Fighting for Flight by JB Salsbury (best books for students to read .txt) 📗

all but shoves them out the door, slamming it behind them.

“Screw you later,” he mumbles.

I shake my head. “You’re a pig.”

“So were you once.” He plops down on the couch, still in his underwear.

“You want to get some fucking clothes on?”

He looks at me like I just asked him to wear a dress. “You want to tell me why you’re beating down my door at the shit crack of dawn?”

Dropping down in the seat across from him, I fill Blake in on my situation. His jaw locks down as I tell him every detail of Raven’s meeting. A whispered curse breaks free when I tell him about how I found her after.

“That motherfucker!” Blake jumps up from the couch to pace the room.

“I have a plan, but I need your help. I know Dominick is part owner of Zeus’s. I need you to get with one of the girls and find out when he goes in there.”

He’s still pacing and hasn’t acknowledged that I’ve said a word.

“Blake. Can you do that?”

He stops and turns toward me. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”

Grabbing his phone, he takes his seat back on the couch, this time not slumped over, but tense and leaning forward. “You’re not meeting with that asswipe alone. I’m going with you.”

“No, I have to do it alone. I won’t drag you into this.”

He pins me with a glare. “Drag me into this?” His arm shoots out to point a finger to his wall window. “That girl’s cool as shit.” He points at me. “She’s your girl. That makes her my responsibility too.”

“Blake, anything could happen. You sure you want to get messed up in all this?”

He coughs out a laugh. “Let me ask you something. What’re you going to do when Morretti makes some comment about Raven taking cock for cash, huh?”

I suppress a growl. A low vibration in my spine amplifies to a buzz. My teeth grind together and I scowl at Blake.

“That’s what I thought. You’re going to flip the switch on that dicklick and he’ll shoot your dumb ass and claim self-defense. And where does that leave Raven, hmm?”

I narrow my glare on him.

“Exactly.”

The cocky ass is right. Dominick will most likely try to get me riled up, and I can’t be responsible for what happens if he disrespects Raven.

“You’re right. I’ll need you there. How soon can we get the ball rolling?”

Blake already has his phone to his ear. “Selena, baby, it’s me. I got a question for you.”

Fifteen

Raven

The bay doors slamming shut pulls me from the wiring of a ’57 Chevy. The halogen lights of the garage replace the sun that shone in when I started this project.

Where did the time go?

Drowning myself in work is a good distraction from the chaos in my head, but I’ve lost an entire afternoon.

The awareness of time brings pain to the gaping void in my chest. I haven’t heard from Jonah all day. I didn’t expect him to contact me, but I hoped he would. I check my phone again. Nothing.

“Wrap it up, Ray.”

I grab my tools and find Guy in the back, putting things away.

“Who’s on tomorrow?” I ask, tossing my set on a workbench.

He doesn’t look up from an assortment of wire terminals. “Cane. Why?”

“I thought I’d come in, you know, um, help out—”

He bangs closed a metal toolbox. “What’s goin’ on, Ray?” He studies my face. “You’ve been zip-lipped all day, and from the look on your face, I’d say someone died.”

That’s what it feels like. I shrug and pick grease from my nails, avoiding his eyes. “Nah, just thought I’d get some extra hours.”

“You hurtin’ for money?”

“No, it’s not that.” I just need to stay busy so I don’t have time to . . . feel.

His bushy, gray eyebrows drop low, making the wrinkles around his eyes more pronounced. “You and the boy havin’ problems?”

I exhale, annoyed at my transparency.

“You could say that. He has a lot on his plate with the fight coming up.” Guilt washes over me as I lie. I can’t tell him the truth. It’s too real.

He leans against a workbench and crosses his ankles. “He tell you that?”

I shake my head. “Our lives are too different.”

“And different is a bad thing?”

“You don’t understand,” I mumble to my feet.

“I’ll tell you what I do understand. I see a boy who’s lived his life in the public eye for just shy of ten years. He’s made his taste in women obvious: quick, easy, and disposable. You step on the scene, he drops it all, stands toe to toe with me, and makes his intentions clear. Differences be damned. The boy’s crazy about you.”

“Some differences are too big.”

“You listen here, Ray. I’m no expert on relationships. Only been in love once. That was over thirty years ago. But I know it when I see it.”

“You were in love?” I stare in shock at the self-proclaimed, lifetime bachelor.

“Yep, fell in love with an angel.” His eyes get soft. “But she was engaged to someone else.”

I don’t know what to say, but I want to hear more. I nod for him to continue.

“You know what I did to mess it up?”

“What?”

“Nothin’. And that’s how I lost her.” He reflects in silence for a beat, studying the garage walls. He shakes his head. “I didn’t fight for her. I could have fought, tried to get her out from under her obligation, but I didn’t. Biggest mistake of my life.”

“But she was engaged to someone else. How do you know she would have left her fiancé?”

His face falls, eyebrows low, and he studies the floor. “I’ll never know. That’s what kills me.”

The pain in his voice has me blinking back tears. “Was there never anyone else? After her?”

“I love her. She’s it for me.” He’s not speaking in past tense.

I can’t decide if that’s the saddest or the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard, and yet I’m destined for a similar fate. There will never be another love for me, not like Jonah. I can see how Guy would