Page 77 of A Scandal in Homeroom
Reen
“You didn’t haveto walk me home,” I told him.
“Yes, I did. If it’s in my control, you’re not going to be left alone until we get you out of this situation.”
I stopped on the sidewalk. We were still a couple blocks away from my house, the sun had long since set and I was a little chilled in my hoodie. I shoved my hands in the front pockets.
“Oh, yeah? And what would you do about it if some guy in a ski mask tried to jump me right now?”
“Miss Adler, I’m offended you don’t think I would be able to protect you.”
I nudged his shoulder with mine and we started walking again, side by side.
“Relax, I’m not calling into question your very manly manliness. But the guy was six foot, at least. A buck eighty, maybe two hundred pounds. Definitely paunchy around the middle.”
“I don’t suppose you took note of his shoe size?”
“When he was kicking me in the ribs? No, I didn’t stop to take notice.”
“I’ve studied the bruise under your eye. In the center it’s particularly dark. As if he was wearing a ring. Do you recall that?”
I shook my head. “No, Locke. I remember his size and the ski-mask and that’s it. I promise I’m not holding out on you anymore. It doesn’t do me any good.”
“But you held out on me last night. You didn’t tell me what was happening in the adult game.”
“Have you considered, in that very large brain of yours, I just didn’t want you to know? It’s not my business. It’s not your business. I only want out of the game with the money I made, and that’s it. I don’t have to uncover whatever criminal activity is happening. Or expose Roger Bennet. That’s not what I do.”
“No, it’s what I do,” he said quietly.
“Locke!” I shouted. “Look at my face. That was for skipping a freaking night of work. What do you think they will do to you if you get in the middle of their business?”
His lips tilted at the corners. “You’re worried about me. That’s sweet.”
“It goes with the whole liking you part. Or so I’m told. I don’t want you to get hurt. This isn’t your fight. None of it is, really. It’s my mess that I jumped into with two feet. I’ve conceded I need help, but only to get out.”
“Sometimes the only way out is through.”
“Bullshit!” I yelled.
“Yes, but it sounded good, didn’t it?”
“Locke…”
He stopped walking and turned to face me, his hands on my shoulders. “You need to trust I know what I’m doing. You need to trust that if I find myself in over my head, I will have a million escape hatches. Most importantly, you need to trustme.I’m not much of an expert, but I believe it comes with the whole liking me part, too.”
I shrugged. “Trust is hard.”
“Trust is very hard. Especially for people like us, but at the end of this I will know two things. You’ll be safe and I will have stopped the bad guys. It’s what I was made for. I could no sooner not find out what’s going on at that game than I could stop myself from breathing. It’s not just what I do. It’s who I am.”
“Fine. We’ll figure it out.”
He nodded and squeezed my shoulders. “We will figure it out together. What are you going to tell Coyle about getting me in the game?”
“He’s got to think I had no choice. I’ll say you found out about the game from Chas and threatened to expose all of us, if I didn’t let you in. Chas is officially out of the game, so it won’t blow back on him. Coyle doesn’t know we have any kind of connection, and if you have enough money, he won’t care. The rules are simple. Bring all the cash you plan to play with. Once you lose your money, you’re out. We don’t take watches and we don’t let people buy back in. Keeps the movement in and out of the basement limited.”
I stopped once we reached the end of my street. I didn’t want to chance the Sumners looking out the window and seeing Locke. Maybe they suspected something was going on between us, but I didn’t want to give them any evidence.
This thing between us, whatever it was, was mine.
