She blinked at me and tossed a saucy grin at Benny and his boys that looked all wrong on her innocent face.
“I’m good. He’s better, so no thanks.” She dropped her head on my shoulder and batted her eyelashes up at me. I had to bite down a laugh.
“You heard her. Move along, Benny. Stay out of my way and watch your step.”
“You always were too sure of yourself, Bax. It’s gonna blow up in your face.”
I shrugged and grabbed Dovie’s hand to pull her out of the booth behind me.
“I’m surprised it hasn’t already, but it’s going to take someone bigger and badder than you or Novak to do it.” I pulled Dovie out of the booth and pushed past the goon closest to me while tucking her under my arm. I gave Benny one last look over my shoulder. “You know how I drive, Benny. Stay out of my way or you and all your boys will get run over.”
I pushed my luck and guided my companion out the front door with a hand on her surprisingly firm ass. I needed to see this girl in clothes that actually fit her. Chuck stopped us at the door and I gave him the obligatory fist bump.
“Lemme know if my little visit stirs anything up. I need to find Race.”
“Oh, it’s going to stir shit up, which I’m pretty sure was your point, son. You better watch your back with Benny. He didn’t get to be Novak’s right hand by being reasonable and forgiving.”
“I got this, Chuck. I have five years of ‘fuck you’ pent up and it’s all directed at Novak and his crew. I’m not going anywhere until he knows exactly what I think about how that last job went down. I just need to make sure Race is okay and not playing at something too dangerous for him to handle alone.”
“I’ll keep an eye out. I take it you don’t want the boys to know Little Miss Sunshine is related to him?”
“No. Let them think she was just a piece on the side. It’s safer for her that way.”
“Playing with fire by sticking your tongue down her throat. Benny thinks she means something to you, he’s gonna get ideas.”
“Good. Let him. Come on, Copper-Top, let’s get you tucked into bed all safe and snug.”
I didn’t miss that she recoiled from my touch and walked as far away from me as she could on the sidewalk when we got outside. I had to hide an amused grin as she glared at me. That red hair wasn’t a lie. She was all kinds of fiery and full of fight. I shouldn’t like that nearly as much as I did, and I shouldn’t want to see her in my car, but that’s exactly what I was thinking as I led her silently to the Runner.
CHAPTER 4
Dovie
I WAS SHAKING. I wasn’t sure if it was from fear, anger, adrenaline, or the fact that Bax didn’t seem to think posted speed limits and things like stop signs applied to him or his loud, wickedly fast car. I checked my seat belt every few seconds and gripped the dash in front of me with fingers that were white. We hadn’t said a word since leaving the strip club. He hadn’t mentioned what happened when he went in the back, the brush with Benny, or the fact I had practically mauled him in front of the sleazy mobster.
That was so unlike me. I was reserved, shy even, when it came to the opposite sex. I never trusted their motivations and I had seen too many girls my age knocked up and abandoned because of pretty words rattled off a talented tongue. I didn’t want that for myself. I tried to make smart choices, choices that would eventually lead me out of places like the Point. That meant most boys who came from the streets were boys I didn’t waste my time on. Not to mention I dressed like a boy most of the time and didn’t bother to doll up. It wasn’t like they were pounding down the front door to get after me . . . but that kiss with Bax was different.
When he had kissed me for show, I knew it was an act, a way to stake his claim and get the guy in the suit to back off. His nearly midnight gaze never wavered and it was like pressing my mouth against the unrelenting surface of a statue. Sure, he tasted like enticement and all the things dark and dangerous that oozed out of him, but it was all a game to him and I could feel it. I wished that had been enough to stop my skin from tingling and my lips from desperately wanting to spring open and pull him in. Being kissed by a guy like Bax for whatever reason was enough to mess with my already spinning head, and I didn’t like it, so when Benny had pushed, I needed to take the control back.
Only it backfired, and kissing Bax for real was like getting sucked into a vortex of desire and not being able to tell up from down. The guy had skills. He had a touch. It was no wonder tramps across town were bummed about his recent incarceration. Everything about him screamed that he knew his way around a good time and anyone would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to have one with him.
I couldn’t hold back a gasp as the muscle car squealed around the corner of the street in front of the diner and whipped into the parking lot. He drove like he was running away from the police, and even though the car stood out like a sore thumb, no one, the police included, seemed inclined to stop him.
“Christ! Are you in a hurry?” I didn’t mean to sound terrified, that wasn’t how I wanted him to think of me, but it couldn’t be helped.
He grinned in the dim interior of the car and I watched the way it made that star on his face crinkle up on the edges. It shouldn’t make him attractive—it was impossible to miss and screamed “troubled-and-trouble”—but it was hot. I hated to admit it, but he was all sorts of sexy felon. God, what was wrong with me? That kiss had made me stupid.
“I need to take you home and hit up a couple other places. Race say anything to you about a rich guy tied into Novak?”
I scowled at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “If you’re going someplace else, then I’m going with you. I thought that was the deal.”
He looked at me, and I sucked in a breath as he leaned over me and shoved open my door. He smelled like lingering cigarette smoke and cheap perfume from the half-naked girl who had dry-humped him.
“There was no deal. I have things to take care of not related to Race. My entire life was put on hold for years. I’m trying to put it back together and find your brother at the same time. Plus, girls who kiss with their mouths closed aren’t really my thing.”
He smirked at me as I snapped the seat belt off.
“I think anything with a heartbeat and a vagina might be your thing.”
He leaned back and put his arm along the back of the seat. His dark eyes glittered against the darker interior of the car. They were like raw pieces of onyx, polished and put in his brutally attractive face. I wondered how he got that scar that bisected the dark stubble of hair on his scalp.
“Two things I’m particular about. My ride and my women.” He winged an eyebrow up at me and kicked his mouth up into a half grin. “I like both to run smooth and be easy to handle. Neither of those things applies to you, Copper-Top. Even if I need a quick fix, I don’t tangle with complicated pu**y.”
I was going to snap a retort at him when I shrieked and spun around because a heavy hand landed on my shoulder and pulled me the rest of the way out of the car. I stifled a scream when I looked into Lester’s dirty and slightly deranged face. I put a hand to my racing heart, but before I could catch my breath, Bax was out of the car and between me and the veteran. I wanted to warn him that Lester wasn’t quite right, but he pushed me back so I was behind him and shoved Lester back with a hand on his chest. Lester stumbled a little and screwed his face up.
“Dovie?”
I grabbed Bax’s elbow and tugged until I could peek around him.
“Sorry, Les. This is Bax. Remember I asked you to let him come up into the building last night? He’s friends with Race.”
“He tried to break in?” Lester’s mind had gaps. Carmen thought it was from too much acid in the seventies. I thought it was from the war, but regardless, he carried a machete under his dirty overcoat and wasn’t scared to use it.
“Yes . . . well, no. He’s trying to find Race. He’s okay, all right, buddy?”
Lester and Bax had a standoff going on and I was scared one of them was going to get hurt before the other backed down.
“Why are you over here, Les? You never leave the stoop after dark.”
I tried to keep my voice soothing and mellow. Unwittingly I leaned my weight into Bax’s side, trying to show Lester that he was okay, not a threat. What a load of bull that was. I had never met any one single person in my life who broadcasted that he was a threat like this guy.
“Bad things. Too many people. They made me leave. Gave me a bottle of whiskey.”
“What kind of bad things, buddy?”
His wild eyes skimmed over me and then over Bax.
“Good he’s here. Good, good.”
I shivered and looked up at Bax, who was frowning and trying to follow Lester’s broken thinking pattern.
“Why did they give you whiskey, Les? Help me out here, big guy.”
“Don’t go home, Dovie. Bad things. You watch her. She’s a sweet girl.”
Lester nodded, like his business with us was done, and stumbled back toward the apartment building. I was full of apprehension, and shivered involuntarily.
“He’s a disabled vet. No one—and I mean no one—goes in or comes out of the building without his okay. The only time he leaves the stoop is for church on Sunday morning and if he gets the chance to go on a bender. He’s good people.”
“What did he mean by bad things?”
I sighed and shoved my seriously tangled hair over my shoulder. “I don’t know, but I have a really bad feeling I’m about to find out. Don’t let me keep you from your nightly conquest. I expect to hear from you tomorrow if you’ve got anything on Race. I expect you to keep your word, Bax.”
He grabbed my elbow and started hauling me mercilessly across the street. I struggled a little at first until I realized he was going up to the apartment with me. I really didn’t want to face whatever might be waiting for me up there alone.
“I always keep my word, Copper-Top. That’s not something you have to worry about with me.”
Great. He had already insinuated that if I kept getting in his way and making things tricky for him, he would use me in a way I couldn’t even imagine. I had never offered my body as a bargaining chip before, and I had no desire to start now. But I sensed he would push me if it got him what he wanted. He wasn’t scared of coming across like a total scumbag; in fact, I think he kind of liked it.
I pressed up against his back as we skulked up the stairs to my floor. He was all hard lines and coiled strength. I didn’t know how a guy as big as he was moved so silently. He just melted into the shadows and darkness around us. I felt clumsy and awkward behind him.
“Shit.” The swearword was breathed out more than spoken when we rounded the corner where my apartment was.
I guess I really should have put a move on those new locks because the door was standing wide open, and even from where I was partially hidden behind Bax, I could tell I didn’t really want to see what was inside.
“Benny?” My voice quivered a little.
Bax shook his dark head and I felt the muscles I was leaning against tense.
“No. Destruction isn’t his style. This was Novak, though. He wants me to know he has eyes on me. He waited until we were together to do this, not while you were here alone.”
He swore again.
“You have anything in there you absolutely need?”
I bit my bottom lip. “My stuff for school.”
He sighed and ran his hands over his head. “If this was a typical turn and burn, I doubt anything really made it. You can check, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
I was shaking. I seemed to be doing a lot of that tonight.
“The good thing about going without much is that there isn’t much to get attached to. Let me see what I can salvage and I’ll call Carmen to see if I can crash with her and the boys for a few days.”