Chapter 10
Blake whistled softly as they stood in the entryway. He felt bad for Justice and his crew as they all seemed like solid people. His gut told him they didn’t compare in the least bit to those bastards in the Platoon. Micah and the others had shown their true colors at the beginning, and the Saviors had simply tried to change them into what they hoped for, what they needed—an ally.
That hadn’t worked out so well.
“How long do you think they’re going to need to hash it out?” he asked.
Noah shrugged. “Relax, Blake. They just found out their home is gone, and the place they’ve felt safe has been compromised because of us.”
Hudson sighed. “I didn’t know the damn fence was supposed to be locked.”
“No one’s blaming you,” Noah mumbled. “No way you could have known. I had no idea the fence was supposed to be padlocked. What about you, Blake?”
“Nope.”
“See? It’s settled. Not your fault, man.”
The silence stretched on, and then the hall light illuminated. They heard footsteps, and Justice came into view.
“We’ve all decided to go with you.”
“Excellent.” Noah grinned.
Blake sighed and pulled out his phone and called Rayner.
Although he felt pretty confident in his assumption of Justice and his group, he questioned whether he wanted them around Sophia and Megan. His world would crumble if anything happened to those two.
When Rayner answered, he spoke. “Hey, man. Is there a woman in your vicinity?”
“Why?”
“I need to talk to someone who can listen and be responsible.”
“Fuck you, Blake.”
“Back at you.”
“Yeah, here’s Faith.”
He heard Rayner mumbling, the Faith came on the line. “Hi, Blake. Are you accusing Rayner of being childish?”
“Hi, Faith. Pretty much.”
She laughed. “That’s why I love him.”
“And that’s why I needed to talk to someone who’s responsible, like you.”
“What’s up?”
He explained they would be having company. “Four men, one woman. Have Rayner and Jovan set up cots in the gym. Better make that six cots in the gym if Titus is going to stick around.”
“Give me the phone,” Hudson murmured.
He handed it over.
“Hey, Faith. Yeah, I’m good, thanks, honey. Here’s the grocery list for tonight.”
As Hudson began with thirty potatoes, nine heads of lettuce, and debated whether he needed four or five beef roasts, Blake tuned him out.
He became fidgety, moving his weight from one foot to the other, his hands clenching into fists, then releasing. His heart pounded a little bit faster, and a light sweat broke out on his brow. He wanted heroin.
As his inner demon chatted at him, telling him that one hit wouldn’t hurt, that the stress he felt at the situation would be relieved, that he could control his cravings after that one, relaxing bump, perspiration poured down his face despite the mild temperature in the room.
“I’m going to step outside,” he murmured, and didn’t wait for an answer.
As the sun hit his face, he inhaled deeply and jammed his fists into the front pockets of his jeans. He found that movement helped get him over these humps that happened every now and then, especially as they became less frequent.
Hudson came out a few moments later and handed him his phone back. “You okay, man?”
Oddly enough, Hudson probably understood Blake’s addiction better than anyone, given how his mate, Beverly, had been through rehab before she ever met Hudson and had clued him on what Blake experienced in times like these.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“You need anything?”
“No.”
“If you’ve got all your marbles in a row, maybe you can figure out how all of us are going to fit in the Escalade in one trip.”
Blake mentally counted the available seats, timed it by the approximate amount of duffel bags they would bring, and came up with nothing but two trips.
“Not going to happen, Hudson.”
“That’s kind of what I was thinking.”
Hudson’s little distraction had calmed him, and his craving had passed. His heartbeat returned to normal; the sweat dried on his skin. Beverly had talked about preoccupying his mind with something similar, but he’d always just fought his way through the hunger for heroin. He’d have to file away this trick for future use.
As he kicked the light brown sand with his boots, he considered other things that needed to be taken care of. Food. Beds. He couldn’t think of anything else. He hit number two on the speed dial and Jovan picked up on the second ring.
“I need you to come out here with the other Escalade.”
“Rayner just told me what’s going on. What happened?”
“Their position may have been compromised, and it’s our fault. I think they’re pretty good people, so I’m not too worried about bringing them to the silo. We won’t fit in one car, though.”
“Got it. So you called Jovan’s taxi service.”
“Yup.”
“I thought Justice seemed okay.”
“Me, too.”
“Where you at?”
“Do you remember when we broke out Micah and Annis? Where you were captured?”
He chuckled. “How could I forget?”
“Head there, and call me when you’re close.”
“Jesus, I hope that doesn’t give me some PTSD shit.”
Blake rolled his eyes. “Just hurry up. You can go down memory later.”
He hung up and shut his eyes, raising his face to the sun, and wondered what would become of Justice and his group.
He wouldn’t even take a guess. He’d have a say in it, but that decision would ultimately be left up to Noah.
His gut churned, and he had the feeling things would significantly change in the very near future.
He just hoped it would be for the best.