She picked up a chocolate candy bar. “This wasn’t on the list.”
“I’m buying that with my own money.”
She turned the bar over in her hand. “You’ve got expensive taste.”
“Actually, I’m buying it for you as an apology for last night. I was abrupt and unthinking.”
Her expression didn’t soften.
“And stupid,” he added. Stupid for upbraiding her and stupid for not buying the chocolate before she showed up. He’d meant to offer the apology somewhere more romantic than the feminine hygiene aisle.
Her eyes met his. The coldness he’d seen all day was still there, going full blast. She handed the chocolate back to him. “You don’t need to apologize. It was my fault for giving you the wrong impression about me.”
She pulled a few boxes from the shelf and added them to the cart.
“The wrong impression being…?”
“That I’m—how did you put it? An easy mark.” She took the grocery list from the cart and scanned it.
This wasn’t going well. He’d insulted her more than he’d realized last night. She wouldn’t even accept his chocolate. He lowered his voice. “I didn’t think you were easy. I just…” What good excuse could he give for the way he’d stalked off and left her standing there? He couldn’t tell her he’d wanted to keep kissing her, and that had troubled him because he was deceiving her. “Can we please start over?”
“Sure.” She added another box to the cart’s supply.
“Good.” That was progress.
She scanned the list again. “In this redo, I’m a much harder mark. Less trusting, just like you advised.”
He put the candy bar back into the cart.
She quirked her eyebrows but didn’t come right out and ask why he was buying it. He lifted his hands in explanation. “I have a feeling I’m going to need the apology chocolate sooner or later. Might as well buy it now.”
They bought their items, left the store, and drove downtown. As Charity pulled into the parking garage, Enzo checked his phone again. Still no message from headquarters, coded or otherwise. Despite his attempts to dissuade Charity from going to Speedy’s—it was a dangerous part of town; they were likely to get mugged—she wasn’t having any of it.
“Do you know what’s really dangerous?” she asked, coasting into a parking spot. “Having an infection without access to antibiotics.” She tapped her sidearm. “We both have guns. No one will mess with us.”
And so now they were on their way to the ill-reputed pharmacy. The buildings in this part of town were dirty and run down with bars crisscrossing the windows. Overflowing trash cans spilled rubbish onto the sidewalks.
Graffiti covered Speedy’s and the shops next to it. Mostly slurs against Empowereds, raiders, and the police. Nice that he had equal billing with the worst of society.
A homeless guy sat near the doorway, his glassy eyes staring at people on the street. A lookout? Did Speedy hire those now?
Enzo tried to convince himself not to worry. Speedy had several employees. What were the chances he’d be working the back desk today? And even if he was, that didn’t mean he would remember Enzo. The bust had happened months ago, and police officers probably all looked the same to him.
He and Charity strolled inside. The store was long and thin with four rows of standing shelves stretching backward toward the pharmacy desk. TV screens played the news in the front near the checkout counters. Laws required businesses to play the government’s channel, but here, the volume was turned down low, and only captions ran across the screen.
Charity grabbed one of the shopping baskets and went to the first aid shelf to search for items the grocery store didn’t have. “See if they have any multivitamins,” she told Enzo. “Eight bottles if you can get them. Also, look for some pain-numbing cream.”
“Ok.” He moved down an aisle with painkillers, scoping out the place. A tall blond man with a mustache stood in the back at the pharmacy desk. Not Speedy. Things would be fine.
An empty space sat on the shelf where numbing cream should be. Enzo went down the vitamin aisle to see if he would have better luck there.
One of Speedy’s men was stocking the shelves. Enzo vaguely recognized the guy—shaved head and a scar at the corner of his mouth. The man was unnaturally thin, a sign he’d been a user for a long time. The sergeant had been sure the man was involved in illegal drug sales, but they hadn’t had the evidence to arrest him.
Enzo did his best to keep his face averted.
After a few moments, the man left the boxes on the ground and hurried to the back room.
That was probably normal employee behavior. Still, the sooner he and Charity got out of here, the better. He brought two bottles to her. “There’s a limit of one per customer. We can both be customers.”