“Jesus Christ, lady. Scared the hell out of me. You lost?” He looks me up and down, his expression bordering on appreciative when he takes in my dress.
“I am so damn lost and confused. I’ve never had my car towed before. I didn’t realize I’d parked in front of a fire hydrant. There were trash bags blocking it, and I couldn’t even see the damn thing.” I giggle as if it’s no big deal. “Sure enough, when I came back, my car was gone, and there was a damn fire hydrant where it was parked.”
He relaxes, and it’s hard to tell, but he appears to blush as he scans the ground before me. “I’m real sorry about that, ma’am, but in the interest of public safety, we can’t allow people to block fire hydrants when they park.”
“I know, I know.” I wave a hand through the air between us. “And I have no problem paying the fine. Trust me, I’ve learned my lesson. I just don’t understand where I’m supposed to go to get my car. I’ve never done this before.”
He turns to point in the direction of the brown building we drove by earlier, but it can’t be seen from where we are. “If you go just down the street and take a right, you’ll spot a building that says ...”
I think I see the black of Moses’s T-shirt on the other side of the fence, and I can’t take a chance the officer is just going to give me directions and send me on my way. So I loop my arm around his, even though he hasn’t offered it.
“Can you just walk me over there? I can probably find it myself, but walking around here at night by myself gives me the creeps. You’d hate to have something happen to me, wouldn’t you? Do you mind? I’d really appreciate it, Officer.”
His flashlight beam is pointed at the ground now, but his eyes are pointed straight at my tits.
Good. Look at my tits. As long as you don’t see my man.
“Well, I’m on my rounds ...”
I peek up at him from under my lashes. “Oh, shoot. I wouldn’t want to take you away from your duties. I just ... I’m a little scared of the dark, is all. You never know who’s out there or if they’re watching you. Just scares the bejesus out of me.”
I see the exact moment I win, because his face softens and he smiles.
“All right, ma’am. I’d be happy to escort you over there. You’ll have to work with the officers inside to get your car, though. That’s not my job.”
“Thank you so much, sir. You’re a true gentleman.”
As we start walking, me holding his arm, toward the building and away from the sliced fence, I could do a fist pump of victory.
Moses, however, might want to kill me.
Ten
Moses
“I’m going to kill her,” I say as soon as I slide into the SUV and Jules fires up the engine. “That wasn’t a fucking last resort. We could’ve gotten out—”
“Say what you want, man, but I would’ve done the same thing in her position,” Trey says, defending Magnolia’s actions. “If he kept coming your way, there was a damn good chance he would’ve seen the fence. You sure as fuck wouldn’t have got out the same way. And now cameras are up again.”
“What do you want me to do, boss?” Jules asks.
“Drive around the block and stop in front of the building.”
He cuts his face to mine. “You want me to park in between the fucking cop cars or what?”
“Yeah, whatever you gotta do. Just fucking go get her.”
He shakes his head slowly from side to side as he shifts the SUV into gear. “I hope she knows what the hell she’s doing.”
“You and me both,” I say as he circles the impound lot. I glance back at Trey. “Cut the camera in front of the building again. I don’t want Magnolia on the feed.”
As we turn the corner, I catch sight of the cop she was walking with, turning and leaving her in front of the building. “Slow down, Jules. Give him a few seconds to walk away.”
We crawl down the street as Magnolia picks her way carefully toward the ugly brown building. The swivel of her chin tells me she sees us coming, but she’s waiting for her cop escort to get out of sight before she changes direction and raises his suspicions.
Jules comes to a stop as the cop turns the corner, headed back down the fence line he’s going to find a slice in, when Magnolia dashes to the SUV.
“Trey, open the door.” I give the order, but Trey’s already on it, and Magnolia jumps up into the SUV and shuts the door. “All right. Go.”