Coming Around by Carmen Cook

Author:Carmen Cook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carmen Cook

6

The high school parking lot was near capacity when Connor arrived for the city council meeting. As he turned into the lot he paused the SUV, wondering if he’d forgotten about a wrestling tournament or something else that would pack people in this way. There was no way everyone would be interested in the meeting where he couldn’t actually tell them anything, right?

Realizing there couldn’t be a sporting event in the same location as the meeting, he shook his head. “A circus,” he muttered, seeing a TV crew unloading their gear while he found a spot to park.

He headed toward the gymnasium. It hadn’t changed much since he’d gone to school here. Still a terrifying painting of a sentinel on the wall, his spear held high and breast plate shining while he kept watch over all the events from beneath his plumed helmet. Still the peeling paint and faint smell of antiseptic and sweat permeated the air.

The janitorial crew had two more racks of chairs out and they were adding rows to the back when he walked in. “Hey, Chief,” one of them greeted as he entered. “Jake was looking for you a few minutes ago. I think he’s up front.” Connor nodded his thanks and made his way through the crowd, greeting people as they called out to him, but doing what he could to keep moving. He needed to find out exactly what the plan was before the meeting started.

“Any news about who’s dealing the drugs?” Jake asked as he approached. Connor didn’t say anything, just quirked a brow, and Jake blew out a sigh. “It would have been handy to have you come in saying you’d made an arrest or something.”

Connor felt his lips twitch. “Handy, but not exactly the way things happen in the real world.”

“Yeah, I know. Would be nice if everything could get wrapped up in an hour like on television,” Jake muttered, his gaze searching the room.

Connor turned to take in the still-growing crowd. “You nervous, Jake?” he asked, trying to see what he was looking for. Jake was steady as a rock and seeing him a little left of center had Connor wondering what he’d missed.

“Nah,” the older man said with a shake of his head. “This meeting is just busybody bullshit, nothing to be nervous about.”

“And Noah’s rumblings about running for mayor?”

Jake snorted. “Let him run. He’ll figure out pretty quickly that having everyone watch every decision you make and having to run everything past the council isn’t nearly as much fun as running his daddy’s company without having to answer to anyone.”

“Mayor, I’m sorry to interrupt.” The woman Connor had seen earlier outside the shuttered florist shop stood near them, holding the hand of a young girl who had a smear of jam from her mouth across her cheek toward her ear.

Jake smiled. “Not at all. What can I do for you?”

The woman’s eyes shifted between Jake and Connor, obviously just as nervous as she’d appeared earlier, but Connor still wasn’t sure why.

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