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“Oh my god, everything with you seems suspicious these days,” I chuckle, shoving him softly.
“I’m serious, Keaton,” his no-nonsense tone has me on the verge of rolling my eyes. Why not just beat his chest while he’s at it?
“So am I, Officer Harding,” I say, mockingly.
Heat flashes in his eyes and I lean back a fraction of an inch. What the heck was that? Did he seriously just get all hot and bothered by me calling him that? Ugh… men, I swear.
“I’m just looking out for you, K,” he says, seriously, obviously not appreciating my playful tone.
“I know,” I say in all seriousness, “but it’s fine, I promise. You know the story now, and if he tries anything, I know you’ve got my back,” I say, just to placate him.
“Of course I do,” he says, hooking his arm back around my shoulder and tugging me even closer than before. “I’ll always have your back.”
We sit there in silence, watching the sun disappear from the sky, and I don’t like how easy it was for me to use his feelings and manipulate the situation. I like even less that while I’m sitting here in Sander’s arms, Bodhi is the one on my mind.
“Honestly though, if all I had to worry about these days was some random car in your driveway, then I’d take it,” he says, sighing.
I turn and look at him, actually look at him, and take in the dark circles under his eyes, more tired than usual.
“Why? What’s up?” I ask, my concern getting the better of me.
Even if I don’t want to go down that road with Sander, I can’t erase the years of friendship we’ve had. I turn, crossing my legs in front of me as I give him my attention.
“It’s just work stuff,” he says, smiling softly.
“Okay,” I drag the word out, hoping he’ll give me a little more than that. When he doesn’t, I reach for his arm, trying to comfort him as I say, “You can talk to me, San.”
“I know, I just don’t want you worrying when it may be nothing more than a mess load of paperwork and nonsense.”
“Okay, well, telling me not to worry only makes me worry,” I chuckle lightly. “And you know I’ll only end up envisioning the worst.”
He laughs, reaching up to scrub his hand over the back of his head, reminding me of his younger self.
“Yeah, you do tend to do that. But okay, I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Is it confidential or something?” I joke.
“Not really, but we don’t want word getting out and civilians trying to stick their noses where it doesn’t belong.”
“Fair enough,” I say, and mimic the act of zipping my lips shut, locking them, and tossing the key over my shoulder, effectively loosening him up and earning me a chuckle in response.
“So, a couple of weeks ago we got a call from the Chief of Police over in Las Moreto,” he starts, and I feel my heart drop into my stomach. “He said that they have had an increase in some gang activity, and to try to contain it, they set up some traffic stops at city limits.”
I do my best to keep my expression neutral because even though there have been rumors of Cartel activity coming out of Las Moreto in the past, there isn’t any real reason for me to assume that given what he’s said.
“You’ve seen us do them here around holidays on whatnot, trying to keep drunk drivers off of the road,” he explains, and I nod. “Well, I guess they flagged a few cars coming and going from S.A. on more than one occasion, which honestly wouldn’t be suspicious, given our proximity.”
“Right.”
“But a few of the guys have some priors and it’s just raised a few red flags, so now our C.O.P. has us keeping tabs on things around here with a little more gusto, and it’s just wearing on me.”
His easy, tired smile does little to soothe my nerves. I can reason that my association with Mateo wouldn’t warrant the attention of the Cartel, despite his involvement with them, but to know that they have attracted the attention of the police has my stomach twisting in knots.
“So, nothing really bad, per se?” I ask.
“No, we’re just following up, taking precautions, that sort of thing,” he answers, and I nod, biting the inside of my cheek to keep myself from asking any more questions. I don’t want to seem more interested in this than I need to be.
“Well, that’s good, I guess,” I say, turning back around to face the water. “Hopefully you’ll find some time to rest up, though.”
