That knocked the wind out of me in a different way. “I have a solution, Theodore: stop looking at me. And maybe take your hands off me while you’re at it.”
Theo dropped his hand from my arm, and I didn’t hesitate to take off on my skateboard, rolling away from him as fast as my legs would take me. There was no relief in my escape, though. Classes were over, and I had to face my situation head-on. No more denial.
Even if I wanted to deny it, my situation was waiting for me outside my dorm. He saw me before I saw him. Otherwise, I might have kept going.
Amir stepped in my path. “Helen.”
I kicked up my board into my hand. “Amir.”
Amir Vasquez would be hot if he wasn’t scary, but scary he was. Tall, lean, and powerful, he could snap me in half if he wanted. The thing was, he wouldn’t. He had people who did that for him. Amir didn’t peddle violence, he thrived off fear.
And I’d stupidly gotten tangled up with him.
He stepped toward me until I had no choice but to back up. He kept coming, walking me right into the brick side of the dorm, where we were partially hidden by the thick trunk of an old tree. Once he had me where he wanted me, he backed up a step.
“You know why I’m here.” His face was impassive. I had no idea if he was angry, annoyed, or something else entirely. He never showed his hand.
I swallowed down the ball of barbed wire in my throat. “I’m working tonight. I’ll have your money after my shift.”
His head cocked, dark eyes sweeping over me. Amir had been my hookup for weed since high school. A year older, he used to prowl the halls of Savage River High like an untouchable specter. Kids knew who he was, but they stayed away. Except me, because I was dumb and desperate and I’d had a really hopeless crush on him. I sold for him at parties for extra funds, and I’d never had a problem.
Until now.
I got cocky and flew too close to the sun.
“Why don’t you have it now?” He stepped into my space, peering down his nose at me. “You’re a week late, and now your loan payment is coming due to Reno too.”
I swallowed again. This time, it was even more difficult. That loan payment was an albatross around my neck. My mother, the impetuous genius she was, went to Amir’s older brother, Reno, and borrowed ten K with absolutely zero plan of how to pay it back. Reno wasn’t the kind of man you borrowed money from without a plan to pay him back. He did peddle violence, and he most certainly would take a pound of flesh for every day—hell, every hour—payment went past due. And because I was the oldest daughter and a sucker, I’d taken the loan on myself. My mother had made sure Reno knew this, extricating herself from Reno’s bloody hook.
That was a concern for another day. The one in front of me required all my attention.
“I promise, Amir. If you want me to come to your place after my shift tonight, I will. It’ll be two or two thirty, but if you want me to—”
He gripped my jaw, squishing my cheeks and lips into a grotesque shape. “I asked you why you don’t have my money, Helen. I want an answer, then we’ll talk about your payment.”
“I had this kid selling for me at his frat and—”
Amir’s palm slammed into the brick next to my head. “What the fuck did you just say?” he growled. “A frat kid was distributing my product?”
If he hadn’t sent me the threat of visiting my trailer, I would have kneed him in the dick for getting in my face. But Amir held the power in this situation—and we both knew it.
“I needed more money. The frat boy was my way in to deep pockets. Our arrangement had been working for months, but then he fucked me over, so I’m—”
He slapped the brick again, cutting me off. “This isn’t a pyramid scheme, Helen. We’re not selling fucking leggings or magic oil. You are my employee. You don’t subcontract. That’s not how this shit works, and this is exactly why. You got fucked, and in turn, I got fucked. This kid, I didn’t vet him. I never gave permission for my product or my money to pass through his hands. Now, we’re here, a week late on your payment to me, coming up due to Reno. I’m gonna guess you don’t have his money either.”
“No, I’ve got most of it. I'll have it when it’s due.”
His nose twitched. “You didn’t borrow from your Reno fund to pay me?”
“I would have, but I knew I’d be able to earn the money tonight at work.”
He leaned so close to me, his nose almost brushed mine. “That’s the problem, Helen. You obviously don’t respect me. If you did, you would have borrowed from your Reno fund right away. Leaving me hanging for a week sends me a message. A message I don’t like. A message I’m not gonna stand for. You hear me?”
Even though I wanted to knee him in the dick, I really didn’t want him to visit the trailer. Nodding, I lowered my eyes like I was ashamed. In reality, I was pissed at myself and Deacon fucking Forrester.
“I hear you, Amir. It won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t. You’re done. No more handouts from me.”
My eyes flicked up to his. He was still studying me in his Amir way. Silent. Curious. Tucking details away for later use. Ticking off vulnerabilities. I had no doubt Amir Vasquez’s brain was like a war manual. He had a profile to take down each of his enemies and possible compatriots if he needed to.
He knew exactly where to press to get me to fold. My little sister, Luciana. The trailer could go to hell, but not when she was living in it. Unfortunately, she currently was.
“Amir—”
“No, Helen.” He straightened, running his hand along his hardened jaw. “What are you doing anyway? Taking money from Reno, working for me—where do you think it’s gonna lead? You’re here, getting your degree. You need to get out of this life.”
I lifted my chin. “What are you, the pious drug dealer?”
His entire body stilled, except his eyes. They bounded over me, keeping me in his snare.
“Make no mistake. If you go down, it’ll barely be a blip in my timeline. I do not care what happens to you. That isn’t who I am. But when I see someone being stupid, I call it out. You, little girl, are being really, really stupid.”
My chin shot up even more, and my hackles rose. “I owe you money, so I’m not going to say everything I want to say.”
He folded his arms, his mouth curving into something that would have resembled a smile on anyone else. On Amir, it only looked like a threat. “Say it.”
I sucked in a breath. “All right. You say I’m being stupid, but here you are, hanging out on campus, pushing dope to college kids. You grew up with criminals, and you’re wallowing in the life, even though everyone knows you’re way too smart to be a low-level drug dealer. So, if I’m being stupid, so are you.”