“I can’t thank you enough,” Decker said to Snow as they shook hands, then embraced. I winced as Decker did at the movement of his injured shoulder. I saw a dark-haired man duck his head as he spoke quietly to Decker, who shook his head. The dark-haired man looked like he didn’t like Decker’s response.
Snow cast a look around the area we’d met up at, then spoke to Decker. “You all better get back on the road.”
“Agreed,” the man they called Voodoo said. They dropped the trailer with Decker’s truck on it, and Voodoo hooked it up to the truck they’d arrived in.
They offered me the chance to use the bathroom, but I declined, suddenly anxious to get back on the road. The men all said their goodbyes, and we headed down the highway as Snow and his guy headed back to my former home.
“Loralei? This is Voodoo.” Decker officially introduced me as he motioned to the guy driving, who met my eyes in the rearview and gave me a slight chin lift. “And that guy is Angel,” he said as he pointed to the dark-haired guy I’d noticed speaking to him earlier. If anyone had a name that didn’t fit him, it was Angel.
He was dark and seemed angry at Decker for some reason. Voodoo wasn’t much different, except maybe a little more scary intense.
Angel continued to study me curiously before he returned his attention to Decker. “Venom, I need to look at that shoulder.”
That wasn’t the first time I’d heard someone call him Venom, and I made a mental note to ask him about it.
“When we get back to the clubhouse,” he insisted. Angel didn’t look happy about that, and I wondered if that was what he’d been talking to Decker about before.
“If things go to shit, we’d be better off if you were at one-hundred percent,” Angel argued.
“If things go to shit, I needyouat one-hundred percent,” Decker threw back at him. That seemed to shut Angel up, but he was definitely disgruntled.
“My grandmother said she called you, Venom.” Voodoo broke the silence as it was starting to get uncomfortable.
“Mm,” Decker grunted but didn’t really reply.
“I think we both know what that change was now,” he said, and my gaze volleyed back and forth between the two of them. They all seemed to be speaking in code.
“Y’all are confusing the fuck out of me,” I finally blurted out.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” Voodoo questioned, causing me to roll my eyes. Obviously I wasn’t going to get any explanations for their code talk.
“No shit, Sherlock,” I drawled out, intentionally laying my accent on thick.
“She’s from Texas,” Decker rumbled out. I glanced over at him with a narrowed gaze.
“Yeah, speaking of, why didn’t you just ask me about my past instead of having a background check run on me?”
The men in the front seat faced forward and stared intently at the snow-covered landscape. They must’ve decided they didn’t want to be involved in the conversation in the back seat.
“I didn’t have it run on you. Snow already had it from when you worked at the Shamrock for them.”
“I don’t remember signing consent for a background check,” I grumbled as I belligerently crossed my arms.
He snorted out a laugh. “You didn’t have to. The Demented Sons do what they want. You chose to work for them; everyone knows they don’t hire anyone without one.”
“Well, I didn’t. Not from around here, remember?”
A lot of the anger was sucked from me when I saw how drawn Decker suddenly looked. He was also pale.
“Are you sure we should be traveling? There’s no way you’re healed enough for this,” I murmured in worry. He laid his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes.
“I’ll be fine when I get home,” he replied cryptically.
“You should’ve gone to a hospital,” I grumbled.
“No.”
“No?”