“Why do you call me Noah? Everyone has always called me Booker, everyone except for you. It’s also weird and you call Bax Shane, which no one else does.”
He changed the subject so fast I blinked in a startled reaction as I called out, “Karsen, one of these sandwiches is for you if you want it.” The girl turned on the couch and I saw her chocolate-colored gaze skim over Booker as he bent toward me so we could keep the conversation quiet. She scowled and turned back to the TV. “Maybe later. I’m not really hungry right now.”
I sighed and looked back at the massive man across from me. “I call you Noah because you’ve been nice to me. You’ve kept me company, and even though you’re supposed to be protecting all of them from me, you’ve been protecting me from them as well. You’re more than a thug. More than an ex-con, and I see that. I have to see that because I’m more than they think I am too. So you’re more than just Booker to me and to her.” I pointed over his broad shoulder to where the teenager was obviously sulking and doing it far more elegantly and glamorously than I would ever be able to. “You do know that girl is in the throes of a life-altering crush on you, right? Her heart is in her eyes when she looks at you.”
He glanced over his shoulder and then looked back at me with a lifted eyebrow. The way he did it with that scar made him look like a villain out of a comic book. He snorted and picked up his sandwich and took a hefty bite out of it. “She’s just a baby. Her heart isn’t grown up enough to know anything yet.”
I gave a sharp laugh and turned to the fridge to take out a soda. “My sister fell in love with a man around that age. She loved him so much it killed her. Karsen might be young but those feelings feel ancient and very grown up. You need to be careful with that.”
He grunted. “I’ve told Race to put a chain on it. I’ve told him she’s going to get in trouble looking at men that way. She’s too pretty and too soft to have that in her if she’s going to be part of the Point. She might as well learn that now.”
I reached out, snagged a chip off of his plate, and took a swig of my drink. “She’s not looking at men that way, Killer. She’s looking at you that way. The same way Brysen looks at Race and the same way Dovie looks at Shane.”
He grinned at me and it changed his whole face. Booker was a good-looking man once you got past all the intimidation and the shock of that imperfection that covered half his face. When he smiled, when his chilly eyes warmed up, it turned him into a heartbreaker, no doubt about it.
“The way you look at the cop.”
I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I know how it feels when the person you’re looking at doesn’t look back, so that’s why I’m telling you to be mindful. She’s a sweet kid and we both know life will kick her around enough without you adding to it. Besides, I don’t want to be murdered in my sleep, and she looks like she’s on the verge of taking desperate action.”
He laughed again and polished off his sandwich. It was the sound of his rough chuckle that finally brought the teenager over. Her dark eyes were narrowed as she put herself on the stool next to Booker and shifted her gaze between the two of us. She really was a delicate beauty. She looked like merely stepping foot on the streets of the Point would dirty her all up.
“What’s so funny?”
I pushed the plate in her direction and she reluctantly picked up half of the sandwich. “Booker was making fun of me for having a crush on Titus.”
Karsen blinked in surprise and lifted her pale eyebrows at my confession. “Really. Aren’t you guys a thing? Why wouldn’t you have a crush on him?”
I winced a little. I forgot that not everyone was privy to the real nature of my relationship with the complicated cop. “We’re a thing all right, but that thing is often a lot of work and not always fun, so it’s good to still have a crush on the person you care about.”
I watched her eyes dart to the side and then back to me. “Oh. I see.”
I bet she did. This girl was wise beyond her years and she was going to be a handful when she was legal. I had a feeling the wistful looks and covert watching was going to morph into something Booker was going to have a hell of a time keeping at bay once she was old enough to make her own choices.
“Titus isn’t as nice as you would think he would be. I mean he’s a cop, one of the good guys and stuff, but he’s always so harsh and kind of mean. He scares me a little bit.”
From the mouths of babes. I shared a look with Booker and had to bite back a grin. Here this little girl was infatuated with a man that had done hard time, that got paid to break necks and smash faces in for her sister’s boyfriend, and she thought Titus was mean and scary.
“It’s challenging to be a good man in a bad place. He’s the odd man out and it makes him hard.”