His eyes cut from the road to mine, narrowing. “Well shit, woman, share the info. We can pay his ass a visit.” He turns his attention back to the road, and the phone at his ear. “Yeah, okay, cool. Thanks, Inez. Let the guys know I’m all good and I’ll check in…yeah, if I need backup, I’ll let ya’ll know. All right. Bye.” He hangs up the phone, looks at me again. “Address?”
I relay it to him, and he puts it into a navigation app on his phone. Conveniently enough, there’s a phone holder attached to the dashboard next to the steering wheel, and he slots his phone into it.
“What are we going to do when we get to Alvin’s house?” I ask.
He eyes me, eyebrow quirked, amusement on his face. “I’m gonna tickle him, Annika. What do you think?”
“Talk to him?”
“Talking is for people with common sense. He hired a bunch of goons to shoot up a motel. Motherfucker clearly ain’t got a lick of sense. What I’m gonna do is put the unholy fear of god in him, in this case god being me. He doesn’t have that first fuckin’ clue who he fucked with.” His jaw goes hard and tight, his eyes cold. “You shoot at me, you best hit me and you best kill me. He didn’t. He’s gonna regret it.”
I shift in my seat, becoming increasingly uncomfortable as we enter Alvin’s neighborhood on the west side—a rough, dangerous area. We turn onto his street, and I feel my anxiety spiking.
I point out a car as we approach it. “That’s one of his lookouts.”
He slams on the brakes and pulls over. “Wait here.”
“Um…”
He shoves the shifter into park, exits the Tahoe, and swaggers toward the car I’d tagged as a lookout. His gait is loose, slow, easy—not lumbering, not heavy-footed. He moves far more easily and lithely than a man his size has any right to do. He walks right up to the driver’s side, yanks open the door and reaches in, all in one movement, hauling out a young white male dressed in baggy khaki shorts, a tight white tank top, and high-top sneakers with white socks pulled up nearly to his knees. Using both hands, Chance pins him up off the ground against the side of the car, bending his torso backward over the roof. One-handed, then, Chance rifles in the lookout’s pockets, withdrawing a cell phone which he drops to the ground and stomps on, then comes back up with a handgun, which he stuffs behind his waistband next to the other one, shaking the thug, threat written in every pore. Chance drops him and steps back. Allows the lookout to get into his car—with a squeal of tires, the lookout hauls ass out of the neighborhood, taking a turn on two wheels.
He eyes the house three doors down from our location. “Yellow house, white porch, barred windows. Yeah?”
I nod, swallowing. “Yeah, that’s him.”
His eyes search me. “You good?”
I shake my head. “Nope.”
“Talk to me, Annika.”
I pause a beat, roll a shoulder. “I don’t like being here. Every time I’ve ever been here, it’s been to beg Alvin for a hit. Or to beg him to give me more time to pay him back. I just…I’m freaking out a little.” I swallow hard. “Or a lot.”
He reaches out and grabs my hand. “It’s a new day, mama. Today, you’re here to scrape Alvin off for good.”
“Just like that?”
He nods. “You got me, now. Nobody’s ever gonna fuck with you again, promise.”
“You don’t know Alvin.”
He grins, and it’s not a nice, happy grin. “Alvin don’t know me.” The eyebrow goes up, the grin widening, amused, arrogant. “Trust me, mama. Stick with me, Alvin’ll be history. So will your debt.”
I swallow hard, hold his eyes. “I want to believe you.”
He puts the Tahoe in gear and pulls down the street to Alvin’s driveway. There’s a Challenger in the driveway, an older model but shiny and clean, still with the tags and stickers from a used car dealership. Parking at the curb in front of the house, he parks the Tahoe and turns it off. Hands me the spare pistol.
He looks at me, gaze hard, serious. “You’re outside. Back to the Tahoe, eyes peeled. Anyone fucks with you, pop ’em. Aim center mass. Don’t hesitate. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“You meanshootthem?”
“If they’re a threat, yes.” He gestures at the house. “Unless you want to come in and watch me deal with Alvin.”
“Actually, I would rather go with you. I don’t know if I could shoot anyone.”
He nods. “Fair enough.” He points at the gun. “Hold on to that anyway. I tell you to use it, you do as I say, no questions. Got me?”
I nod. “Got you.”
