He couldn’t help noticing that I wore all black, and I looked sassy as hell. Had I finally accepted my fate and come over to the dark side? Or… did I know I’d be going on a ride with him? His gaze landed on my face, and his brows puckered. “Whoa. Where’d you get the bruise?”
A satisfied smile from his compliment twerked my lips. “Did you mean sassy or sexy?”
He shrugged. “Is there a difference?”
I grinned. It was nice to know he drooled over me once in a while, although… looking sassy, or sexy… wasn’t exactly in the same category as his full-blown and complete hotness, but it was still gratifying.
“Your bruise?”
“Oh, right.” I explained the stairs and the crazy person, watching his face darken with each word. “The dog saved me.”
He shook his head. “I swear, you get into the worst situations.” He blew out a breath. “Just tell me you’re keeping the dog?”
In true dog-like fashion I answered. “Yup.” Snickering to myself, I slipped on the helmet. After climbing on behind Ramos, I clutched his waist and we were off. I didn’t even know where we were going, so it surprised me to pull into the back parking lot of the Tiki Tabu.
I pulled off my helmet. “Is this for real?” I wouldn’t put it past Uncle Joey to rig this.
“What? You think I have ulterior motives?”
“That wasn’t an answer… and yes… always.”
He grinned and motioned with his head. “Come on. We’ve got work to do.”
“So did Uncle Joey tell you I was off the hook?”
He nodded. “If you want to know the truth, you have me to thank for it.” At my widened eyes, he continued. “I may have told him he needed to stay in control of the business, so stupid things like this drug incident wouldn’t happen again.” He was thinking that Manetto had already come to the same conclusion, but it didn’t hurt to tell me he’d also done his part. “So how does it feel?”
“Ah… so… so great.”
Smiling, he pulled the door open, and we entered the dark bar. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust, but, since it was just after noon, there wasn’t the big crowd I was used to. Ramos spotted Vinny at the bar and motioned him to join us at a back booth.
Vinny sat on one side, and Ramos slid into the other next to me, our thighs touching in the small space. I could have scooted further into the corner, so he’d have more room, but why on earth would I do that?
“Here’s the deal,” Ramos began. “Manetto and Shelby have straightened out the mess you made. Shelby used her position as a police consultant to help them find the kid who killed Slasher. She had to explain to the cops that her information came from an informant, in order to keep her association with Manetto under the radar. It put her in a compromising situation. You understand?”
Ramos waited for Vinny to nod before continuing. “So… from now on, you are going to take the role as her informant. Anytime she gets information from me, or Manetto, or whoever… it’s you who gets the credit. That way, if anything ever comes back to her, or she has to give up a name to stay in good with the cops, it’s your name she’ll be using. Is that clear?”
“Uh… yeah… sure.” He didn’t like it much, but it was better than being dead.
“And one more thing… Manetto’s back in the game. Your incompetence proved to him that if he wants to stay out of jail, he’s got to be running things. He also doesn’t want his reputation ruined by some upstart wannabes. Lucky for you, he’s trusting Vic to take care of all the loose ends… which includes you. But this is a warning. Your days are numbered if anything like this ever happens again.”
“So… it’s up to Vic what happens to me?” Vinny thought he was getting off easy if that were the case. At Ramos’s nod, he continued. “And I need to pass information to Shelby if she needs it? But Shelby’s on Manetto’s side, right?”
They both glanced my way, and I quickly nodded. “Yeah… sure.”
“Okay, I’ll do it.” He thought I seemed too nice to turn him in, so he’d take what he could get.
A man stepped beside our table, his large bulk casting a shadow over us. “Hey… you’re back.”
“Oh… hi.” I smiled up at Big Kahuna. “Thanks for the interference the other night.”
“Ah… no problem, but I was disappointed you couldn’t stay and use your cue.”
“I could play now. Would that work?” I glanced at Ramos. “Uh… you don’t need me anymore, right?”
He leaned toward me, his lips tantalizingly close. “Not at the moment.” I froze, unable to move until he smiled and slid out of the booth. Embarrassed, I hurried out behind him, following Big Kahuna to the pool tables.
It had been a couple of months since I’d played, but I knew right where my cue stick was. I took it down and chalked the end while Big Kahuna racked the balls.
He glanced my way. “You wanna break the rack?” He was thinking that I should go first to make it fairer, since I wasn’t as good as him.
I was terrible at breaking the balls, but his reasoning made sense, so I nodded and got in position. He thought I should set the white ball more to the left and not hit the first ball head-on, so I moved slightly and leaned over to line up the ball with my stick.
Hearing nothing from him, I figured it was a good placement and, after moving the cue stick back and forth a few times, I concentrated on hitting the white ball dead center. Ready, I held my breath and hit the ball as hard as I could.
The ball basically went where I wanted, and one of the striped balls hit the corner pocket. Surprised, I grinned and pumped
