Читать книгу The Law of Desire - Gwyneth Bolton - Страница 12

“Nothing is going to happen. Nothing has happened. Nothing will happen. I’ll probably be able to go back to California soon.” Minerva mumbled the mantra to herself as she walked back from the corner bodega that was three blocks away from their tenement with some seasonings and spices she had picked up to use with dinner.

I love fall. I’ll miss it when I get back to California. Which will be soon, because nothing has happened and nothing will…

After another week in New Jersey, over two months in all, she was starting to feel like a native. The fall came in with a bang and soon all the leaves on the trees in the neighborhood started turning these vibrant colors. She’d never seen anything like it growing up in Los Angeles. She’d seen pictures of fall foliage, but nothing could take the place of the yellows, oranges, rusts, browns and smatterings of green that transformed the trees. And it wasn’t as if there were a whole lot of trees in the neighborhood where she was hiding out, but what few there were looked magnificent.

She was shocked out of her leaf gazing when a large white van screeched up, driving halfway onto the sidewalk. Two men in masks jumped out and ran toward her.

One grabbed her and, as if she were on automatic pilot, she kicked back with her stiletto-heeled boots getting him first in the shin and then a little further up his leg. She assumed she must have hit her mark by the way he threw her forward and cursed. You can take the girl out of the ’hood but not the ’hood out of the girl.

Dropping her bag, she screamed and turned to run in the other direction, cursing the stupid snug Apple Bottom dress she was wearing and the shoe booties. She got a good sprint on. But she knew in her heart there was no way she was going to be able to escape these men.

Her heart raced and she felt fear setting in. Fear like the kind she felt the night her brother was murdered. Was it her turn now?

I don’t wanna die yet. I can’t die yet.

Minerva turned to look behind her and found the other man that she hadn’t injured with her heel was almost within grabbing distance.

He reached out his hand to get her and she screamed. Her pulse seemed to be running nonstop. The air was starting to disappear and she knew she wasn’t going to be able to outrun them.

Thinking there was no way she could allow herself to go out like this, she picked up the pace, only to run smack-dab into what felt like a wall of steel. A strong arm held her in place and she looked up expecting to see another masked man.

She had never been happier to see Detective Lawrence Hightower in all her life. He held her with one hand and his gun with the other.

The men didn’t hesitate to take off, running back to their van. They jumped in and Lawrence ran after them, but he didn’t catch them.

Her breath came out in sharp pants and no matter how much she wanted to sob, she willed herself not to cry. She stared unblinkingly at the moving van until it turned into a blur.

They must have found her. She had to leave. But where could she go?

Lawrence walked back toward her, putting his gun in his holster.

“What was that about and why were those men after you?”

Minerva’s chest constricted and she tried to remember that she didn’t have asthma, so she couldn’t possibly be having an asthma attack. She also reminded herself there was no way she could tell the detective why the men were after her. She may not know whom she could trust, but history pretty much dictated that she couldn’t trust cops.

“I don’t know. That was so weird. They just came out of nowhere. Oh, my God!”

He frowned as he eyed her suspiciously. “You don’t know? You have no idea? Do I look stupid to you?”

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eye.

The man did just save her life. She figured she should probably hold off on outright insults for at least a day or two. But he didn’t have to make it so easy and tempting. She was only human, so she could barely keep a flip comment from falling out of her mouth.

Her expression must have given away everything she wanted to say, because he really frowned then and took her arm, leading her to his navy-blue Ford Taurus.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“We’re going to go and file a report at the trailer and you’re going to tell me the truth.”

“I told you I don’t know. Why is it you never believe a word I say? You don’t know me. You have no reason to be so distrustful of me.” She tried to pull away, but he easily guided her into the backseat of the car and shut the door. She didn’t even bother to try to open it because she’d seen enough movies and heard enough stories from her brother and his boys to know that back doors of police cars didn’t open from the inside.

She sat and listened while he called in the details and requested officers to remain on the lookout for the white van. The entire time she listened to him speaking on the radio she tried to figure out what she was going to say. She couldn’t tell him the truth and she wasn’t sure she could just look him in the face and tell an outright lie.

Minerva nibbled her lips. The truth was, although she had some idea that her brother’s killers were after her, she didn’t know who they were. And even though she could assume they wanted her because they thought she knew something about the murder, she had no way of knowing anything with certainty.

“I think you’re wasting your time,” she said. “I saw the same thing you saw—men in masks. I didn’t even have time to try to get the plates.” She swallowed to calm herself. “As soon as they pulled up all crazy, I took off running.”

“They didn’t have any plates on the van. And I don’t think I’m wasting my time by trying to get you to tell me the truth. Something’s up with you. And I plan on finding out what it is. Folks don’t roll up trying to snatch someone in broad daylight in the ’hood for no reason.”