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No one had thought to pester him since our interest was pure curiosity, not concern. And he’d already confirmed the details Velle had given me about his past. Though we were still waiting on more about the shrink he’d bunked with as well.
That was the way with Arty sometimes. He had to prioritize the emergency sorts of cases. Which, as people who’ve brought those to him before, we had to understand.
“I’m not looking to start shit. I’m here to introduce myself, and some of my men, and let you know that if you want to know something about me or mine, you ask us. You don’t go asking around on the streets.”
“Fine,” Huck said, shrugging. “Then tell me about you and yours.”
“We’re not competition to you, if that’s what you’re asking. Way I hear it, we are in different trades. With that comes different allies and different enemies. So if you don’t fuck with us, we won’t fuck with you,” Creed said.
“Why this area?” Huck asked, not completely satisfied, but everyone had relaxed a little. His guys hadn’t so much as put hands over their weapons in response to all of us having our own out.
“Imagine same reason you’re out this way. Low taxes, cops that can be coaxed to look the other way, and a lot of areas to lose bodies, if need be. Did my due diligence. Didn’t move into your turf. Didn’t move into no one’s turf. Fucking nothing around in Coral Springs. But us now, I guess.”
“What is your business?” Huck asked. “Since you already know mine,” he added before Creed could object.
“Protection,” Creed said. “In many different forms.”
That was… vague.
That could mean extortion. Forcing local businesses to pay them a monthly fee to keep anyone from fucking with said businesses. The shit the mob was known for doing.
It could be private security for events.
Or it could mean half a dozen other things.
None of which concerned us, though.
Huck seemed to be coming to the same conclusion, because he was nodding.
“Alright,” Huck said, holding out a hand toward Creed. “I have no plans of fucking with you,” he said. “If anything, I wouldn’t mind if we were friendly.”
Creed took Huck’s hand with a nod.
“Wouldn’t mind that either,” he agreed. “Maybe a meet-up one day,” he added, taking a step back.
“We would be interested in that,” Huck agreed.
“We are still… ironing out some kinks,” Creed said. “But when we get our shit handled, we’ll talk about it.”
With that, he turned and walked back to his men, then they all went to leave, giving us a view of their club logo as they went.
Ruthless Knights.
“That was unexpected,” Huck said, exhaling hard, and rubbing the back of his neck. “Someone call McCoy and Donovan and tell them to take their feet off the accelerator. Everything is fine.”
As Remy moved to do that, Seeley stepped away from me and toward Huck.
“This was on me,” Seeley said. “I was asking around since we hadn’t heard anything from Arty.”
“I expected you to,” Huck said, shrugging. “People don’t usually just show up in your backyard because you put feelers out about a new organization in town.”
“He’s direct,” Velle said, shrugging. “That’s a good quality to have in both allies and enemies. You’re never sitting around having to guess what they’re going to do.”
“That’s true,” Huck agreed.
“Are we really going to have a meet-up with them?” Che asked.
“Think we might try partying with them one night,” Huck said. “See what their men have to say after a couple of drinks. Just because I respect Creed’s bluntness doesn’t mean I completely trust him.”
