The movie splashed across the mock screen. “You like junk food.”
“You noticed, huh?” She popped a few candies into her mouth.
“Where’d that come from?”
“Didn’t get any when I was…growing up.” Her voice hitched.
“Yeah, well, it was all I could afford, so, looks like we both had it coming. I’m addicted to it, and you’re just starting out.” I popped in a handful of Sugar Babies and settled back. She was watching me, but I resisted looking. Tonight was about her. Making her feel comfortable with me.
Withus.
The more I thought about that word, even heard it, the more I liked it. Me and her.Us. But one thing that still bothered me was Walker sniffing around the Sarah part ofus.
He was up to something.
“So, who exactly is this Walker, guy?” she asked as if she could read my mind. “You said gang brother or something, right?”
“Yeah. He’s in charge, now. Runs the Wallflower down on Main Street. It’s where all his gangbangers hang. But it’s a cover.”
“And they…”
“Do gang things. Run the neighborhood. Have their hands in pretty much everything shady going on around town.”
“Drugs?”
“Drugs, women, so-called protection…pretty movie cliché if you think about it, but…that shit is real.”
“Um…women?” Her face went paler than it normally was. “What’d…he want with…me? That was the second time he’d approached me.”
“Second?” I turned more to see her.
“Halloween, that guy you didn’t quite see? The incident was shorter, not so intense. But…Friday night was different. He felt…dangerous.”
“He is.”
“You talked to him like he was a…friend.”
“When you leave a gang, Sarah, you need to be civil. They need to know they can trust you or you’re dead.”
“So, you know about bad shit going on at that place, but you say nothing?” Her voice got a little louder, and she sat up straighter.
“Hold on, Sarah. You don’t know the whole story. I left before I was officially jumped in. I wasn’t privy to everything going on.”
“Then why’d you leave?”
“Bill got his hands on me. Literally.” I rubbed my arm. “He saw me hanging with Walker. I’d broken into the store and beaten the owner to a pulp. Did some bad shit, Sarah. I woke up in time to get out. To do something different with my life.”
“Once you’re tattooed, there’s no way out?”
“It’s…more difficult. Especially if you’re jumped in.” And usually deadly.
“Your brother.”
I gulped through the emotion building in my chest about Damon. And through the sorrow I felt radiating from Sarah. This wassonot good date conversation. Then again, I was opening a door for her to talk by sharing my junk, right? At least that was the theory Hunter said worked.
“You have brothers and sisters?” I asked.
“No. No family.”