got rid of it.”
“You did what? Are you out of your mind? Aww dayyum.”
“Now is not the time or the place. Baby girl shouldn’t have been traveling with that stuff—no way. Calvin would have…man I don’t even want to think about what Calvin would do if he was alive right now.”
“Well, she brought it…I mean…” Tommy shrugged.
“She had no idea what she was holding.”
As far as Timmy was concerned, she was still the same innocent kid he remembered from their days in California. One look at her told him that. He considered himself to be a pretty good judge of character.
“How do you know that? We haven’t seen baby girl in a long time. She could have changed a lot from the kid we knew.” Even though his twin argued the point, he could tell that Tommy didn’t believe it, either.
Timmy shook his head. “She’s still innocent and gullible and without Calvin, she’s gonna need a whole lot more than us to protect her.”
Tommy laughed. “Oh, I don’t know. She seemed to handle Detective Hightower pretty well.”
“Quiet. She’s coming back.” Timmy didn’t say anything else because if what he suspected was true, they had a lot of trouble on their hands.
Tommy nodded. They both turned to her when she walked up. It was hard to believe the petite bombshell with the flashing, doelike brown eyes, flirty pouting smile and dimples was the same nerdy kid sister of their best friend from their youth in South Central. It was even harder to believe that Calvin was dead. Timmy knew they would do the best they could to protect her or they’d die trying. Some bonds, like the ones they shared with a friend and Crip brother like Calvin, went beyond the grave.
Lawrence returned to the table where two of his brothers, Joel and Patrick were waiting. All Hightower men shared the same trademark, Hightower good looks. They were tall, had skin in varying shades of mahogany, and rugged good looks that had been known to drive women wild.
“Dang, bro. You look like you’re just waiting for one of the McKnights to so much as drop a piece of paper on the floor,” Joel said, chuckling.
Lawrence glared at Joel.
Joel was the joker in the family. And he had finally regained his sense of humor after suffering a career-ending back injury, meeting and getting the love of his life to agree to marry him, and starting a new career in the family business, Hightower Security.
Lawrence tried to decide if he liked his brother better when he had lost his annoying I’ve-got-jokes personality. Between Joel and his woman Samantha, who also had a tendency to come up with the witty, smart-mouthed commentary, the family now had two wise-crackers in the mix.
“Just jokes, man. Lighten up. You’re off duty and the McKnight twins look like they’re on their best behavior tonight.” Joel smiled and Lawrence knew without a doubt that his brother had been much more bearable when he had been sulking.
“What’s up with the girl?” Patrick took a sip of his brew and then tilted his glass toward the table where the McKnight twins were sitting. Since his bitter divorce, Patrick was the lone member and president of the He-Man-Woman-Haters-Club. Catching his ex-wife in bed with another man had made him pretty much distrustful of the female population in general. The breakup of his marriage and an ugly divorce had left Patrick cold.
Lawrence shrugged. He didn’t know. He had no clue why he couldn’t take his eyes off her, either. She had a sassy mouth and looked like trouble waiting to happen. She also had the cutest face with darling dimples and a sweet, petite, and sexy body that gave her an aura of the perfect mix of innocence and sin. And she smelled like fresh-cut flowers. He wondered if it was a perfume or her natural scent.
He felt the overwhelming need to save her by getting her away from the McKnights and to lock her up and throw away the key.
She was hardly the type of woman he normally went for. He liked them tall, shapely and pliable. So why couldn’t he stop staring?
His younger brother, Jason, came back and Lawrence wondered what had taken him so long. Had he gotten any more information about Minnie Samuels?
Jason’s face seemed to be on constant grin since he’d reunited with his high school sweetheart, former video dancer, Penny Keys. Marriage must really agree with him.
“Okay, you’re scaring me, bro. What’s the deal? Before when I found you back by the rest room, you looked like you had the girl hemmed in back there. Since when did you start giving criminals advice and helpful hints?” Jason’s inquisitive gaze was all cop as he slid into the booth.
He couldn’t even pretend his behavior wasn’t odd. He had no idea why he’d followed her to the rest room, waited for her to come out and tried to talk some sense into her. And then for a brief moment he had thought of what it might be like to kiss her. Hell, he’d had to restrain himself from halting her mouthy retorts with his lips, his tongue and his teeth.
Lawrence shrugged, shaking off his thoughts of placing his mouth on hers. “Can we change the subject?”
“Hell, no, not now.” Patrick leaned back and gave him the once-over. “You’ve been staring at that girl ever since they walked in. And now baby bro says she’s a criminal? What’s the deal?”
“I don’t know what the deal is. All I know is she’s setting off my alarms. And I’m going to keep my eyes on her. And for the record, we don’t know if she’s a criminal. The only thing we know is she’s from California and she’s currently here with a couple of ex-con, gang-banger, suspected drug dealers.”
“Birds of a feather, bro, birds of a feather.” Jason took a swig of his beer.
“I don’t think she’s a criminal. She looks sort of sweet and maybe a little spicy…But she doesn’t seem like a criminal.” Joel tilted his head in contemplation.
“She may seem sweet and innocent. But she’s a woman and that means she’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a barracuda.” Patrick frowned.
Lawrence watched as the McKnights and the woman, Minnie Samuels, left the bar. If he didn’t think his brothers would have given him a serious ribbing, he would have left, too, and followed them. But he knew his brothers. Most of all he knew what he would say to them if the situation were reversed and one of them had become suddenly obsessed with some sexy, sassy-mouthed little hood-girl.
He decided he couldn’t possibly be attracted to her. He just wanted to make sure she was okay. He’d keep an eye on her until he found out more about her and figured her out. Then he’d know if she needed saving…or jailing.
Chapter 2
Detective Lawrence Hightower was a pain in her behind. He irritated her no end and she was halfway tempted to go downtown to the Paterson Police Department and file a complaint. She would have, too, but the Los Angeles Police Department was looking for her for questioning about her brother’s murder. So how could she? That alone kept her from blowing the whistle on Lawrence Hightower.
It had been almost three weeks since her initial encounter with him, and she’d seen him in some capacity almost once a day for the past twenty-one days.
