Renegade (2013) Read Free Page B

It had been in Somalia, with Lance Corporal—now Corporal—Bekah Shaw. He’d been part of her rifle team during the action over there. After his return to the States, he’d gone back to his routine at the apartment and the garage, but it always took a while to settle in. He enjoyed his time in the Marines as a reservist, but he liked his time alone as well.
    Hector carefully spread grape jelly on his toast, then took a bite. A spot of jelly clung to his chin and he didn’t notice.
    Pike pointed to his own chin. “You got something there.”
    Hector picked up a paper napkin Pike had saved from a late-night Taco Bell run and wiped his chin. “Thank you.”
    “No prob.” Pike bit into a piece of bacon, savored the flavor as he chewed, then swallowed. “So did you just come by for breakfast this morning?”
    Hector shook his head. “No. I wanted to make sure you were all right.”
    “Why wouldn’t I be all right?”
    “The crack house burned last night.”
    Pike didn’t say anything.
    “I thought maybe you had something to do with that.” Hector looked at him with those big brown eyes. “Did you?”
    “Maybe there are some things you’re better off not knowing.”
    “I can keep a secret.”
    “Yeah, me too.”
    They ate in silence for a little while, but Hector always had questions. Sometimes they were questions about his homework, which Pikeoccasionally helped him with down at the garage after school. Every now and again, Pike had gotten Monty—the garage owner—to help out. Monty had kids and knew more about homework. Pike knew how to do a lot, most of it self-taught, but he didn’t always know how teachers wanted homework done. He could usually get the answer, just not the right way or in a way that Hector could understand.
    “Where did you learn to cook?”
    “In juvie.” Pike wouldn’t lie about that. The crack house was a different story. “You know what juvie is, right?”
    Hector nodded. “Yeah. Where they put the bad kids.”
    “Yeah.”
    “You were a bad kid?”
    “Partly. I didn’t have any parents. So I got stuck in the orphanage and in foster homes. I didn’t like them. After a while, they put me in juvie.”
    “Oh.” Hector took another bite of eggs, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed. “They taught you how to cook real good.”
    “Thanks.”
    Hector looked at him. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt last night.”
    Pike thought a minute about how to best handle that. Finally he just nodded. “Me too. Now finish your breakfast. You don’t want to be late for school.”

3
    PIKE’S CELL PHONE rang at 7:17 a.m. while he was at the bodega a few blocks from his apartment building. He’d gone in to pick up a newspaper and a cup of coffee to take to work. Monty was a master with engines, but his coffee-brewing skills lacked. Pike had never bothered to tell him.
    As he stood in line for the cashier, Pike answered the phone.
    Monty started speaking at once. “You in some kind of trouble, Pike?”
    “No. Why?”
    “I got two detectives here at the garage asking questions about you.”
    Feeling a little cornered, stepping back into the old days in a heartbeat, Pike looked through the advertisement-covered windows out onto the street. Everything seemed normal. “Are you sure they’re cops?”
    “Yeah. I been in some trouble before too, buddy. I know what cops are like. These are the real deal. I made them show me their badges and their IDs. Ain’t my first rodeo.”
    “They say what they want?”
    “You. They’ve been real interested in what time you normally come in. I told them around eight. They wanted to know where you lived. I didn’t tell them that. I figured they could look that up at the DMV.”
    Pike knew that too. The detectives could have been knocking on his door that morning instead of Hector. That meant they’d chosen to meet him at his work. “They don’t have anything on me, Monty. If they did, they’d have come to my apartment.”
    “That’s what I