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"You really won't hang out with your brother at his place?"
"Not if I can help it. If we all want to hang, I usually offer to host. And everyone jumps on it because my couches are clean and I actually have food in my cabinets."
"Yeah?" he asked, smile boyish. "You don't strike me as the home-cooked-meal sort, sweetheart."
"Oh, West," I said, sliding off the table, going ahead and planting my feet right between his so as I pulled up to full height, my body grazed his. "You have a lot to learn about me."
His gaze met and held mine.
One breath.
Two.
Three.
Three seconds was all it usually took.
For a moment to go from benign to explosive.
It was heading there.
Until Che opened his big trap.
"Nah, man," he said, his delicious Cuban accent full of warning. "She'll eat you alive," he added, turning and walking away.
"That true?" West asked, gaze still locked to mine.
"Yeah, probably," I told him.
His lips curved up slowly, just enough to make his eyes dance. "You know, I think I might enjoy the fuck out of that," he admitted, voice low, a shiver along my nerve endings. "Too fucking bad you're off-limits, pretty girl," he said, taking a full step back, breaking the spell of the moment. "You and me, we could have had some Bonnie and Clyde type shit."
With that, he turned and walked away.
I dropped back down on the picnic table, watching him go.
He was right.
Whatever we might have together, it would be something interesting. Nuclear, even.
But he was wrong too.
In thinking it wasn't going to happen.
It was.
It wasn't matter of if.
Just when.
Just as I was thinking of the ways I could make that happen, Ayanna came rushing out the back door. This was not a woman prone to running, and she was running toward me, heels and all.
"Girl, we have got to go go go," she declared, sparing the dog-fight guy trying to drag himself back into his car a short glance before hooking her arm through mine, dragging me off the table, and around the building before I could even try to plant my feet to protest.
"What's going on?"
"Duck your head, woman," she demanded, looking around a bit frantically. "You remember that oil magnate you said you'd sail the world with, then climbed out the bathroom window of the restaurant to get away from? Well, he is back, and he is looking, and he does not seem to believe that I have lost touch with you," she told me, shuffling me into the passenger seat of her car, rushing around the hood to slide into the driver's seat.
She was peeling out of the lot when the man in question burst out of the front doors, as intimidating as I remembered him being.
"Ay, what would I do without you, huh?" I asked, settling back into the seat, reaching for my belt.
"Get your ass stuck in a lot of hairy situations, that's what."
"You know, speaking of hairy situations..." I started, trailing off.
"Girl, you leave that boy alone," she demanded, shaking her head at me.
She knew me well.
Well enough to know her words were falling on deaf ears.
I had no intentions of leaving that man alone.
No matter the consequences.THREEWestThe junkyard—which was literally named The Yard—was a gray stucco three-level building sitting on a patch of concrete that was fenced in and filled with crap.
When it came to the building itself, the floor level was the mechanic shop that had four spots, two lifts, an office, and a bathroom. Nothing of note. Lots of tools. Grease stains. From just a cursory glance, I couldn't find anything that indicated something less-than-legal going on at the premises. Which was the point.
We made our way up to the second floor where Huck's McCoy's, and Teddy's rooms were situated. The floor above had Che and Remy's rooms as well as the one I was supposed to inhabit while I was in town.
Huck's place wasn't as bad as his sister made it sound. There were no soft touches, and, yeah, it could have probably used a sweep and a mop, but it wasn't disgusting either.
From there, liquor was poured, pizza was ordered, music was put on.
Eventually, Teddy led two of the chicks over to his apartment. Che took another. Remy stole the last, her following him up the stairs with the kitten clutched to her chest.
Which left me, Huck, and McCoy in Huck's living room.
"What made you join the Henchmen?" Huck asked, reaching for one of the few remaining beers.
"Jobs were drying up. I needed something more stable. They are a good group of guys. There is just enough action to be found, but there is some stability in it. Plus, the money is a lot better. What made you consider taking Reign up on his offer when you have your own thing going?"
"We do alright," he told me, waving a hand around. "We aren't struggling. But we aren't exactly living large either. This place was inherited. Aside from Teddy who was born well-off, none of us have another place. We aren't getting younger. Want more out of life. We could scale this up, but there's only so many cars you can jack without the cops starting to sniff around too much."
