Page 29 of Alonzo

Quint’s saying: Emma will hold you responsible.

I’m saying: Fuck. Fine.

Then real-life Quint takes over. “OK, Jesse. Where do we need to pick these people up from?”

I turn away before I have to see that stupid grin one more time. But I know it’s there.

He came down here to bond with me?

Right.

Those Boston brothers are as dirty as they come. I know. I can smell the stink of underworld crime a mile away. I’ve been inhaling that scent my whole adult life.

Johnny Boston sent his little brother down here to suck me into their world, and their business, and their secrets.

But I’m not taking this bait.

The Dumas family has their own secrets to protect.

CHAPTER EIGHT - TARA

Later that afternoon Belinda calls me on my cell to ask if I’d like a ride home from work.

“Why?”

“You haven’t been paying attention to the weather reports, have you?”

I walk around the aisle of books I’m currently in and glance up at the window. Snow is coming down in sheets.

When I first got to Colorado I liked the snow. It was fun. I’d grown up in Southern California and so the cold, and the snow, and the fucking sleet, and wind, and rain, and hail—it was all a novelty.

But I’ve been living in it for two years now. The novelty has worn off.

I sigh into the phone. “Sure. I’m done in thirty minutes.”

“Awesome! Vann will be there in his truck.”

“Wait. What? Vann? No—”

“Bye!”

The call drops and I get the hang-up beeps. That sneaky little Belinda. She’s been trying to set me up with Vann Vaughn, the youngest Sick Boyz brother at her tattoo shop, ever since I got to town. But here are all the reasons I will never date Vann Vaughn:

One. He has tattoos. I do not do tattoos. To be clear, I have done tattoos. I have dated lots of men with tattoos. In fact, I’d go so far as to say Phoebe Covington’s type was a man with lots of ink. But those men with tattoos come with things like secret jobs, and secret motives, and police records. In fact, one particular man with tattoos is the whole damn reason I’m stuck here in Colorado pretending to be Tara the sexy librarian instead of Phoebe the sexy private detective.

Two. He’s two years younger than me. Which is twenty-five now, but was twenty-three when Belinda first started trying to hook me up. And no matter how many years go by, I will always see him as a twenty-three-year-old.

Three. He has a pack of brothers at home. I’ve learned my lesson about dating a man with a pack of brothers too. They are loyal like wolves, they always have deep family secrets, and they break all new connections down into two easy-to-classify categories: You are with us, or you are against us.

Plus, Vann has no shortage of women vying for his attention. I’m not into the whole competition thing. He’s a player, plain and simple.

But Belinda loves him. Not as a potential boyfriend, but Vann Vaughn is her BFF while she’s at work. He was just finishing up his apprenticeship in the shop with his older brother Vic when Belinda got hired. He was promoted to full-time artist and she slipped into the vacant entry-level apprentice position at the cash register.

But—the snow is really coming down now. So I’m not going to turn down a ride.

I wait in the lobby until I see his giant black Ford truck pull up. It’s one of those trucks with the lift kit for rock-crawling, or mudding, or whatever the hell tattooed bad boys do with giant trucks like that. It’s tall. There’s no chance we will get stuck in the snow together on the way home.

But that also means you actually have to like… climb up into it to get inside.