Sal Cordova was my first mistake.
Cordova was a smal time supplier and part-time dealer and I got up his nose too, just for the hel of it, mainly because he was a swaggering jerk who thought he was God’s gift to women. Fol owing him, hiding in the shadows in bars and watching him, I noticed he seriously thought he was God’s gift to women, even when the women didn’t agree. I worried that Sal Cordova was the kind of guy who would make a woman agree.
One could say Sal was good-looking. He was a couple inches tal er than me, decent body (not Vance Crowe-esque but then again, who was?), light brown hair, blue eyes.
Problem was, Sal was a jerk, he was a letch and he was so stupid, I got cocky.
One day I got close, sliding into the opposite side of a booth in front of him at a greasy spoon.
He looked at me, surprised then he smiled, thinking I was coming on to him.
“Hey darlin’,” he said and winked.
Um… pu-lease.
“I’m Jules,” I told him, trying not to vomit.
“Hey Jules.” His smile widened.
Okay, so that was al I could take.
I didn’t waste any time and told him why I was there.
“Sel dope to kids, any kids, including the runaways, you’l be out of business. Remember, I’m watching.” Then I got up and left.
As I said, cocky.
And cocky was not good.
That’s when people, not the right kind of people, found out who I was.
out who I was.
Zip was not pleased.
“Girl, you got a screw loose,” Zip said.
When I told Nick (I told Nick everything, I did this because he’d find out anyway, I learned that a long time ago), to say Nick was not pleased was an understatement.
“Are you out of your flippin’ mind?” Nick yel ed.
I didn’t answer. I learned a long time ago too that silence was the best way to go with Nick.
It was Roam and Sniff who spread the name Law.
Roam knew me, he knew what I was like and he’d heard about my antics on the street. He figured out it was me right away and he made a mistake. He told Sniff.
Sniff could never keep his mouth shut about anything and he loved Park, they both did, so Sniff and Roam thought what I was doing was the shit.
By the time I talked Sniff into keeping his mouth shut, it was too late. I was Law and that was it.
Sal took my approaching him in the greasy spoon as a chal enge. Not that he wanted to “shut me down” as Crowe did, but that he wanted something else entirely from me.
Something icky when you thought about doing it with Sal (way not icky when you thought about doing it with Crowe, but I didn’t go there).
So, instead of coming after me to stop me from getting up his nose, if you could believe this, Sal Cordova was actual y trying to get me to go out with him.
Yes, that’s exactly how stupid he is.
Al of this brought me to my current predicament.
Sal had caught up with me and made his intentions clear.
I’d told him to go fuck himself.
He got a little excited and there was a bit of a car chase.
We ended up in a guns drawn face off in the middle of a busy, one way, four lane street, right in front of a used bookstore that was the known hangout for Lee Nightingale and his boys.
The rest was history.
*
“Meow?” Boo asked, staring at me and knowing with feline instincts that my life was fucked and probably wondering if something happened to me who would feed him. “Yeah Boo. You cal ed it. Meow,” I answered.
Chapter Two
Levitate
My phone rang and I got up, mental y shook away my memories, dislodged Boo on an angry “Meow!” and walked across the room to pick it up.
“Hel o?”
“You’re fuckin’ loco. Loco!” Zip shouted in my ear.
I guessed word of my faceoff with Cordova had made the rounds.
“Zip –” I started.
“You’re off duty. You’re lyin’ low. Least a week, maybe a month, maybe forever,” Zip interrupted me.
“I’m not lying low,” I told him.
Zip talked over me, in ful rant.
“It isn’t Cordova. You could handle Cordova, hel , a five year old could handle Cordova. We’re talkin’ Lee Nightingale now. Lee Nightingale. Do you know who was in fuckin’ Fortnum’s Bookstore watchin’ you be a hotshot, shootin’ out Cordova’s tires like you were in a goddamned Hol ywood movie?”
“Um...” I said.
“No?” Zip didn’t let me answer. “First off, Lee fuckin’
Nightingale. Then Hank fuckin’ Nightingale. Make matters worse, Eddie fuckin’ Chavez. Two officers of the goddamned law.”
“Zip –” I tried to butt in.
He ignored me.
“And if you already weren’t screwed three ways ‘til Sunday, Luke fuckin’ Stark, Kai fuckin’ Mason and Vance fuckin’ Crowe.”
“Wel , I knew about Crowe,” I said.
And I guessed the rest, or some of them.