Page 98 of Forced Proximity
Before I got to the gate, it opened for me. “Thanks.”
“Welcome,” he answered. “What did you know about the neighborhood you lived in?”
I thought back to it. “The one where I lived with him? Or the one where I lived with my parents?”
“They’re the same,” he pointed out.
“They’re like eight blocks from each other,” I corrected.
He sighed. “Gangs were a huge problem in your area. I don’t know if you knew that.”
I shivered. “They were, but something happened in eleventh grade, and there was no more crime. The streets were awesome after that. I remember only because I used to be able to go on walks by myself.”
“Romeo made the streets safe for you, Silla.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You came home one day with a broken arm because a fight broke out during two rival gangs. You also were missing your backpack, remember?”
Of course I remembered. “Duh.”
I didn’t bother to ask how he knew all of that. My big stalker knew how to find out information that even I didn’t remember half the time.
“Romeo got pissed, and he started to clean the area up. He got rid of the gangs. Started making it safe for families. You remember when he got your backpack back?”
“Yeah,” I said. “He just walked in with it one day like nothing had happened.”
“What about that dog he found? The one y’all couldn’t keep because you were deathly allergic?”
I blinked. “Oh.”
“Rescued him from a dog fighting ring that was taking place in your neighborhood. He kicked everyone out of the area that was bringing it down. Then he ruled the entire place with an iron fist,” he said. “Until he was taken to jail because of his wife being a complete dumbass.”
“Oh,” I repeated.
Now that I thought about it, crime had picked up back in my parents’ neighborhood with him gone.
“I had no clue.”
“I don’t think he wanted you to,” he said. “But I think his involvement in illegal activities was the reason that the book was thrown at him.”
“Oh,” I said again.
I sounded like a broken record.
“Anyway, I don’t think that any appeal in the world is going to get him out before they want him out,” he said. “So I’m thinking that…” The garage door opened up for me as I rounded the corner that would lead to Finnian’s place. “Park in the garage.”
I rolled my eyes but did as he said.
The doors rolled down behind me, and I got out with him still on the phone.
The door locks clicked open, and I walked inside, smiling when I saw the coffee pot dripping with coffee into one of my favorite mugs.
The man knew me well.
“I’m thinking that I’m going to break him out,” he said. “I got him a new identity. I have an entire life for him to live somewhere else. I just need your permission.”
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. “Will they be able to track it back to you?”
