outside Ruby’s. I'm on my way."
A pause of about one second. "On it."
He hangs up but I can already hear him shouting for brothers before the line goes dead. That's all it takes. One sentence. No questions, no hesitation. The club moves.
I get on the bike, and I ride. My mind stays exactly as quiet and focused as it needs to be.
EJ is bleeding. I'm three minutes away.Everything else is noise.
The road between the garage and Ruby’s is a road I know so well I don't have to think about it, which is useful right now because all of my thinking is being used for other things. I run the sequence as I ride. Get to EJ. Assess. Decide.
The diner comes into view,and I see Ruby moving people away from her door.
I park right outside Ruby’s and stride into the diner. The crowd parts for me the way crowds part when they can see that someone knows exactly where they're going.
Ruby is kneeling beside EJ with a folded jacket pressed against his side. She looks up when I get to them and her expression steadies. "He's conscious and talking," she says. "The bleeding's slowing. You've got time."
"Thank you."