“What was it?”
“Blog posts about the best type of assault weapons for maximum damage, how fast they need to be reloaded, stuff like that. Journal notes about making kids in his class hurt like he’s hurting. Making people suffer who’ve made him suffer.”
I straightened. “Potential school shooter?”
“I’m thinking. All the signs are there.”
“Do you know if he has access to weapons?”
“I know his father’s got a concealed carry license.”
We shared a look.
“Where is he?”
“Place called Chaparral. On the border between Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas.”
I reached up and rubbed my eyes. “Christmas is tomorrow. Schools starts again early January.”
“I know. He’s slowed down with the messed-up content, but it amped up a couple weeks before the end of semester. His online diary is whacked. The shit they do to him… You’d burn in hell for doing it to an animal, never mind a kid.” He shrugged. “He’s a locked and loaded pistol just waiting to be fired once he’s back in class.
"I don’t know what to do, Rex. Shit’s disturbing, but you know what it’s like down there. Cops ain’t gonna listen. Got their thumbs up their asses until it’s too late and kids are dead.
"I can’t have that on my conscience as well, man.”
I reached over and grabbed his shoulder. “You don’t have to. I’ll figure something out.”
He released a breath. “I’d go down myself, try to—fuck, I don’t know. How do you reason with a kid like that? He’s on the brink of mass fucking murder because of some bullies. He’s the victim—”
“Until he becomes the perpetrator,” I tacked on grimly. “You can’t travel, anyway. You gotta stay here, continue with the treatment. Ain’t about to lose you, Mav. Not again.”
“I ain’t going nowhere,” he said gruffly. “But even if I wanted to flout my doctor’s orders, I can’t, man. Too shaky on a fucking hog. The pills they got me on are messing with me right now.”
Nodding my understanding, I told him, “You ride here in a cage?”
“Yeah. Hawk’s waiting for me in the parking lot.”
“Good. Leave this with me. I’ll figure something out.”
“Sorry to bring this to your table, Rex. What with Bear and—” He made a gesture with his hands that I fucking felt in my soul.
Life right now was rough.
I squeezed his shoulder again. “Don’t worry about it.”
Guilt etched its way into his expression. “Bear—”
“He’s dying. Won’t be long now.” I cast a look at the hospital. “Just a matter of time no matter what the fucking doctors say.”
“Sorry, brother. Love the bastard. He’s been a dad to all of us.”
Mav wasn’t wrong.
I clenched my jaw. “He has. You go home. Go and corral that Old Lady of yours.”
“You gonna stay here?” he asked uneasily.
“Yeah.”
“The clubhouse is ready to move into.”
“I know.”
We’d been working since the blast to construct a new clubhouse, and it was finally ready. Just in time for Christmas.
Ho, fucking ho.
“You moving out of Rachel’s?”
I didn’t want to talk about this now.
I stared at him until he pulled a face and raised his hands. “I’ll leave it alone.”
When he backed away, heading for wherever Hawk was waiting for him, I called out, “You did the right thing coming to me with this, Mav.”
He twisted around and dipped his chin. “You’re our Solomon, Rex. Wouldn’t want the weight of the decisions you bear every day, but I’m fucking grateful you’re man enough for the task.”
As he strolled between cars, I stayed staring at the hospital window where I knew my dad was slowly dying.
Shoulders hunched against the cold, I knew I was shivering, but I didn’t really care.
Solomon.
Funny how he called me that now when I wasn’t feeling wise, wasn’t even feeling like I had the capability of running the Sinners.
I was just a boy.
A son.
About to lose his dad.
“Maverick?”
He froze, and like he knew what I was about to ask without me saying a damn word, he turned again to face me. “Wynter’s doing okay, Rex.”
I gave him a shaky nod even as my hands curled into tight fists.
He didn’t leave like I thought he would, instead he asked, "Rex?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you know what's wrong with Rachel?"
For a second, I just stared at him.
There were so many things wrong with my woman, after all—I didn’t know where to start.
He angled his head to the side, reading into my expression and my silence without me having to utter a word. “You do. So why don’t you fix things with her?”
“Because…”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that she didn’t want me to.
That wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the full truth either.
“I know why she’s been grouchy as fuck this week.”
“You know that wasn’t what I meant.”
With a sigh, I conceded, “I don’t know what broke her. Not specifically.”
“You didn’t think to ask?”
“I don’t need to ask to know. I—” Air gusted in my cheeks and the cold chill of the night bit into my flesh. But the ice in my soul that came from the separation Rachel insisted on between us was so much worse than anything nature could throw at me. “I know when things changed. I can guess what happened. She needs to tell me herself. I can’t look into it. She’s…” How the fuck did I verbalize this? “She’s not like other women. She doesn’t want me to fix things for her.”
“She’s not fixing it herself,” he said, clearly unimpressed.
From his position, I got it.
I’d be unimpressed too.
I was her man.
I was supposed to slay her dragons and fix her crown.
Rachel, however, was capable of slaying her own damn dragons and fixing her own damn crown.
How did you make reparations for a woman who didn’t need you to?
“I’m there for her. Always. When she’s ready, she’ll come to me.”
It sounded like a weak as fuck excuse, and I half expected Maverick to snigger at me and call me a prick, but if anyone knew the lengths I’d gone to for Rachel, it was him.
Giving my daughter to another family to raise had been hell, but I’d done it. For Rachel. To keep her alive. That was just the tip of the Rachel Laker iceberg.
He blinked at me. “I think, if you’re not careful, you’ll be waiting the rest of your life for her to make things right. She’s stuck. You both are. You need to cut the cord or bind it around you even tighter. Trust me, man, I’d know.”
With that, he left, and I watched him wend his way through the cars.
He wasn’t wrong.
I knew that.
Peering up at the sky, I released a breath that frosted in front of me and wondered if my girls were looking up at the stars too.