Page 50 of Mob Knight

I hear her walk to the street, and I see her from the corner of my eye as she steps off the curb. She crosses and hurries down the block, crossing another street before taking steps two at a time. She punches in a code and disappears into a building. I shift my attention back to Andres and his buddy.

“If the Diazes want to know shite about me, they know how to find it. Tell Pablo to stay the fuck away from her.”

“You fucked up this time, O’Rourke.”

“You won’t do shite to me on the street, and by the time your dumb-arse can call Pablo to whine about seeing me, I’ll be done.”

I’m bigger than both arseholes put together. I plow through them, each shoulder shoving into theirs. It forces them to step back like a shite game of Red Rover, except they weren’t holding hands. I have four places left, and when I come out of the last, it’s in time to watch Joey walk to her car.

She notices me and scowls. We reach our vehicles at the same time, and her brow furrows. I cock an eyebrow, and her eyes narrow to slits. I cock the other eyebrow before opening my door and slipping into my car. Neither of us pulls out of our spot for a couple minutes, then she gives in and inches forward until she can maneuver out. She had more room in front of her than I did. We’re on a one-way street, so I have no choice but to follow her. Even if I had a choice, I would.

We take a series of them until we get to a road where I can pull alongside her. I point to a parking lot we’re approaching. She shakes her head. We pass it and a second place I point to. I tell my hands-free system to call her. I notice she glances at her screen before hitting a button on her steering wheel. I should keep my eyes on the road. I call her four times before she finally answers.

“Leave me alone, Cormac. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“I need to talk to you. It has nothing to do with last night and everything to do with what I just saw. This is about your safety, so unless you want me to follow you every minute of every day until you finally talk to me, I’d pull over now.”

“You don’t dictate what I do.”

“Jocelyn, pull over. Don’t make me prove I’m not exaggerating.” I infuse command into my voice, making me sound like a Dom rather than a man chatting with an acquaintance.

“Cormac, I really don’t want to do this.” Her voice softens, and I have a moment’s regret intimidating her.

“I know,cailín. This is because of us, but it’s not about us. Pull over.” I temper my tone until the last two words.

I hear her sigh and glance over as she nods.

“Drive around back of that church coming up on the left.”

I follow her into the parking lot, and she picks a spot that’s as far from the building as our cars can get. I pull in alongside her. Her wariness tempts me to park perpendicular to her, so she can’t leave until I’m ready for her to, but that won’t set a pleasant tone. We get out of our cars, and I walk around to her.

My gaze sweeps over her, then settles on her face. She watches me as I watch her. She matches my stare, waiting for me to go first since I insisted we talk. I want her to get to where she relents and doesn’t hold back. It’s manipulative as fuck. I’ve gotten good at it, though. But I don’t have forever.

“Jocelyn—” She flinches. “—what did they say to you?”

“Nothing they haven’t said before. They wanted to know about a family I saw today. The rumor spread that I was with Javier, so they wanted to know what you thought about me fucking both of you.”

My jaw tightens. It’s a good thing I didn’t find this out when those motherfuckers were in front of me.

“Why’d he step forward?”

“I told him the only fucking going on was him fucking off. He didn’t like that.”

“A boy chased me down and told me the rumor wasn’t true. Do people believe it?”

“I’m certain some people do, so they have something new to gossip about.”

“Was goading me all this was about?”

“I guess. This is why I wanted to stay off Pablo’s radar. He’s punishing me by ruining my reputation. Everything I do here requires that people trust me. He’s turning them against me by making them think I’m with you.”

“You were with me last night.” She understands the innuendo.

“You said we wouldn’t talk about that.”

“And we aren’t. I’m considering how much danger you’re in. I’m assigning you a detail.”

“The hell you are!”

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