Page 14 of Shadows of Justice

I’m breathing fast through my nose, his hold on me like a vice. The heat from his body pressed against me melts into my bones, his arms tight around my body. He smells like sweat and musk, like man. I can see his scarred, muscled forearm as its held close to my face, the caramel tones showing beneath like a patchwork quilt.

I know I could get out of this hold if I really wanted to, his balls a perfect distance from my heel, but, he’d probably overpower me before I could actually get our whereabouts called into the station—if my phone even survived that fall.

I nod and he releases me, backing up a step to give me space. He’s wearing a loose green tank top and workout shorts, looking like he just came from a run himself. He’s got day-old scruff, and his chocolate hair flops in his eyes. His corded arms on display distract me for a minute, and this close it’s hard to ignore how tall and broad the man is. He’s got at least a hundred pounds on me.

Leo regards me as well, looking down my frame for a minute, and then sees my discarded smoothie. It’s a mess of green sludge and Styrofoam on the heated pavement now—a waste of 6.95.

“Sorry about your smoothie,” he says, and despite myself, my lips quirk at a silly word like smoothie rolling off of this man’s tongue in such a lilted manner.

He bends, startling me, and reaches to the ground near my right foot. “Here, take mine,” he says, handing me a smoothie from the same establishment. “Why are you following me?”

I’m dazed enough to take the cup, but then my eyes narrow at his question. When does he mean? Last night? Or right now?

“I know who you are,” I say, instead of answering. The corner of his mouth quirks up in a smirk.

“If you know who I am, why did you let me go last week?” He folds his arms across his chest and tips his head curiously.

“Consider it a lapse in judgment, one that today, I won’t make twice,” I retort icily.

“Again.”

I blink. “What?”

“One that you won’t make again,” Leo says, who looks like he’s trying terribly hard not to smile. “You let me go last week, and last night. So, letting me go today would make it three times. Not twice.”

“Are you actually correcting my choice of words right now?” I ask, shoving his smoothie back into his chest roughly enough that he takes it back.

“Why does that surprise you so much? Is it because maybe . . . English is my second language? So, me correcting your choice of words is ridiculous to you?”

“Now you sound like you’re saying I’m prejudiced.”

“Racist.”

I sigh. “What?”

“Technically, by definition, assuming I don’t have as good of a grasp on the English language because my first language was Spanish would be a manner of racism, not prejudice.”

“I’m not a racist!” I say, stomping my foot. My toe splashes in the Lean Green Machine on the ground, and Leo suppresses a laugh.

“Well, what are you then?”

I scrub my hands down my face, suddenly exhausted and unsure why I’m having this fucking conversation.

“I’m . . . I’m—”

“Flustered?” Leo suggests.

I sigh again, and cross my arms as I regard him. “You’re kind of a know-it-all, aren’t you?”

He grins at me, heat flooding my veins. This cocky bastard knows how cute he is, and it’s annoying. He leans into me a little, and slurps his smoothie. “Sorry chica, just trying to help.”

I scowl at him as he repeats his words from last week, our entire exchange on the 3rd washing over me again.

Focus, Viv. Wanted criminal.

Not funny, charming, or bright—wanted.

Leo raises his arms and smiles broadly. “Well, officer, if you’re here to arrest me, then I suppose you should get on with it.”

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