You Can Run by Norah McClintock Page A

you’ll do what?” he said. He wasn’t much taller than me, but he looked like the kind of guy who didn’t mind getting physical, who maybe even enjoyed it. “You’ll call the cops? Be my guest. I’ll tell them the same thing I already told you. I don’t know where she is. And you know what? They won’t care. They’re not even looking for her. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”
    I’d been going to say,“If you don’t, her mother will be devastated.” I’d been going to tell him how sick Trisha’s mother was, in case he didn’t know. I’d been willing to assume, based on what Alison had told me, that he was capable of compassion. Now I wasn’t so sure.
    â€œYou know that for a fact, right, Kenny?” I said. “You know all that about somebody you say you don’t know anything about.”
    His eyes looked sharp and cold. It reminded me of the way Nick used to look when he was angry. Then Kenny did something that Nick would never have done. He grabbed me, hard, and yanked me toward him, so close that I could feel his breath hot on my face.
    â€œStay away from me,” he said. “You got that?”
    He shoved me away so hard that I lost my balance. My hands flew out, feeling for something to grab onto. As I pitched backward, I curled a little so that when I hit the cement, it would be my butt and maybe my back that made contact, not my head.
    But I never hit the cement. Someone grabbed me around the waist and suddenly I wasn’t falling anymore. Whoever had caught me put me back on my feet and said, “What do you think you’re doing?” Nick. His question was directed at Kenny, not at me.
    â€œWhat’s it to you?” Kenny said.
    Nick kept his arm around me, but I felt it tense up. Kenny backed up, but only half a pace.
    â€œShe was bugging me, okay?” he said. “Not that it’s any of your business, D’Angelo, but she’s a real pain.”
    Well, well. Nick had told me he didn’t know Kenny. But Kenny sure seemed to know Nick.
    â€œWhen you push my girlfriend around, it’s my business,” Nick said.
    Girlfriend! I pulled away a little so that I could look at Nick. He was still holding me tightly around the waist. Even with his left arm in a sling, he looked fierce. He was taller than Kenny and had a little more weight to him. He was staring at Kenny as if he were daring him to try something.
    â€œI’m okay,” I murmured to Nick.
    â€œSee?” Kenny said, stepping forward, cocky again. “She’s fine. So there’s no problem.”
    â€œIf you ever touch her again, there’ll be a big problem,” Nick said. His eyes locked onto Kenny’s for a few seconds. Kenny was the first to look away. He glowered at me, maybe trying to scare me since it was obvious he didn’t scare Nick. “You hear me?” Nick said.
    â€œYeah. I hear you.”
    They stared at each other a little longer before Kenny blinked, then turned and walked away. Nick watched him go before relaxing his grip on me and looking me over.
    â€œYou hurt?” he said.
    I shook my head. I was thinking about what he had said.
Girlfriend.
He had described me as his girlfriend.
    â€œCome on.” He slipped his good arm around my waist again and led me to a coffee shop. We went inside, ordered hot chocolate for me, regular coffee for him. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he had said, about that one glorious word that I wanted to hear him say again. He might have too, if I had been willing to let things be. Instead I said, “I thought you didn’t know Kenny Merchant.”
    Nick didn’t look guilty or embarrassed at being caught in a lie. He didn’t avert his eyes this time, either. Instead, he looked directly at me and said, “I owe him. When you owe a guy and someone starts asking about him, you don’t talk about him, you don’t talk