The swelling was back in my chest, and I swore it would lift me right up to the ceiling. Talking would be smart, but I was tired of being smart. “I...I want...that, too.”
Rider didn’t hesitate.
He tilted his head ever so slightly and his lips were the softest of all pressures against mine. My second kiss was just as amazing as the first, but it was different after a few seconds. He lingered longer, as if following the path of my lips, learning it and committing them to memory. I wanted to do the same.
I leaned in, sliding one hand up his shoulder. The hand on my lower back moved, and then his arm was around my waist. He drew me closer, until we were chest to chest. A rush of sensations hit me, and even though our bodies touched, I wanted to be closer. Needed to be closer. I felt the tip of his tongue. Instinct guided me. My lips parted and—
We jerked apart as a loud, shattering bang came from the front of the garage. Rider looked up sharply, his brows furrowing. “What the hell?”
My lips were still tingling as he slipped his arm from around me. “Are we going to...get in trouble?”
“Nah. But no one should be here.” He looked down at me, his jaw set hard. “I want you to stay here, okay?”
“But—”
“I’m sure it’s nothing, but I want to check it out.” He let go of my hand. “Just stay back here for now, okay?”
I folded my arms across my waist and nodded. He stared at me for a moment, like he wasn’t sure he believed me, and then wheeled around. He walked over to the bench and picked up a long, slender piece of metal.
A tire iron did not signal nothing.
Rider started back down the covered cars, and there was no way I was going to stand here. Nothing about this situation felt good. I started forward just as a voice rang out from the front of the garage.
“Yo! Rider. You in here?”
“Jesus,” muttered Rider, and then louder, “Jayden, is that you?”
There was a pause. “Yeah. Where you at?”
Rider glanced back at me, and I hurried toward him. “His...voice sounds weird,” I said, and it did, like his letters were mushed together.
He nodded and then reached down with his free hand and found mine. He didn’t drop the tire iron on the way to the front of the garage. “Where in the hell have you been, Jayden?” Rider called out as he led me around a car that appeared to be in pieces. “Hector and your grandma are going crazy looking for you. Why...?”
Gasping, I smacked my hand over my mouth.
At the front of the hall, Jayden stood with his back to us. He was shirtless. A bruise covered the side of his back, a horrible mesh of red and blue. Jayden turned around.
Rider stiffened, dropping my hand. “Damn.”
Jayden lifted his chin, and it got worse. One eye was an ugly purple color, swollen shut. An angry red slash split his bottom lip as he stepped forward. “I’m in a lot of trouble, man.”
Chapter 24
Rider escorted Jayden to a break room that was at the back of the garage. It was a small, harshly bright room with a scratched table and a refrigerator that hummed and clanged around like it was on its last leg. He’d gathered ice from the freezer and wrapped it in the cleanest rag he could find.
“Man, I’m sorry.” Jayden mumbled the words as he pressed the ice to his eye. “I didn’t know you had her here. I just thought you’d be here and I could clean up.” Pausing, he slowly turned his head toward me, and I forced myself not to show a reaction to how messed up he looked. I called on the many years of experience with Rider after Mr. Henry got ahold of him. “Serious, bebé. I wouldn’t bring this shit to you on purpose.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“But you did,” Rider fired back, surprising me. “You brought this shit to me—to her. That’s not cool, man.”
My wide gaze shot to Rider.
The muscle in Rider’s jaw was spasming as he lowered his phone. “Hector’s on his way. Heads-up. He’s pissed.”
I sat beside Jayden, unsure of how to help other than sitting there and staying out of their way.
“You didn’t need to call him.” Jayden lowered the ice. “This has nothing to do with him. No te preocupes.”
“No need to worry? Are you out of your fucking mind? Have you seen yourself? And put the damn ice back on your eye.” Rider shook his head. “This was Braden, wasn’t it?”
I recognized that name from the guy I’d seen in school.
Jayden said nothing.
“I told you to stay the hell away from him. So did Hector. You’ve disappeared the last couple of days, doing God knows what for that piece of shit and now look at you.”
The younger boy lowered his chin as he placed the cloth back to his eye. “I thought I could recoup what I lost.”
I lifted my gaze to Rider and he read the question in my stare. I expected him not to answer, but he did.
“Jayden here, being extraordinarily bright—”
“Man,” Jayden muttered under his breath.
“Thought he could run shit for Braden. Front the stuff,” Rider continued, and it didn’t take a wild leap of logic to guess what shit meant. “Except he sold the junk and didn’t exactly return the money in the amounts he was supposed to.”
“People do it all the time,” Jayden argued. “You’ve done it!”
You’ve done it.
I stilled and might’ve stopped breathing. My gaze swung to Rider. I knew what fronting was. Selling stuff that was given to you under the promise of whatever it was being sold and the money being paid back. I also knew they weren’t talking about fronting sunglasses.