Page 6 of The Heat is On
The man kept hold of the kid’s face, his fingers white as they gripped his jaw, and turned to face Rio. “Stay out of this.”
Rio lifted a shoulder. “Can’t.”
“What did this kid ever do for you?” Boneyard raised an eyebrow.
And oh, Rio wanted to hit him. Just slam his fist into Boneyard’s face, maybe chip another tooth off. But he kept his hands open, easy. Nothing for Boneyard’s radar.
“He’s the cellie with my buddy Darryl over there. And he doesn’t snore.”
Which was, actually, all true. Rio didn’t glance at Darryl, however, because the last thing Darryl needed was another target on his back. But he knew Darryl was watching.
Maybe if Rio could get Jaden out of this mess, Darryl might start trusting Rio. Believe him when he said he could keep him safe. Alive.
So Rio didn’t move when Boneyard let go of Jaden and turned toward him. The man possessed the breath of a dumpster, a few missing teeth evidence of a life lived outside regular dental checkups. Burled arms from hours in some institutional weight room, a scar that dissected his blond eyebrow, a piercing—now empty—in his ear.
His voice was meant to intimidate, low, like a razor under the skin. “Sit down. You haven’t been here long enough to realize how it works in here.”
“Yes, actually I have.” Two long weeks—and he was counting—but it had taken him all of two hours to figure out who ran the lockup. Less than one hundred short-term inmates, mostly pretrial or transfer holds, but a few nickel sentences in a minimum security setting. Despite Boneyard’s menace and his attempt at a decent rap sheet, he was in for petty theft and carjacking.
The guy wouldn’t last a day in a maximum security joint like Spring Creek.
Fact was, Rio had barely survived. Had the scars to prove it.
No, a guy like Boneyard didn’t scare him. But Rio didn’t want a fight.
It would be hard to protect Darryl from solitary confinement.
So Rio took a breath, met Boneyard’s gaze. “This doesn’t have to be anything. Just walk away from the kid, leave him alone. We’ll all finish our lunch.”
A smile lifted one corner of Boneyard’s face. “I don’t think so, tough guy.”
Aw, shoot. Because now Jaden was looking at the floor, and—was the kidcrying? Rio didn’t dare take his gaze off Boneyard, but in his periphery, he saw the kid tremble, heard washboard breaths.
Still… “You’re the tough guy here, B-yard, and we all know it. I think you’ve scared the kid enough.” Rio gave the guy a little nod. “No one is going to mess with you.” Let his ego be assuaged, let him walk away.
Boneyard stared at him, as if not sure what to do with Rio’s words.
Rio listened for movement behind him—any of Boneyard’s thugs creeping up to punch him in the kidneys, turn this into an unfair fight. Boneyard’s chest rose and fell.
Just walk away, man.And probably the words rising inside were for him, but he put them into his expression.
Because as much as Rio wanted justice, he also wanted, with everything inside him, to listen to that voice.
To walk away. Be done. Free.
To know he’d done his part, protected the innocent and stopped a little evil along the way.
Clearly, however, that wasn’t today.
Boneyard’s intentions flashed in his eyes a second before his fist came up, before his punch could explode across Rio’s face, maybe break a cheekbone, or a nose. Instinct more than thought made Rio deflect his punch, move sideways, duck, move down and into Boneyard’s body, the punch flying over him.
Rio took him down with a smack to his nasal septum, stepping behind him and flipping him over so fast Boneyard was on the ground before any of his henchmen could move.
He shoved a knee into Boneyard’s shoulder, wrenched the man’s arm back in a submission hold, and bent close to his ear. “Just walk away.”
And it could have simply ended there. With Boneyard nodding, conceding defeat. With Rio getting up, stepping back, and letting Boneyard gather his pride and walk away.
Except.