Again silence. “I don’t want to owe you anything.”
“You won’t owe me shit.”
“You say that now, but I know how it works.”
Christ. So goddamn difficult. “Fine. You call me if you need money. I can take it out of the band’s fee the next time you play Pete’s.”
“Okay,” she breathed in what sounded like resignation.
“Want me to give Sig your number? Want him to call you?”
“Can you give me his instead?”
“Gonna text it to you.” He wondered if he should warn her about her brother’s issues. Maybe it was best for her to find out on her own. He didn’t want any of that stopping her from coming back north. “Gonna tell him to wait to hear from you first. But I gotta tell him you’re headin’ back this way. He’s gonna want to know that for sure.”
He waited for her to insist she wasn’t coming back north. When she didn’t, he felt relieved.
“Dodge…”
“Yeah?” She didn’t have to thank him, he heard it in her silence. “Don’t worry about it. Only wanna help.”
“I don’t know why…”
“Sometimes we don’t need to know why, Syn. No point in askin’. Just accept it. All right, stay safe. You got my number.” He hoped that piece of shit got them back to Pennsylvania in one piece. Luckily, they hadn’t gotten too far.
“Okay.”
“See you soon.”
His phone went dead silent. He pulled it away from his ear and saw she had hung up.
A text popped up a couple of seconds later.
Thankn u anyway, whether u want it or not. Just accept it.
He grinned at his own words being thrown back at him.
He was going to find out why she needed help whether she wanted that or not. Whatever her issue was, Sig didn’t need to handle it alone. He had a whole brotherhood behind him.
That brotherhood also would stand behind Syn.
She just didn’t know how powerful a brotherhood that stuck together could be.
But she would.
He had no doubt about that.
Chapter Seventeen
As soon as Rex parked the bus next to the shed on the MC’s farm, he was there. Pounding on the bus’s folding door and making it sound as though he was going to bust open that door with impatience.
Rex glanced over his shoulder with raised eyebrows at Syn and she simply nodded. Her lead guitarist rolled his eyes and jerked on the lever harder than he needed to, opening the two halves of the door and letting a rush of cold air in.
The second they were open wide enough for Dodge to squeeze through, he did so. When he climbed up the steps, he once again made the skoolie feel smaller than it already did. He gave a stiff chin lift to Rex, then his dark eyes immediately landed on her and raked her from head to toe. Almost as if he was checking to make sure she was in one piece.
She almost didn’t arrive that way. The more north they traveled, the worse the snow had become. There had to be at least six inches already covering the farm lane.
The tires on the bus were total shit—dry rotted in some spots and bald in others—and should be replaced. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t happen any time soon. It was another good reason to keep heading south.
But here they were again. In snow and ice country. On a farm belonging to a motorcycle club. A farm her brother lived on.
It was crazy. Over a week ago, they’d been in such close proximity and didn’t even know it.
She ended up not calling him, but she did text him to give him an idea when they’d arrive and told him that they’d talk once they were face to face. She needed to see him when she talked to him.
Honestly, she just needed to see him. She needed to see who he was and wanted to know how he ended up here. She was just glad he was no longer in prison and hoped he’d turned his life around enough that he wouldn’t ever go back.
While Syn couldn’t wait to see him, Dodge had been right. She hardly knew Sig. Just because they were biologically related also didn’t mean they’d get along.
In contrast to her limited text conversation with Sig, Dodge had called her every night, usually after closing down the bar and once he was alone in his apartment. He texted her several times during the day. They didn’t talk about anything deep. He didn’t hound her about her “problem,” either, but she could hear it in his voice.
He wanted to know. He was also a little salty that she wouldn’t tell him.
She almost did. Several times.
She wanted to relieve the burden she’d been keeping buried and carrying alone for so long. But she wanted to talk to her brother first because she hadn’t told anyone her secret.
Not even Rex, Nico or Eddie.