Page 32 of The Saint

Then, “He gets one more chance, then he’s dead meat.”

In the time it took me to process her words and try to pull some logic from them, she’d started off toward the courts. Jermaine shriveled, hiding behind Dion as if that guy could protect him from Jael. But Jael, she was storming toward them like she’d scented a kill.

And that’s what frightened me the most.

“Hey!” I called after her, jogging to catch up. But she didn’t stop until she was before the fence the guys were hanging on.

Tyrone lifted his chin, giving her a smile that had my stomach tied up.

No.

This couldn’t be happening.

“What up?”

Jael’s hands went to her hips, and I had to give props to Tyrone for not shying away. “Who are you?”

He chuckled, backed away from the fence and rounded the corner of it until he’d stopped in front of her. He extended his hand to her, and my world shook, the ruins crumbling as she lifted her hand to his.

“Tyrone Martin,” he said, shaking her hand, and she followed along as if she’d been doing this handshake her entire life. Palm to palm, backhand to backhand, fist on top of fist before pounding them together.

“Jael David,” she said back, before moving along, shaking hands and exchanging names with Jamal, Dion, Jorges, Rubin, Reggie, and Jermaine.

“Dah-veed, huh?” Jermaine asked, emphasizing each syllable, and I readied myself to lunge at Jael, to stop her from tearing his head off. “Sounds exotic.”

Jael’s face twitched, lips pulling into a barely concealed sneer. “It’s Israeli.”

“You his muscle? Keepin’ him away from the courts?” the guy asked, and her sneer pulled down into a frown.

“What are you talking about?”

“Doc Zee said he ain’t supposed to play,” Jamal supplied. “Figured he’d need some muscle to keep him from coming here.”

Jael turned her mossy gaze on me. “Zee told you not to come here?”

My hand scraped across my jaw. “He said I couldn’t play, not that I couldn’t come here.”

She glanced at my shoulder, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“Too bad, too,” Jermaine said. “We could use another man.”

The thin line of Jael’s lips turned upward, and I couldn’t help but smile back, no matter how much I didn’t want this. Didn’t want her mixing with this part of my life.

I needed them to stay separate.

“That is too bad,” Jael said, turning toward the guys. “That you think you need a man.”

That brought a chorus of drawn-out whoas and a couple of damns, and even an “oh no, she didn’t!” But from me, there was nothing but laughter and pride.

This girl.

She’d been my partner in crime growing up. When she was bullied off the basketball team, the two of us played against each other and her brothers every chance we got. She played tough, was better than anyone would ever expect from looking at her.

And she never backed down.

“You wanna back those words with some action?”

Jael’s brow rose, and she turned an amused smile my way. “What do you think, Rolly? Can these boys keep up?”