“How long is the drive?”
Gavin felt Shade’s rapier-blue eyes giving a silent warning. He knew Shade was cautioning him about Rachel. The brother wasn’t taking any chances that he would unintentionally mention he knew someone else who lived in Treepoint.
“When I drive, about five hours. When Will does, about three and a half,” she teased her husband. “You could probably build two factories for the same price as paying for one where you’ve been looking. The money you’d save would allow you to hire more workers. Not only that, you may be able to find a larger clubhouse.”
The last one piqued his interest. They needed a larger clubhouse. The brothers were complaining about not having enough space. Many of them had gone in together to try to rent apartments they could share. So far, they hadn’t been successful. Gavin couldn’t blame them; some of the brothers could get rowdy, and if he owned an apartment, he didn’t know if he would rent to some of the men based on the way they looked. Knox was having the biggest problem. The large, barrel-chested brother was intimidating enough without deliberately shaving his head and flashing a tongue ring every time he talked.
All the brothers had served in the military at one time or another. Their roughened appearances had been earned the hard way, by never knowing if they would live to see another day. A few of them were still being requested for specialized missions.
Shade was able to write his own ticket, performing assignments he wanted and telling them to fuck off when he didn’t. Lucky had left the service and stepped into a law enforcement role, while Train, Rider, and he were recruited to join a team that were tasked to perform high-risk missions. Train could fly anything with a motor, Rider was a strategic mastermind who could figure out an opponent’s objective in a split second, and in the next, devise a way to stop them. He had been trained to be Rider’s support, but Gavin was the first to admit that he didn’t have Rider’s gift on land. Water was his domain.
He felt more at home in the water, able to look at a body of water and understand the mysterious depths like most people could read a map. He could swim through caverns that many considered unpassable and had the ability to swim long distances, then adapt to running extended distances, then repeating the distances over and over. He might not have Rider’s razor-sharp mind, but he couldn’t be beat on stamina. The only other person who had same ability was Shade. Gavin had bragged several times that Shade might be able to run him to exhaustion on land, but in the water, he would eventually haul Shade’s ass back to shore.
Gavin laughed to himself, thinking Shade would let himself drown before letting him outdo him.
One of the rooms at the club had been turned into a makeshift gym that Rider, Shade, and he had gone into together to buy the equipment, despite the other brothers complaining they wanted the room to live in. He had put his foot down, though he would have given in to their demands and found somewhere else to work out, but he wasn’t going to take the chance that Rider and Shade didn’t get what they needed to keep their bodies in shape. Belonging to their elite unit, keeping their bodies in shape was as important as keeping their equipment in working order to leave at a moment’s notice. While Shade didn’t work with the same unit, he had to be at the ready for those assignments he did accept.
Putting the papers back in the folder, he knew the next week was going to be spent finding other properties that Shade would agree with. The drive to Treepoint wouldn’t take that long, so he could be back the next day. It would make Rachel happy, and he would be able to see his friend.
“You win. I’ll ride up there and look around,” he agreed. “Just don’t get your hopes up. I don’t see Treepoint being a viable location that’ll work.”
Rachel’s cheerful expression didn’t change. “I’m not worried. You’re going to fall in love with Treepoint.”
Chapter Eight
It was anything but love.
Gavin tiredly parked his bike before going into the clubhouse. He had spent two days in Treepoint, and there wasn’t one property that would suit The Last Riders’ needs. The only one that came close was an old inn that would need extensive repairs to redesign as a clubhouse. The factory he dreamed about would have to be built from the ground up.
Going inside, Gavin looked around the club, not seeing who he was looking for. He was about to call Viper to find out where he was when a woman threw herself into his arms.