Page 14 of California Wild

Jesse smirked, pulling a wad of cash from his pocket. “Never, old man.”

Gino, mid-sixties, broad as a damn fridge, salt-and-pepper stubble covering his face, waved him off. “I ain’t that old, kid.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Jesse teased.

Gino grunted, motioning to the stack of pizza boxes beside him. His only staff member working the late shift—a wiry kid with a cigarette tucked behind his ear—helped load them into the truck.

Twenty boxes of pizza.

Jesse paid in cash, just like always. No paper trail. No questions asked.

Gino watched him for a long beat, arms crossed. “You ever gonna tell me where all this food’s going?”

Jesse smirked. “Wouldn’t be as fun, would it?”

Gino huffed, shaking his head. “You’re a weird bastard, Navarro.”

“Yeah, yeah. Keep the change.” Jesse tipped him a hundred, then climbed back into the truck and pulled out of the alley.

Jesse had a system.

He knew the blocks that got hit the worst. The spots where people weren’t just struggling—they were surviving on nothing.

He took the side streets, where streetlights flickered like they were giving up, where shadows moved too fast and too slow at the same time.

Windows down, cool night air cutting through the heat lingering from the day.

First stop.

Jesse parked in an empty lot beside a boarded-up laundromat. A dark alley stretched to the right, the kind of place most people wouldn’t set foot in.

Jesse didn’t hesitate.

He grabbed one pizza box and a six-pack of water bottles, tucking them under his arm. His boots crunched on broken glass as he stepped into the alley, the low hum of the city swallowing the quiet.

Groaning. Muffled voices.

Then—

“Back the fuck off, man.”

A shadow moved in the dark. Jesse slowed.

Three figures. Strung out, slumped against the alley wall, twitchy and paranoid.

One of them pushed up onto his elbows, eyes hollow, body thin as hell.

“You got a problem?” His voice cracked, defensive.

Jesse held up the box. “Nah. Just got dinner.”

A pause. Then—recognition.

“Shit. It’s you.”

Jesse crouched, setting the food down. “Yeah, it’s me.”

They all shifted, sitting up straighter. The tension bled out of the air.

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