with the car.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you trust me?” he asked.
I did. For some reason, I knew in that moment that Luke Davis was honest. He wouldn’t hurt me, wouldn’t paw me unless I gave him the green light, and would never steal a car...twice.
“Then we’d better go find my buddy and get help before Hammond catches up with us.”
B rian Garrett lived across town . I’d worked on his cruiser last month and we’d become fast friends. My bus pass was in my wallet, which was still at the police station. Joey had my car somewhere. The Firebird was not an option. So we walked. Tina’s feet had to be blistered from the heels she wore. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She looked over and smiled. The early morning sunshine lit her hair up like an angel. She was hotter than Madonna, and sweet, too. The best part? She loved my hands on her and the feeling was mutual. I wanted to bury myself deep in that tight, hot...
“Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“How is your friend going to help us?”
“He’s a cop. LAPD, but out of a different precinct.”
She clutched her chest. “Oh, thank God. I thought he was a gangster!”
“Where are you from?” I tilted my head to look at her better. We were still in a nice part of the city. Not like we were walking through Compton.
“Outside of Portland.”
I stopped. “Wait. Doesn’t Portland have quakes?”
“We have tiny tremors, not like that!” She threw her hands in the air.
I laughed at her. “That was nothing. Not even a four.”
“Not even a four,” she mocked, stomping away. She didn’t even know where she was, much less where we were going, but she looked cute swaying that ass back and forth.
I walked behind her, enjoying the view and the fact that it riled her up that much more, nudging her in the right direction when she was about to take a wrong turn. She would huff and keep marching away. Tina was a fiery little thing. I’d pegged her for a bimbo at first glance: tall blonde hair teased a mile high, almost as high as those tiny shorts. I also learned that I loved and hated hose all at the same time. They were sexy as hell and stronger than a chastity belt. Fucking things.
Red and blue lights flashed over Tina’s pale face as she stopped dead in her tracks. “Don’t bother running!” came from the car’s mic. Hammond threw his cruiser in park and approached. “Hands above your heads!”
He approached with one foot forward, gun drawn, and overkill in full effect. “Move to the building and put your hands on the brick.” Tina eased toward the brick facade, face taut with panic. Her eyes pled for me to do something, anything. But there was nothing I could do but move slowly to the building and put my palms against the gritty stone.
Hammond radioed for backup. “I have the perpetrators. Toledo and Grand. Hammond out.” He frisked me quickly and twisted one arm back cuffing it, following with the other. Shoving my face into the building? That was just for sport.
It was a good thing he cuffed me first. His hands on Tina made me rage like a bull. Sobbing quietly, tears dripped off her jaw, splashing onto the sidewalk at her feet.
“You are under arrest for grand theft auto. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do say can and will be used against you...”
I pulled, testing the cuffs. The bastards were too strong.
Soon, he was giving me the same spiel. Two other cruisers pulled up, his buddies with the same mustaches and aviators. They shoved me into the back of one cruiser. When I saw they were taking Tina in a separate car, I called out to them. “Let her ride with me.” I thrashed in the back seat, squishing my head against the glass to get a look. They put her in a car around the block and behind us. “Tina!”
“That’ll be enough of that outta you!” Fucking Hammond.
----
H ammond drove like a bat out of hell. He steered right onto a side street, screeching the tires and overcorrecting the wheel. “Why didn’t I