AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“‘New associates’?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Griff.”
He could only have been talking about the Vista boys, and Griff wondered how Coach knew about them. But then, he’d rarely been able to sneak something past the man. Coach’s vigilance had been a pain in the butt when Griff was a teenager. It was a bigger pain now that he was a grown-up. “You’re the one always harping on me to make friends. I’ve made some friends. Now you don’t like them.”
“I don’t like you getting too friendly with these guys.”
“Why? What’s wrong with them?”
“In my view, they’re a little too shiny.”
Griff guffawed. “‘Shiny’?”
“Slick. Slippery. I don’t trust them. You should check them out.”
“I don’t snoop on my friends.” Looking Coach straight in the eye, he said what he hoped would end the discussion. “I don’t go poking my nose into other people’s business.”
Coach didn’t take the hint. “Make an exception. Do some snooping.”
“What for?”
“See what they’re really about. How do they pay for those fancy limos and chauffeurs?”
“They’re businessmen.”
“What’s their business?”
“A tin mine in South America.”
“Tin mine, my ass. No miner I ever knew needed a bodygu
ard.”
Griff had heard enough. “Look, I don’t care how they pay for the limos. I like the limos and the chauffeurs, not to mention the private jets and the pussy they get me free for the asking. So why don’t you go away and leave me the hell alone? Okay?”
Coach did just that. It was the last conversation they’d had.
Griff looked at Ellie now and shook his head sadly. “I thought I was smarter than him. Smarter than everybody. When I got caught, Coach denounced me. I didn’t blame him. I understood why he washed his hands of me.”
“You broke his heart.”
He gave her a sharp look. She nodded and repeated solemnly, “You broke his heart, Griff.” Then she laughed lightly. “Of course, he was pissed, too.”
“Yeah, well, it’s probably just as well he’s not here. If he was, I doubt I’d have been invited in for cake.”
“Honestly, I doubt it, too.”
“I knew I took a chance by coming.”
“Why did you? I’m delighted. But why did you come?”
He left the table and moved to the counter. He took a black-eyed pea from the brown paper sack, held the pod between his thumbs and split it open, then shook the peas into the stainless steel bowl. He tossed the empty pod back into the sack.
“I keep hurting people, and I don’t want to.”
“Then stop doing it.”
“I don’t mean to. I just do.”
