“I know, but you’ll be safe here. Ipromise.”
I look over at Si again. He’s leaning against the driver’s side of his truck with his back to us. His arms are folded over his chest, his shirt is straining across his muscular back. He does seem more pissed at Scott than anything, and I did ask for this. Not the whole of this, but I did ask for his help and some place to go. Under the roof of the brother almost no one knows Scott has is as good a place as any. And Si is pretty big and, unlike Scott, he looks like he could handle himself in a six-on-one bar fight. I can’t imagine wanting to tangle with him, even if you are skilled at breaking, entering andbattery.
“I want to think that you don’t owe me after this, but I sort of do. You should have told me,” Isay.
“I’ll never lie to you again, Lewis. How about that?” he says with that little sly smile of his. “Go ahead with him. First thing in the morning, I’m calling Tillery. I’m gonna get to the bottom of this.Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. I have to grab the rest of mystuff.”
He turns and slips his hand around my lower back. “Comeon.”
I sigh and follow him back to the car and grab my purse and my phone. Scott offers me a gentle one-armed hug around the shoulders and then climbs back behind the wheel. I turn and watch him drive away before I can even make my way back across the small lot to his brother’struck.
Si doesn’t say anything to me. He just jumps in and reaches across the seat to shove the passenger door open for me. I climb in and we both sit there for a moment not saying anything. He smells like sweat, but not in a bad way. I swallow and fold my hands over my bag in mylap.
“I don’t likethis.”
I look over at him. “You think I’m having a goodtime?”
“Sorry.” He shakes his head and then stares out the window. He’s silent for almost a solid minute before he glances over at me. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” he says. This time his voice is much morecalm.
“Look. I had no idea where Scott was bringing me. I definitely didn’t know that you and Scott were—whatever. I didn’t you two were estranged. Or had a strained relationship. If he’d told me you guys were having issues, I never would have come uphere.”
“Are you and Scott sleepingtogether?”
I whip my head in his direction. “No.”
He doesn’t respond for a moment. He takes off his baseball cap and inspects it, checking out the rounding of the brim instead of making eye contact. “He must really like youthen.”
That shocks me more than the sex question. I shake my head, realizing how the thought of Scott having any type of feelings for me does not sit well. “No. I don’t think that’s true. He’s had plenty of chances to say something and I don’t think I’m his type.” Scott seems exclusively attracted to White women, which is one of the reasons I knew a friendship between him and I would work. There was no chance he would ever try to open that door with me. I’m not histype.
“You’re beautiful enough,” Si adds, all flippant and cool before he goes on. “Did he tell you his brilliantplan?”
“Other than me laying low at his place upstate?No.”
“We’re supposed to pretend you’re my girlfriend. We met online and this is our first time meeting in person. We decided it was finally time for you to come stay withme.”
“Ah-uh. Interesting.” I let out a deep breath and for once embrace the ache in my ribs. It reminds me that I’m not in good enough shape to jump on Scott’s shoulders and snap hisneck.
“It makes sense,” Si says. His tone is flat, but he sounds like he actually believes we should go along with this stupid plan. He sounds like he’s annoyed that Scott was smart enough to come up with the ideafirst.
“Really?” I say, tilting my head. “Doesit?”
“Well it’s pretty bootleg witness protection, but if you’re trying to stay out of sight for awhile it wouldn’t make sense for me to tell anyone who you really are. Unless you want meto.”
I push my knuckles up under my chin for a second and reconsider every moment I’ve ever spent with Scott and how badly I want to chase him down whatever dirt road he just pulled off on so I can cuss him clean the fuck out. “I don’t. I have a family and friends I’m worried about. It’s better if no one knows where Iam.”
“So that’s settled. How do you want to dothis?”
“What do you mean ‘how do you want to do this?’ Doyouwant to pretend I’m your girlfriend? Areyouokay withmecoming into your life like this? We’re going to your home. I assume you have at least a few friends, maybe some coworkers you go drinking with. I don’t want to mess up whatever you have going on. You and Scott don’t seem all that close, and it looks like he wouldn’t have a clue if I was screwing with any part of yourlife.”
“You’re not,” hesays.
“Okay, well. Do you have any weird shit that I should know about since I’m going to be staying in your house? Shit a girlfriend should knowabout?”
“Not really and it won’t matter. You won’t see memuch.”
I don’t know how to respond tothat.
