Uppercut Princess (The Heights Crew #1)(72)

His list of things to do sounds like a bunch of “duh.” I roll my eyes to tell him what I think about it. His jaw tenses, the coppery stubble of his beard sticking straight out in some parts now that he’s agitated with me.

“I won’t do anything stupid,” I promise.

Those sound like famous last words, but I’m going with it.

Magnum holds the hoodie out to me and then gets out of the car. I work it over my chest. Despite the fact that it’s big for me, it just barely conceals the fact that I’m wearing a bullet stopping vest. I hope I won’t need it, but the brick in my stomach tells me I’m not sure either.

I step out, and Magnum slams the door to the car behind me. Much like where K lives, we’re in an underground parking lot. This area of the city is a lot less dingy however. We take the elevator up to the highest level and step out. Magnum steps forward first, standing there in his tactical black pants and tight-fitting black shirt. He has bodyguard written all over him.

Unlike where K and Johnny live, though, we’ve come right out into Fonz’s … place of business? It’s definitely not homey like a house. There are glass walls everywhere that lead into different rooms with large tables like usually meetings are held behind the closed doors.

Johnny steps out of a room down the hall, his face grim. He nods when he sees me, and for some inexplicable reason, the fact that he’s here calms me.

A guy, dressed much like Magnum, moves forward. He has a metal detector wand in his hand accompanied by a cocky grin. “You understand?” he says to Magnum.

Magnum shrugs, taking the usual position. The wand goes off by his belt where he keeps his gun.

“You can just take that out and set it on the table,” Fonz’s guard says. “You can get it back after the meeting.”

Magnum does what he’s told and then moves to stand next to Johnny. I’m next. Nerves prick, making their way to the very tips of my fingers until it’s painful. The guard just stares at me for a moment until Johnny shifts on his feet.

“Eyes to yourself,” Magnum finally says.

The guard smirks. “Nothing I want. Just wondering what the big fuss is about.”

“Appearances aren’t everything,” I say. “Your ugly ass should know.”

The guy’s jaw ticks, but I smile up at him. What did he expect me to do? Stand quietly? Then again, Magnum did warn me to keep my mouth shut.

He waves the wand over me, and when he bends down to start at my feet, Johnny smirks at me. He winks, and I smile back. The wand goes off on my back pocket. He reaches inside to grab my phone, but that’s not all he grabs. He takes a fistful of my ass in his palm.

I don’t think. I react.

Fuck this asshole.

I wind my arm around his until I’m gripping his upper shoulder, then I pull him toward me, connecting his gut with my knee. He groans, his breath leaving him as I whisper into his ear. “You shouldn’t touch something that isn’t yours.”

“Bitch!”

Before he can lunge at me, Magnum puts his hand on his other shoulder, gripping him hard. “I wouldn’t if I were you. I’m sure your boss wouldn’t like the fact that you took your liberties with one of ours. You want to die on that sword? You fuck with her, you fuck with the rest of us.”

My mouth dries. To the side of Magnum, Johnny is fucking furious, and I don’t even think he knows why I did what I did. Magnum either for that matter.

“Just get the bitch away from me,” the guard seethes.

Magnum pulls the guy up and looks at me, telling me to remove my hold on him. When I don’t do it right away, his expression becomes stonier, the look telling me I better fucking comply right now.

I ease up on the pressure, and the guy pulls his hand from my back pocket and steps back. Johnny throws him to the side so he can come to me, and all the guy can do is sneer at us.

“Is there a problem?” another guard asks, peeking his head out from the mouth of the room at the end of the hall.

We all wait for what the guy’s going to say. I doubt he’ll say anything because if he does, he’ll have to admit I bested him with a knee to the gut, which never fucking feels good.

“You okay?” Johnny whispers into my ear.

I nod. “He grabbed my ass,” I say, feeling like I need to explain myself to them since I’ve completely went against everything Magnum told me not to do while we were in the car.

Johnny growls under his breath, eyeing the fucker like he would take his head off if he could.

I swallow, knowing I’m still playing with fire. If Johnny finds out about Brawler and Oscar, I can imagine what he’ll do since he won’t be worried about starting a gang war then. He’ll relish in taking them out for disobeying him.

Especially Oscar. Brawler doesn’t have the ties Oscar does. Oscar would get decimated. He could kiss his football career goodbye even though he doesn’t think he has one anyway. If he’s alive to worry about it, he’ll have to go back to the life he had when he got back from Spring Hill.

Johnny leans over to feather a kiss across my cheek as we follow Magnum and Fonz’s guard to the end of the hall. The space opens up to a room with floor to ceiling windows. The building we’re in is one of the tallest in this shitty city, and from this height, you can’t see all the disadvantage below. The dirty streets are farther away. The drug dealers on every corner are just people having friendly conversation with others. The room itself is dark though. The furniture, the adornments are all black with the walls a light gray color.