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She runs her fingers through the balayage colored ends, twisting her face left and right to catch it from all angles. With her chin in the air and a sly grin, she relents. “Yeah, you’re right.”
I shake my head. She’s got the smoky eye look down to a T. I’m shit at makeup. She’s been trying to teach me since we were teenagers, but I’m a hopeless case. If she doesn’t do my makeup for me—like tonight—I just end up with the au natural look. About the only thing I can do is put on mascara, so there’s that. “Is Jared coming?”
She gets a wistful look in her hazel eyes. “Yeah, he’s going to meet us there. Do not drag him into your stuff with Cole. I mean it,” she says, giving me a pointed look in the mirror.
I clasp my hand to my chest. “Me?” In response, she gives me another knowing look, and I crack with a grimace. “I only did it once. I figured Cole would get over it if he knew Jared was there.”
Jaz sighs. “You should just tell him we’re going to the fights, Leenie. What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is, he’s going to come swaggering in there and any guy I meet is going to tuck tail and run because of who he is.” I’m not just speculating either. That’s happened with about five guys, and that’s only in the first few weeks of him returning to the Heights. Actually, wait. That’s the first few weeks of me evenknowinghe was back in the Heights. He failed to tell us he was back until the Crew collapsed.
My body shudders involuntarily. I’m actually glad I wasn’t around for that. Cole hasn’t offered up the deets on what happened, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know either. I worry about my big brother. His status brings a whole different set of problems which has nothing to do with my sudden, very boring sex life.
“He might show up though, you know?” Jaz offers as she grabs some money and slips it under the neckline of her shirt. She then takes her license out of her purse and places it in the back pocket of her skinny jeans. “If he finds you there, it’ll be worse.”
I go to my own purse hanging on the repurposed coat rack to the right of the mirror and tuck my license and money into my bra. Someone will have to practically grope me if they want to steal my cash. Not saying they won’t, but at least I’ll see it coming. “I like the odds though,” I tell her over my shoulder, hoping she’ll drop it. I don’t want to think about Cole right now. “The fights in the new Ring aren’t Dragon-sanctioned.”
Jaz stops and blows out a breath. “Dragons. Jesus Christ. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that The Heights Crew doesn’t run Rawley Heights anymore. That shit’s crazy.”
Crazy and fucking much needed. I’ve always uniformly tried to stay out of Crew shit because of the whole thing with my brother defecting and the Crew possibly looking for retaliation because of it, but things had started to get out-of-hand, and I didn’t have to be anywhere near close enough to understand what was happening.
I hold my hand out to her, and she clasps hers in mine. We smile at each other, and I put an end to all the gang talk with, “Let’s get this shit started. ‘Kay?”
“You are way too happy about this.”
I shrug. A night off from my brother’s domineering shit sounds like the perfect medicine from a week that was about as mundane as could be.Work. Home. Work. Home.Jaz, and getting to reconnect with my brother, are the only bright spots. And even then, welcoming Cole back into my life means having to deal with his overprotectiveness, so... Yeah. We’re going to the Ring to let off some steam.
After locking up, Jaz places the apartment key in her back pocket along with her license, and we step out into the narrow stairwell that leads out onto the main street. I fumble for the light switch. When I finally find it, the bulb flickers on only to blow a second later. “For Christ’s sake.”
Jaz chuckles behind me. “Talk about heels being an actual hazard.”
We take the stairs slowly, Jaz keeping one hand on my shoulder and the other on the handrail as we descend. Muted light from the window on the exit illuminates the last few steps. Since it’s damn near eight at night, the Heights streetlights are already on, giving us just that little spot in the dark.
Thankfully, we make it to the bottom without breaking our necks. Stepping outside, a gust of evening air sweeping through the block picks up my hair and flutters it around me. Almost as soon as I take my first step toward freedom, my phone buzzes. I pull it out of the top of my jean skirt, frowning at the screen.
What are you two doing tonight?
I think about not answering Cole, but if I don’t, he’ll just show up. Then, when I’m not at the apartment, he’ll get his Dragons to find me and bring me to him. He’d happily make me move into the tower with him if that also wasn’t a problem. He doesn’t want to bring me into gang shit; he wants to keep me safely away.Hanging out, I text back because that’s not a lie. I’m just not telling himwherewe’re hanging out.
The thing is, my brother won’t stop me from going anywhere, he just wants a guard to tagalong in the biggest cockblock of all time. Who’s going to break through the line of Dragons to hit on the leader’s sister? Fucking no one with a brain, and dammit, I prefer my guys with brains. Big dicks, too, but you know, intelligence is also essential if they’re going to figure out how to use their dicks wisely.
“I already have a feeling this isn’t going to end well,” Jaz mutters after reading my text exchange.
Poor girl. She’s had to listen to my conflicted emotions about my brother’s return for the last few months. One day, he’s an asshole. The next, I’m so excited about getting him back I’m bouncing off the walls. I don’t know. My head is a complicated place to be, that’s all I have to say. “Either way, I’ll keep you and Jared out of this so you can get some tonight,” I offer, wagging my brows. Jared is Jaz’s new fling. And actually, I’m not sure I would call it a fling anymore. She’s pretty obsessed with him, and their relationship has been going strong for a few weeks. He seems to be just as into her as she’s into him. “You sure he doesn’t have a friend?”
“Please. I suppose you want Cole to kill me next?”
I force my hand in the crook of her elbow and hold her to me as we start down the street toward the Ring. “You know Cole wouldn’t hurt you.”
The resistant tug in my stomach reminds me I’m actually not one hundred percent sure on that. Cole’s changed. He was always happy-go-lucky and personable. He was friends with everyone, maybe even to his own detriment. This hard life has made him different. Even so, I still don’t think he’d do anything to the best friend I’ve had all my life. The one he knew before he became a big bad gang leader guy too.
We walk two blocks in silence before I emerge from my thoughts, groaning. “Can we please stop with the brother talk tonight?” I tug her closer as the Ring comes into view. “The whole point of this is to take my mind off my complicated life.”
She hip bumps me. “I thought the whole point was to get laid.”
I laugh again, dipping my head back to let the streetlight shine on my face. The sound reverberates off the brick buildings around us as we move in toward the old warehouse that holds the new Ring. “Yeah, that too.”
The vertical pink and green neon sign spelling out R-I-N-G fades into a wave before blinking brightly, casting the dirty street into a color wheel of bright light. As we get closer, the colors splash all over Jaz and me, making her already glittery shirt sparkle.