Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,5

fell from Doc’s lips as he turned. The farther we drove, the sadder the town looked. A little more rundown. A little more worn. The buildings were older. The paint chipped. It wasn’t dirty though. The streets were thick with people. Vendors. Kids were heading to school, based on their backpacks. Stores were opening.

They had a neighborhood grocer. The man was wheeling out crates of fruits and veggies to put in a stand just outside the front door. On another corner, there was a huddle of business suits—not expensive or smart, but definitely cleaned and pressed—waiting for a bus that rumbled up as we were passing.

Even though the blue bike remained in the side mirror, I focused on the people filing onto the bus. Some had earbuds in, listening to music or maybe podcasts. Others chattered. Still more just wore a resting bitch face as they climbed aboard. The light changed, and Doc pulled away, the bus vanishing behind me.

The streets were numbered in this part of town. At least all the cross streets we passed. Some of the buildings began to look a little more disreputable. The level of disrepair grew, and while there were shops, they grew fewer and farther in between.

At the next light, a mural on the wall of one of the buildings blew me away. It was a stunning painting of kids playing on a playground. It was a colorful scene with the children kicking a ball around, while another kid swung on a swing and still another jumped on the back of one. All told, there were five boys playing ball, but there were others in the background. One stood on the far side of a fence, like he couldn’t get into where the others were.

Doc pulled away before I could make out more details. We turned at the next cross street, and there was another mural. I gaped at it, and Doc slowed the truck. It was a series of dancers. They were adorable, little girls in pink tutus going through their routines. It threw me back to when dance had been fun. There was a girl in the background dancing away from the others.

That could have been me. Lots of times it was me.

I laughed.

“Rome did these,” I said as Doc put his foot down on the accelerator.

“He’s very talented,” Doc explained unnecessarily. “No one ever knows what he’s going to create. He’s done a few around town. Usually on the worst buildings or…”

“Falling apart playgrounds.”

“Abandoned ones, yeah. There’s not enough money for all the things here, but he tries to make them a little prettier. When he disappears for a few days, you can usually expect something beautiful to show up.”

Now, I kind of wanted to go hunting them. “Do you know where they all are?”

“Some of them,” Doc said with a glance at me, and then we circled a building and pulled into a pothole pitted parking lot in the back. We were the only vehicle. It wasn’t hard to believe this was the clinic, it fit right into the aesthetic of this area of town. Dilapidated, unkempt, but even if it was poor, it was lived in.

The Vandals lived here. When they’d taken me to Doc’s for the test, it hadn’t been that long of a drive from the warehouse. I wasn’t sure which way it was, but I could guess. The air was chilly as I opened the passenger door, but Doc circled the vehicle before I could slip out and then he was there offering me a hand.

His truck was parked in a shaded area, but the lot itself had a lot of rough gravel and it was definitely uneven. When I wrote his clinic a check, I was going to make sure he got this repaved. Maybe I could even fix up Rome’s park.

Would he still paint if it was fixed?

I’d have to ask.

No sooner did I take Doc’s hand than the blue bike rumbled to the opening of the lot. With his helmet on, Liam’s face was obscured. Doc followed my gaze, but he wore an unreadable expression. Was Liam planning on dragging me back, or was he just making sure Doc took me to the clinic so he could report to Jasper later?

Instead of following us though, he nodded and then rumbled away on the bike. I let out a long breath, and Doc glanced down at me. “I told you, you’re safe.”

“What about Freddie?” I asked as I let him guide me inside.