Page 18 of Hesi-Dating
I sighed and walked toward the kitchen to get some water. "I got a flat tire. Marino accidentally took my spare and the jack with him up to LA." I unscrewed the cap on a bottled water and turned around.
Bruno's eyes narrowed as he scrutinized my face. In a low voice he asked, "Who did that to you?"
"It's a long story."
"I'd like the full story right now to know who I need to kill." His cheek muscles twitched.
"We're not in high school anymore. Knock it off. It was sort of an accident."
"How is someone punching yousort ofan accident?" He pushed the hair I'd let fall over my eye out of the way. "Jesus H. Christ, Joley. What happened?"
"Technically, it wasn't a punch." At Bruno's sour face I figured I better retell the story before he got grumpier. "I asked the sheriff to come help me with the tire. Turns out my app date from a few weeks ago wasthesheriff of San Diego County. He came out tonight and helped me." I held up my hands. "He wasn't the one who hit me. He was a complete gentleman and a life saver. The tire had to be replaced, so he arranged a tow. While waiting for the tow truck we went to get coffee but he stepped outside to take a work call and some asshole newbie in the Red Crips decided to hit on me. Then there was this altercation with a gun when Seth came back. I ended up getting smacked by the Crips guy. The jerk's in jail. What kind of idiot starts something with a girl who's with the sheriff?" I held up my hands and shrugged. "It all worked out. Seth brought me home. I got the book I went up there to get. Everyone's alive."
"Did you sleep with the sheriff?"
"Out of all that, whether or not I had sex with the sheriff is your top concern?"
"Uh, ye-ah." He hit two syllables on the word. "You can't be with someone like that."
"I could if I wanted to." I crossed my arms, mimicking his posture.
"It's asking for trouble. Red Crips…" His shoulders slumped and he whooshed out a long, aggravated sigh. "Why them? Why couldn't it be any one of the other ten or more gangs in the area? What rotten luck to be Red Crips."
"Bad stinking luck. I know." I laid my purse on the kitchen counter.
"Nosh is going to call the second he gets wind one of his people?—"
My phone rang.
Bruno's eyebrows shot up.I-told-you-soreflected in his gaze. "A hundred bucks says that's him. Don't answer. He's too dangerous."
I pulled the phone out of my purse. "It's him." At a whisper—as if he could hear me before I answered—I said, "If I don't answer, he'll come over here. We've avoided him visiting for five months." I pressed the green button on the cell phone and put it to my ear. "Hi, Nosh."
"Are you okay, Joley girl?" Nosh's gravelly, deep voice had gotten more so over the past few years, a testament to his cigarette addiction. I hated when he called me that. "I just watched convenience store security footage of someone who might be one of my foot soldiers pulling a gun on the sheriff and then smacking you." His proper English came off jarring and terrifying, more so knowing he grew up in the Los Angeles foster system like the four of us. He'd worked hard to educate himself and improve his diction because he knew it came off chilling for his adversary to face off with a black gang leader that spoke like a Harvard graduate. He also dressed like an accountant in suits and wire-frame glasses.
"Joley, are you still there?" His voice stalled out my brain with panic. The past washed over me. My hands shook. Nosh and I had been in the same home when we were in our early teens. There'd been an incident that left me indebted to Nosh, a link between us I couldn't break. It'd never been romantic, nor would I ever see him in that way. As a brilliant businessman and opportunist, Nosh built a clandestine organization, the Red Crips, that dealt in every level of illegality from gambling to drugs to hitmen. No one could catch him. He was a ghost. One I had in my contacts list.
"I'm fine," I replied. "I'm disappointed in your recruitment and training departments. That guy was reckless and high."
"He's being handled. No one hurts my Joley girl."
Chills skirted across my shoulders. He'd "handled" it for me in the past.Can't breathe.
"What were you doing with the sheriff?" Nosh asked. His voice was too calm. I knew that tone. It was his "I'm pissed but holding it together" tone. He'd never hurt me in the past, at least not physically.
Concern about my interaction with the sheriff was the real reason he'd called, not worry over me. He could've sent a text about "handling" the idiot.Breathe. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Get through this.Adrenaline kept me from collapsing. I gripped the phone tight despite my other hand trembling. "I got a flat tire and he offered to help me. We went to get a coffee while I waited for the tow."
That came out clearer than expected. Good.
"I know you're too smart to get involved with someone like him. You steer clear of Seth Briscoe. He's an old-world sheriff who sees the world in black and white." Which meant Nosh couldn't buy his loyalty. My gut about Seth's deep morality had been right. He was too good for me. And Nosh. I wondered if Nosh had any of Seth's deputies on his payroll.
Did Nosh watch everything that'd happened between Seth and me? Did he see me flirting with him? Groping him? He definitely saw me kiss his cheek.
Fuck.
"Don't worry," I said as casually as I could manage considering the fact my heart pounded hard in my chest. "There's nothing going on more serious than the sheriff helping out a stranded girl. He's too old for me."
"That's good, Joley. Very good. You keep it that way. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
