“Sure,” he says, smirking at me. “How old are you anyway? My brother says you’re jail bait.”
I gulp and cast a guilty glance at Maddox. I think about telling them I’m eighteen, but there’s no way they’ll buy that. Besides, seventeen is legal here, so if they wanted to date me…
I push the thought away and go for the truth. “Seventeen.”
Lennox raises a brow like he doesn’t believe it, but he doesn’t challenge me.
“So, what’s this crew you have?” I ask. “Like a work crew?”
“Sure,” Lennox says, smiling as he scoops.
“What?” I ask, getting that same feeling I got when he asked about my last name, like I’m missing something.
“We do work together,” Lennox says. “But it’s our street crew. All of Mill and the next few blocks.Nosotros nos cuidamos el uno al otro.”
I shake my head and give him an apologetic look. “I don’t speak Spanish. Sorry.”
“We just make sure everyone’s taken care of,si?”
He flashes me a grin that almost distracts me from the sinking feeling in my belly. Almost.
“Yeah,” I say awkwardly.“Si.”
Before I can ask more, he finishes his bucket and climbs out of the pool for dumping duty again. I can’t even imagine what his yard looks like right now, with a hundred gallons of sludge flooding it. When he comes back, though, I force myself not to chicken out.
“Does your crew have a name?” I ask carefully.
“Sure,” he says. “But we don’t need to get into that with you, Sunshine.”
“Maybe the Skull and Crossbones?” I venture, narrowing my eyes.
He frowns. “Vení,we just make sure everything in our neighborhoods runs smoothly and everyone’s safe. Like a Neighborhood Watch.”
“That’s why you wanted to fix up my pool?” I ask incredulously. “So you could invite yourgangover?”
Lennox rolls his eyes and finishes yet another bucket, filling four to every one of mine. “The Skulls are not a gang,” he says. “It’s an organization. Gangs sell drugs and shit. We clean things up, take care of the people in our neighborhood.”
I narrow my eyes, but now it’s my turn to not challenge his word. Besides, I’m one girl, and though I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty, there are four big gang members in my pool right now. Not exactly the odds I want in a fight.
And they’regang members. They probably have weapons hidden in their muddy jeans and work boots. I find myself watching them from the corner of my eye. Maybe he says it’s not a gang, but the news is always featuring stories about the gangs in Little Rock, and they don’t call them organizations. I wonder if Lennox really believes that, or if they’re supposed to tell outsiders that. The news never distinguishes between the Skull & Crossbones and Lucifer’s Disciples or the big, nationwideorganizations. They’re all lumped into the “crime problem.”
The silence between us has just started to get awkward when Billy calls, “Hey girl, you wanna get dirty?”
I start to turn, and just then, a handful of soft, silty mud splatters my side. I yelp in surprise as the clump of muck slides down me, warm water trickling down my skin. Billy laughs and bends to scoop up another handful.
“You pig,” I yell, grabbing for some of the mud that’s left at the very bottom. I have only a second to remember Lennox’s warning about needles and condoms before another missile of mud and leaves flies at me. I duck aside and hurl some back at Billy. He ducks, laughing, but the mud hits the wall of the pool behind him and splatters his back.
“Oh, you’re in for it now,” he says, grabbing a double-handed scoop.
I shriek and turn to run, only to find Lennox with mud in his hands right behind me. He tosses it against my chest, and it covers the front of my “Soilent Green is People” shirt. I give a cry of anger and throw some back at him. Another load hits my back, and I spin and try to defend myself from the attack by throwing mud at both Tommy and Billy, who are laughing and slipping in the muck as they come closer.
Within minutes, I’m drenched in warm, muddy water and coated with brown gunk and slime. I shriek again and duck, holding onto my hat to protect the top of my head as they close in, all three of them laughing as they gang up on me. I feel a hand slide down my bare leg, painting me with mud, and I look over to see Lennox grinning big enough to make his dimple sink in, a mischievous look in his eye as he smears me in filth.
My heart does a flip when his hand slowly glides up my thigh.
Suddenly, I can’t breathe, and the others don’t exist.
And then cold water drenches my back, and I scream and cover my head again. I spin around and get a face-full of water straight from the hose. Maddox stands over us, smirking from beside the pool. I was so busy defending myself from the other three in the mud fight I didn’t even see him climb out.