(Ridge)
By the time I turned through the compound gates, word had already started moving.
That was how this place worked. You could not bring a truck through the front without three people noticing and six more hearing about it before you parked. I saw heads turn before I even killed the engine. A couple brothers were outside the main building, and one of the old ladies was in a chair near the door with a cup in her hand. She looked up first. Then she looked harder.
Mira sat beside me with one hand over her stomach and the other in her lap. She had gone quiet the last few minutes of the drive, not nervous exactly, just getting herself ready to come back after the week away.
I reached over and took her hand.
“You alright?” I asked.
She looked at me and nodded. “I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
