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I felt a little stir deep inside myself, and I wondered if I would even have the option of looking after her. After all, everyone knew that the moment Ghost was found, Mila would leave. She was recuperating with us at the house for the moment, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she decided she needed to move on with her life. The big question was if it was possible for me to move on with mine without her?
“What about the Knights?” I asked without addressing his previous statement.
“There’s a handful of them left now,” the sheriff replied. “And all of them know that they’ll be closely watched from now on. Gone are the days when the police turned a blind eye simply because it was more convenient that way. I’m not going to do what my predecessor did and look the other way.”
“You might have a hard job of that,” I pointed out.
“Why? Because I have men in my department that are loyal to the Knights?” the sheriff asked. “Not anymore.”
I raised my eyebrows, understanding what he was saying. “I see.”
“Now that the weak links are gone, maybe we can re-establish some laws around this town. If the gangs here expect to be left alone, then they’ll have to follow the fucking law and behave themselves.”
I smiled at the less than subtle warning in the sheriff’s tone. For all my mistrust of the police force, I had started to like this man. He was blunt and rough around the edges, and he didn’t inspire a lot of trust from the start, but he had the sort of personality that grew on you.
“In any case,” the sheriff continued. “With Ghost gone, the men loyal to him who were involved in Mila’s abduction have been put away. Some have managed to get out of town, and the rest are still loyal to Godwin. Once he’s gone, there’s not going to be much of a club left.”
“There’s always someone ready to step into the leader’s shoes,” I pointed out.
“As long as they abide by my rules, we won’t have a problem.”
I nodded. “Understood.”
“How is Mila?” the sheriff asked, taking me by surprise.
Apparently, she had made an impression when she had come in for questioning. Even though I had come with her, I had been forced to sit outside for almost two hours while she spoke to the cops.
“She’s… holding up,” I said. “She told me what happened once, and now she says she doesn’t want to talk about it again.”
“She feels guilty,” the sheriff said. “For killing him.”
I gritted my teeth together. “I don’t know why,” I said. “He had it coming. He would have raped and murdered her if she hadn’t killed him first.”
“You forget she’s not like you,” the sheriff told me. “This is not her life. And sometimes when you’ve lived this way for long enough, you forget that it should be a hard thing to take another man’s life… whether or not he deserves it.”
I knew he was right, and I understood that Mila was processing through this in her own way. But sometimes I felt helpless, and that made me impatient.
“I came here to thank you,” I said awkwardly. “For your help.”
“I didn’t do it as a favor to you,” the sheriff told me. “I did it because there was an innocent civilian who had got caught up in your mess. I questioned some of your boys too.”
“I’m aware.”
“I found nothing concret
e enough to hold any of them,” the sheriff told me. “But if I do, nothing will stop me from bringing them in.”
I nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
He looked at me calmly for a second, and then he stretched out his hand to me. “We can work together, Zack,” he said. “We can co-exist peacefully.”
“I agree,” I nodded, shaking his hand.
I left the station moments later and drove back to the clubhouse. The boys were scattered around the place, but I wasn’t interested in talking to any of them. I just wanted to get upstairs and check on Mila, but Devon cornered me just before I was about to go upstairs.
“Hey, I wanted to speak to you about something,” Devon said.
Sighing inwardly, I turned to him. “What about?”
