Jag passed her, sparing her a glance as he did, throughwhich she wheezed, “Thief.”
Shit.
Great.
He kept motoring.
The kid was twelve, maybe thirteen, he had a little extraweight and was carrying a backpack, but he was twelve, thirteen.
He had legs that could go forever and the same kind ofenergy.
He darted around another corner, then, halfway up thatblock, he shot into an alley.
Jagger followed.
Bad luck for the kid, someone was moving, and the alley wasplugged by a massive truck it wouldn’t be easy, even for the kid, to getaround.Jag didn’t know how they got that behemoth wedged back there in thefirst place.
But there it was.
The kid decided to double back and take a shot at evasivemaneuvering, but as he tried to cut past Jagger, Jag caught him by thebackpack.
The pack was important, he knew this because the kid wasn’tlosing it.He grabbed hold of the straps and twisted vigorously to get awayfrom Jagger.In order not to lose hold, Jag had to catch him by the back collarof his shirt.
That was when the kid started shouting.
“Help!I’m being attacked!Pedo!Pedo!”
“Cool it, kid.I know more cops than hopefully you’ll meetin your life, and they know me, so trust me.That’s never gonna fly,” headvised.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, apparently.
“Help!”the kid kept shouting, pulling at Jag’s grasp.“Pedo!Pedo!”
At this point, A rounded the corner, jogged up to them,stopped about four feet away and immediately went hands to knees, head bent,her long black hair falling forward, her torso moving as she hauled in deepbreaths.
“Shit,” he heard her rasp.Then her head jerked back, hairflying, and she squinted at the kid.“You little turd.”
“Fuck you,” the kid spat back.
Hmm.
No.
“What’d I hear you say?”Jagger asked.
The kid looked up at him.“Fuck you too.”
In an effort at control, Jag turned his attention to A.
“What we got here?”he asked.
She sucked in another big breath before she straightened andstated, “He’s a thief, and that’s why he’s no longer in the group.He waskicked out.But until now, it was never big.Cash register stuff.Candy.Gum.”She homed in on the kid and her eyes narrowed again.“Today, it was big.Youtake off with what you grabbed, I lose out and my consigner loses out and it’snever been cool, Mal, you lifting stuff.It’sreallynot cool now.”
The group?
What did that mean,the group?
“I didn’t take that shit you said I took to get me kickedout of group in the first place,” Mal retorted.
