The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ Chapter 9 ✖

When the Uber driver stopped the car in the middle of the bad pocket that was between Baldwin Park and East Colonial, and took a look around at the houses that had seen better days maybe a few decades back, at the neighbors with suspicion in their eyes and the yellowing vegetation, he asked me if this was really the place I was supposed to go. He did this by giving me a quick scan that read: you look too preppy for these parts.

"Yes, thank you," I told him, smiling so he wouldn't see how annoyed that made me. I might have been born American, but my parents had made sure to teach Toni and I about the Venezuelan survival skills. And besides, it was not the first time I was here and considering what I was about to get on, it was not going to be the last.

I got out of the car. I walked down the run down front yard and stopped by the front door, taking a deep breath and had a last second's worth of panic before knocking. It was Saturday morning and I'd been at the car shop with my homework, staking out the mechanics for any sightings of Sawyer. But he never showed up. When Manny told me that his buddy had requested the day off—with no pay, of course—I figured he must have guessed my plan. Which meant it was time to take the plan straight to his residence.

After two minutes of no sound of activity, I knocked again. Louder. The next door neighbor came out, sour looking as though he'd just woken up. It was already 10am and basically half of the day was already gone, geez.

"Sorry," I told him when it was clear he wanted to rip me a new one. I had to repeat the word for good measure since he kept glaring. I turned to knock on the door again when it opened.

I should have listened to the Uber driver and turned back around. I was so not ready for this, just the same as I wasn't ready for responsibility of having a car and driving myself around town like a grownup the way Toni did. I was either stuck here until I gathered my nerve to do this, or until a new Uber driver arrived to pick me up.

Not one to waste money, I decided to just get on with the program.

I had contemplated the possibility that Jack Logan would open the door. If that happened, I'd told myself, I was going to be polite and brief. He had always unsettled me, with his light blue eyes that seemed to cut at a glance and a certain nervous energy about him that made people think he was on the verge of some sort of breakdown. The good thing was that maybe because I was the boss's daughter he'd never treated me with anything but respect, so at least I had that going for me. I didn't think Jack would chuck that respect out the window even after papa had fired him.

But I needn't have worried. The one who opened the door was not Jack. It was the son. Hair mussed with sleep, shirt off and showing a whole lot of muscle that I didn't know he had. A whole lot of muscle that almost distracted me from the things that were really important. Mainly the massive bruise that had bloomed on his ribs and the fact that his split lip seemed recently re-split, which was strange considering that at this point he should've had a few days of healing.

He squinted against the sun. His eyes shone almost white as he zeroed in on me and asked, "Princess? What the fuck are you doing here?"

I folded my arms. "That's probably what I should be asking you, sans the f bomb. Why aren't you at work?"

Sawyer leaned against the door frame, unable to hide the fact that this caused him pain. I immediately looked back down at the bruise, and he folded his arms to try to hide it.

"Aww, don't tell me you actually care."

I rolled my eyes, just so he'd know I was not going to fall into his trap of goading me to distraction.

"Are you going to keep me waiting outside?" I asked him instead.

He tilted his head. "Are you planning on being long?"