Sighing, I walk back out the door towards the water. I know he’s following behind. Pausing and looking out at the small lake, I sigh once more before looking around to make sure it’s just him and me.
“You know his reputation?”
He says nothing, just nods along.
“This woman I’ve…” I trail off, not really sure how to explain it and also trying to make sure I pick my words extremely carefully.
“Girlfriend?”
“It’s complicated.” I shrug.
“Always is.” He mutters to himself. “But how’s it complicated?”
“She was on my porch when I got home tonight. He tried to drug her.”
“Tried?”
“Technically, he did. I guess they were on a date.” I can feel his eyes shift to me, giving me a questioning look before I nod. “I told you, complicated. But she realized something wasn’t right and tried to leave. Put up a helluva fight and finally got away.” I pause. “I came out to scare him out of doing it again, but…”
“It seemed to escalate a bit.” He’s smirking when I glance over athim.
“Told me I should appreciate how she feels now because she won’t for long.”
I watch the anger boil up on his face. The irony of how much worse it would be if he knew who I was talking about.
He looks back behind us, and I see the slight nod of his head. I know what it means; it’s the same nod Ash used to give when he was giving a silent order.
“We’ll take care of it.” He says as he gazes out over the water.
“Thanks. I owe you one.”
“Nah.” He shakes his head again. “I don’t mind getting rid of trash.” Turning, he looks at me. “Get out of here. The less you know, the better.”
“Just need to make sure no one tracks it here. Public property and all. Remember how many times we had to run from the cops from here.”
“It’s not public.” Z shakes his head as he laughs, I can only imagine thinking about us having to outrun the cops, again.
“Since when?”
“A couple of weeks ago.”
“Damnit,” I mumble as I look back out at the water, wondering how he’s gonna have to bribe to keep their mouths shut.
“Not a big deal.”
“How can you be so sure about that?” I pause, looking back at him and just seeing his tilted head, knowing what he’s saying.“Shit, you guys bought it?”
“Yeah,” he laughs. “Like you said, good memories here. Hate to see someone else come in and tear it down.”
“Hey Prez!” We both look up, seeing Spyder standing at the gym’s door, looking at his hand, confused. “Is this your boy’s tooth?”
“Shit,” I mumble, feeling in my mouth and noticing the hole where it was sitting.
Z laughs, shaking his head. “Go have them put it back in.”
“Yeah, I dunno if that’s gonna happen.” Spyder says as he walks over. “A root broke off.”
Just shrugging before he hands it to me. “Worth it.”
