Hustle Me by Jennifer Foor Page B

had finished his match and he was all over his girl. Jaye was steady watching me. Before I broke what I knew would be my last rack, the three of them approached me. “Hey, yo, we are going to head out. You going to crash at my place?” He turned and looked at Charlie before looking back at me. Jaye must have caught it, because suddenly she was wrapping her arms around me and kissing on my neck. I pushed her away slowly, but kept looking at Tippy. “Just take them home, I’ll walk back to your place when I’m done.”  
    There was no sense in making any smart comments around either girl. I wasn’t going to be in town long and I wasn’t about to make any more trouble for Charlie.  
    He shook my hand. “Cool, man, see you later.”  
    Jaye leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. “Don’t make me wait too long.” She looked over at Charlie. “I can’t wait to have a repeat of what we did last night.”  
    Why were women so vicious and possessive?  
    I grabbed her arms and had to clench my jaw to keep from saying something ignorant. This was why I didn’t do relationships. “Yeah, see you later.”  
    Charlie walked them out and as I bent down to start the next rack, I heard female voices talking and then the door shutting. When she didn’t return, I knew she thought it was her way to get away from me. I don’t know if I was just overly annoyed, but I ran out on the guy and didn’t even remember making the shots. He was pissed, but shook my hand to be a good sport about it. “You ever going to be back in town for a rematch?” He asked.  
    I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, man. Maybe.”  
    “Look me up, dude. We’ll make it happen. You’re a good shot, a damn good shot.”  
    I looked back to make sure Charlie wasn’t around. “I learned how to play from Joker himself.”  
    “Figures! It’s a shame he’s gone. That poor girl is going to lose this place in no time. She isn’t really a people person, if you know what I mean.” His other buddy started laughing with him.  
    We hung out for about thirty more minutes before the guys said they had to go. Sometimes, it was better to shoot the shit than to walk away and make enemies. I’d made a quick grand and the two dudes seemed to be pretty cool.  
    I walked with them toward the door and noticed that Charlie was nowhere to be found. “Hey, I’m just going to tell her we’re leaving so she can lock up. You guys have a good night.” I locked the door once they left and headed toward the kitchen. When I got ready to walk back out, I noticed that the door was cracked open, leading to the back alley. I don’t know why, but I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach and I just knew something wasn’t right.  My feet started running before my brain could register what I was doing.  
    I no sooner got out of the door when I saw some guy pushing Charlie up against the building. I plowed into him, sending him falling to the ground. Charlie was crying, but my main concern was kicking the shit out of this thug. I grabbed him by his shirt and punched him in his jaw. He fell down on his side and rolled over to spit blood from his mouth. When he tried to get up, I kicked him. “Stay down!” I looked over at a very distressed Charlie. “Get inside and call the damn cops.”  
    She ran inside the building and I stayed to make sure the loser didn’t get up. When I knew she was out of sight, I grabbed his collar again. “What were you doing?”  
    He held his hands over his face. “He left the door open for me. I wasn’t going to hurt her. I was just supposed to scare her.”  
    Anger filled me and, for whatever reason, I slammed his head into the concrete. “Who sent you?”  
    “I don’t know. I swear.” He was scared of what I was going to do next and he needed to be.  
    “You tell whoever sent you here that they have to go through me to get to her. You got it?” Spit was coming out of my mouth, I was so enraged. I shoved him