Taking a shower, I throw on some clean clothes and head to work. The place is already bustling, and the boss shoots me a dirty look when I walk in even though I’m right on time.
“About time you turned up, boy,” he mutters loud enough for me to hear. “What happened, up all night robbing stores again?
I freeze. “What did you say?”
“You think I don’t know who you are? You think I don’t know that the gang you’re in robbed my cousin’s store the other night?”
Fuck. Me. “So why the hell did you hire me?”
He snorts. “You think it’s easy to find hired help these days? Fucking hell. Go help Mason in the kitchen and quit asking.”
I tie on an apron and get to work, doing my best not to look over my shoulder as I help Mason fry onion rings and fries, feeling the boss’s gaze like a laser dot, burning a hole between my shoulder blades.
All the tension that had bled out of me at Gigi’s house is returning, tightening my shoulders, spiking a headache behind my eyes.
This is who you are now. A gangster. A criminal. Nobody who really knows you could like you.
Gigi’s eyes flash in my mind, and I scowl down at the fries sizzling in the oil in front of me. No, dammit. Stop.
I try not to think of her when Angel calls later to tell me there’s gang business going down tonight, when the night air hits me, and I feel eyes following me as I limp across the street, or when I pat my gun in the back of my pants.
Come on, Jarett… Face the truth. Face who you are and what the future has in store for you.
One thing’s for fucking sure: it’s not sunlight and roses.
And it’s not Gigi.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gigi
Getting on the bus and going to classes this morning has a dreamlike quality. I keep getting lost inside my head, in the memories of Jarett and me from the night before. Talking to him, lying in his arms, sharing so much pleasure with him… his kisses, his scent, his body pressed to mine, his low voice late into the night, answering questions I’ve been dying to ask.
Answering and yet keeping so much back.
And now he’s gone back to his life. To the gang. I didn’t ask him if anything changed for him. How can one night change anything?
But it has, for me. It peeled away my doubts, my uncertainty about him. Even if I don’t know everything about him yet, I believe what I told him: you don’t need to know much to know you like someone.
My heart knows him. I should have listened to it from the start.
But how to reconcile that with the fact he didn’t promise anything will change? I know I should give him time, though God, patience was never my strong suit. I stare at my phone and will it to ding or ring with a message from him.
I want to hear his voice again. I’m so smitten it’s ridiculous. Gone, head in the clouds, head over heels.
So when Sydney pops up in front of me on my way to one of the campus cafeterias, I almost jump out of my skin.
“Holy crap, woman.” I tap my chest, telling my heart to slow down. “You scared me to death.”
“Sorry. I was about to call you, see how you’re doing.” She has her copper curls done in a braid. She flicks it over her shoulder and winks at me. “And Jarett.”
A blush creeps up my neck. “Uh, he’s okay.”
“You’ve been with him again, haven’t you?” She grins at me like a mischievous imp, and links her arm with mine. “Tell Syd all about it. You know you want to.”
I do. I’ve always told her everything, and I’m bursting to tell someone, anyone, about my feelings, my thoughts, my questions.
Sydney, though? Not so sure I trust her anymore, not like before.