***
I’d caught up to her at a burger joint and convinced her to come back to my place. “The car, is it stolen?”
“No, it’s not stolen. I’m not a car thief. But I took the long way here, stopping to trade my car in for something a little bigger and a lot less conspicuous.” She was right, the red Mini Cooper she had on the night we met was an eyecatcher, but the redhead inside? Impossible to ignore.
“What are you running from exactly?” She’d said an ex had sent his men after her. Henchmen, she said, which meant he was more than a low-level gangster.
“I already told you. Goons who want to drag me back to a life I already left behind.” The way she sighed and her shoulders slumped reminded me of my own demeanor when I left Texas for the last time. She scraped every last bit of sauce and cheese from the lasagna on her plate, and then rinsed it in the sink, readying herself to say something. “I appreciate the dinner, Dallas, I do. But you don’t have to do this.”
“Do what?”
“Pretend you care. I dropped all this in your lap unexpectedly and you’ve handled it like a champ, but you don’t owe me anything. I’m sorry if I made you feel like you did.”
Goddammit this girl was determined to make me get in touch with my sensitive side. “I don’t do anything I don’t want to, Rocky.” Including her.
“Right,” she said and pushed my hand away as I slid a plate of chocolate cake in front of her. “Stop trying to feed me if you want me to believe you’re as tough as you appear.” But she sliced her fork through a corner, bit it and moaned low and deep.
“And don’t try to distract me with that sex moan. Just tell me what I want to know.”
“My what?” She choked as she swallowed another bite.
“That sex moan. Believe me, I remember.” Her cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, especially considering all the dirty shit we’d done together that night.
Rocky rolled her eyes and pushed the plate away. “Okay, the short version is that my dad is—or maybe was—a bank robber. We learned one day a long time ago that I had a knack for planning heists, which meant I had no choice but to do them.
At first it was fun, you know, drawing and spending time with my dad. But then it became a job and two months before I turned seventeen, I left Florida behind. Hopped on a bus, stopping here and there to wait tables and gather more cash for wherever I landed. When I got to California, it was my first taste of freedom,” she inhaled deeply. “It was so intoxicating, all the sunshine which I was used to, but the freedom. It was great!” She smiled and for a moment she looked like the sexy redhead I’d met on the beach, looking hotter than anyone should in plain black slacks and a fitted white shirt.
“I know a little something about that. After the military I went back to Texas and my family and their oppressive fucking expectations. When I made my escape, it was to here. There was no ocean but that smell and that feeling of freedom, yeah I know exactly what you mean.” It was like being released from prison or gaining eyesight for the first time.
“I was waiting tables and selling my crafts on the beach when I first met Genesis. He was good looking and he had that charm that really young seventeen year old girls find appealing, and I was a really young seventeen year old.” She rolled her eyes with that self-deprecating smile that tugged at my own mouth. “I didn’t realize what he was at first. I mean, my dad was a crook but not that kind of criminal, at least I didn’t think so. Anyway, by the time I realized what kind of man he was, it was because I owed him money.”
“Your own boyfriend?” I shook my head. That guy was a fucking asshole.
“Yep. See, a few of us were getting together for a bachelorette party and I thought it’d be nice to have a little pot for the night, but Genesis said this was a grown up party and that I
should bring coke. I’d done a line here and there but nothing real serious. He gave me some so I took it. It wasn’t until the next day he told me I owed him $1200. ‘Ass or cash,’ he said.” Her gaze darkened as she relived the memory and my fingers itched to pound that fucker’s face into the cement. “Then a few days later he magically remembered how I used to help my dad.”
“Wait, what? Seriously?” She just nodded sadly. “What a fucking prick.” The guy was an asshole but he was smart to take advantage of such a fantastic and unknown tool.
“Yeah, but after the first heist went so well my debt was cleared which was a relief. But then he started to pay me. Cash, zanies and vicos,” she said, casually tossing out the street name for Xanax and Vicodin. “I had this little one-bedroom apartment with plenty of light in the living room. My craft room was my living room and I had this long table by the balcony where I had an almost unobstructed view of the Hollywood sign.” She sighed wistfully, her green eyes someplace else, that happier time I assumed. “I was in a happy bubble, stoned and crafting, planning two or three heists a month for a fat bundle of cash. I kept doing it, not even thinking about it at all, Dallas, not until I gave up the pills.”
“Why?” I needed to know if I had to worry about having a junkie in my house and carrying my kid.
She shrugged. “I was over it and I preferred the way I felt with pot, a little spacey but not enough that I could ignore my conscience. And I started thinking that if I was going to do this with my life, I could at least be with Dad.” A laugh erupted out of her. “Okay, so not really the short version, but there it is, the whole story.”
“And you think that’s why he wants you back?” She rolled her eyes, swiped her phone screen a few times and shoved it under my nose. I frowned at the room on her screen, filled with bins of yarn, tubes of glitter, fake flowers, beads and plenty of other shit that the old ladies in Rose Petal would love. “What the hell am I looking at?”
She laughed but the sound was harsh and bitter. “Prison. Genesis wants to keep me high and planning heists for him. Whether I want to or not.”
“And you’re not tempted, not even a little?” If she was going to change her mind in a few days, I couldn’t get involved. If I landed myself in the middle of some on and off couple, I would send her on her way right damn now.
“Hell no. I mean, I get why he might think I’d come back, but I’m not the girl too naïve and too blind to see the truth anymore. And honestly, there’s nothing quite like being on my own.”
“No, there isn’t.” The desert air made it easier to breathe than the thick, suffocating air in Rose Petal.
“So yeah, I’m not going back. But I need a plan and to make a decent one, I need time. For some reason, I’d thought you might help, but it’s okay if you won’t. I always land on my feet.”
Shit. I couldn’t let her go now, knowing she was pregnant with a gangbanger after her. “One more question, who does this Genesis run with?”