“Okay, put Cassie on the phone and I’ll see if she wants anything else.”

“She’s in the shower.”

“Pepperoni it is,” Jenna said. “I’ll be home soon.”

Jenna clicked off her cell and pulled into the snowplowed lot, where she parked between a black van and a red pickup with tires so big it could have entered in one of those monster-truck competitions. Music was blaring from the speakers, a bass thrumming so loudly that even though the windows were only barely cracked, the hip-hop song vibrated through the air. Three boys wearing backward-facing baseball caps sat inside the king cab, laughing, talking, and smoking.

One of the kids was Josh Sykes.

Jenna’s good mood evaporated. She considered confronting him right then and there, but decided against it. Humiliating him in front of his friends would serve no purpose. Biting her tongue, she hiked the collar of her ski jacket tighter, hurried inside, and ordered her pizza and a Diet Coke.

While waiting for the pizza, she took a seat in one of the empty booths and sipped her soda. Two other booths were occupied, but no one so much as glanced in her direction. Anonymity, she thought, savoring the feeling of freedom it brought.

Within minutes, Josh and his friends, carbon copies of each other, sauntered in. Jenna’s peace of mind dissipated immediately.

One of the boys, dressed in baggy jeans, serious gold chains, and a jacket three sizes too big, leaned an elbow on the counter and tried to flirt with the girl taking orders; another propped himself against the windows and stared outside as if he were waiting for someone, and Josh, spotting Jenna, had the good sense to quit joking around. Their gazes clashed and she thought she saw his Adam’s apple bobble a bit before he donned his usual I-don’t-give-a-crap-about-anything demeanor.

She supposed she should leave well enough alone, but she couldn’t. Not when an opportunity like this dropped into her lap. Leaving her soft drink sweating on the table, she sauntered up to Cassie’s punk of a boyfriend. “Hi, Josh.”

He didn’t respond until she was standing directly in front of him. “Hullo.”

“How are you doing?”

A wariness flashed in his eyes. He didn’t trust her friendliness one bit. So maybe he wasn’t as stupid as she’d thought. “Fine. Just gettin’ a pizza.”

“Me, too.” She glanced at his two friends, who had turned to face the confrontation. “Why don’t you come over to my booth where we can talk. I’ll buy you a soda.”

“I’m, uh, not thirsty.”

“Then just come over for a few minutes, okay? Since we’re both here waiting. It’s a little like fate, wouldn’t you say?”

He didn’t. Just followed her to the table while his friends tried to swallow their smirks. Jenna didn’t care. She was trying to keep her cool, knew that flying off the handle would only make him defensive and angry, and those emotions, running rampant in a kid his age, would only serve to make him want to prove her wrong and go against whatever law or threat she laid down. So, despite the fact that her blood was boiling and she wanted to wring his scruffy neck, she motioned him into a seat and sat opposite him. “You’re sure you don’t want anything?”

“Nah.” He looked down at his clasped hands. Set them on the table. Almost like he was praying.

“Okay, so here’s the deal. I know you care about Cassie and she cares about you.”

He looked up to see if she was joking. She wasn’t.

“So it seems to me that you’d want to take care of her, kind of protect her.” She had to force the words out; they clogged her throat because the last thing she believed in was a man protecting a woman. And Josh was the least likely white knight she’d ever come across.

“Yeah…” he said tenuously, as if he didn’t believe what he was hearing.

“So, I’d think that you’d want what’s best for her and, you know, asking her to sneak out and go to the scene of a crime and then drink and use drugs…it’s just not the best thing.” She tried hard to keep the sarcasm out of her words, but a little slipped through.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong,” he said, then caught the warning look in her eye and changed his tack. “We wanted to have some fun, that’s all.”

“I know.” She said it as if she believed it. Josh’s problem was his lack of imagination, of coming from a family that didn’t give a damn about him, and boredom at the prospect of what was the rest of his life, though he couldn’t seem to see beyond the signposts of this small town. “But the kind of fun where you’re doing dangerous things, or chancing being arrested—that’s not what’s best for Cassie. Or for you. Look, I’m going to be honest here, okay? I was really angry at Cassie and at you, but I’m trying not to go off the deep end and do anything that all of us would regret.”

He glanced up again and she held his gaze steadily, made sure he understood her intent, that beneath her empathetic words, there was a veiled threat. Josh needed to know that legally she had the upper hand and that she knew it. “So let’s all try to work this out. Come over to the house. Visit Cass. Take her out, but no more sneaking out, okay? It’s just not safe and I’m sure the last thing you would want to do is compromise Cassie’s safety and well-being.”

“Yeah…but…”

“Pizza for Hughes,” the girl behind the counter said, and Jenna rose quickly.

“Thanks, Josh,” she said, leaving her barely touched soda and an astounded Josh in the booth. She forced a smile that would have won her an Academy Award on Josh’s two friends, then scooped up the cardboard box and left Martino’s.

So she’d had a run-in with Josh; she was certain it wouldn’t be her last.

Tags: Lisa Jackson West Coast Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net