“Your other one is on the low side too,” Felix said. “I’ll follow you to the gas station up the street. We’ll get air in both tires.”
“Oh no,” she said, quickly embarrassed now that she’d been so irresponsible as to drive around with two near flat tires. “You don’t have to do that. I can go by myself.”
The look he gave her was a first she’d seen from him. It was almost a disgusted one. “By yourself, in this area, at night, are you kidding me?”
It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to the area, but he did have a point. “I just don’t want to burden you or anything.”
His expression eased up, but it was still serious. “Not a burden at all, and I’d feel better knowing you got air in them instead of driving all the way home with them like that.”
Feeling her tail between her legs, she got in her car and waited the few minutes she knew she had to for it to warm enough so it wouldn’t be sputtering embarrassingly like she knew it would the first few blocks if she didn’t. After a few minutes, she took off. Though it did sputter a couple of times, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been.
She giggled as she pulled into the gas station up the street, wondering what Felix might be thinking as he drove behind her sputtering car with two flats while he sat in his luxurious car. The air pumps were way in the back. She drove there but spun around so that she could back into the area. Felix pulled up next to her and got out, pulling change out of his pocket.
“I have it,” she said, digging in her purse. “How much is it?”
Again he flashed her that are-you-kidding-me look, though it wasn’t quite as severe as his earlier one. Before she could fish out a few coins from her purse, Felix already had the machine going and was squatting down next to her tire.
A quick siren cutting short just behind Ella startled her, and she turned to see a squad car pulling up next to her. This wasn’t the first time Grayson had done this to her. He smiled big as she clutched her chest and shook her head at him.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said as he and his partner laughed.
She glared at him playfully. “Yes, you did.”
Grayson smirked, looking her over as he always did. “We were passing by and saw you. Just wanted to make sure everything is okay.”
“Everything’s fine. My tires just needed air.”
Grayson’s eyes were immediately on Felix, though from the angle they were at, they could only see his big back. He eyed him for a moment then turned back to Ella. “Is that a friend or just a good Samaritan helping you out?”
Ella wasn’t sure how to refer to Felix’s relation to her. She was about to tell Grayson Felix was a friend when Grayson’s partner pointed at Felix’s car. “Holy shit is that a Bentley?”
Grayson’s attention was now on the car, and he smiled wide-eyed. “Sure is.” They both got out of the squad car to get a better look. “Who the hell would be driving one of these in this neighborhood?”
“That would be me,” Felix said as both officers turned to look at Felix, now on his feet and walking toward them.
Both Grayson and his friend were stunned speechless for a moment as they realized who Felix was. Then Grayson turned back to Ella, his amused and playful demeanor suddenly going a bit dark. Ella shrugged. “You guys know Felix Sanchez, right?”
Chapter 7
Felix
“Oh, hell yeah! We know who Sanchez is,” Grayson’s partner said, reaching out to shake Felix’s hand. “I’m Chase; this is my partner Grayson.”
Grayson reached out to shake Felix’s hand, though his reaction wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as his partner’s.
“That’s a hell of a ride,” Chase said, walking around the Bentley to get a closer look.
“It gets me to and from the gym.”
Chase laughed. “I bet it does. Look at this shit. This is awesome!” He glanced away from the car to look at Felix. “So what brings you around these parts?”
Felix glanced at Grayson, who still didn’t look quite as enthused as Chase. It had hit Felix like a jolt when he was still filling Ella’s tires with air when he realized who it was that was talking to her. Maybe Felix’s interest in her wasn’t purely business after all. He’d heard the implication in Grayson’s voice when he asked if Felix was a friend or a Good Samaritan helping her out. It had Felix suddenly hoping she wouldn’t clarify just what Felix was to her.
He knew Chase was likely more interested in knowing what he was doing in town, not so much what he was doing at the gas station, but he decided he’d rather explain that part.
“We went out to dinner, and when I went to drop her off, I noticed how low her tires were, so I wanted to get them fixed ASAP.”
Now Grayson’s eyes were on Ella, and Felix could see that he’d hit nerve.
“Oh yeah,” Chase said, nodding. “You don’t wanna mess with that. You might get pulled over.” He winked at Ella, who smiled a bit timidly, then looked back at Felix. “You know what? My girlfriend isn’t gonna believe this. Do you mind if I take a picture with you?”
“Not at all. Go for it,” Felix said.
Chase hurried back to the squad car and reached in for his phone. Grayson said something to Ella Felix didn’t catch from where he was standing. Felix took advantage of the fact that Grayson continued saying something else to her in a lowered voice and wasn’t looking at him to give the guy a once over. He had a good sized build, but Felix could tell a lot of it was the bulletproof shit under his clothes. It was obvious the guy was nowhere near as enthused about meeting Felix as Chase was; he actually looked a little pissed now.
Chase walked over to Grayson and asked him to take the picture. They posed in front of the Bentley. When Grayson was done snapping a couple of photos, Chase asked him to get in with them.
“Nah, I’m good.” Grayson said, holding out the phone to Chase.
“You sure?” Chase asked again just as a voice came over the two-way radios each had attached to their shoulders.
That’s when Grayson’s unimpressed eyes locked on Felix’s as he shook his head again. “I don’t really do pictures.” He pressed the button on his shoulder and spoke into it in that code Felix had often heard cops talk in, giving off his location and rattling off some numbers. “That’s us, Whitley,” he said to Chase. “We gotta go.”
Chase thanked Felix again for the photos and shook his hand again. “It was awesome to meet you, man.”
Grayson started toward the squad car. No more handshakes from that guy. He barely nodded in Felix’s direction but didn’t say another word to him. Instead, he turned to Ella as he reached the squad car. “I’ll call you tonight. Answer your phone.”
He turned back to Felix with a no-longer-friendly vacant stare. Felix tried not to let it bother him, but it felt like a slap in the face. Unless Ella was able to clarify in the short lowered voiced exchange she’d had with Grayson that they’d actually gone out as a group to eat, this guy was still under the impression they’d gone out to dinner alone. That meant he’d just told Felix’s date he’d be calling her tonight, and he’d done so right in front of him. From what Felix had seen, Grayson had done most of the talking, so he didn’t think there’d been any clarification on Ella’s part. If that was the case, then one thing was for sure. This guy didn’t give a fuck if Felix was seeing Ella now, and he was making that crystal clear. He knew it shouldn’t matter. Felix wasn’t seeing her. Still, Grayson had sent his message loud and clear. Maybe Ella thought things were over, but obviously, they weren’t for him.
They skidded out of the parking lot with their lights on. Even though they had gotten called out, Felix still got the feeling skidding out of there had been all for his sake.
Felix stared at Ella for a moment without saying anything until she took a quick deep breath. “So are both tires good now?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “But I’d keep an eye on the one on the left. I think that one may have a slow leak. It was the lower of the two.”
&nb
sp; “Thank you so much,” she said, checking out the tires. “I will. I’ll have my dad look at it tomorrow before I leave for school.”
“I thought you said you’d be at 5th Street all day tomorrow.”
She looked at him a bit strangely; then it seemed she understood. “Oh, I will. I just have to pick up some notes from a friend, but then I’ll go straight to the gym.”
He wanted to ask her about Grayson, but he knew it was too damn personal. Even when Drew had asked her about him today, she seemed a little uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted to do was end the evening on an awkward note. Already tonight there’d been a few moments when she hadn’t seemed completely at ease, and he didn’t like it.
“I’ve taken up enough of your time, Felix. I’ll let you go now.”
“No worries at all,” he said, getting caught up in eyes that after tonight he thought anything but plain. She was anything but plain. “I was happy to do it.”
She held his gaze for a moment before smiling and nodding then saying goodbye as she got in her car.
Felix drove away, unable to fight the feeling that maybe he was in trouble. Trouble because he’d known this girl for all of one day and already all he could think about was getting back to 5th Street tomorrow and seeing her again. He tried to shake it, but what made the feeling worse was that feelings like this brought back memories. The only other time he could remember anything remotely close to what he was suddenly feeling for a girl he hardly knew was years ago when he’d run into Bianca where she was working in Big Bear. She made such a striking first impression on him that he’d gone back to her job to ask her if she wanted to have coffee. Like when he’d seen Ella that first day across the gym, he’d done a double take with Bianca as well. Only with Bianca, he remembered having been instantly struck by her beauty. This time it was completely different. There was far more to his intrigue with Ella.
~~~
The following few days were frustrating as shit. First off, the very next day Drew had brought in a lone camera guy to follow her and Ella around. Felix had been busy in the training room. The rematch wasn’t set yet, but Noah thought it’d be best if he started stepping up the unofficial training before the formal stuff started.
The few times he had spotted Ella she’d been busy laughing it up with camera boy, and Drew was nowhere to be found. The only time he’d gotten to talk to her at all was when all three were on their way out and he stopped to ask how the filming had gone. Even then, Drew had done most of that talking. As usual, he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off Ella the whole time Drew spoke.
The moment Drew was done talking, Felix turned to Ella. “How are the tires?”
“Still look good,” she said, smiling. As usual, his eyes were immediately on her lips.
It was like a damn magnet. No matter how hard he tried to be cool and not stare at her mouth, his eyes inevitably ended up there. “Make sure you check them before you get in again.”
This time it was her pulling a strand of hair behind her ear that distracted him from staring at her lips when she smiled again. But that was it; she was gone.
Friday he hadn’t even made it into 5th Street because Grecco’s people were ready to seriously talk about the rematch. They said they had an offer Felix would like. The talks had gone well. There were still a few things they needed to agree on and would be getting back to Felix, but Rene said it really looked as if it were going to happen.
Then Saturday 5th Street was having a blood drive they had every few months where the local radio station showed up to broadcast from the gym and tried to get as many people in there donating blood. Both Adelina and Rene thought it’d make for some positive press, something they insisted he could use more of, especially since it was looking like this rematch with Grecco was going to happen. He’d be all over the news again soon, but they wanted it to be for a good reason this time—positive stories. His donating blood and then helping out and possibly doing a short live interview on the radio show would be great PR.
Felix couldn’t agree more, and he had no issues with it. Everything was going fine. He even got a chance to chat with Ella alone for a while. She’d stopped by to donate blood and he’d had her all to himself as she sat back, helplessly unable to go anywhere as her blood bag filled. It was as if a strange metamorphosis had occurred from the day he’d first met her until now. Everything about her was sweeter than before: her eyes, the cute way her lips curled to one side when she was listening to him so intently. As ridiculous as he knew it sounded, even her voice sounded sweeter. If he hadn’t been able contain his constant gazing before, it’d gotten even harder to refrain, but worse now, he couldn’t keep himself from smiling like an idiot the whole time he was around her.
He almost felt like a jerk because he knew she couldn’t avoid a direct question at a moment like that, but he had to know. He hadn’t stopped thinking about it since that night.
“So did you answer your phone?”
She looked at him strangely, tilting her head and doing that thing with her lips again. As usual, his eyes were immediately on them. “When?”
“Wednesday night.”
She still looked confused; then it seemed to hit her and her expression went blank. “Grayson?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled nervously. “He sounded so serious when he told you to answer your phone. I was just curious if you had.”
She shook her head, and seeing the annoyance in her eyes was more than he could’ve asked for. He’d hoped the way the guy talked to her, even if it had been on the subtle side, was not something she allowed.
“No,” she said. “He knew I wouldn’t. He just . . .” She shook her head, rolling her eyes, but at the same time, he saw something else in her eyes. “There’s a reason why things didn’t work out between him and me, and that’s part of it.”
The attendant came over to remove the filled bag of Ella’s blood and remove the needle from her arm. After instructing her to lie there for a few more minutes before sitting up, the young attendant walked away. At first, Felix hesitated to ask too much about Grayson like he wanted to but then thought what the hell? He may as well ask while they were still on the subject.
“So were you with him for a long time, or is that just how Carmen sees it?”
For a second, he thought she saw surprise in his continued line of questioning about Grayson, but just as quickly, she was back to the ever unruffled Ella. The one he still didn’t want to admit he’d become far too interested in way too fast.
Her answer was surprisingly detailed. She’d known the guy for about two years. They were friends for a long time first and did a lot of talking on the phone and such. They went to the movies and got together casually, but she made it clear she couldn’t do more. “I had so much going on with my brother’s legal issues and all and then trying to get this self-defense class thing going that I didn’t have time to do the relationship thing.”
The attendant walked over just as she was getting to the part about when she’d actually gotten together with the guy. She walked over to the area where everyone else who’d donated were sitting having juice and cookies while they waited a little longer to be dismissed. Felix got her some juice and sat next to her, unwilling to let the conversation go. Luckily, he didn’t have to nudge her to go on. She did on her own.
“Carmen says we’ve been together forever because that’s how long it feels like I’ve been telling her about him, but it wasn’t until well over a year of knowing and hanging out with him that, you know”—she glanced away, taking a sip of her juice—“we actually got together.”
Felix stared at her, mentally willing her to go on. He couldn’t believe how this girl could continue to impress him. During her interview with Drew the other night, she spoke briefly about having lost her sister to gang violence in her neighborhood. Felix knew firsthand all about how dangerous it was to live in her neighborhood. He’d grown up in the same area. A guy like Grayson could be her ticket out of the neighborhood that h
ad already done her family so wrong. How much safer could she feel than being married to a cop?
On paper, Grayson seemed to be the ideal guy for her. Yet apparently she’d dumped him since he was still coming around to see her at the gym and demanding she answer his calls. Felix was dying to know now what, besides his pushy attitude, he could have done to blow it with her.
As if reading his mind, she shrugged. “He changed after things got a little more serious.”
Feeling his brows pinch curiously, he had to ask, “Changed how?” She tilted her head, and from what little he knew of her, he’d begun to pick up on few things about her, so he answered her unasked question. “I’m just curious. You don’t have to answer if you’d rather not.”
“No, I don’t mind.” She smiled again, and his eyes were instantly on her lips.
He looked up at her again when he realized what he was doing. Damn it! He was going to have to stop doing that. But he wasn’t sure what was worse because now he was caught in her eyes.
“There you are!”
Felix and Ella turned at the same time to see Adelina walking up to them, smiling. She wore a black body-hugging dress that buttoned down the front with big belt high at her waist. As usual, she was covered in jewels, and she clutched her oversized Luis Vuitton handbag in one hand, glancing down at her phone in the other hand.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ve been looking for you for a while, and no one could find you. I’m on my way out now. I just wanted to let you know I’ve covered the guy who’s going to be interviewing you on what he can and can’t ask you, and I sent you a text just so you’re clear on what you can and can’t say yet regarding a possible rematch with Grecco.” She stopped and smiled, glancing at Ella then back at Felix. “No one said you might be giving blood, or I would’ve come here first thing.”