‘Then I’ll leave, but I won’t be able to go far.I’ll still be close by, watching.’
‘Like a stalker.’
‘Thin line between that and bodyguard, I grant you,’ Lachlan chuckles, then frowns, fingers wrapping around the fox tattoo.Kade is starting to recognise when Lachlan’s thoughts drift towards the little girl in the photograph.‘It’s your call.’
‘Is there any point restraining you?’
‘I’ll pretend there is if it makes your people more relaxed.’
‘It won’t.’
‘Then it’s your decision, Kade.’
Kade.Fucker’s playing nice now, is he?
‘Fine, but you stay with me at all times.’
‘Heard.’
Kade waves his hand loosely to Finn and Cole through the cameras.The enormous gates groan into motion.‘I can’t promise you won’t get shot or stabbed.’
Lachlan slips inside.‘By you?’
‘We’ll see.’
?
Lachlan doesn’t show much interest in his surroundings when he’s allowed in through the rarely used front entrance.
His focus is firmly fixed on one particular thing.
Kade says, ‘I take it you don’t need a tour?’
‘I mapped it all pretty well.’Lachlan falls perfectly into step with Kade as they head towards the training area on the ground floor.‘You have names for the floors?’
‘Not officially.Just third floor, sixth floor, and so on.’
‘That’s where Troy was rumoured to keep his psycho son locked up.’
‘I don’t know anything about that,’ Kade lies mildly.
Drills are wrapping up elsewhere in the training area, but several of Kade’s best, the same people helping reinforce the Tower this morning, have gathered along the edge of the floor to watch.Luca stands among them with his arms crossed.They’ve all been briefed on Riley’s orders to test the intruder, so nobody shows open hostility, but Kade can read enough in the looks they throw.This is still the man who killed eighteen of their own.
‘Oi, Motorkade,’ Luca calls out as obnoxiously as possible, drawing Lachlan’s attention.‘What’s up?’
‘Not much, Lucozade,’ Kade answers, giving his friend thefuck offlook, that Luca cheerfully ignores.Once inside, the familiar smell of gym rubber and sweat kicks up.Kade goes to the central training circle.
‘Your friend?’
‘Yeah.They’re probably gonna watch if that’s—’
‘I don’t care who sees,’ Lachlan says, has an air of unimpeachable confidence about him that Kade envies and fears.It’slast-man-standing at the end of the world, so nothing matters,that kind of vibe.‘Are we sparring or fighting?’
‘Fighting, always,’ Kade says, not bothering to wrap his hands.He eyes Lachlan as the older man kicks his sneakers and socks off, sets them neatly down on a sideline bench with his hoodie.Kade doesn’t hide his interest, openly searching the well-defined torso for recent marks, cuts, bruises even.
There’s nothing but clean, lilac-coloured scars.
‘Fucker,’he utters under his breath.
