Cops & Robbers

Chapter Fifteen

“Are you not enjoying our quality time together?” He simpered.

That’s about the time reason hit me over the side of the head like a ton of bricks. “How would you even know that I needed a ride? Up until ‘approximately 35 minutes, give or take ten minutes’ ago, I didn’t even know I would need one!”

“Glory hallelujah! She finally asks the right question!”

I childishly stuck my tongue out at him. Nothing appealed more to me than to knock him upside the head, but I couldn’t for several reasons. The most important of which was the fact that he was driving.

“Well?” I spat out.

The vehicle came to a stop and as I quickly took stock of my surroundings, I realized we were already at Ben’s house. Considering the distance between my old place and Ben’s, Vincent had to have been flying.

“I came to deliver a warning.” He replied in a low rumble.

It didn’t escape me that he was redirecting the conversation, nor did the meaning of the words themselves. A warning was never good.

“Well where is it?” I snapped, hoping that the fear bubbling up in the pit of my stomach stayed out of my voice. “Because so far all you’ve done is make sardonically vague sexual innuendos in regards to my relationship with Alex.”

“I’m so proud of you, not one lie or curse word left those luscious lips of yours even though you were angry.”

“There’s no ‘were’ about it asshole,” I taunted with extra emphasis on my non-endearing term, “I am angry. What is this Jeopardy? Am I supposed to guess? Because if so, I’ll take ‘Stop Dicking Around and Give Me The Frickin Warning’ for 500.”

The headlights of the taxi clicked off and Vincent turned around in his seat. His face was dead serious and the general vibe he was sending did not bode well. The rap sheet that I’d heard about from a few of my more credible sources suddenly came crashing back to the forefront of my mind. Somehow, despite the danger that he emanated, his indulgent and sometimes suggestive comments, made it easy to forget that he was found guilty of murder. He was in a criminal class completely different than the one I was used to dealing with. My circle of friends didn’t kill you when things went wrong; they beat the shit out of you to ensure future cooperation.

The last thing I expected for him to do was sigh. “Look kid, I actually like you. You’re alright. You might have too much of a tongue on you, but I can see how you get under so many people’s skin. Good or bad. But word on the street is that something big is going down… something involving people that you know. From the contacts we have in common and our short acquaintance, I can tell that if something goes down, you’ll be right in the fray. My warning to you is this: the decisions you make and even the ones you help make will determine if people live or die and you can count yourself as one of the people who might not make it.”

My blood ran cold as I listened to the words and the expression on his face as he delivered them, left no doubt in my mind of their legitimacy.

“Why bother with a warning? Why not just let me go on my merry way until the shit hits the fan?”

Silence filled the car once more and I watched as he contemplated whether or not to respond. “Because I’ll be the one that pulls the trigger.”

Suddenly the car seemed too small. I needed out; I needed a breath of fresh air. I was close to panicking when I tried to open the door only to realize that the child safety was on and that I had no way of getting out. Not even the windows responded when I frantically pressed the button with the window icon.