“No.”
He shook his head slowly. “She’s probably holed up with D-Rock in some hotel room. The boy was going to take her somewhere romantic.” He made air quotes around the word romantic, and suddenly he was a little less scary and a little more human.
“Romantic?”
The boy gangbanger was into romance? So Trinity wasn’t missing due to some malevolent deed, she was a young girl being swept off her feet by her boyfriend. Could I have really missed the mark so widely?
Glancing back at the man watching my every change in expression, I knew I didn’t have a choice but to believe him. Which meant I didn’t need to be in this neighborhood at all, and it was time for me to go.
I dropped my gaze to the ground and debated how I was going to get out of this yard. He was blocking the only exit. Nothing to do but brazen this out too.
He’s not going to hurt me, I told myself. I’ll shoot him if he tries.
I stepped down from the porch, head held high, not showing a trace of fear except perhaps with how tightly I gripped my purse. “I appreciate the heads-up. I’ll be on my way then, if you’ll excuse me.”
When in doubt, choose manners. My mother would be so proud. Actually, she’d probably want to lock me up until I was fifty if she knew where I was.
He pushed off the gate, uncrossed his arms, and stepped toward me.
Good grief, he was even bigger up close. In my heels, I was nearly five eight, and I didn’t think the top of my head came to his eye level. Not important. I stepped off the path, my heels sinking into the dry grass of the front yard as I attempted to get around him.
“You ain’t leaving until I get a name from you.” His hand shot out and wrapped around my arm.
I froze at the contact. Strange men didn’t get to touch me. I waited for my skin to crawl . . . but it didn’t. All I registered was the heat of his hand on my skin and the light grip that kept me from taking another step.
“My name isn’t relevant,” I said. It was time to retreat to the safety of my car, get home, and leave Trinity another voice mail to call me with a sternly worded reprimand.
“It’s relevant as hell to me.”
The deep timbre of his voice sent shivers up the arm he held, but these strangely weren’t shivers of fear. My reaction surprised me, so I ignored it.
I tugged at my arm, but I couldn’t free myself. “Let go. You wanted me out of your neighborhood, and I’m leaving.”
“Give me your name, and you can walk right out that gate.”
My tugging was getting me nowhere, and I wanted to be gone. In my head I labeled it a form of self-defense when I snapped out, “Valentina. Now let me go.”
His touch was gone immediately, and the absence of the heat of his hand hit me.
“Valentina,” he repeated. “Last name?”
“No way,” I said.
“Don’t need it anyway.”
I said nothing, and I didn’t look at him. I wouldn’t look at him. And I absolutely wouldn’t think about the change in his tone when he’d said my name. Nope. I wouldn’t.
Keeping my gaze firmly glued to the cracked sidewalk as I walked, I reached for the latch. My fingers froze when he said, “This is my neighborhood. My world. You don’t belong here. Don’t come here again. You do, and you won’t like the consequences. You get that, Valentina?”
I straightened my spine, and despite my vow, I turned to face him. “I don’t plan on coming back. And as long as Trinity shows up at work tomorrow, I won’t have to.”
I stepped outside the gate and was pulling it closed when he dropped both palms on top of the chain link. “You’re either fearless or stupid.”
“Neither,” I shot back, hackles rising. “I’m just worried about her.”
I turned my back on him and walked to my car. Once I had my door open, I swung my head around toward him. I had no earthly idea what possessed me to ask the question, but I couldn’t help it.
“All this hassle about my name, and you never even introduced yourself.”
His lips quirked, but he didn’t smile. Still, I thought it was humor I saw on his face. He was laughing at me. Jerk.
“Rix.”
One syllable. That’s all it took. Recognition slammed into me and I dove into my car, shut the door, and locked it.
Holy. Shit. That was Rix?
Pulling out of my parking spot, I couldn’t help but stare out the window as I drove away.
He’s the head of one of the biggest gangs in New Orleans?
I’d put him in the category of unapologetically bad, and I’d been right on the mark. It’s okay, I told myself. You’ll never see him again.
I DROVE DIRECTLY HOME AND left another voice mail for Trinity telling her to call me, goddamn it. After I’d stripped off the skirt and blouse I’d worn to the gallery today, I pulled my dark hair back into a messy bun and threw on a pair of leggings and a tank before covering it with an old dress shirt of my father’s that was so worn from washing, his monogram was barely visible on the cuff any longer.