Page 39 of The Kings of Kearny

Chapter Ten

The Kings surroundedmy car as we drove, five ahead and five behind, both sets formed into a phalanx pattern. Jakob led the way. I thought we’d stick close to town, near the center of King territory, but as we wound out of Kearny and started gaining altitude in Hill Country, I began to wonder where the hell Jakob was taking us.

“Interesting friends you have,” Gran said, turning toward me in her seat.

“They’re not my friends,” I told her.

“Accomplices? Comrades? Fellow criminals?” she pressed.

“I’m not in the Kings.”

“Good. One set of lawbreakers is enough for a family.” She peered through the windshield at Jakob’s wide back. “Though I might be willing to make an exception about letting one more in.”

I sighed. “I told you it isn’t like that.”

“And I’m still calling bullshit.”

“We would kill each other within the first week if we tried to date,” I said.

Last night proved that. What happened between Jakob and me had been less like a kiss and more like a physical altercation. Beth said he wasn’t the kind of man to hit women, and I believed her. I wasn’t the violent type either, and yet I’d all but choked him out in my desperation to close the distance between us.

A soft chuckle filled the car, pulling me from my thoughts. “Nothing like a little friendly violence to spice things up.”

I choked and almost swerved off the road. “Gran!”

“Do mind the wheel, sweetie,” she said, patting me on the back.

“Why are you always trying to send me back to therapy?” I whined. “Why can’t you just pester me about getting married and having babies like all the other grandmothers?”

She sent me a devious look, and her lips parted on what was sure to be a traumatizing comeback.

I tried to cover her mouth and drive at the same time. “If you say anything else about you and Grandpa, I will turn this car around and let the drug dealers have you.”

Wisely, she changed course. “Did you two mend your lovers’ quarrel from yesterday?”

“It wasn’t a lovers’ quarrel,” I said. “And yes, we did.”

“How’d he make it up to you?” she asked.

By following me home and kissing me senseless.“He apologized for being a jerk.”

“And did you apologize for being a jerk?”

“Who said I was a jerk?”

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