Page 57 of Mensa's Match

“Are you gettin’ threats?” Tiny asked.

“No. I’d tell you about that shit.”

“You sure about that?” Roman asked.

Scrap nodded. “Certain because otherwise Tiny would throw me out of his apartment.”

Tiny shook his head. “It ain’t mine anymore, Scrap.”

Scrap chuckled. “Not my name on the lease, and you remind me of that every chance you get.”

Even with his head turned away from Scrap, Tiny couldn’t hide his smug smile. “Gotta get my jollies where I can, Scrap.”

Roman set his cue stick on the pool table. “Why are the Miscreants set on this kid? Seems like they could focus on your friend who wants to get into the gang.”

Scrap frowned. “When I was trying to join, it was all about what you could offer them. My guess is they see the restaurant as a good place to deal or some shit.”

Mensa took a sip of his cocktail. “Did your friend say where the Miscreants are spending their time these days? My understanding is that they haven’t been in their usual spots.”

Scrap shook his head. “No. He shut down after saying what little he did, but he probably thought I was going to try to talk him out of hanging around them. You need anything else?”

Mensa shrugged a shoulder. “Not right now. When you’re back in school ask your friend, or better yet, ask Demetrius if he’s feeling pressure from the Miscreants. We need to know if they’re threatening Demetrius, which by extension is a threat to Dontrell, and that would explain a lot of shit swirling around me and Dontrell.”

“Demetrius doesn’t go to my school, but I’ll see what I can find out,” Scrap said.

“The other thing that’d be good to know, is if the Miscreants are working with Corrupt Chrome, but my guess is no matter how much info your friend has, no way he’ll know the name of the club the Miscreants might be working with.”

Scrap shook his head. “They aren’t working with them. There’s no way, man.”

That adamant tone got Mensa’s attention. “How do you know?”

Scrap’s eyes slid to Tiny and back to Mensa. “Because of the way they talked about the Riot MC last year. Inch doesn’t like bikers. Why would he work with some other MC that’s actually in competition with him?”

Tiny caught Mensa’s gaze. “That might also explain Corrupt Chrome offering their so-called protection. If there’s word on the street that the Miscreants are getting snubbed and pissed about it, then they got reason to make Dontrell pay to protect his kid.”

“I still don’t understand why he wouldn’t have said something sooner.”

“Pride makes people lose sight of logic,” Roman said.

“Yeah, it sure does.” Mensa whispered.

Chapter 15

What's Changed?

Whitney

The traffic between Biloxiand Jackson was better than usual. After swinging by the Taco Bell drive-thru, I got home at eight-fifteen. I ate my tacos at the breakfast bar of my apartment, willing the A/C to work a little faster.

My phone conversation with Mensa kept replaying in my mind. He took my news somewhat well. I hadn’t expected him to be so gruff, or so… alpha about it. But calling me his woman threw me for a loop.

‘But, Blume we got more to discuss.’ Why did those words thrill me?

It had to be my hormones talking, and I needed to get them under control.

Logic said we would never work. Even if I took over Hard Pressed and turned my back on law enforcement, it didn’tchange who I was. A straight-arrow. A goody-two-shoes… legally speaking.

So far, though, I didn’t have any evidence that Mensa routinely broke the law. In my limited free time, I had put some effort into catching him doing just that. But, it seemed that wasn’t who he was, not deep down.

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