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“Fuck you, Jupiter. Don’t forget I’m the surgeon between us. You better hope you don’t ever need a life-saving operation.”
“Damn, Jay. You’d let me die because I’m a bitch?” I asked.
“Maybe,” she shrugged before walking inside. I laughed a little and shook my head at her. She was learning how to use her claws. Good.
When we were little she cried every time someone made fun of her. I usually cursed them out if I was around but I told her I wouldn’t always be there to take up for her. She was older but she was softer. Always had been.
That was the most beautiful thing about Jay. She was soft. She retained her vulnerability while mine turned to stone. Sometimes I had to keep her on her toes or else she’d let those bitches she was doing her residency with get into her head.
While Jay was standing in the considerable line that had grown inside, I scrolled on my phone while I finished my drink.
“So, you’re a Starbucks addict. I’m not shocked. The tats threw me for a loop though.” The oddly familiar voice made my eyes lift unceremoniously from my phone. I looked into the deep coffee eyes of the motherfucker who robbed my bank. The motherfucker who came in and pretended that he wanted to open an account just so he could case the place.
I rolled my eyes so hard I got a fucking headache. “You are so bold,” I said, resting my elbow on the metal table and narrowing my eyes.
“Bold?” He quizzed hopping over the guard keeping loiterers out and taking a seat that wasn’t offered to him. His long legs carried him over the barrier easily and it got under my skin that he acted like he owned everyfuckingthing even the Starbucks.
“For walking past Starbucks and seeing you?”
“No, for opening your mouth to speak to me uninvited after you…” I looked him up and down and saw the muscle in his square jaw tick. Other than that small tell, he didn’t give away his emotions. I made note of the ticking jaw muscle and tucked it away.
“After I what?” He asked, tipping his head to the side.
“You already know what you did. I don’t have to explain it to you.” Before looking back down at my phone, shading it from the sun, I took in the asshole’s fresh white tee, that made his mocha skin glow, the light-washed jeans ripped at the knee, and the red and black retro Jordan five’s. Around his neck was a simple gold chain with a small diamond-encrusted king of spades pendant. He was definitely the leader of the LOK’s. His entire demeanor screamed alpha.
“You do have to explain it to me, Jupiter.” My name rolling off his tongue did something to my nerve endings. I guarded my expression and looked at him a second after he stopped talking. He needed to know that his lightweight intimidation wasn’t shaking me.
I tossed a curtain of black hair over my shoulder and sighed. “I’m sorry, what the fuck are you talking about?” I put my phone to sleep and rested my chin on my fist, giving him my full sarcastic attention.
“Why don’t we do this somewhere…else?”
“Do what, exactly,sir?” I snapped, tightening my tone around the last word.
“Talk.” His patience was wearing thin. He was doing the ticking jaw thing again.
“No thanks. I’m busy today. I don’t know how you found me but,” I stood and so did he. I looked him from head to toe like he didn’t tower over my unimpressive five-foot-three frame. “I don’t want to date you, Jamal,” I said loud enough so that everyone at the surrounding tables could hear. His face scrunched into a frown that would have been cute if he wasn’t such a pain in the ass. His deep brown eyes locked onto mine and I snatched a moment to study how the sunlight shone through his irises making them look almost transparent like amber.
“What the fuck are you doing?” He grumbled in a low, deep voice.
“Making a scene,sir,” I said in an equally low voice. Then in a louder voice, “You can’t just ignore the restraining order like that, Jamal!” I could barely keep myself from grinning in the midst of my bullshit.
“Oh my fucking god.” He couldn’t help it. He cracked a smile, baring perfect teeth. “Is this what we’re doing?” His smile fell and his eyes turned cold. For the first time, I saw how he could be every bit as dangerous as Captain Marsh said. My throat tightened but I didn’t show any fear.
“I’ll find you when I need you. I see you like to play games.” He gave me one more look and hopped right back over the barrier and onto the sidewalk like nothing happened. “And my name isn’t fucking Jamal.” He gave me his back after that. I watched it too for just a little while. I liked the way his thick muscles moved beneath the cotton.
He was still a bastard though.
“Who the hell was that, Ju?” Jay came outside holding a sugar-free iced caramel coffee with two pumps of hazelnut and a splash of cream.
“Nobody,” I said, tossing a gaze in his direction. It was like he’d vanished into thin air. I didn’t hear a car door close or see him further down the block. Fucking ninja.
Jay and I spent the rest of the afternoon tearing through Rodeo. Usually, I tried not to splurge too much because I didn’t want an alert going off on any one of the accounts I was siphoning. I needed it after the week I’d had though. Hell, I needed it after the brief encounter I had this afternoon with that asshole.
I tried to shake him from my thoughts but I kept seeing his sun-dappled coffee eyes in my head. How cold his stare turned when I pushed him too far. I wondered how many people he’d killed because I knew the number was higher than zero.
“Ju, are you listening?” Jay’s voice cut through my mental fog and I blinked up at her. We were back home in the cozy little condo near Crenshaw that we shared.
“Yeah, I heard you.” I was lying. I didn’t hear shit she said. “What did you say again?”
