“What?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
She opened her eyes and stood straighter. “Just wishing for the impossible.”
“What would that be?”
“That we could limit the crises to one per week.”
“We’ve had more than one?” He studied her more carefully. “That would be Ramon and…?”
She pressed her lips together. “Bascombe.”
“Hey, I’m staying right here. You can cross him off the list.”
“Yeah.” She shoved her hand through her spiky hair and avoided his eyes. “Let’s get back to the kids.”
FRANKIE LOCKED UP after the last two kids had gone, then rested her forehead against the door.
She had to get rid of Cal before she went looking for Ramon. Judging by the mulish expression on Cal’s face when they’d discussed it with Emma, he was going to be stubborn about this.
The sound of running shoes on linoleum approached, and she lifted her head. Cal was only a few feet away.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.” She straightened and smiled. “Long afternoon.”
“Yeah, it was. More drama around here than on a soap opera.”
“That’s normal with teens,” she said, hoping her voice sounded ordinary. As if she wasn’t planning to go to a sketchy neighborhood tonight to search for Ramon.
Cal waited, as if he expected her to say more. When she didn’t, disappointment flickered over his face. “So I’m learning.”
“You can go on home. I’m not staying late tonight.”
“I know you’re not. You’re chasing gangbangers, aren’t you?” He rocked back and forth, as if preparing to fight. Or gather her close. Her heart began to thud, and her toes curled in her shoes.
“I’m not going to do anything stupid.”
“Says the woman who wants to walk into the Vipers’ headquarters. What are you doing, then?”
“Maybe I’ll stop by a pub and have a beer. I’m in the mood for mindless conversation and a few laughs.” She shrugged as if it was a spur-of-the-moment thought.
“Sounds like a great idea. Where is this place?”
“You’re not invited.” Her heart beat even faster. She didn’t want Cal anywhere near the Town Tap. It would ruin everything.
“I could go for a beer. And if you want mindless conversation, I’m your man.”
Cal’s innocent expression was completely misleading. His eyes swept over her, head to feet, as if he wanted to devour her. She swallowed. “I don’t think there’s anything mindless about you, Cal.”
He tilted his head. “Is that an insult? It sounded like a compliment, but you never know.”
His voice was lower than usual, a rough growl that made her shiver. “Good night, Cal.” She walked past him, closing her eyes when she caught a whiff of the spicy aftershave he used. She didn’t need this tonight. She had too many other things to worry about.
She heard the sound of the dead bolt sliding back as she went into her office. After she’d grabbed her bag and turned off the lights, she walked out, and Cal was gone.
She scowled when disappointment trickled through her. He would only get in the way. Prevent her from doing what she had to do.
She relocked the door a little more forcefully than needed, then headed for her car. And found Cal leaning against his truck.
He didn’t smile as she approached. “So are you going to tell me how to get to this place, or do I have to follow you again?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“DIDN’T I MAKE IT CLEAR that I don’t want company?” Frankie didn’t have the energy to deal with Cal, too.
“Oh, you did. But I don’t care. Someone has to pick up the pieces after you get your ass kicked.”
“You’re such a sweet-talker.” It would have been easy to keep walking away from the Cal who hid behind his charm and fame. This Cal, the one who got involved even though he obviously didn’t want to, was much harder to resist.
And the woman who’d kissed him last night didn’t want to resist. She kicked a chunk of broken sidewalk into the gutter, barely missing his truck. “How does going to a bar and having a beer mean I’ll get my ass kicked?”
“It doesn’t, if that’s all you’re going to do. I’m betting it’s not.”
“You think you know me so well? After a few weeks?” He shouldn’t. But judging by the grin tugging at his mouth, he did. And that scared her.
She lifted her chin and tried to stare him down.
His grin widened. “Am I wrong?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Cal. Go. Leave me alone.”
“Sorry, Frankie.” He straightened, moving away from his truck. “I promised Emma.”
“You did no such thing.” They’d barely spoken to each other.
“Our eyes met across the room, and we communicated without words.” He tried for soulful, but the twinkle in his eye ruined the effect.
Frankie scowled in exasperation. “You’re a piece of work.”
“Could say the same about you.” He slung an arm over her shoulders. “So are we walking to this bar?”
“We’re driving,” she said, shrugging him off. “I mean, I’m driving.”
“Give it up, Frankie.” He opened the passenger door. “Hop in. Let’s get a beer.”
“I’ll drive myself.”
“I’ll drive you back here to get your car later. Quit stalling. I’m coming with you, one way or another. Let’s get this over with.”
“‘Get this over with’?” She slid onto the leather seat, still warm from the sun. “Nice words from someone who wants to have a beer with me.”
He braced his hands on the roof of the truck and leaned in. His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Let me be clear. ‘Get this over with’ referred to whatever idiotic plan you have. Not the rest of the evening.”
“Let me be clear. There is no rest of the evening.”
“We can discuss that over our beer.”
He shut the door before she could answer.
“Where are we going?” he asked, once he was behind the wheel.
“A few blocks north, then left on Hutchinson.” She knew she sounded sulky, but she wasn’t used to being steamrollered. Both tonight and the other time with Ramon, Cal had done it effortlessly.
Once his truck was moving, he scanned the street constantly, as if expecting trouble.
Her neighborhood wasn’t that bad. People spilled out of bars and sat at tables in front of the small restaurants. Couples and groups jostled on the sidewalks.
But security grills glinted in the streetlights, and the alleys were dark, scary places.
Everything changed a few blocks after they’d turned onto Hutchinson. Cal frowned. “This is where you were coming by yourself?”
“It’s okay during the day.” Even to her own ears she sounded defensive.
There were as many boarded-up storefronts as viable businesses. The ones still there were poorly lit, menacing bars, payday-loan stores and the occasional dirty window displaying strange odds and ends. Every shop had a security grate across the front. Half the streetlights were either burned out or broken.
Small groups of young men loitered in the alley entrances.
A few people sat on their front stoops, and the occasional couple strolled down the sidewalk. All of them stilled when Cal and Frankie drove past, making her very aware that they were intruders.
This area made the neighborhood around FreeZone look upscale.
Fear and desperation hung heavy in the air. She didn’t remember this neighborhood being so bad.
“You were right.” She glanced at the gloomy street, the hostile people, the shadowy alleys. “It would have been d
angerous to come here alone. I’m glad you’re with me.”
“Damn straight.” He pulled away from the stop sign too fast, pressing her back into the seat.
It was more than just wanting support in a dangerous neighborhood. Bascombe showing up the other day, making demands, had shaken her.
She’d needed someone to lean on tonight.
And Cal was the only one she wanted next to her.
That made her edgy. Unsettled. She wasn’t used to needing people.
She was bone-deep scared that she needed Cal.
As if he’d read her thoughts, he said, “We all need help once in a while, Frankie. It doesn’t make you weak.”
No, but needing Cal made her an idiot. He was a temporary part of her life, here for a few weeks, then gone. But she still wanted to reach for his hand.
She curled her fingers into her palms.
A few minutes later, she pointed to a bar that looked like all the others they’d passed—seedy and run-down. The o and n on the Town Tap neon sign were burned out, and the rest of the letters flickered. The greasy film on the windows blurred the interior. “There,” she said.
Cal pulled to the curb, but made no effort to get out of the truck. “This is the bar.” There was no inflection in his voice.
“Yeah.” Swallowing, she began to open the door. He reached across her and yanked it shut. Then he pressed the button to engage the locks.
“I know you’re not a stupid woman,” he said, staring out the window, watching everything. “Why are you determined to have a beer in that dump?”
She shifted so she could look across the street. That building’s windows were painted white, and indistinct shadows moved behind them. The door was fitted with two huge, impossible-to-ignore locks—a clear warning to stay away.
She looked at the Town Tap again and realized she was out of her depth. “You see the building across the street? The one with the whited-out windows? That’s the Vipers’ place. Their headquarters, if you want to call it that. I thought if I sat in the bar and kept an eye out, I might see Ramon.”
Cal didn’t say anything for a few seconds. He studied her, his face hidden in shadow. Finally, he took her hand from her lap, uncurled her fingers and meshed them with his. “We’ll wait in the car instead. Okay with you?”
She tore her gaze away from the storefront and focused on Cal. “That’s it? No lecture? No making fun of me for being naive and foolish?”
“No lecture. Although it’s tempting as hell, and I reserve the right to change my mind.” He pressed a kiss into her palm, and she trembled as heat swept through her.
Cal watched the building across the street, brushing his mouth over the back of her hand almost absently. As if it was the most natural thing in the world to be holding her hand. Kissing it.
As if they were connected.
She twined her fingers with his, and his grip on her tightened. As if he felt the connection, too.
He glanced at her. “How many people would be willing to come to this neighborhood and spend an evening in that hole, waiting for a kid who might not even show up? Damn few. You have several loose screws, but you also have guts, Frankie. And a lot of heart. The least I can do is sit here with you while you wait.”
The blue lights from the Town Tap sign flickered across his face, making it difficult to read his expression. His hand was warm and comforting, and she clung to it. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I know you have lots of things you could be doing tonight besides sitting here waiting for a kid you don’t even like.”
“I’m not here for Ramon.” The flickering sign briefly lit Cal’s face, and his expression was tender. Compassionate.
Unguarded. Frankie was certain not many people saw him like this.
The ever-present knot in her stomach loosened slightly, and she put her hand on Cal’s face. His whiskers tickled her palm, and she traced one finger over his dimple. “You’re a remarkable man, Cal Stewart. You keep saying you’re just a football player, but you’re so much more.”
He froze momentarily, then eased away and let go of her hand. “Yeah, I’m also the guy who’s doing community service at your place because of a bar fight.” He stared at the Vipers’ den. “Saying that a sow’s ear is a silk purse doesn’t make it so.”
She reached for him, but he shrugged her off. Wrapping her hand around the muscle of his forearm, she leaned on the console between them. “Why do you want everyone to think you’re a dumb jock?”
His jaw tightened. “Don’t use your social-worker psychobabble on me. Sometimes things are exactly what they seem to be.”
“I’m not a social worker.” Stupid.
“You’re pretty good at faking it. The kids at FreeZone think you can solve all their problems.”
“Of course they don’t. I’m a refuge for a few hours after school. That’s all.”
“You’re a lot more to those kids than that, and you know it.” He gestured toward the painted windows. “If you weren’t, we wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Cal had turned the conversation away from himself and back to her. He’d done it so smoothly that she’d leaped at the bait he’d tossed out. She studied his crossed arms, his bland expression that gave nothing away. “Do you ever take off your sunglasses, Cal?”
His detached expression disappeared, and he frowned. “What are you talking about? I’m not wearing sunglasses.”
“Yes, you are. Emotional ones. They’re just like the shades you put on at the hospital, preventing anyone from seeing the real you.”
He snorted and turned away. “More psychobabble.”
“Cal.” She reached for him, but before she touched him, he tensed.
“You were right,” he said. “There’s Ramon.”
CAL COULD HAVE KISSED the kid for saving him from treacherous waters. Give Frankie the smallest opening and the next thing you know she was trying to get into his head.
At the sound of her seat belt being unfastened, he swiveled and reached for her. Too late. She was already out of her seat and walking in front of his truck, intent only on the kid skulking along on the other side of the street.
“Damn it!” He jumped out, but not before Frankie stepped in front of Ramon.
The kid looked up, something shiny in his hand, and froze when he saw Frankie. By the time Cal reached them, whatever Ramon had been holding had disappeared.
“Ms. D., you crazy? You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you, Ramon.” Frankie’s voice was calm. As if she was standing in FreeZone instead of a dangerous street.
Cal moved to stand between Frankie and Ramon, ready to protect her.
The kid glanced at and dismissed him. He shuffled his feet as if trying to figure out how to get into the building behind her. “I need their help,” he finally said.
“You don’t need anything from them.” She put her hand on Ramon’s arm. “You have other people who can help you. Cal and me. Emma. The family you’re staying with.”
The boy’s face hardened, and the vulnerable kid from the other night disappeared, replaced by a cold, lethal gangbanger. “None of you can do what I need done.”
Frankie didn’t seem to notice Ramon’s transformation. She rubbed his shoulder. “What’s that, Ramon?” she asked softly.
“Business,” he said flatly. “Gang business.”
Cal shifted so that he could intercept if the kid tried to push Frankie out of his way. But Ramon paid no attention to him.
“I thought you were out of that business,” she said.
“Not anymore.”
Frankie put both hands on Ramon’s shoulders. “Why?” she said, her voice as gentle as a mother talking to her child. “Why are you going back, when you tried so hard to leave?”
Ramon was a kid again, with a hunted, desperate look on his face. He swallowed once and turned to Cal, as if expecting Cal to save him from Frankie.
Cal didn’t react. Frankie was the only person he was interested in saving.
“Ramon? You can tell me.”
The kid hunched his shoulders. “I need to find my mama’s dealer,” he muttered. “The one who sold her the bad junk. That’s why she’s so sick.”
Frankie frowned. “I thought she had an infection from using dirty needles.”
Ramon rolled his eyes. “My mama ain’t stupid. She knows what to do. The doctor told me this morning that the stuff she injected was contaminated. All kinds of germs and shit in it. That’s why she’s so sick.”
“How is she doing today?”
“Sick.” With one word, the boy was gone and the banger was back in his place.
Cal tugged Frankie out of Ramon’s reach. “What are you going to do when you find the dealer?” he asked.
“What do you think?” Ramon held his gaze, letting Cal see the truth in his eyes.
Before he could respond, Frankie reached for Ramon. “Don’t do this,” she said. “Go to the police. Let them find the dealer and arrest him.”
He snorted. “Police help a banger? Ain’t gonna happen. But my boys will know what to do.”
“You’re upset and angry. I get it. But this is a mistake.” She glanced at Cal. “Tell him.”
“She’s right, man,” Cal said. “You want that scumbag dealer in a cage. You want to think about him in there, every day. Getting the shit beat out of him. Eating the crappy food. Being the bitch of the baddest guy in there.” He paused to let his words sink in. “You don’t want him in the ground. That’ll put you in the cage.”
“You don’t know nothing about it.”
“You think that’s what your mama wants when she gets out of the hospital? To visit you in jail?”
“She’s not gonna care. She’ll start using again.” Ramon swiped a shoulder across his face, and his eyes glittered. Cal wasn’t sure if it was from anger or tears.
A Safe Place Page 14
