It was dark; I couldn’t read his eyes and didn’t try. I looked back at Mace and Clarence.
Mace’s eyes had cut to me; he stared at me a second and I could tel by the white flash in his mouth area that he grinned. Then he grabbed Clarence’s wrist, twisted it around to his back and shoved him face first against the brick wal . He pul ed some cuffs out of the back of his cargo pants and slapped them on Clarence.
“Stay,” he said to Clarence as if he was a dog.
I dropped my gun and put it in the back waistband of my jeans.
“You can take your boot out of his neck now,” Vance said
“You can take your boot out of his neck now,” Vance said to me.
I looked down. Jermaine was stil curled up in apparent agony and not going anywhere.
“Whoops,” I muttered and lifted my foot.
Vance crouched and cuffed Jermaine. Mace had pul ed a phone out of his pocket and he’d connected.
“Luke. We got a pick up. Yeah, another couple from Law,” he faded a bit into the shadows and I heard him say, “You are not gonna fuckin’ believe this…”
I walked to Martin and Curtis. “You guys okay?” They didn’t speak, just nodded, mouths open in disbelief.
“Curtis, your head?” I asked.
He just kept nodding.
“Why were they chasing you?” I asked them.
They kept staring at me.
“Come on boys, spil . These are bad guys, worse than most. What were they doing chasing you?”
“We thought we’d help you go after the drug guys,” Curtis told me.
“Yeah, we been fol owin’ them two for awhile,” Martin threw in with pride.
Oh crap. Not this again.
“Al the kids are talkin’ ‘bout doin’ it. We got sick of talkin’ so we decided just to do it,” Curtis went on.
“It’s so fuckin cool you’re workin’ with Crowe,” Martin said and turned to his brother. “Told you she was workin’
with Crowe.”
Curtis nodded but was silent, overwhelmed by the excitement of it al . His eyes moving between me and Vance who had pul ed up Jermaine and was positioning him against the wal next to Clarence.
My eyes returned to the kids. “Don’t say fuck and I’m not working with Crowe.”
“Yeah you are. I heard he’s like, your man and you’re like, his woman,” Martin replied.
“Yeah, Sniff said that, today, you two were huggin’ at that bookstore where they al hang out,” Curtis put in.
Damn Sniff and his mouth.
I looked at Vance and noticed he had turned to us. I didn’t know him wel enough to guess his reaction to this latest fiasco but, if I’d had to guess, it wouldn’t have been him smiling wide like he was pleased about something which was exactly what he was doing.
I sent him a look and turned back to the boys. “Al right, kids, let’s get this straight. You two do not go out on the street and get in the faces of bad guys. Anyone else you hear talking about it, you tel them I said the same to them.
Do you hear me?” I said in my word-is-law voice.
“We hear you,” Curtis said.
“No need. You workin’ with Crowe and that Mace guy in on it too…” Martin replied, trailing off, awe stil in his voice.
“Streets’l be clean in no time,” Curtis added, like we were superheroes.
I looked back at Vance and he was stil smiling.
I rol ed my eyes.
Headlights came from behind me and I turned and saw a black Ford Explorer heading down the al ey. It stopped close to us and Stark swung out of the driver’s side. A huge blond guy that looked like a relative of the big man at Fortnum’s got out the passenger side. They walked up to us, both of them were grinning.
Martin and Curtis’s mouths had dropped open again.
“God dammit,” I hissed under my breath.
Just what I needed, Super Dude Stark and Paul Bunyon sweeping up the trash. The kids were going to talk about this until Christmas.
Mace re-emerged from the shadows just as the huge blond said, “Jesus, Law, you ever take a night off?”
“The Law never takes a break,” Curtis offered.
I looked skyward. As I was doing so Vance approached me and curled an arm around my neck, pul ing me into the side of his body. Martin and Curtis had trained their gazes on us and, again, their mouths dropped open but now their eyes were bugged nearly clear out of their heads.
“Knew you were his woman,” Martin final y said.
I’d had enough. “You two know Hazel?” I asked.
More awestruck looks.
“Your Camaro?” Curtis breathed.
“Yeah. She’s parked on the street, lock yourselves in until I get there. Tonight, you’re sleeping at King’s.”
“We get to ride in Hazel?” Martin asked.
“Move!” I snapped.
They both ran.
I turned toward Vance, which only succeeded in my curling into his body. I pul ed back at the neck but his arm didn’t go anywhere so I gave up.
He was grinning down at me.
“Take your arm away,” I said.
He didn’t, instead he leaned in and kissed my forehead.
This was such a strange thing to do in the current situation, and I was so shocked by it, I blinked at him.