Page 26 of Hard to Love
José glanced around and must’ve come out of the art headspace for long enough to recognize what those lights meant. “Pendejos.”
Yeah, that’s the kind of attitude it was easy to adopt when friends had been gunned down by the uniform-wearing assholes who were supposed to serve and protect them.
Served up bullshit and protected their own asses, maybe.
José started climbing upward, hand-over-hand on the frayed rope Nic was going to throw the fuck away when they made it out of here. If José insisted on doing this night after night, Nic would scrounge up the cash for a decent rope. Maybe one of those real harnesses rock climbers used. Because it was pretty damn clear José’s tagging wasmore than pissing a circle around their territory. It was José’s art and religion all wrapped up in one.
“I said get the fuck down. There’s no time for you to climb up.”
“I’m trying.” José jerked on the rope they’d jury-rigged. “The knot is stuck.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck.Nic couldn’t leave his best friend in the world hanging ass-out in the air. “Cut it.”
“What?”
“Get your knife out and cut the fucking rope.”
“But I’m…”
Yeah, José was at least twenty feet in the air.
“I’ll break your fall.” Thank the Virgin Mary that José was a good thirty pounds lighter than Nic.
José twisted and contorted to pull out the knife. “One, two, three.”
And José dropped like a freaking fifty-pound bag of rice. And fuck trying to make the catch. Nic just let José’s weight body-blow him, knocking them both to the ground and slamming the air from Nic’s chest. The hiss of spray cans and the feel of his right elbow meeting the asphalt rang through his body, but they didn’t have time to deal with either.
Nic pushed José off him, grabbed a handful of hoodie, and ran like hell.
Chapter Eight
Greer watched as Delaney dropped a pair of shank pullers on her right foot and hopped around like a one-legged kangaroo with a pained yelp. “You did what?”
“I made out with Alex Villanueva in front of Cal’s…um…your house.”
“While Cal was home?”
“Yep.” Greer stooped down to pick up the tool and set it back on the worktable. “I’m sure it was quite a show. Which is probably the reason he walked outside and tapped on the window with the butt of his shotgun.”
Now it was Delaney’s mouth that fell. “He threatened to shoot the man I need?”
“If he really meant to follow through, you know he could’ve done it without a warning.” And there was no way Delaney needed Alex Villanueva quite as badly as Greer did. Several days had passed since the kiss in her car, but her body hadn’t completely returned to a state of equilibrium. She picked up a stray piece of leather from the worktable and rubbed it between her palms, imagining the way Alex’s skin had felt—smooth, supple, sinful.
They’d made the drive back to town in an awkward silence. It wasn’t until they’d parked close to her studio downtown that he’d cleared his throat and said, “You…uh…might want to tie up.”
She glanced down to find her shirt gaping. At least her boobs hadn’t been playing peekaboo. “Look, we…I—”
“Tell Delaney I’ll have these designs over to her as soon as possible.” His sour tone said he thought following through on that promise was futile though.
“But what about the apartment in the barn? We need to coordinate—”
“Pretty sure that if I’m anywhere on the property your brother partially owns, he’ll kill me while I sleep. Besides, we both know I won’t be in town much longer. I can handle the pink canopy at Sweetwater for a couple more days.”
“So you’ll finish the designs, but you don’t believe you’ll get the contract?”
“You really think your brother will give the okay for me to tool for PBC?”
“He doesn’t run the company Delaney does. And if you’re the best, then Cal has nothing to say about it.” Before Alex could climb out of the car, Greer grabbed his arm. The hum of attraction was still there and left her aching and twitchy. Later. They could deal with that later, once she talked with him more about Wild Card and the part she wanted him to play there. “Don’t even think about leaving town without letting me know.”
