He nods at me.
I take a breath. "Some of you know I came to this ranch with a past. Phantom knows most of it. The rest of you know there was somethin' before. We've all left it alone for a long time and I've appreciated it."
The brothers don't say anything.
"What you need to know this morning is that somebody from that past has been watchin' the property for a week. I got a name. I got a face. I got a history with him from before. He's a contractor for a firm that used to employ me. The firm doesn't take it well when somebody leaves them, and they've been sittin' on me for ten years waitin' for a reason to wake up."
Banshee shifts in his chair. "What reason?"
"Don't know yet."
"Best guess."
I set my coffee down on the cypress table. "Money. Politics. An old debt. They don't tell you why when they come for you. They just come."
Thunder leans forward, elbows on the table. "How many?"
"Two that I've clocked. There may be more."
Spur, from down the table: "Plan?"
I turn the empty mug a quarter turn. "Not gonna sit on it. I'm gonna find out who he's reportin' to, and I'm gonna give him a reason to report back that I'm not worth the cost. I'd rather do that than escalate."
Blaze runs a hand down his beard. "And if it escalates?"
I look at Phantom. Phantom holds my eye.
"Then we take it up a notch."
The room is quiet for a long second.
Phantom speaks up. "Brothers, this doesn’t leave this room. Not to ol' ladies. Not to bunk mates. Not to Hadley."
He cuts his eyes at me when he says her name.
I don't react.
"Rogue's been with us a long time. If the firm comes for him, they come for all of us. Y'all know what that means."
The brothers nod, one after another, around the table.
The only one who doesn’t is Thunder. Instead, he turns to me.
"And the woman?" he says.
The room shifts.
I look at him.
"Hadley," he says. "The boy. If they come for you, they come for them. What's the plan for them?"
It's the question I've been chewing on since the middle of the night.
I say, "I'm workin' on it."
Phantom taps his ring once against the cypress. "Work faster."
Thunder doesn't say anything. He just gives me a slow nod across the table—and I know it's not for Phantom. It's for me.