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The other business close to the road is a gym. Or that’s my best guess, based on the name of Impact Fitness. The side near the street is for customer parking, and the back lot is probably for employees. That part of the parking lot is enclosed with a few trees and a ditch with grass.

Now, that would be the perfect place for Echo to take a quick potty break.

I circle the parking lot, peeking around for security cameras. There are plenty of lights in the main parking lot, which might make it difficult to sleep. The back side of the gym only has two floodlights on the building.

Okay, I’m going to go for it and sleep here, at least for a few hours. If employees start to come in, I’m sure I’ll hear them. Then I can move over to the big parking lot.

Or if I get very lucky, maybe I’ll sleep for a solid four or five hours. That should be enough for me to get back on the road.

I still have no idea where we’re going, but as far away from Tommy as I can get seems like a solid first step of the plan.

Chapter Two

Bryant

It’s cold as shit as I step out the back door of Maxwell’s and into the early morning air.

My packmates, Luka and Lawson, inherited Maxwell’s when their uncle passed away and their family pack wanted to move down south. The combination bar and restaurant has been in their family for close to fifty years, and it happens to be in the same plaza as my gym.

It’s how I met the guys.

They were both freshly out of the military for varying amounts of time. Taking over the restaurant gave them purpose.

I had to stop by Maxwell’s to check on a few things in preparation for the incoming storm.

It’s later in the year than we normally get whacked with our first don’t leave the house for a few days type of snowstorm, but our weather is always weird.

I didn’t bother zipping up my coat, since I’ll just have to take it off when I get into my truck.

Remote start is one of the best inventions in recent memory. Growing up, my mom used to send one of us kids out to start the car every morning. It was miserable, and we would hide, praying we weren’t the one she spotted.

I chuckle as I climb into my truck, pulling off my jacket and tossing it into the passenger seat before backing out of my parking spot.

It’s a quick trip across the parking lot to get to my gym, but I squint as I spot an unfamiliar car parked behind the building.

That’s not one of my employees.

I see their vehicles regularly enough to know it’s not one of their cars. Also, I sent the staff texts last night to let them know we would be closed today, which is Friday. They don’t need to come in through Sunday. I told them I’d send an update about Monday at some point over the weekend.

I’m going to have to check out what’s going on there.

Luckily, it’s where I’m headed, anyway.

This is a small town, and the police are strict about the no-overnight-parking law within the downtown area.

Since the gym is private property, they wouldn’t mess with the person unless we called to report a trespasser. In most cases, I would have the vehicle towed rather than calling the non-emergency line. Well, unless the person was just hanging out and refusing to leave.

I’ve never actually run into a situation like that, though.

Most times we’ve had vehicles left for a day or two because the driver was having car trouble.

Occasionally, we’ll have someone who didn’t want to leave their car in the bar parking lot. Who knows why they think their vehicle will be safer in the gym lot, but it has happened on a handful of occasions.

Most of the time, they pop up the next day to pick it up, and that’s that.

With the storm rolling in later this afternoon, it’s more concerning than if it was the middle of summer.

Oh, well.