Page 6 of Ride Hard
Shanora worked the counter on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday nights when I came in to study. She was an eighteen-year-old African American girl, who’d served me my usual order of cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke for several weeks before something mysterious shifted in the air, and she started to sit with me on her breaks. One day, she’d just sat at the table across from me, and that was that. Two unlikelyfriends.
Tonight, she was watching me type and flip through my notes, her eyebrows in a constant state ofinterest.
“What do you do when you come in here?” she asked. “Are you writing a book orsomething?”
“Hardly,” I replied. “I’m writing a Poli Scipaper.”
“You go to college on your computer?” She stared at the lid of my laptop like it was the doorway toNarnia.
“Yeah. It will take a billion years and a billion dollars, but you can do it. At least the Wi-Fi here isfree.”
“What do you want tobe?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet, but right now, I’d settle foreducated.”
Shanora snorted and took a fry from mytray.
“You don’t want to go to college?” Iasked.
“Can’t afford it,” she replied, then took out hercell.
“What about ascholarship?”
“Toodumb.”
“Nah-ah,” I shotback.
She gave me a look and went back to scrolling on hercell.
I glanced to the side as a man walked past with a tray in his hands and narrowed my eyes. Ever since Chaser showed up at the club carrying the latest sob story from father dearest, I’d been jumpy. He wanted to protect me? Fromwhat?
Asshole, I thought to myself.This is probably Dad’s plan. Install a seed of doubt into his only daughter, and she’ll come back to the compound for protection.It would neverhappen.
Watching the man, I decided I didn’t like the look of him. He was wearing a black bomber jacket, dark shirt, and dark pants. He was rough around the edges, but who wasn’t in this neighborhood. Hell, they had an armed security guard at a family restaurant once the sun went down. There was an indicator of the clientele rightthere.
Still, I snapped the lid of my laptop closed and gathered my notes, shoving the lot into my batteredbackpack.
“You going?” Shanoraasked.
“Yeah. You want the rest of thesefries?”
She grabbed the edge of the tray and slid it towardher.
“Bye,” she said, shoving a fry into hermouth.
“See youlater.”
There was no reply, and I rolled my eyes.Kids and their cellphones.
Sliding my backpack on, I pushed out of the restaurant and stepped onto the sidewalk.Damn Chaser and his mindgames.
Glancing over my shoulder, I sank deeper into my denim jacket and lengthened my stride. Crossing the street, I threw another look at the golden arches behind me. The door opened, and bomber jacket manappeared.
My heart skipped a beat, and I fished around in my pocket for the keys to my apartment. Shoving a key through each finger, I fashioned myself a pointy set of brass knuckles just in case I had to stab andrun.
I put my head down and hurried down the sidewalk, passing under orange street lamps and darting across side streets. I was a shadow in a shadowy world. Glancing back over my shoulder every so often, I saw the man walking at a distance. I couldn’t be sure he was following me, but I couldn’t be too careful. There was no innocent until proven guilty. Not in thisneighborhood.
Ahead, my apartment building came into view. It was a mid-rise made from what felt like one continuous slab of concrete that was cast and set in the nineteen seventies. You know, the land that soundproofing forgot. The place was a complete dump, but the rent was cheap, and it had an entrance that gave the illusion of security with its coded fob system. All I had to do was press the tag against the sensor, and the lock would clickopen.
