Page 18 of The Baller

“Ohshit, Lux. I know where I’ve seen your girl before. Dude…”

Tug. Tug. Tug.

“Luuuux.”

“Shhh. Stop it. I’m listening.”

Before he tried again a loud gasp voice broke through the darkness, followed by one voice I finally recognized.

“Oh my God!” Goldilocks’ face appeared in my field of vision. “It’s you,again. What are you doing? Why are you on the ground?”

I grinned up at her, still totally confused by whatever was going on, but suddenly caring a whole lot less. “Saving you,again.”

“Jake, let them go.” My ears pricked at the new tone Goldilocks was using. Commanding, assertive, and absolutely don’t-fucking-mess-with-me. And also, why wasn’t she scared of these dudes?

“Can someone please explain to me what is going on?” I asked.

“Jake.”

“Hey, I’m not stopping them from getting up,” G.I. Joe grouched.

There was silence as the four of us waited to see if there was a catch. There didn’t seem to be. I rolled over and eased up, making sure my head was still attached before running my hands down my shirt to straighten myself up.

Goldilocks and the best friend were staring at me with mild amusement, along with four other grim-faced students – or three students and G.I. Joe. On closer inspection, the three weren’t students. Theylookedlike students, they weredressedlike students, but from the handgun one was holding, I’d hasten to bet I was wildly incorrect.

“Oh God, are you okay?” gasped Goldilocks, only when I looked at her she wasn’t talking to me.

I spun around to find Ace’s nose pouring with blood, and him attempting to stem the flow with his sweater.

“Pinch your nostrils and lean forward,” ordered one of the Joes, though didn’t bother to help him in any way. That job fell to Parker.

“Hang on a second.” The best friend leaned in closer right before her entire face opened and she belted out a laugh loud enough to draw the attention of anyone walking past, though I was unsure what was either fun or amusing. “Shiiit. That’s Ace Watson,” she rasped between cackles, pointing right at him in case we didn’t know already. “Oh man, your mom is going to flip. That is Ace Watson, Tanner Simpson, Parker King and the big one, Lux Weston.” Her finger moved to each of us as she punched out our names. “That’s why he looked familiar in the bar! Jake, you might get a raise.”

I groaned a little louder, cursing Ace and his stupid recognizable face.

“Cab sobone plead exbain to us what the acktchul fug is goindon?”

Along with special ops, G.I. Joe clearly had training in ‘possible broken nose’ speak, or more likely had beaten so many people to a pulp that understanding them came naturally, because he looked straight at me. “You attacked a federal agent, that’s what’s going on.”

Hold the phone, my head snapped from Ace to him. “No, I fucking didn’t! I didn’t even touch you before I found myself on the floor. You attackedme.”

“Hang on,” Goldilocks said and held her hand up to G.I. Joe before he could speak, then turned to me. “What were you doing?”

I nodded in Joe’s direction. “I thought that guy was the campus creeper.”

“The what?”

“The…” I gestured over to Tanner, to see him grimace and look at his feet. Yeah, he should. This entire thing was his fault. “Never mind.”

“You thought Jake was a creeper?”

“Awesome,” the best friend snorted loudly behind her. “I think this might be the best night of my life to date.”

I shrugged, both of us ignoring her. “Yeah.”

“This is Jake, he’s head of my security detail. These guys are all Secret Service. You tried to take down a federal agent.”

I held my finger up, hoping to make it as clear as possible she was incorrect. Very incorrect. “No, I tried to stop a creeper from attacking you. He’s been following you all day. He was in the bookstore.”

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