“Never fails.” Rene’s aunt hefted herself up. “You got insurance?”
Adrienne shook her head.
“I ain’t even doin’ a file on you. Waste of my time.” She walked out.
Adrienne touched her head gingerly. She had a headache and a bruise on one temple. She looked at Rene. He sat on a bright orange chair clearly bought from a school auction next to a counter with a peeling top. His striking eyes were on her. He’d put on a sweatshirt to cover the weapons at his waist and the tattoos on his arms. What made her blood race, the danger he radiated or the fact he’d carried her here and stuck around to make sure she was okay?
“You brought me here?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“What the f…” He shot a glance towards the door where his aunt had gone. “… hell were you doing there? You new in town? Didn’t no one tell you that you don’t just walk up in some alley in the Projects?”
“Jax took something from me,” she said firmly. “I want it back.”
“What he take that make you do something so stupid? You want to get hurt? Cuz that’s what my people do to little white girls like you alone in our allies.”
She flushed. “You helped me.”
“Once. You get one freebie for being ballsy enough to chase down my brother.”
“Jax is your brother?”
“Yeah.”
“Why has he been following me?” she asked.
Rene shrugged. “None of my damn business. Or yours.”
“Don’t you say damn,” his aunt said, walking through the doorway. She slapped him on the back of the head.
“It’s in the Bible, like hell!” he snapped.
Adrienne giggled.
“Here. Don’t call the police,” his aunt said, holding out a warm, fragrant roll on a paper plate with a fork and napkin tucked beneath. “You got that, girl?”
Adrienne nodded and accepted it. She took a huge bite and almost sighed. The rolls were fresh and homemade, the slightly sweet bread and thick icing melting in her mouth.
“Where’s mine?” Rene complained.
“With your mama. Get your ass home, Rene.”
“I’m twenty-two. A grown man. I don’t listen to my mama.”
“You’re too skinny. You want me to send the tray with you?” his aunt asked, her eyes going over Adrienne.
She shook her head and wolfed down the roll.
“I never seen a girl eat so fast,” Rene’s aunt said. “You get your ass home, too. I got a line of people to see. Take your bag.”
Adrienne swallowed the last of what was probably her dinner and hopped off the table. Grabbing her backpack, she followed Rene into the crowded waiting room of the free clinic and outside into the balmy night.
“I’ll show you how to get home,” he said unhappily.
“I have to find your brother,” she objected.
“Shut up and walk.”
Adrienne stopped, glaring at the back of his head. As if sensing she wasn’t following, he faced her. She crossed her arms.
“You are crazy, girl,” he said, approaching her. He gripped her arms hard. “You know how stupid you are? There’s evil in these streets.” Despite the gruff tone, there was concern in his voice.
“He took something that belonged to my sister. She died five years ago. It’s important,” she said stubbornly. “If I get killed walking into your alley, then fine. But I can’t let him have something that means so much to me. It ain’t even worth nothing!”
“There’s a killer loose. He targets white girls like you. You really wanna take a chance on our streets over some dead girl?” Rene gazed at her for a long minute.
“Yes,” she said without hesitating.
“Fool.” Like his brother, he spun and walked away.
“Rene!” she called. “Will you talk to him for me?”
“He won’t give it back.”
“But why? It’s mine!” Tears of frustration filled her eyes. “It’s all we have left of her. It’s not right for him to take it.”
“Right and wrong are shades of gray on the streets, girl,” he said gruffly, glancing over his shoulder. He let out a sigh. “Don’t cry.”
He reached into his pocket to pull out a wallet on a chain. Tugging something free, he held it out to her.
Adrienne hesitated then stepped forward to take the photograph. It was older, its edges worn from use. She tilted it to see it in the streetlight. It was a picture of Therese at the age of seventeen. Her arms were wrapped around a man with green-blue eyes, whose beaming smile was just as bright as Therese’s.
Adrienne found herself smiling back at the happy couple. She sniffed back her tears. Most of the pictures she had of Therese were from school. None of them were of her oldest sister smiling like this.
“You look like her,” Rene said at her silence. “Real pretty. We’re the same ages they were when they met. Jax twenty-two, your sis seventeen.”
“Why do you have this?” Adrienne asked, looking up at him.
He shrugged again. “There was a time when Jax was normal. He didn’t wear no mask. That changed when your sister died.”
“The skeleton mask? He’s worn it for five years?” she asked in disbelief.
“Except during Yamaya’s rites during the full moon. He takes it off for the ritual.”
“Yemaya,” she repeated, trying to place the name.
He rolled up his sleeve and pointed to the veve of a goddess. It contained a symbol of a fish, a moon and stars.
“The loa of rebirth and women,” he said. “Your sister came to rituals with us. She met Jax on a full moon.”
“I didn’t know that,” she said in a hushed voice. “So he did love her. It’s why he wears the mask?”
“Yeah. He did.”
They shared a reflective sadness, gazing at each other while their thoughts were on their respective loved ones. Rene had lost a piece of his brother when Therese died. He didn’t say it, and she suspected he was too tough to share his feelings, but she sensed he, too, mourned for a sibling.
“I’m sorry, Rene.”
“So am I,” he admitted. “You a good girl, Adrienne. I don’t want nothing bad to happen to you.”
She smiled, touched by his concern.
“You leave him alone now,” Rene said.
“Can you please ask him about the journal?” She tried again.
“Won’t do no good. Jax takes. He doesn’t give nothing.”
“Can I keep this?” she asked, holding up the picture.
“For now. We can share it.”
“You’re being so nice. Why?”
Rene took a step back, as if he was no longer comfortable with his guard down.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t never hurt girls and I don’t like seeing them cry. C’mon, now, keep up.”
Tucking the picture safely in the pocket of her skirt, Adrienne walked with him on the quiet streets. Shadowy figures passed them and disappeared into alleys. Not eager to end up at the clinic again, she crowded near Rene, who instinctively wrapped an arm around her. Surprised, she didn’t resist when he pulled her into his side, as if to protect her. His strong touch made her heart somersault again, the way it had when Jayden caught her in the cafeteria. It would be easy to sink into his body and let his heat and strength surround her.
Was Rene being nice or was there more to his touch?
“Why is your brother following me?” she pursued, needing a distraction from her racing blood.
“Jax does what he wants. He runs the streets. I don’t ask questions.”
Adrienne almost asked how her sweet sister ended up dating a gang leader and if that was what got her killed. She kept the question to herself, sensing her welcome was quickly wearing out with Rene. It did make her think again about the dark streak she’d sensed in Therese. Was her sister drawn to the danger of the streets? The excitement of being with someone like Jax or Renee? She saw the appeal of being with Rene. It was in his possessive touch and the sense he had a good heart beneath the tough exterior.