LITMIR.BIZ

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you are. That’s why you won’t join. You’re scared of the heat.”

      “I can do what I want,” he began.

      “Oh, right,” he said, making a choked sort of laugh as he exchanged amused glances with his three companions, all of whom looked as ratty as he did. “That’s why you’re up here in an alternative school.”

      “I punched a teacher,” Tonio said, trying to make himself look good.

      “I put a teacher in the hospital,” the older boy countered. “Beat him almost to death. He was one of my dealers and he got cold feet.” His face tautened. “That’s what we do to people who cross us. If he’d tried to report us, or if he talked about me, to anybody, he’d be dead.”

      Tonio fought down the fear. “I gotta go,” he said.

      They moved around him, encircling him. “Oh, yeah? And what if we don’t want you to go, Tony boy?” Rado drawled. “What if we got a little job we want you to do for us?”

      Tonio felt real fear, but he tried not to show it. “I don’t have time.”

      “Lots of kids in that hospital. Scared kids. Sick kids. We got drugs you can give them.”

      One of the boys went backward, tugged by the back of his jacket. A woman with long, blond hair in a long black coat moved right into the circle with her cell phone out. “Yes, is this 911?” she asked and glared right at Rado. “I want to report—”

      “Let’s go!”

      Rado and his friends scattered. Rado looked back, furious. “I’ll get you! I missed once. I won’t miss again!”

      Before she could speak, he and his gang ran into the parking lot and disappeared past the surrounding buildings.

      The blonde put the phone, which she hadn’t even activated, back into her pocket. She kept her hands in her pockets, so that the boy wouldn’t notice that they were shaking. It took nerve to stand up to Rado, and she had more reason than most to fear him. But seeing the boy being tormented brought back memories of bullying that she’d had to survive when she was in school. She hated bullies.

      Tonio was barely able to get his breath. His heart was hammering in his chest. He looked up into the soft, brown eyes of the woman who’d saved him. She looked like an angel to him when she smiled.

      “You okay?” she asked softly. She took her hand out of her pocket long enough to push back a lock of thick, black hair that had fallen into Tonio’s eyes. Her touch was as gentle as her manner.

      “Yeah.” He swallowed. “Thanks,” he whispered, grimacing.

      “Those boys are big trouble,” she said, glaring after them. “We get victims of Los Diablos Lobitos in the hospital from time to time. Yesterday we got one of Los Serpientes. They’re pretty sure that Lobitos killed him.” She cocked her head. “You know about the little devil wolves? They like to recruit boys for their gang, because juvies don’t go to prison for things that would put them away for years.”

      “I know about them,” he said in a quiet tone. “Los Diablos Lobitos keeps after me. I don’t want to join them.”

      “That Rado is bad news,” she continued. “He’s killed men. The police here keep trying to put him away, but he’s as slippery as a fresh-caught fish.”

      He managed a smile. “How do you know about Rado?”

      “I live in the Alamo Trace apartments, there,” she said, indicating an older building in the distance. “Rado’s been around here for many years.” She didn’t add that she knew him very well because of what he’d done to her family. They were old enemies. She’d have given anything to see him go up for murder, but he couldn’t be caught.

      “You work around here?” he asked.

      She smiled. “I work there.” She indicated the children’s hospital.

      “You do?” he asked. “I don’t recognize you.”

      Her eyebrows lifted.

      He laughed. “I stay here in the cafeteria after school. My cousin works here, too. She gives me a ride home.”

      “Well! Small world,” she teased.

      “Do you work in the office?” he asked.

      She shook her head. “I’m a nurse.”

      So had his mother been. He loved nurses. “You like nursing?”

      “More than anything.” She pulled her coat closer. “If you’re going my way, you can walk with me and protect me from evil gang members,” she teased.

      He chuckled. “That was sort of the other way around.”

      “I was bluffing. The phone wasn’t even turned on. I should take up poker,” she said, frowning, as they walked together toward the main entrance. “Apparently, I bluff pretty good.”

      He laughed out loud. “Yes, you do.”

      “Want to have a snack with me?” she asked. “I’m not on duty for another thirty minutes. I don’t usually come in this early, but I set my clock wrong.” She sighed. “I’m a born klutz. I unplugged it to clean, and then when I finally plugged it back in, I forgot to reset it.”

      He grinned. His dad was the same way. “I’d love to have a snack. I have money left over from lunch,” he added quickly, to make sure she knew he wasn’t going to mooch off her. He knew that nursing didn’t create millionaires. Most nurses weren’t in it for the money, anyway.

      She grinned back. “Okay.”

      * * *

      She went with him to the canteen on the first floor, the one used by visitors. There were always members of the staff around, and security, so it was safe for a young boy to sit there while his cousin finished her shift.

      “I’m Tonio,” he said, not volunteering his last name. He didn’t advertise his dad’s profession. He knew that his dad was around emergency rooms a lot. She might recognize the name, and he didn’t want her to. Not yet.

      She smiled. “I’m Sunny. What would you like?”

      He pulled out a dollar bill. “I always have money for the machines,” he explained. “I eat at school, but mostly it’s healthy stuff. I like junk food.”

      She laughed. “Me, too,” she confessed.

      She got a cup of black coffee for herself and a sweet roll, something to keep her blood sugar up. She was forever running on the job. She only slowed down when she went off shift.

      Tonio got a pack of potato chips and a cup of hot chocolate.

      “I like the hot chocolate, too,” she remarked. “I don’t usually like it out of machines, but this one seems to be a fairly decent crafter of hot beverages.”

      He grinned. She smiled and the sun came out.

      “Do you go to school around here?”

      “Yeah. At San Felipe,” he added and then watched for her reaction.

      “Is it a middle school or a high school?” she asked. She made a face as she sipped hot chocolate. “Sorry, I don’t know much about education these days. I’m not married.”

      “Wow, really? I’m not married, either!”

      She gave him a wide-eyed look and then burst into laughter.

      He laughed, too. He hadn’t laughed so much in a long time.

      “This is a really nice place,” he commented.

      “It is. I’ve worked here ever since it opened. I’d just graduated from nursing school.”

      “What did you mean, about somebody in Serpientes being killed?” he asked.

      She

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