Fearless Jones Read Free

forehead I feared that it was a rat, that I was dead and he came in from the alley to eat my
     flesh. The thought of food caused me to writhe from nausea, and when I moved I felt her flowery dress.
    I knew it was her. That was my kind of luck. The kind of woman I wanted most, the kind of woman I should stay away from at
     all costs, that’s the woman who I will awaken to from a slumber that might have been death.
    “Are you okay?” she asked.
    I could barely see her in the darkness.
    “No.”
    “Does it hurt much?”
    “Like a toothache set in a broken jaw.”
    “I’m so sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch my brow again.
    “What’s your name?”
    “Elana Love. What’s yours?”
    “Paris Minton. Paris Minton.” The repetition was my attempt to extricate myself from the trouble in that room. But I wasn’t
     going anywhere, and neither was she.
    “That’s a nice name.”
    “How did you get back in here?” I asked.
    “I never left,” she said. “When Leon came in I looked for a back door, but I didn’t see one, so I squeezed in behind the file
     cabinet and waited until he left. I was going to run out, but then that other man came in.”
    “Why didn’t you say something?”
    “I thought you might be mad that I didn’t help you against Leon.”
    “Who is this Leon?”
    “Leon Douglas. We used to see each other before they sent him to jail. He was in for armed robbery and attempted murder, but
     a lawyer got him out.”
    “What did you do, cheat on him or something?”
    “No,” she said in a flash of anger. “I broke it off with himbefore he robbed that store. I told him that no love was gonna make me live with a criminal.”
    “Maybe he didn’t like that.”
    “He thinks I have somethin’, but I don’t have it. I don’t, but he won’t believe me.”
    “But Reverend Grove knows where it is?”
    “How did you know about him?” She was suddenly wary. “Oh, yeah. I told you.”
    “Does he?” I asked. For some reason talking made me feel better. I sat up.
    “Does who?”
    “Reverend Grove. Does he have what Leon wants?”
    “Uh-uh,” she said, but I wasn’t sure that I believed her. “I told Leon that he did though. I was seein’ William for a while
     back there, and I thought he could help me against Leon. But when the church was gone I didn’t know what to do.”
    Silence brought back the awareness of pain. I didn’t care about Grove or Leon either. I didn’t care what they were hiding
     or looking for.
    “Why are you still here?” I asked.
    “When you went outside I looked for a back door, but there wasn’t one, and where could I go anyway?” she asked. “Maybe Leon’s
     waiting around outside somewhere.”
    The thought of that killer lurking outside my door made me queasy again.
    “How did he know you were here?”
    “He made me come,” she said in a pained tone. “He told me to come in and get his property from William or else he was gonna
     break somebody’s neck.”
    “Yeah,” I said. “I got that.”
    “You have to help me, Mr. Minton.”
    “I can go to the market next door and use their phone to call the police,” I offered.
    “No. No, not the police.”
    “Why not? He’s threatenin’ you and he almost killed me.”
    “Leon has a lot of friends,” she said. “Even if he gets arrested, he’ll send somebody after me, and maybe you too.”
    “Me? Honey, I don’t know either one’a you. All I was doin’ was sittin’ here mindin’ my own business.” I thought of Fearless
     then, of how he was always saying how he was minding his own business when all hell broke loose.
    “But now that he’s seen you, he might think that you’re in this with me.”
    “In what? I don’t even know you.”
    Elana reached out and touched my chest then. It might sound like a silly gesture, but when a woman like that lays hands on
     you, it’s hard to ignore.
    “Listen, honey,” I said, despite my thrumming heart. “You’re gorgeous. I only meet a woman