Page 31 of Gluttony
The boy scowled up at her, but the girl stood. She glanced briefly in the direction of the black car, then walked through the door Bailey held open. Bailey watched as the girl disappeared around the bend, body hunched.
“What’s your name?” Bailey asked the boy. “I’ve not seen you two here before.”
“Akeef. That’s Elena.”
“I’m Bailey Haze. I teach the self-defense martial arts class.”
“Yeah. So?”
“So, you know self-defense?”
Akeef glanced down the way the car had gone but said nothing. He plugged his earphones in and then shoved passed her to get inside the house.
She sighed. She could speak multiple languages, kick a rogue foreign agent in the ass, but she had zero experience getting teenagers to trust her.
* * *
Bailey had postedflyers over the walls of Hudson House for the past month. Each flyer said she’d be there at nine once a week, willing to teach anyone who wanted to learn to defend themselves, and even when she’d popped her head into the media room and spruced the class, not one teenager was interested. There were at least eight in the room, and they all ignored her with dogged determination, Akeef and Elena included.
Agnes, the house custodian gave Bailey an understanding smile as she passed in the hallway. Bailey guessed she couldn’t compete with the Tony Lazarus action movie playing on the big screen. She’d seen it, and it was good.
As she watched Tony on screen, blowing up cars and shooting guns, the irony was not lost on her. She couldn’t even hold Tony Lazarus in her sights long enough to keep him safe. Something strange had happened to him at the wrap party and he’d fled. She couldn’t comprehend those blue lights. Logically, it had to have been special effects like he’d said. But the way he’d fled… She was a terrible bodyguard. The man had hid out in his apartment for the better part of the week, and she’d not a chance to prove she could protect him. She even had some grainy footage of an unidentified woman entering his trailer, but Max had said to leave it with him to pass onto the studio.
Max’s reception had been frosty, and Bailey put it down to her recent string of failures holding her snark and forceful personality at bay. The same qualities had benefited her in the agency. It kept her tough and resilient. Getting a foreign agent to cross to your side took a lot of convincing and sometimes a bit of creative manipulation.
But this was real life.
These kids had been manipulated enough.
Bailey tried not to be disappointed as she leaned a shoulder on the scratched up wooden door frame. The room smelled musty. The couches were old and stained. But there was coffee and tea in the corner on a table, and cookies and snacks on a small tray. Agnes always kept it well stocked. Sometimes, they just needed a place to relax, or somewhere the gang leaders couldn’t enter without causing trouble.
“You sure none of you want to learn how to pull some of those action moves for real?” she asked. “Learning self-defense can come in real handy when you find yourself in a situation you don’t want to be in.”
Tyson, a short, pimply faced boy turned her way, his expression taking on attitude and then suddenly deadpanning when he took in something over Bailey’s shoulder.
“Holy shit.” The pimply kid whacked his hand on the girl sitting next to him.
Then one by one, every teen in the room forgot about the television and paid attention to Bailey.
No. Scratch that. Every eye was focused on an area slightly to the right and behind Bailey. She turned around. Shock skittered up her spine.
Tony Lazarus in roughed up jeans, a designer T-shirt, a blue baseball cap, and his hands in his pockets.
“Tony,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
His lips curved hesitantly on one side. “Yeah, about that. Can we talk?”
Bailey cut a glance over her shoulder. Every kid in the room was finally engaged. Maybe this was her chance to teach them something valuable. She glanced back at Tony.Forceful personality.Use it.
“I need your help first,” she said and hooked her hand around his wrist, dragging him into the room. “Guys, this is—”
“Tony fucking Lazarus,” the pimply kid said and nervous laughter broke out around the room.
She grinned. “Language, Tyson. But yes, this is Tony. Now, wouldn’t you like to learn a few self-defense moves from a master? He does all his own stunts. Did you know that?”
Tony stiffened beneath Bailey’s hand, and she prepared herself for rejection, but it never came. Instead, Tony almost leaned into her touch, as though he wanted more.
“Who’s joining us?” she asked the group.
