Page 66 of Sprog
"You call it in," Prez says. "You don't go in without the full table behind you. We're not doing this piecemeal."
Cash looks at Ramsey. Ramsey looks at Cash. Whatever passes between them in that half second is between them only. Then Cash nods.
He looks around the table one more time. "We stay ahead of this. We find out where they went and we finish it. They hurt one of our kids. That doesn't get left open."
No one argues.
"Sprog, I want you at Ruby's. She had them in for coffee before they left, she may have picked up more than she's told us. And use the opportunity." He almost smiles. "I'm told you have some personal news she's been waiting to hear."
Cash grins at me across the table. I give him the finger.
"Dismissed," Prez says, and the room moves.
Ruby spotsme through the window before I've even pushed the door open and she has the expression of a woman who has been waiting for exactly this.
"Just the man I was looking for," she says, hands on the counter, already satisfied with herself.
"And why would that be?" I sit down at the booth by the window and play the game.
"I saw Savannah on the back of your bike this morning." She leans on the counter. "The last time I saw her she was walking to the bar with that friend of hers. The male one. Now she's on your bike."
"Sit down, Ruby. And bring the coffee."
She laughs and does exactly that, two cups and a slice of pie in front of me before she's settled.
"You first," she says.
"Sav's back in my life. I'm not letting her go a second time and she seems to feel the same way. She's at the house with EJ right now and they get on like a house on fire." I take a forkful of pie and look at her over it. "Your turn."
Ruby is smiling the smile of a woman who has been waiting to be proved right about something for a very long time. "I always knew you two were meant for each other. It just took a bit of time apart to get you both there."
"Ruby."
"Alright, alright." She picks up her coffee. "After the business at the hotel, they came through here early yesterday morning. Four of them, including one I hadn't seen before. They got coffee to go. I was in the back, but I could hear them at the counter."
"And?"
"They were talking quietly but I caught bits. Something about a delay. Something about more men coming down from the north at the end of the month. And one of them said they weren't donewith this town, said it very specifically." She looks at me steadily. "I don't like the sound of that, Austin."
"End of the month," I say.
"That's what I heard. Could be wrong, I was in the back, wasn't catching everything. But I'm fairly confident about that part." She taps the counter. "You be careful, Austin. Whatever happened at that hotel the other night, I don't need to know about it. But those men are not good people, and I don't want anyone in this town getting hurt."
"Nobody's getting hurt, Ruby."
"You got shot."
"I've had worse."
She gives me the look my mother used to give me when I said something she found insufficient. "That isn’t the reassurance you think it is."
I laugh. "I'll be careful. We'll all be careful. That's a promise."
She stands and tops up my coffee without being asked. "Now. Tell me about Savannah. What does EJ think of her?"
I smile and let her have the rest of the conversation. She's earned it. We talk about Sav and EJ and the compound. Ruby tells me she always knew, which I don't doubt. When I stand to go, she hands me two slices of pie wrapped in napkins and tells me to look after both of them, which I intend to.
I text Prez with what Ruby told me.At the end of the month, men coming from the north, regrouping.Prez sends back a single word:noted. That means it's going into the plan.
