Page 102 of Falcon’s Forever

The gates open twenty minutes later and the compound's busier than I remember it being. There’s more security than before, though it doesn't feel oppressive, maybe because I know why it's there now. A couple of the women are sitting at a picnic table with coffee despite the cold. Life continuing.

I see him before I've fully gotten out of the car. Falcon's near the garage with Zip and Digger, holding a clipboard, which is such an unlikely image that it almost makes me laugh out loud. He looks up and sees me and stops whatever he's doing. Zip says something and Falcon answers without taking his eyes off me, then looks back down at the clipboard, leaving the next move to me.

Ice Pick comes around the vehicle. “You good?”

“Yes,” I tell him.

He gestures toward the compound. “Want someone to walk you over?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Ice Pick nods and heads for the clubhouse. I could go straight to the temporary room, shower, sleep, and avoid this entirely. Nobody would blame me.

Instead, I walk toward the garage.

Falcon is standing near the workbench with Zip and Digger when I enter. Zip sees me first.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hi.”

Digger smiles at me. “Cara.”

I look at the stitches across his forehead. They seem worse in daylight. “Should you be working?”

His smile disappears. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Because you got hit in the head.”

“Barely a concussion,” Digger argues.

“Knox disagrees,” Zip points out.

I smile, and Zip glances between Falcon and me.

“We need to check the south cameras,” he announces.

Digger looks confused. “We do?”

“Right now,” Zip says firmly.

“When did that happen?”

Zip grabs the back of Digger’s hoodie. “Walk.”

He steers Digger out of the garage with all the subtlety of a marching band. I watch them go.

“Idiots,” Falcon mutters.

“They’re family,” I remind him.

“Yeah,” he says, his gaze following them.

For a few seconds, neither of us speaks. He looks tired. Not destroyed the way he did yesterday, just tired. There’s a small cut near his temple that I didn’t notice beneath all the blood before.

“How’s Emily?” he asks.

“Annoying.”