Page 43 of Knight
Lake turned his head and looked at the cop like he was crazy.
“No.” He gave a short shake of his head like the question was ludicrous. “Just want to have a talk. Aniceone.” He stressed the word to make sure his point got across.
I knew he wasn’t going over there to make trouble, but I had no idea why he felt so compelled to even do something. I shrugged it off and turned my attention back to Connor as Lake half-jogged in the direction of the house.
“Things good?” I asked with a raised brow.
Connor pulled his sunglasses off and hung them on the front of his uniform. He did a slow look around, scoping out the area.
“For us? Yeah. But the streets seem a little uneasy lately.” I could hear the slight strain in his voice. I could tell that I wasn’t going to get more than that out of him so I let it slide.
From what he was saying the club was all well and good. That was enough for me right then. Either the other shit would work itself out or it wouldn’t. Maybe that was a shitty attitude to have, but that was how it went with us. And it wasn’t like we wouldn’t step up if it seemed like we needed to.
The club had rocked the boat when we set up here. There was no way around it. But we had tried our best to smooth things over and form alliances instead of enemies. That didn’t mean we hadn’t thrown the balance and dynamics off. We just weren’t completely sure how much yet. Only time would tell.
“You got problems here?” he asked as he jerked his chin to the area where Lake and I’d spent the better part of the day setting up fence posts.
“Caught someone walkin’ around here the other night. My guess was a street kid looking for quiet place to stay.” I may not have been far from the truth but I didn’t know for sure. I didn’t want to lie to him or come off as an asshole with amind your ownkind of attitude. So, I told him the tip of what was going on. “Figured a new fence would keep it from happening again.”
“Yeah. Few years back there was a group of them that lived out here,” he said.
We chatted for a bit but kept it on the light side. Then he got into his car and headed off. I got back to work while I waited for Lake to return. It seemed like he had been gone an hour when I looked up and saw him heading my way.
“Everything alright?” I asked.
“Yep,” he said with a nod as he picked up his shovel and got back to work. “Just making friends.”
He shot me a smile that I knew was covering up something deeper. My eyes sought out the old man’s house then shifted back to Lake. With a half-shrug, he turned his attention back to the job. Whatever it was I could tell wasn’t a threat. It had more to do with him and whatever shit he had going on in his head. I wasn’t in the mood to get into it, so I let it go.
“I need a big, fat burger,” Lake said after we’d been working in silence for far too long.
I stopped, straightened and took a look at what we’d gotten done. Deciding it was enough for one day, I gave him a nod.
“Yeah. That sounds about right.” I let out a laugh as I took off my gloves. “I think we can call it a day.”
I knew this job would take a while. It was something I wanted to have done right then, for security reasons, but the reality of it was there was just too much to cover. Especially for two people. But I was done for the day. I was hot, stinky, and a little sore.
“I’m gonna stop by the compound and fill Iron in,” I said as I mounted my bike. “Probably take a shower, too.”
Lake let out a laugh.
“Yeah, I need one too. Pretty sure there isn’t a clean spot on me.”
“I’ll find you when I’m done and we can go to the diner.” I had no doubt that it would end up being a group of us heading over there.
“Sounds good.” He turned over his bike and waited for me to take off first.
