jonesing. Bargain basement prices for a blowjob? Yeah… that was just another trait in his personality that showed what a dick he was. Maury was too stupid to believe in anything that resembled karma. He was clueless that one day he would reap what he sowed.
The girl pouted as if disappointed. “Well, I guess I could go for that.”
Maury was too foolish to know she wanted him in the alley for a reason. He jumped from his car with a smile of conquest on his face and followed her like a lamb to the slaughter. He’d done exactly what she wanted him to: underestimated her.
The woman nervously looked up and down the street to make sure there were no witnesses. When she was finished, Maury would still have his wallet, but it would be empty.
Calix had parked his car a block over. He’d made sure Maury didn’t see him standing hidden in a doorway. He trotted up to the car and leaned in the window. Maury had been so pleased he was saving ten dollars he didn’t remove the keys.
Calix jumped in the car and sped down the street. He grabbed his phone and called Chris.
“Gotta car I want you boys to strip. It’s a piece of junk, but a means to an end. It’ll be past the overpass where they park the Belle of Louisville. Down River Rd about two miles. Come pick me up there and then strip it.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Calix parked the car and found a small wooded area to wait in. Just in case the cops saw the abandoned car and ran the plates in. He fingered the keys in his pocket. Now he had the keys to Maury’s house. This was going to be fun.
The sound of the SUV’s and a beat-up truck pulling up pulled him from his sadistic thoughts. He eased from his hiding place and made sure it was his thirteen hombres brothers.
Chris bopped over in his direction with a huge smile on his face. “Whose world are you fucking with now, bro? It’s sheer entertainment to watch you take a man down.”
“You can’t mess with a man’s woman and not get payback.” Calix slapped Chris on the shoulder as a friendly gesture. “Resentment can eat away at a man if he doesn’t take care of business. I can’t let that happen. Wouldn’t want to grow up and be a bitter old man, now would I?”
“Yeah, right. You enjoy doing this shit, you sadistic bastard.”
A slight nod of agreement from Calix assured Chris of what he already knew about his friend.
Chris wrapped his arm around Calix and escorted him to his SUV. The boys had already stripped the car down to nothing and tossed the worthless parts into the beat-up truck that looked like a junk collector’s vehicle—the perfect cover for a criminal.
Chapter Five
Rum pulled back the curtain and watched as Calix unloaded a large box from the back of his SUV. She waited until he was bent down, placing it in front of her door to address him. She opened the door with her hand on her hip and met his intense gaze.
“I see you’re still keeping tabs on me.”
“24/7. You gotta problem with that, Rum?” He was looking at her like he dared her to defy him.
Something about the way he said her name sent a chill of awareness through her. This was a man who was accustomed to being in control and not answering to anybody. He ran a gang by the name of Thirteen Hombres. It wasn’t a chaotic, out of control band of hood rats either. It was a well-organized and very well-run drug business. She didn’t agree with his lifestyle, but who was she to judge. The streets were cruel, and survival was a reality no one could escape.
Rum huffed, an effort to keep the fear she was feeling at bay. “I don’t need a hero, Calix.”
He pushed passed her and picked up Saint from the playpen he was standing in, jumping up and down on his toes in anticipation of seeing Calix. He had bonded immediately with the boy and found it to be prophetic that the boy’s name was Santo, and his surname was: De Los Santos. It was a sign—a good omen, and no one dared tell him otherwise.
Rum felt her heart stir when Saint reached a tiny hand up and touched Calix’s face. They were the fingertips of a trusting soul studying the man who held him safely in