Page 70 of Love is Blind

“I’ve been calling you,” I say, coming to stand in front of him. The guys look just as haggard as I feel. I almost feel guilty, because while he was off doing my dirty work, I was fucking my dream girl, finding peace.

“Long day,” he says, stretching his arms over his head. “Phone died and I didn’t want to stop to charge it.”

“You want to give me what you found in the morning?”

He looks up at the sky for a second, then brings his eyes back to me, arching a brow.

“Isn’t it fucking mornin’?” Tipping his chin toward the picnic tables, he says, “Let’s do it now because once I crash, I don’t know when I’m getting up.”

“Fair enough,” I say, following him. He plops down on the bench and leans his elbows on top of his thighs. “The last couple of months have been shitty on your girl.”

One might argue things have gone south since she turned fourteen, but I keep that to myself and take a seat next to him.

“She was arrested along with a guy named Angel Mendez. Seems to be they were in a relationship. Lived together and everything. Landlord says he stopped paying the rent right before he got arrested. Went to court to get them evicted, but Birdie took off before it got that far.” He swipes a hand over his face. “I paid the debt. He wouldn’t talk otherwise.”

Still stuck on this Angel guy, I growl, “She’s got a fucking boyfriend?”

His eyes cut to me and he raises an eyebrow.

“That’s what you took away from everything I just said? Shit, man, you really like this one, don’t you?”

He knows I never would’ve sent him to Charlotte, if Birdie was just another piece of ass. But I don’t know how to admit that truth, so I keep my mouth shut.

He shakes his head.

“You’re good, man. I don’t think they’re together anymore, he’s been in jail since they got arrested. Never made bail. I tapped into the visitor’s log at the jail and she only visited him a handful of times. Hasn’t been there in over a month. Now, she’s here and he’s inside for six years.”

I let that sink in for a minute. I got no place being mad. We’re just getting to know each other. There was an opportunity to get her to open up to me, but I fucking blew it and then when we got back here,sheblewme.

Sighing, I stroke my beard.

“So what are you saying? They let her go but they kept him?”

“Not only did they let her go but they bleached her case.” He shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe he cut a deal to clear her—who knows—but I think we should factor in the girl is blind. I don’t mean any disrespect by that, man, but something ain’t adding up. She ain’t exactly a woman that slips into a room without getting noticed.”

I saw that firsthand at Mac’s and I fucking hated it.

It’s one thing to admire a woman for her looks, it’s another to gawk at her because she’s disabled.

“Unless she was cutting the product and even that’s a stretch, I don’t know what drug lord would employ her.”

“Why does it got be a drug lord? Maybe this Mendez guy works for himself.”

He shakes his head, immediately shooting down that idea.

“Bullshit. The guy is doing serious time. They picked him up with a lot of product. A player’s got that much shit on his hand, he’s making bank. He ain’t stiffing his landlord on the rent or going with the public defender.”

I narrow my eyes.

“Public defender isn’t cutting a deal that gets the charges squashed either.”

He nods, covering his mouth as he yawns loudly.

“Probably not. Which is why I’m thinking your girl was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

It’s possible and it would surely give her reason to run. Still, something feels off and my gut is usually never wrong. After all, I suspected shit wasn’t right with King and sure as shit, I was right.

“There’s something else,” he says, his tone hesitant.

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