next, I wonder what will happen to me, and then like a tornado spinning round and round, I start wondering about the stranger beside me.
The ride is silent as he seems focused on driving and fuming because I stole his truck. The air between us is tense as the road passes on and he takes us back to Uprising. I don’t know what to do or what comes next, but that’s the life I lead. I’ll figure shit out as I go because that’s what I do.
The silence between us is broken by the sound of his phone ringing through the speakers of the truck. He taps the answer button on the screen that controls the radio.
“Yo,” he answers.
“Checked into it. Brother, she’s telling the truth,” a man I assume to be Sly, based on the name on the screen, says. “Found the body.”
I stop breathing. Katie is dead. This kills me inside but at the same token at least he can understand I’m telling the truth. At least I hope he sees it.
“Call in Asher. Let him get the PD on it so the girl can be returned to her family. That will protect our assets and avoid any unwanted investigation.”
“On it, brother,” Sly replies, and I can’t help but find myself more confused.
Without saying another word, Jinx ends the call.
“What does it mean avoid an unwanted investigation? I know who did it.”
He turns his head to me, but I can’t see his eyes because of his sunglasses. It’s three in the morning and pitch-black outside; no one needs sunglasses at this time of night.
“Means, I don’t want cops in my backyard.”
“But they killed Katie. Doesn’t that matter?” I argue when I should shut up because this man is far more dangerous than Drifter or Chrome ever could be. He’s like a dragon, and I expect smoke to blow out of his nostrils any second.
Dragons are majestic and move with ease, despite their size. Anger them, and they’ll burn down an entire village. That’s what I think of the man in the truck beside me.
“Her life matters, her death does not. Asher is a cop. He’s on my payroll. He’ll make sure your friend gets home, so her family can properly pay their respects.”
I don’t know why I can’t let it go, but I just keep going. “They can’t get away with this. They raped her in the worst of ways,” I explain as fresh tears fall from my eyes. “I’ll never get it out of my head. Caleb was under her, Chrome over her, and Drifter cutting her while they just kept taking and taking from her body.”
“Naunau, you got passion.”
Frustrated, I lift my hands and throw them back onto my lap, forgetting about the cuff linking us. “I don’t know what you said, but this isn’t passion, this is disgust.”
“Teineitiiti, you have passion.”
“What’s that mean?” I question even while wondering why I even care.
“Little girl in Samoan,” he casually explains without elaboration.
“I’m not a little girl.”
I don’t know why it bothers me for him to see me as a girl, but I’m a grown woman. He still doesn’t speak. The drive goes on in silence. I begin to get uncomfortable wondering what’s going on inside his head.
“What’s your name?”
“We’re not playing twenty questions.” He shuts me down before I can learn anything. “You wanna share, I’m happy to listen. You don’t wanna share, that’s your business, but I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m up against.”
Help me?
Why would he help me?
He said he wants to punish me. I’m torn between fear and fantasy. This man makes me curious in a way I’ve never been before. My life is a dog-eat-dog world. I’ve never cared to know anything about anyone because people leave. They have to.
I don’t speak again, and neither does he. Once we arrive at his home, he unlocks the leather cuff on his wrist before getting out of the truck. In a swift movement, he picks me up and carries me like a bride all the way to his front door where I expect to be put down, only he doesn’t. Instead, he holds me up while punching a code into a keypad that releases the lock to open the door.
“I can walk,” I explain, and he shakes his head.
“You hit a guardrail. While my truck took the beating, it doesn’t mean you aren’t shaken up.”
There is a kindness in his tone that’s foreign to me, but I find I actually like