Hush Money by Susan Bischoff Page B

blind-spots—or the blindest spots. You’ll want
to know where you’re going when we do the job, right? You’re also
gonna log some practice time, you and Rob, moving together, and the
rest of us are going to watch to see how good a job you do keeping
him covered.”
    “This is way too complicated. And for beer?
Come on, Marco. Give me a break. You want beer, let’s hit Casey’s.
One camera, one employee…”
    “This is what we’re doing, Dylan, and I’m
getting tired of your bullshit whining.”
    “Seriously, grow some balls, man,” Jeff put
in, still casually scanning the grounds.
    “This isn’t about balls, it’s about brains,”
I told Jeff. “And if you had any at all—but then what do you have
to do but go in the back and put some beer in a truck? Or is Jeff
just gonna be the lookout?”
    It was dumb to antagonize them, but damn. I
saw Marco look at me hard before Jeff shoved me into Eric. Then he
was all up in my face, with Eric trying to get between us.
    “Knock it off.” Marco grabbed Jeff with one
hand and yanked him off me. Jeff worked his shoulder, trying to be
casual, but I knew that had to hurt. “And you too,” he said to me.
“You wanna know more about the plan, you ask me later. But we’re
doing this, and that’s the end of it.”
    Marco took a step back and looked around,
scanning the grounds to see if anyone was taking too much notice of
us or the scuffle. Then he smiled, and was looking off in the
direction where Joss and Kat were sitting on a rock wall near the
street.
    “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see some ladies
who need my attention.”
    I pushed away from the wall, ready to follow
him, but Eric grabbed my arm. I looked at him. He shook his
head.
    I got the message.
    Not the time to mess with him.
    I knew he was right. And I hated it.

    * * *

    Joss

    “It wasn’t how it looked.”
    “Really? ’cause it looked like you and
Marco—who I thought you didn’t like—were getting all cozy up
there in the stairwell, that you knew Jeff was messing with that
girl and you did absolutely nothing about it. Do you really have
something against Trina? Did you think it was funny, or you just
didn’t care?”
    I opened my mouth and closed it again. I
didn’t even know which of those to deal with first. I thought about
the look Trina gave me before she left, the one that said she
thought I’d enjoyed watching Jeff mess with her because I hated
her.
    “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t do anything and you
had to get involved, ok? I was having some of my own problems at
the time, and if Trina didn’t make any effort to help herself, what
was I supposed to do?”
    “She was scared.”
    “So was I!”
    Kat gave me her piercingly assessing look
again. I’d never thought of myself as prone to blurting out stupid
things like that, but I wasn’t used to talking a whole lot. I
realized I had people avoidance almost down to an art form. I never
had to have personal conversations unless it was deflecting my
parents, which didn’t count.
    “Anyway,” I said, trying to redirect, “I’m
sorry for what I said to you after. It was cool, what you
did—whatever it was. You stand up, and that’s cool.” How many times
was I going to say ‘cool’? “It’s just I’ve been on Marco’s bad side
for a while now and I know it’s a lousy place to be. You’ve pissed
him off twice in two weeks.”
    “Which gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling
inside.”
    “See? This is what I’m saying. You’re not
taking me seriously.”
    “Why Joss, it almost seems like you
care.”
    What was I supposed to say to that? She was
teasing me, but it was friendly. I didn’t know how to deal with
that. So I decided it was time to shut up.
    “I made him blind.”
    “Beg pardon?”
    “When I grabbed onto Jeff, I concentrated on
how pissed off I was and he went blind. Just temporarily. Like
maybe a minute or two.”
    What the Hell was wrong with this
girl? “Why did you tell me that? That’s exactly what