Page 47 of Laila Manning
“Lady, you got an off button?” He snapped, “Because you’re questioning me like a cop,” He flicked his eyes over Diesel again, “He don’t look like no five-o, and neither do you,” He glared back at me, “But you’re sure riding my ass like some yuppy beat cop trying to make his quota for the day.”
“What did you short them?” I repeated, ignoring his bravado.
He rolled his eyes again, and I fought the urge to tell him his face was going to freeze like that if he kept it up, simply because I was already coming off like some old Karen. But I didn’t need to give him more ammo to throw insults at me. “Mary Jane.” He looked up and down the street. “But they had it fucking coming.” He nodded his head, “They beat up my associate two days ago and took his keep.” He stood taller, “I was making it right.”
“A drug dealer with a justice kink.” Diesel groaned, “How original.”
“Shut it.” I warned him, and he held his hands up and smirked as I looked back at Kade. “What exactly was your plan to get away from them just now?” I held my hand up, silencing the smart-ass remark he was starting to make. “Cut the bullshit because if the big guy here hadn’t stepped in, those four would have been stomping your face in right now.” I dared him to negate that, but he just pursed his lips and looked away. “What do you get out of it?”
“Ain’t it obvious, lady?” He quipped. “It’s just how life goes out here. Obviously, you’ve never struggled in your life, or you’d get it.”
I didn’t correct him; he didn’t need to know how wrong he was about my life. “You live on the streets?”
“Nah,” he shook his head, “I got a crib up in East Valley.” He sneered with the same fictitious bravado. “I just slum it down here for the fun of it.” He sighed and leveled me with a look a grown-up would use with a troublesome kid. “Why’d you intervene? What doyouget out of it?”
I shrugged and took a step back, taking the pressure off him. “Just didn’t want to stand by while a kid got his ass kicked today, I guess.” Suddenly I was just so fucking tired of the world and its injustices. “Guess I thought maybe you could use a break.”
He didn’t jump back at me with his venom or sarcasm, and I saw a bit of that bravado slip from his dirty face. “Yeah, well.” He shrugged, trying to build up the act again. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” I replied as he walked off between Diesel and me, glancing over his shoulder for a brief second before disappearing down the street with the other people walking around.
“You okay?” Diesel asked as I stared off after the kid.
“How old do you think he is?” I asked.
Diesel watched him with me and shrugged, “Hard to tell. He probably hasn’t eaten a full meal in months. Early teens maybe, thirteen or so.”
“Thirteen years old, stealing, selling drugs, and fighting off attackers in the middle of broad daylight.” I sighed, looking around at the dozens of other people who wouldn’t have intervened if those guys had caught up with Kade. “It’s just not fair.”
“It’s not that uncommon.” Diesel shrugged. “Kids like that float in and out of crews like mine all the time. Sometimes they stay and patch in when they’re older, sometimes they disappear chasing after what they’re all missing in life.”
“What are they missing?” I glanced at him before tracking back to the kid getting further and further away from us as the anxiety built inside of me like I should stop him.
“Love.” Diesel sighed. “Compassion. Comfort. Most kids just end up finding it in unauthentic ways when they go without it for so long, unfortunately.”
“Hmm.” I hummed, watching that black tattered hoodie disappear around a corner down the street, gone and out of sight like we never interacted at all.
“You okay?” Diesel asked again.
“Peachy.” I shook the entire bizarre interaction off and took a deep breath, “I have to get to work.”
“I heard you were slinging drinks at Neat.” D smirked. “At least if a customer gets rowdy with you there, you can spray them with the soda gun.” He joked, referencing the time he saved me from the bitchy customer at the coffee shop.
“Don’t get any ideas.” I leveled a sharp look at him. “You’re not allowed there. I made sure your name was on the trespass list.”
He tipped his head back and laughed, “Oh baby, now I’m going to show up just to make you squirm.”
Chapter 13 – Zeke
My hands were clammy as I walked down the sidewalk towards the entrance toNeat,so I wiped them on my jeans.
Was this what Laila felt every time she walked down a path? My mind flipped back to that day on the sidewalk when I found her doing her therapy homework by walking down the sidewalk to help ease her trauma of being led down hallways.
I got to the front door and walked in, passing by guests waiting to be seated in the busy restaurant on my way to the hostess podium.
Which was where my prize was.
Laila.
