Page 21 of Laila Manning (Shadeport Crew #3)

“ I ’ve been looking for you.” A gruff voice called as I stared at the cracks in the sidewalk in front of me.

“Why?” I rolled my eyes, looking up and getting blinded by the bright sunlight before Diesel Ames stepped in the way, blocking the offensive glare so I could drop my hand from my face.

“Because you keep changing your schedule.” He stated plainly.

“You know you are kind of creepy when you don’t filter your thoughts, right?

” I mused, feeling so numb from therapy that I didn’t even feel the fear I normally got from being in men’s presence.

Most men, though to be honest, not usually around the MC president with his menacing scars and long wild hair tied back.

His face pulled up in a smirk, accentuating the gnarly scars covering his cheeks. “Yet you never tell me to get lost.” A loud horn honked from the busy street, reminding me I had been walking before he interrupted me .

“Wrong.” I started walking again, and as expected, he followed. “I’m pretty sure I’ve told you to kick rocks almost every time I’ve seen you out randomly.” I stopped and glared at him. “Or not so randomly.”

He smirked again and moved the toothpick between his teeth with his tongue. “I had business in this part of town.”

“Right.” I pressed the button for the crossing light and waited, hoping he’d get on with it or get lost. “What do you want, Diesel?”

“You’re snappy today.” He scoffed as if he was offended, but I didn’t think anything really offended the man. Other than pushing his tricked-out motorcycle down a cliff or something as extreme.

“I’m burned out.” I pushed the button again. “Therapy has that effect on me.”

“How’s that going?” He asked, like we were old friends.

And in a way, he kind of was his own version of a friend to me, I guess.

I wouldn’t really know how to make friends organically since the only two I had were partially related, and we all shared space on the estate.

It wasn’t like I met them at a restaurant and complimented them on their outfits and became fast friends or whatever girls do.

Hell, I wasn’t even a good friend to Diesel, since every time he came around, I told him to get lost.

“I mean, she hasn’t strapped me down and shocked me with electrodes.” I shrugged, making him snort, “Yet.”

“Sounds like my kind of Saturday night.” He joked, though I didn’t know how much of a joke it actually was. “But do you feel like it’s helping? With the anxiety and stuff?”

It was my turn to snort, “And stuff?” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it’s helping.” I looked back across the street and watched people walking and passing by each other, busy and on their way with their day. Yet my only purpose was walking down the street .

Diesel said something about progress or something, but I was distracted as I watched a kid walk out of an alley across the street, with a hood pulled down deep over his head and his shoulders hunched under his baggy tattered sweater.

I glimpsed his bright blue eyes as they scanned the surrounding people on the street. Something about the mannerisms and the look in his eyes grabbed my attention and wouldn’t let it go.

“Light’s green.” Diesel said, nudging my shoulder. “You plan on standing here all day?”

As the kid walked toward the crosswalk, I jumped forward, mumbling an apology and inexplicably following him with my eyes.

I couldn’t explain it, but something had a hold of me and wouldn’t let go. Diesel walked silently beside me, seemingly sensing my distraction.

I watched the kid’s hunched frame scurry down the sidewalk, noticing the way his step quickened the further he got from the alley, and right before I made it across the street completely, a group of four guys ran out from the same alley.

They turned around quickly, scanning the streets before one pointed at the kid I’d been watching, and they took off after him.

“Shit.” I hissed, and froze right after the crosswalk, watching the young kid twist around to the mob giving chase and then took off in a sprint, right toward me.

“You know them?” Diesel asked, putting his hand on my arm and pulling me to the side as the chaos barreled toward us.

“Stop them.” I said, chancing a glance up at the violent man next to me, that followed me around like a lost puppy. “Save him.” I squeezed his arm, “Please.”

“Fuck.” He scowled at me and then shoved me toward the brick building before stepping into the path of the first kid.

Diesel grabbed the kid by the shoulders and catapulted him into me against the brick building, where I caught him seconds before his face smashed off the rough wall.

Those icy blue eyes I’d noticed from across the street widened in panic as I grabbed onto his sweater to steady him.

Dirt streaked his face, and his cheekbones were sunken in, giving him a skeletal look.

“Stay quiet.” I hissed, stepping around him and shielding him with my body as Diesel squared his big body off against the four older boys, running straight toward him.

“Where’s the fire, boys?” Diesel called out as the group skidded to a stop right before plowing him over. They sputtered as they looked around the massive body standing between them and their prey. “What’s the matter? Can’t think and talk at the same time? Maybe you should try again after puberty.”

One of the bigger boys flicked his glance from me to the kid they were chasing and back to Diesel, “He robbed us. We want it back.”

Diesel chuckled and looked over his shoulder at us, where the kid slightly cowered behind me. I glanced down at him, and those icy blue eyes rapidly moved from me to the mob and back, silently trying to say something.

“All four of you?” I deadpanned, “If it was one against four and he outsmarted you somehow, you had it coming.” I looked back at the tiny youngster behind me. “He clearly didn’t strong-arm all of you.”

Diesel played along, like we had any clue what was going on, with a confidence only a powerful man could perfect. “Take the loss and keep it moving.”

“What?” The older boy sputtered angrily, “What the fuck do you have to do with it?” His boyish face turned molten red as he was told no .

“Careful.” Diesel warned, leveling his finger at the bratty kid’s face.

“Or I’ll take you over my knee right here and show your friends who your daddy is.

” He took a menacing step forward, shifting out of the jokester and into the notorious MC leader’s role, using his scary looks to get his point across.

“Get fucking lost, or I’ll knock all of your crooked baby teeth out of your fucking face before I shove them down your throat.

” He cocked his head to the side. “You ever shit out teeth before, Peter Pan?” He flicked his finger at the boy's red hair, “Cuts like glass.”

“Let’s go.” One of the other kids said, clearly the voice of reason over the teens when facing a lacerated asshole.

“Whatever.” The leader sneered, staring right at the young kid behind me. “This ain’t fucking over, asswipe.”

“Ooh, original.” Diesel Jazz handed the kid as he pushed him back. “Get fucking lost, now!”

The four of them turned and walked back down the sidewalk, glancing over their shoulders like they were trying to be brave with the grim reaper walking behind them until they got to the alley and turned back into the darkness and disappeared.

My shoulders sagged as I finally took a deep breath now that I was fairly confident, I wouldn’t be watching the Reaper MC President beat up a couple of kids in broad daylight.

Movement behind me rattled me from my thoughts, and I quickly grabbed the back of the sweater as the kid tried taking off down the street again. “Whoa, wait a second.”

The kid turned around and huffed at me, rolling his eyes. “Thanks for the help, lady.” He pulled against my hold on him, “But I got shit to do.”

“What’s your name?” I asked as Diesel leaned against the brick wall, watching over us .

“What’s it to you?” The kid sneered again. I raised my brows at him and gave him a fuck around and find out look, and he rolled his eyes again and sagged into the wall, pulling his sweater from my clutches. “Kade.”

“Kade.” I repeated, looking him over and crossing my arms over my chest. “Did you really steal from them?”

He scowled with his bad attitude, and I saw it for what it was, a young boy’s act to seem to be tough so no one would mess with him. “What the fuck’s it to you?”

“Watch it.” Diesel growled, flicking Kade’s forehead, “Don’t think because I kept the others from beating you up that I won’t do it for being a disrespectful little pissant.”

“Whatever.” Kade sighed and pulled at his sweater, looking up and down the street. “I shorted them.”

“Shorted them what?” I questioned.

“Lady, you got an off button?” He snapped, “Because you’re questioning me like a cop,” He flicked his eyes over Diesel again, “He don’t look like no five-o, and neither do you,” He glared back at me, “But you’re sure riding my ass like some yuppy beat cop trying to make his quota for the day.”

“What did you short them?” I repeated, ignoring his bravado.

He rolled his eyes again, and I fought the urge to tell him his face was going to freeze like that if he kept it up, simply because I was already coming off like some old Karen.

But I didn’t need to give him more ammo to throw insults at me.

“Mary Jane.” He looked up and down the street.

“But they had it fucking coming.” He nodded his head, “They beat up my associate two days ago and took his keep.” He stood taller, “I was making it right.”

“A drug dealer with a justice kink.” Diesel groaned, “How original. ”

“Shut it.” I warned him, and he held his hands up and smirked as I looked back at Kade.

“What exactly was your plan to get away from them just now?” I held my hand up, silencing the smart-ass remark he was starting to make.

“Cut the bullshit because if the big guy here hadn’t stepped in, those four would have been stomping your face in right now.

” I dared him to negate that, but he just pursed his lips and looked away. “What do you get out of it?”

“Ain’t it obvious, lady?” He quipped. “It’s just how life goes out here. Obviously, you’ve never struggled in your life, or you’d get it.”

I didn’t correct him; he didn’t need to know how wrong he was about my life. “You live on the streets?”

“Nah,” he shook his head, “I got a crib up in East Valley.” He sneered with the same fictitious bravado. “I just slum it down here for the fun of it.” He sighed and leveled me with a look a grown-up would use with a troublesome kid. “Why’d you intervene? What do you get out of it?”

I shrugged and took a step back, taking the pressure off him. “Just didn’t want to stand by while a kid got his ass kicked today, I guess.” Suddenly I was just so fucking tired of the world and its injustices. “Guess I thought maybe you could use a break.”

He didn’t jump back at me with his venom or sarcasm, and I saw a bit of that bravado slip from his dirty face. “Yeah, well.” He shrugged, trying to build up the act again. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” I replied as he walked off between Diesel and me, glancing over his shoulder for a brief second before disappearing down the street with the other people walking around.

“You okay?” Diesel asked as I stared off after the kid.

“How old do you think he is?” I asked .

Diesel watched him with me and shrugged, “Hard to tell. He probably hasn’t eaten a full meal in months. Early teens maybe, thirteen or so.”

“Thirteen years old, stealing, selling drugs, and fighting off attackers in the middle of broad daylight.” I sighed, looking around at the dozens of other people who wouldn’t have intervened if those guys had caught up with Kade. “It’s just not fair.”

“It’s not that uncommon.” Diesel shrugged. “Kids like that float in and out of crews like mine all the time. Sometimes they stay and patch in when they’re older, sometimes they disappear chasing after what they’re all missing in life.”

“What are they missing?” I glanced at him before tracking back to the kid getting further and further away from us as the anxiety built inside of me like I should stop him.

“Love.” Diesel sighed. “Compassion. Comfort. Most kids just end up finding it in unauthentic ways when they go without it for so long, unfortunately.”

“Hmm.” I hummed, watching that black tattered hoodie disappear around a corner down the street, gone and out of sight like we never interacted at all.

“You okay?” Diesel asked again.

“Peachy.” I shook the entire bizarre interaction off and took a deep breath, “I have to get to work.”

“I heard you were slinging drinks at Neat.” D smirked. “At least if a customer gets rowdy with you there, you can spray them with the soda gun.” He joked, referencing the time he saved me from the bitchy customer at the coffee shop.

“Don’t get any ideas.” I leveled a sharp look at him. “You’re not allowed there. I made sure your name was on the trespass list. ”

He tipped his head back and laughed, “Oh baby, now I’m going to show up just to make you squirm.”