Joker (Hell's Ankhor #8) - Aiden Bates Page 0,26

want any of it to go to waste if I can help it.”

“Finally!” Coop called, heaving himself up to standing from where he was lounging in a camping chair. “Let’s get this show on the road!”

“Cool your jets,” Joker said. “We gotta do this right.”

Blade, Gunnar, Jonah, and Logan were there as well, with camping chairs and a cooler, as promised. Gunnar was fiddling with a big chainsaw, and he grinned as we approached.

“Brennan!” he said. “Good, glad you could make it. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m doing but I’m no professional.”

“Hell of a tool you got there,” I said, nodding at the chainsaw.

“Should we have gone old-school?” Blade asked. “Big manual saw?”

“Not if you want to be done with this project before nightfall,” I said with a laugh.

Gretel yipped excitedly, bouncing at Logan’s feet. She waited for Logan to nod before she bounded over and sat at my feet, nearly vibrating with contained energy as she waited for me to scratch behind her ears.

“All right,” Gunnar asked as he finished checking over the chainsaw. “How big is this sign gonna be, anyway?”

“Why does that matter?” Joker asked a little sharply.

Gunnar shook his head, visibly frustrated—clearly he’d dealt with an irritated Joker a lot and didn’t have much patience left.

“Because that determines how we break it up once it’s down?” he asked, like it was obvious. “Gotta know how tall and wide the damn sign is gonna be.”

He stared expectantly at Joker.

I knelt down and scratched at Gretel’s ears, grateful for the distraction as all eyes fell on Joker. Why wasn’t he saying anything? He was supposed to have all this figured out to start work on the sign. If he didn’t even have dimensions, tomorrow was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

“Oh, Joker,” Jonah said. He rifled around in his bag, then pulled out a sheet of paper. “You left these in my office the other day.”

“Huh?” Joker asked, then swallowed as Jonah approached with the paper. From what I could see, it looked the design and the dimensions. So he had done his share. Relief coursed through me. “Right,” Joker said. “Yeah. Thank you for remembering.”

“Looks like we’ll need a slab that’s six by three feet,” Jonah said, glancing at the paper. “One slab, right, Joker?”

“If possible,” Joker said with a nod. “It’ll be easier to carve, and it’ll look better.”

“All right,” Gunnar said with a grin as he stood up with the chainsaw. “Let’s do this.”

He started the chainsaw with an admittedly maniacal grin, then revved it a few times before he approached the tree.

“Dunno how I feel about Gunnar wielding that,” Joker muttered to me, then wrapped his hand around my forearm and tugged me toward the circle of camping chairs. His touch sent a little thrill through me that I steadfastly ignored.

We approached the chairs where Blade, Logan, and Coop were lounging, watching Gunnar excitedly. Joker watched, too, and he kept his hand on my arm.

Gretel suddenly ran up and yipped loudly, scared of the revving chainsaw. The loud sound surprised me, even under the chainsaw’s roar, and I jumped at the sudden noise. Joker shot me a confused look, and then glanced down at where his hand was still on my forearm, like he’d been touching me without noticing. He pulled his hand away. I missed it immediately.

Gretel bounded over to Logan and immediately crawled into his lap, curling up her big gangly body as best she could. He laughed and patted her. “Sorry, she’s a little spooked by loud noises.”

Then we couldn’t hear anything over the constant rumble of the chainsaw as Gunnar carefully guided it into the trunk of the tree. Despite the tree’s size, it wasn’t any match for Gunnar. It wasn’t long before the wood was creaking and rumbling as it swayed on its weakening base.

Joker offered me a beer, and I cracked it open gratefully. I’d worked in construction and carpentry for a long time, but I rarely got to see this part. It was exciting—and I was excited for the opportunity to see a project through from the very beginning to the very end.

The tree came down with a loud crash that rattled the trees around us, sending vibrations through the ground and up into my bones. Gunnar grinned and turned off the chainsaw. Sweating, he surveyed his work with a nod, then put one foot up on the stump. “Damn, that’s satisfying.”

“Nice work,” Blade said. “Come on, grab a beer, then we’ll